Hi there apprentice doctor!
With the previous newsletter we did quite a tricky suturing technique. For this month’s newsletter we will be considering the drug industry.
Pharmacological companies are multi-multi-billion dollar companies producing wonderful and unfortunately not-so-wonderful drugs for the spectrum of disciplines in modern medicine!
What follows is merely my personal point of view.
Mind-altering drugs
During the 1980’s I worked as a state-employed dentist at a psychiatric hospital and during this time published a paper on the interaction of mind-altering medications with other medications used by dentists. The majority of psychiatric patients in those times were institutionalized, in other words they were locked-up, often for life!
Advances in mind-altering drugs made it possible for a great number of these patients to be de-institutionalized – so they were able to go home and live more normal lives! What a blessing to great numbers of psychiatric patients!
It is my opinion that the pendulum has recently swayed completely to the other side and medical professionals are prescribing mind-altering drugs like anti-depressants, sleeping tablets and drugs like Ritalin much too frequently and easily!
When one sees statistics like over 6% of children under the age of 18 are taking one or more of these drugs, and that anti-depressants are being prescribed all the more frequently to children under the age of 5, and that anti-depressant drugs are ironically associated with an increased risk of suicide, one becomes worried in the extreme sense of the word.
Are we suppressing symptoms in individual children to treat a sick society?
Are we taking the easy way out? It is much easier to swallow a tablet rather than to deal with emotional issues.
Let’s rather prescribe a tablet to Johnny (7 years old) depressed since the divorce of his parents because it is much easier and faster than addressing his emotional hurts and assisting him with the process of forgiving.
This is the advice being handed out to parents:
“…parents would do well to create a nurturing environment, provide lots of personal attention, listen attentively, and convey sense of optimism in the effectiveness of the treatment.” – but life has become too hectic. Parents are often too busy working to pay the bills – yes the pharmacy bill as well with the wife on anti-depressants, calming tablets and sleeping pills, the kids on Ritalin and the absent father coping with the stress using alcohol, nicotine, and caffeine in excess!
Now let me assure you, you DO HAVE A FUTURE – and a GOOD FUTURE!! You do have what it takes to make a success of your life! Live life to its fullest – and don’t use a crutch by medicating away your problems. Keep in mind, a crutch will hold you back if you want to run – so run the race of life, and run well!
You only have one life so make your life happen. Take charge and make a decision to create your circumstances instead of letting circumstances create who you are. Too many people have an entitlement mentality. They expect their parents or the government to provide them a living. Unfortunately, people like that, and societies like that don’t do well at all. Sooner or later they wake up, usually too late to then still reach their life’s full potential. Don’t let that be you!
When taken in moderation and only when really necessary, medications make life better, but when we start to depend on and abuse drugs and think that all of life’s problems can be medicated away, the results are more often than not… DEVASTATING.
Committed to your success!
Dr. Anton
| Dr. Anton Scheepers, BChD, MDent, FFD(SA), MFOS, President of The Apprentice Corporation |
