Comments: Spring Fundraiser, Day 9
You're doing a huge, huge (actually, beyond huge) public service here Philip. Even with your very modest fundraising goal, it obviously remains a true labor of love for you. If I could, I would go out and kick some serious fundraising ass for you, but, sad to say, I'm too depressed. ;)
Posted by Christine at February 26, 2009 04:13 AM
Phillip~
I sincerely appreciate all of your hard work and I’m throwing in an additional $50 to reflect my gratitude.
Before my SEVERE adverse reaction to Prozac I had NO history of mental illness and never really thought much about the topic. However, during the adverse reaction and protracted recovery period I was hit with depression, dp/dr, and anxiety that was so incredibly intense that I likened it to an acid-trip gone horribly wrong.
I am not exaggerating when I tell you that I went from being a fully functional, sincerely happy, self-employed business professional that was going through a mild funk due to a miscarriage…….. to a severely agitated, anxious, akathasia ridden, suicidally depressed person within a week of starting the drug..
I sought the counsel of various doctors, pharmacists, psychologists and psychiatrists explaining to them that I was having an adverse reaction……no one believed me. In fact, one psychiatrist told me I was being paranoid and that I would have to be on drugs the rest of my life at the end of our very FIRST 45 minute session. WTF!? All I wanted was help dealing with the unbearable side effects and instead I was diagnosed with Major Depression and sentenced to a lifetime of drugs. I knew right there and then that I was not going to get the help I needed and was on my own. However, I found Furious Seasons and Paxil Progress and they became my life line during the 14 torturous months it took my central nervous system to recover. Thank goodness I came out of the ordeal relatively unscathed. Others are not so fortunate.
My ordeal taught me how scary and seriously flawed the mental health establishment is and your reporting is getting that information out to the world. You speak for those of us that don’t have a voice and I will continue to support your site so that we are not silenced.
Grateful
Posted by Grateful at February 26, 2009 09:13 AM
Keep nagging em Philip. Then people will feel guilty when they read your site. It's kind of like NPR before they got bought out by the cheeseburger heiress. Now they do their fundraising just to keep up the image of being a voice of the people, but we know you need the cash. I just donated.
Posted by Doug Bremner at February 26, 2009 11:56 AM
Here's a pledge for ya. I already donated but I'll donate ten dollars each time a fellow psychiatrist makes a donation to your site.
Posted by Doug Bremner at February 26, 2009 12:00 PM
Doug,
Thank you for that. Now I'm ready to visit your blog. :)
I just wanted to remind one phrase I once heard at Legally Blonde II:
"That would work for someone with a heart."
You see? My sources are amazing, quite classical! lol
They will never feel guilty. Never. I don't count on that. I've already did but I've learned that it's not possible. Part of human nature.
I have already heard many times in my life how-can-they-sleep-at-night related to many hideous things.
But this is not a tragedy!
That's just the way it is.
Integrity? Not for many people.
Posted by Ana at February 26, 2009 02:09 PM
Grateful,
When I had an adverse reaction to Prozac (I got kind of hyper on the third day) I was told it was my mental illness. That reaction was instantaneous, no discussion of the fact I'd never been like this prior to taking Prozac.
Thirty looong years later, when my underlying hypothyroidism was finally treated, I had an adverse reaction to the thyroid hormone. I became unpleasantly revved up around the third day on the stuff. I phoned up the doc's office and the reaction was quite different: "Oh yes, it's the meds."
I know there was a time lapse of 30 year and would LOVE to believe the docs actually learned something about med reactions in that intervening time. But frankly, I doubt it. My guess is that had I called the second time about a reaction to a psych med of any kind I would have been told it was my "mental illness" causing the new symptoms, not the new med.
Sigh.
Posted by Sherry at February 27, 2009 09:07 AM
RE: donations
I think the problem is the supply and demand.
You are supplying product without requiring payment FIRST and most people are used to the normal rules of "Oh, I have to pay for it first? OK."
The demographic that are giving are at the extream right hand edge of the bell curve , those that LOVE the site.
It is sad the lower , yet larger percentage of readers do not contribute because they don't have to.
Posted by mark p.s.2 at March 1, 2009 04:31 AM