future criminologist
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Nurse this is off topic...so please excuse everyone...but is it the community that I live in or is this also something in the civilian world...
Why are so many ppl being prescribed psychotropic drugs? Good grief, everyone I know is popping them like there is no tommorow (except me) Seriously, I can name right off the bat at least 5 women that take these drugs...TIA for your insight as to why they are prescribed so often and so freely and if it's just this community.
because...no one wants to actually face their problems anymore with real honest therapy or true personal change, which is long-term, painful and difficult, so they try and put a bandaid on it by changing their brain chemistry to "like" their unhappy situations, which is a quicker fix. and docs can quadruple what they make per hour with 15-minute "medication evaluations" (I've had personal experience with this), so some of them have taken advantage of this and will literally write you a 'scrip before you've even sat down. I've literally walked into my doc's office, said, "can I get some Ambien?" and had a scrip written, no questions asked. You're technically supposed to be in some sort of therapy in concurrence with a medication program, but a lot of docs don't ask if you are.
I don't think it's a community thing - I think it's a societal thing - and I think that also with the plethora of options of anti-deps and anti-anxiety meds with less side effects, and the big pharmas making big $$ on them, they're just easier to get nowadays. 50 years ago, "depressed" housewives would be prescribed valium and benzos - nowadays it's Xanax and Zoloft.
Don't let this dissuade you or others from psychiatry or therapy - this is by no means a rule - there are just as many good, responsible docs in the psychiatric field who will not write scrips this easily, and so many heroic therapists and social workers who take the time to help their patients work through their problems, while getting paid much less than doctors who can prescribe. I'm just saying that it can and does happen unfortunately.