They said it was the best thing for it.
They hinted that to forgo discussing it will
Mean all manner of awfulness
happening
(And would, perhaps, be partially my fault
For not taking steps to fix
By listening).
They showed how it would better
Everything:
My house, my shape, my friends
My job.
May even lead to what I never had
Or always wanted
But an illness was sure
To rob.
The ad said it was the best thing for it.
A discovery deserving of a
King.
If only my eyes hadn’t left the screen
To pluck an errant string,
Which had my ears
Abandoned
To the chatter —
Which had previously lay hidden
Under sprawling beaches
And smiling people
And every beautiful
Thing —
And I heard
The actual words
That listed
All the side-effects
(from death, to heart-attack, to vomiting)
That this supposed
Miracle drug
Was likely to also
Bring.
For Linda Hill’s SoCS prompt: Flyer/Ad
Utterly brilliant, Na’ama. You wow me so often.
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🙂 I’m always amazed at how pushy those ads are … and how behind the cheery beaches and happy people walking down fairgrounds and shopping and blissing about, there runs the “side effects may include nausea, cancer, heart-attack, nose-bleeds, fractures, infections and death …” (in whatever variation). It’s a US (and NZ?) thing, these drug ads, and they are insidious. I don’t like them one bit … Could you tell? … 😉
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I am particularly fond of the anti-depression meds that can cause a desire to commit suicide. That one, just… yanno…
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LOL. I shouldn’t laugh … but, yes, those are especially ‘inspiring’. …
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I know, right? What in the f***?
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Well, to be ‘fair’ – part of what happens with some anti-depressants, is that for some people, as some aspects of depression lift (but other issues aren’t resolved) there might be less lassitude and more irritation, which can lead to having ‘more energy’ to make plans for suicide (where earlier, one might’ve been too shut down to move from generally wanting to die to actually making a PLAN to die …). There are some people who are more prone to it (and some age-range who are more impulsive besides and thus at a higher risk still to act on such thoughts) and the warning itself is a valid one. But the whole ad-for-how-your-life-would-be-perfect-if-you-just-asked-your-doctor-about-this-medication drive me bananas.
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I get it.
And yes. And damn the doctors who fill prescriptions willy-nilly…
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Totally! Medications are good things (goodness knows some of them are keeping me vertical), but they aren’t quick fixes, and they aren’t instead of actually getting to know the patient/person and what their needs are and what the actual issue is and and and and … Sigh.
I see parents who come with psychotropic medications that were prescribed for their kids (‘off-label’ AND without there being good research on the impact of those on developing brains besides) for ‘behavior issues’ or ‘attention issues’ that may well have at least some aspects of communication by the child about difficulties, fatigue, shame, frustration, learning issues … and yet are medicated without taking the longer path of actually getting to know the child or looking at alternative/complementary paths to helping the kids … If/When the kids get sleepy/irritated/disoriented/dizzy, they get another medication tacked on for THOSE side-effects or an increase in dose, or both … All without looking into possible underlying issues for the original ‘problem’ which may in of itself be a symptom of something else entirely …
Drives me nuts.
Thank you for letting me have a complain-a-thon!
(off the soap box – for the moment … ;))
N.
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It’s awful. And now they are saying that more than half the kids who are diagnosed at ADHD are not? Shit… Sorry.
My son was diagnosed as ADD and took medication for less than a year. He hated that it cut his appetite and the result is that he has learnt what he needs to do to get stuff done… go figure.
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Yes. Many of the children who are diagnosed with ADHD may not have ADHD, but may instead have anxiety, posttraumatic stress (children often respond to stress and trauma with inattention, hypervigilance, shutting-down, acting out, irritability, etc…). Some of them may just not have enough opportunity to expend physical energy through play and as a result have ants-in-their-pants for a good reason. Some are reflecting lack of structure and/or overwhelming schedules. Some are responding to ongoing over-stimulation of too much screen time and too little practice with quiet listening … So … not all have ADHD, or at least, some are showing ADHD-like symptoms that are reflection of other issues …
We have ADHD in my family – several of my nieces and nephews have ADD/ADHD, and some have benefited from medication for a period, or for as-needed (e.g. test days), and some could not tolerate the medication and learned other ways to cope. No one thing works for all. Even those who did use medication, outgrew the need for it after a time and have learned to cope with their way of processing information in better ways. So, yeah, medication isn’t bad. Over-use or indiscriminate use is …
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Right.
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🙂
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And … THANK YOU!!! 🙂 I am so pleased! 🙂
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😀
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🙂
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As a former big pharma person I had to laugh out loud with your poem. I love the usual, “If you are allergic to the drug don’t take it.” DUH
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Liability protection, that, eh?
Sort of like how a box of peanuts say says “may contain peanuts.” … I mean, oh, really?!
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Just cause it says peanuts on the box you never know what’s inside.
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True, dat.
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Very well done, Na’ama. Spot on, as well, often the side effects seem worse than the condition the stuff is supposed to address.
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Thank you, Dan! Yes, sometimes that’s true. All too often, in fact. I’ve nothing against medications — they save lives, they help people function who otherwise might not be able to — but I cannot really find a benefit to having medications advertised on TV, to lay people, in a litigious society where doctors may feel obligated to prescribe something a patient asks for that they’d seen on TV … because the doctors worry they may be sued if the patient feels they’d gotten worse because the doctor ‘refused’ to treat them, or some such. We have such overuse … ugh.
Sorry, off the soap box …
Thanks for the comment! 🙂
Na’ama
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It’s OK to get on that soapbox.
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Whew! (because I’d probably sneak onto it anyway … 😉 )
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Lol, we don’t get many drugs adverts in the UK but reading the contras that come with them…. Can cause nausea, constipation, diorreha, headache, rashes, fits, fast heart rate , low heart rate…why ever take anything!💜💜💜
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🙂 I hear you!
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😭💜
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Oops forgot to say great post 💜
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Thank you!
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💜💜
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🙂
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Impressive and quite horrifying poem… once I’d got my head around the notion of advertising drugs other than cold remedies. We don’t in the UK, cos such powerful drugs are prescription only, and only doctors can prescribe; no good a patient asking for something they’ve seen advertised.
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All true, and yet, in the US the pharmaceutical companies are treating prescription medications as commercial entities and are using the litigious tendencies of the American society to make it so doctors feel pressured to prescribe the ‘brand’ a patient may ask for (not to mention that doctors aren’t immune, themselves, to the onslaught and name-recognition of medications they see ‘everywhere’), because they might worry that: a. if they don’t do so and the person doesn’t get better they might complain that the doctor withheld the medication that is ‘known’ to help them and b. it is easier to get the patient out the door quickly and get the next one in, so if the patient insists, might as well prescribe the brand they ask for.
Now, I’m all for being informed patients and for knowing about symptoms and what to ask, and about being assertive about one’s needs. I just don’t think we should all of us be armchair pharmacists and MDs …
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Much to be said for the UK system. 🙂
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In more ways than one!
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Yea, we Brits do tend to moan about it. But then, we Brits like moaning. 🙂
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Moaning whilst one has healthcare is better than moaning whilst one might not have access to healthcare – as is the reality in the US … Even with “Obamacare” given the many roadblocks and chipping at the program (and some issues with the program itself that many in leadership refuse to attend to or remedy) that too many deliberately put in its way.
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Yea, I hear you, and others. I’m happy with what we’ve got, I consider we Brits blessed.
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Yep. And practically all my British friends say same.
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Wow, unanimous in our opinion. Has to be a first 🙂
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LOL. It ain’t Parliament … 😉
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🙂
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🙂
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