Furious Seasons

March 09, 2007

The Rain That Won't Stop

Excepting a very warm Tuesday, it has been chilly and nasty and rainy all week here in Seattle. The Pineapple Express is lined up on us for another 10 days or so, as well. Not sure if it's connected, but I have had the worst three day stretch I've had since walking out of my job last November. Let's just say I am having doubts about continuing media work--it doesn't pay enough and someone is always looking to fuck you over. Also, literary agents and national magazine editors are lazy and stupid. And so on.

But I would like to thank the people who've recently linked to my appearance on Australian radio last week. I'll try to be better about answering reader emails in the next few days.

In other news, the printed transcript of my radio moment is now online. It features some wild claims from Eli Lilly's spokesman such as this explanation of why the company has settled two federal class action lawsuits for $1.2 billion:

"It got to the stage where health professionals were saying to the company that this is starting to cause people to go off their medication regardless of what it is, to make decisions about stopping or changing their medication, and in the case of serious mental illness that's not a good thing to have happen. So the company decided that the best thing to do was to settle that litigation and move on, and enable people to take more measured decisions and have more measured discussions with their health care professional about their medication rather than having it being in their faces through the media around the litigation."

Just like with Prozac, eh, Lilly?

Also, another Paxil/Seroxat blog has begun. It is amazing to me how much Paxil is still screwing up lives. After what went down with this drug in the 90s, doctors are still turning to it? Yikes.

Posted by Philip Dawdy at March 9, 2007 12:01 AM

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Comments

"Let's just say I am having doubts about continuing media work--it doesn't pay enough and someone is always looking to fuck you over."

Oh Philip,
I'm so sorry you are feeling so discouraged. It would be a tragic loss to us and I dare say the world if you were to leave the media behind. (that may sound grandiose, but you are one of few sane voices with even a small amount of influence out there)

I also want to deeply respect what you need to do for yourself and hope that you can come to some resolution that brings you peace of mind.

I sending you good "juju" as a friend of mine likes to say. And I'm doing it with all my heart.

Posted by: Gianna at March 9, 2007 07:42 AM

Regarding weather and bipolar symtoms: I just had this discussion with my psychiatrist yesterday. I have been sick w headache, etc that lasted about 3 days, and in that time I was also in quite a "funk". Couldn't decide if it was depression, or physical illness. Psych thought outloud and wondered if it (seriously)is the weather, and noted to me that I felt great on the sunny and warm day. The symtoms all lifted yesterday.

Thanks for all of the awesome work here. You have too much talent as a writer to toss this aside. You don't have to land a column in a Seattle shiny 5.00 magazine to count.

Hang in there; you know things always get better. Take some time off of this blog this weekend.

-Stephany

Posted by: Stephany at March 9, 2007 08:25 AM

For readers who do not live in the Seattle area; my personal experience with the rain these last weeks: my passenger side of my car floods on a daily basis (some days downpours cause 2 inches of standing water there)and I just seriously discovered moss growing in a seam on the bumper of my car.I may post a photo of that on my blog soon.
Seattle has 2 seasons: Winter and August. This is also why I felt compelled to post the lyrics to "Camelot" on my blog last night. Legal laws for perfect weather sound good to me.

--stephany

Posted by: Stephany at March 9, 2007 08:35 AM

"The Rain That Won't Stop" - I might steal that for the title of my forthcoming psychopolitical Bildungsroman. :) Although it would have much less resonance down here at the arse end of the world (as a former Prime Minister of ours once described it), with an endless drought that means we can only water our gardens every second Wednesday, and only with a watering can.

Anyway, lacking Gianna's voodoo juju powers, I'll just say that I listened to your interview on Radio National with interest, and hope that you will continue being an effective advocate for greater transparency in drug testing and marketing, as well as for more common sense and compassion in the mental health system itself. There is not much of a visible 'survivor' movement in Australia, and public critique of the mental health system has thus been limited to the lack of funding for acute services and pot-shots at doctors who allow themselves to be wined and dined (and whatever else) by pharmaceutical companies.

Hopefully, this situation is beginning to change, with your appearance on Radio National, and the publication of a memoir by a young woman, Rebekah Beddoe, who after taking her hard-to-settle baby daughter to her GP was prescribed Zoloft and various other drugs (including Zyprexa, which gave her diabetes), causing her mental health to deteriorate rapidly. I've discussed her case in more detail on my blog.

Posted by: Ruth at March 9, 2007 04:42 PM

Lilly settled so they wouldn't have to give up possibly incriminating documents in discovery. It's all about hush hush.

Posted by: zipzip at March 10, 2007 07:07 AM

I'd invite you all to sunny Florida, and can attest that much sunshine is good for depression. However, high pollen count and frequent fronts (with attendant changes in barometric pressure readings) may be as problematic in others areas as is prolonged "exposure" to rainy days.

Posted by: Melody at March 10, 2007 04:48 PM

My daughter, w ho lived in Seattle then Portland for a number of years, finally took a job in St.Augustine, FL.She felt like a million dollars,at least for awhile. I think there was an adaptation effect. She is in the D.C. area now, and weather is no big deal except for the summer when it's like the tropics. Who knows whether SAD and bipolar go together.

BTW, we emailed a few times awhile back and I would like to hear from you again. Thanks.

Posted by: Ellen Liversidge at March 18, 2007 02:38 PM

How fucking condescending is that comment from the Lilly spokesman? As if the fact that someone has a "serious" mental illness incapacitates them from competently selecting the proper or best treatment available. Are we supposed to be drones? I would think that questioning what the hell enters your body that alters it is a sign of responsibility and intelligence.

I am now filled with ire.

Posted by: Priscilla at March 18, 2007 09:09 PM