Saturday, March 10, 2012

Shrink Rapper Updates



I'm not feeling quite so popular today.  Over on the Baltimore Sun's website, Clink and I have an op ed piece talking about our views on Medical Marijuana.  Ah, most of the commenters don't agree with us, and while many of the remarks are thoughtful, many aren't.  Does smoking weed interfere with the ability to spell?    I got one phone call from a gentleman (no name, blocked number) telling me I need my head examined, that marijuana is the safest substance known to man, I shouldn't be popping my mouth off and I know nothing.  Okay, so I know what I'm going to write about for our Clinical Psychiatry News blog this week.


My favorite comment might be:
 ....who are apprantly "psychiatrists."  Make sure next time you disclose the sources of your income for us....BIG PHARMA.  Also, how many patients would you lose if pot were lagal and you didn't have to prescribe Prozac every day?  50%?  75%?
Marijuana is plant and should not be regulated like drugs at all.  Drugs kill.
Drugs are dangerous.  Marijuana is not.

On a lighter note, we talked at Suburban Hospital on Thursday evening.  Over 80 people showed up...on a week night, at 6:30 pm, no less....to hear a bunch of psychiatrists~!  It went well from what I could tell, lots of questions, very few people ran out of the auditorium screaming.  I felt very honored that so many people would come out to hear us.  

I did want to share with you that part of Clink's talk was to read some of the comments we got on the post What is Bipolar Disorder?  I've given talks with Clink a number of times now, but I didn't know she was going to do this and her reading of the comments was moving.  Sarebear, if you're reading this, I wanted you to know that when she was reading your description of bipolar disorder, I was thinking that you need to become a writer.

[other posts on marijuana]

7 comments:

William said...

Once on the inpatient unit in California, I wasted many minutes of my life that I'll never get back trying to explain to a young man that "medical marijuana" is the same thing as marijuana.

Had I the presence of mind to record and anonymize that conversation, it would be all the evidence I'd ever need.

:-)

Sarebear said...

Aww, shucks, I'm blushing*. Just one cheek, apparently. Tee hee.

Coming from you, that means an awful lot. Thank you!

I went back and re-read what I wrote. It might be just what I need right now, because I'm actually on the brink of doing something really stupid, as I'm so weary from fighting those wild horses of mania this last year and a half and I'm somewhat committed to a a really bad thing.

Sometimes my writing is really wandery, but when I can focus, there are times I'm able to put things in a way that it paints an emotive, mental, or visual picture for the reader . . . I used to think I could be a writer. Now, well, I hope the things I do write touch someone, sometime, but I can't consistently hit that zone of being a nicely focused writer. When I hit it though I feel good.

I'm happy that you thought of me. And that Clink thought enough of my comment to share it with others.

Back when I could actually write poetry, here is one that I led off my Piebolar blog with, that I think is quite expressive:

http://piebolar.blogspot.com/2005/08/greetings-programs.html

Marie said...

Oh, wow. I don't comment nearly often enough!!

I'm laughing because as a middle age woman who has gone through clinical depression, I can't imagine smoking weed as treatment.

Thank God for a good psychiatrist who got me through...and keeps me stable!!!

Anonymous said...

From one anon when another anon corrected Dinah's spelling:"Do you really have nothing better to do with your life than mock people who make simple typing errors?"

Apprantly, it is okay when someone else makes the error.

I recall the complaint that shrink haters are drawn to shrink type blogs. I guess they are also drawn to the Baltimore Sun.

Simple Citizen said...

Legal -> Exposure -> Use -> addiction -> crime, psychosis, etc...

There are so many things that are misleading about legalizing marijuana that if it weren't so sad it would be funny.

"It's natural"
- so is hemlock

"It's harmless"
- tell that to the psychotic patients I have who just "used a little pot"

I know not everyone gets addicted. I know not everyone ends up committing crimes, or becoming psychotic. But are we willing to find out how many addicts there are? Are we willing to legalize it and just see what happens.

That's gone over great with Tobacco and Alcohol. Good thing those two don't kill people, and we don't spend MILLIONS trying to treat and rehabilitate people from those two substances.

Jane said...

Well, your FDA complaint can't really be helped unless they change their standards. St. John's Wort is supposed to be an effective antidepressant, but it's not regulated because it is a natural herb. And it does have risky side effects. Herbal medicines never get regulated by the FDA. If marijuana were manufactured by a pharmaceutical company it would be different. I'm not saying that is right. I actually think doctors should be more involved in prescribing herbal medicines, especially because we know they can interfere with prescribed meds. I read that you have to get St. John's Wort prescribed by a physician in different countries in Europe. And that makes total sense to me. Antidepressant is monitored usually, and it is an antidepressant.

merope said...

Sarebear already is a writer. :)