Addict Nation (10 page)

Some commercials don’t even ask you to remember the name of their drug, saying, “Ask your doctor about the ‘purple pill.’” That’s easy enough, right? Here’s the obvious problem with that:
Doctors
are supposed to diagnose your problem and offer what
they
think is the best medical treatment! They are not supposed to be in the business of entertaining uneducated suggestions from their patients. But doctors obviously do. Otherwise, the airwaves wouldn’t be awash with these commercials and drug companies wouldn’t be spending billions on these ads. This is self-medicating one step removed. Self-medication is the essence of addiction.

A Harvard/MIT study confirmed this, concluding that every dollar the pharmaceutical industry spent on direct-to-consumer advertising in the year 2000 yielded an additional $4.20 in drug sales.
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Prescription drug use in America is skyrocketing! The amount Americans are spending on prescription pills has increased at a stunning rate over the last couple of decades, careening toward the $300 billion mark. But are we getting healthier and happier as a result? I think you could argue that the answer is no.

The biggest selling prescription drugs fight high cholesterol, which can also usually be lowered without drugs by simple dietary changes like reducing or eliminating meat and dairy products.
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But it seems pharmaceutical companies would rather continue repackaging the same tired solutions in a capsule. A network news investigation concludes, “Much of the profits from prescription sales are not derived from breakthrough drugs, but rather from drugs that are similar to already popular medications.”
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Depressed Celebrities

When you add a celebrity into the mix as the promoter of the drug, then you maximize the manipulation. This is exactly what’s happening on TV and in print. A
New York Times
exposé noted that
Sopranos
shrink Lorraine Bracco talked about her depression and use of Zoloft while under a deal with Pfizer, the maker of Zoloft.
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Former Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Terry Bradshaw did a campaign dubbed “The Terry Bradshaw Depression Tour,” sponsored by GlaxoSmithKline, which makes the antidepressants Wellbutrin and Paxil.
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During that campaign, Bradshaw was quoted as saying, “The beauty of it is that there are medications that work. Look at me. I’m always happy-go-lucky, and people look at me and find it shocking that I could be depressed.”
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The star-studded list of prescription pitch artists goes on and on. The
New York Times
notes, “Most of the celebrity antidepressant promotions are unbranded, meaning the television commercials do not mention the product by name, but often refer consumers to a website that does.”
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The bottom line? They are singing a siren song to lead customers down a pathway to the drug. We all know consumers are more likely to buy a product if they think a star is using it too. As a branding strategist told the
New York Times
, “The reality is people want a piece of something they can’t be . . . They live vicariously through the products and services that those celebrities are tied to. Years from now, our descendants may look at us and say, ‘God, these were the most gullible people who ever lived.’”
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There is a growing consensus that it’s insidious to use celebrities to hock antidepressants, which can have serious side effects and are prone to abuse, to the general public. Critics say the worst part is that it’s sometimes not clear if and when stars are being paid by a drug company to share their health story with the public. When Kathleen Turner appeared on national television to talk about her battle with rheumatoid arthritis, many viewers probably did not realize she was reportedly being paid by drug companies that sell a drug to treat rheumatoid arthritis.
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Now, many networks are going out of their way to ask stars, beforehand, if they’re pitching for a drug company and will tell viewers about any ties they uncover. If only Uncle Sam were as vigilant.

The Food and Drug Administration is supposed to regulate drug companies but often behaves more like a shill for the drug industry, looking out for the industry’s interests even when they conflict with the interests of consumers. In 2000, a
USA Today
exposé found “more than half of the experts hired to advise the government on the safety and effectiveness of medicine have financial relationships with the pharmaceutical companies that will be helped or hurt by their decisions . . . The conflicts typically include stock ownership, consulting fees or research grants.” Following a barrage of criticism, the FDA has tightened its rules to bar anyone with a conflicting financial interest of over fifty thousand dollars from serving on its advisory committees, but there continues to be a complex waiver system that is ripe for manipulation.
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The United States government needs to get out of bed with Big Pharma and end the incestuous relationship between the FDA and drug makers. But that’s not likely to happen as long as the drug industry retains its chokehold on Washington. The Pharmaceutical Researchers and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA) is the largest single-industry lobbying group in America. Big Pharma has more lobbyists than there are members of both houses of Congress!
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So, until lobbyists are banned, which isn’t likely to happen any time soon, it’s up to the consumer to make less self-destructive choices.

Sitting Through the Feelings

The proliferation of antidepressants, antianxiety drugs, and painkillers raises a profound philosophical question. Should we try to avoid pain or . . . just experience it? Let’s remove from the discourse the obvious extremes. If a person is suffering excruciating pain from a burn injury or major surgery, they obviously need to take advantage of something that will prevent their moment-to-moment existence from becoming intolerable torture. Ditto for psychological crisis. If someone is suicidal and there’s a drug to keep them from killing themselves, then it clearly makes sense.

What I’m questioning are the less extreme physical and psychological ailments. If someone is suffering the kind of depression that is not severe enough to keep them from eating, sleeping, and working, should they try to blot out the sadness they are experiencing . . . or should they try to figure out why they’re sad and try to fix what’s wrong? The biggest problem with antidepressants and antianxiety pills is that they don’t fix the underlying problem that’s making you depressed and anxious! So when you try to get off the pills, the sadness and anxiety return. Then you go back on the pills and . . . become hooked!

What we call depression is often nature’s warning bell that something is out of balance and needs to be corrected. Often that “problem” is not something we can see, hear, smell, touch, or taste. It’s often an emotional or psychological problem: an unresolved childhood trauma, a skewed view of how the world operates, a simmering resentment, a toxic relationship, or a distorted perception of self. A woman who is “blue” and is told to take antidepressants may actually be trapped in a loveless marriage that she should end. If she takes medication to numb herself, then she is simply prolonging her problem and postponing judgment day for her relationship. She is certainly not confronting the real crisis in her life. A young man who is depressed may actually be deeply unfulfilled by the soulless career that he has chosen. Taking medication allows him to remain glued to a computer while trapped inside a cubicle all day. However, he’s betraying himself by taking a drug that makes that bad choice tolerable.

Children Should Be Seen and Not Heard?

I’m absolutely convinced that if I were a kid today, I would be diagnosed with attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), and a doctor would be pushing my parents to get me on meds to calm me down. As a kid, I was beyond hyperactive and extremely mischievous. Basically, I was acting out a lot. Some of that had to do with growing up in an alcoholic household. Like most kids who get into trouble, I was unconsciously expressing anger that had no other outlet. It’s a common story. So is the best solution to sedate the child . . . or to confront the dysfunction in the home? Obviously, it’s a lot easier to numb the child than to deal with the messy family issues underneath the misbehavior.

While rich and even middle-class kids often have the luxury of psychological therapy, where they can talk out their problems, poor children do not. Studies show children covered by Medicaid are given powerful antipsychotic meds at a rate four times higher than kids whose parents have private insurance. These Medicaid kids are more likely to get drugs for less severe conditions than middle-class kids. These drugs have serious side effects, often causing drastic weight gain and producing lifelong physical problems. Antipsychotic drugs are now being used on about 300,000 minors in America. It’s such a problem that a group of Medicaid professionals has formed a group called Too Many, Too Much, Too Young.
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Kids First, Then You and Me

Given the trend of ever-increasing drug use, is it really all that farfetched to imagine a gray future where everybody is on mood-altering substances for one reason or another? In this heavily sedated future, medication might even be “required” not just for unruly children but also for rebellious segments of the adult population. The opiate of the masses may well turn out to be prescribed! As it stands now, a stunning one out of every two Americans is on some sort of prescription medication.
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How long before it’s two out of two?

Pharming

So how do we reverse this insidious trend? First, let’s avoid becoming our children’s primary drug supplier. Within the prescription drug abuse crisis, there’s another epidemic of teenagers stealing their parents mood-altering meds. Today, more teens are beginning their drug experimentation by abusing prescription pills than by smoking pot. Federal drug officials say three-quarters of teenagers get pills from a friend or relative. Less than 5 percent get prescription pills from a drug dealer or other stranger.
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The five prescription drugs kids most frequently steal from their parents’ medicine cabinet are: painkillers like OxyContin, stimulants like Ritalin, sedatives like Valium, sleep aids like Ambien, and cough medicines.
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The latest teen fad? “Cabinet parties.” A police chief in California described it this way, “Teens raid their parents’ medicine cabinet for opiates such as Vicodin and OxyContin, and take them to the party, where the pills are dumped into a large bowl for communal use.”
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Kids haphazardly dip into the pills in the bowl, which they call “trail mix.” The whole process is called “pharming.” Very funny . . . until it kills someone. Experts suggest we get rid of any old prescription bottles. Parents are also urged to literally lock up their medicine cabinet the way they would a rifle. Both can be deadly.

But perhaps the best way to discourage your kids from popping pills is to not pop them yourself. If teenagers see their parents medicating themselves through a career or family mess, that’s what they’re likely to do when confronted with a problem.

We Must Learn to Embrace Our Suffering
and Let It Teach Us Something

Sometimes I think depression is a natural state. We’d like to be perpetually happy. But suffering is an intrinsic part of the human experience. Most often I find when I’m feeling depressed, it’s because I’m self-obsessed. Egocentricity is inherently alienating because it’s a “me”—separate from everyone else—attitude. Recovery programs teach the addict to “get out of your own head” and help someone else. When I forget about myself, I realize I’m a small part of a larger entity called the universe and therefore my alienation turns to empathy for those with whom I share the universe. They say all we can get is a daily reprieve from addiction. Perhaps all we can get is a daily respite from the depression inherent in us, not by taking drugs, but by recognizing that we are part of a larger whole and acting in a way that benefits everyone, not just ourselves.

It would also help if we got out of our denial over the extent of prescription drug abuse in America. When
Clueless
actress Brittany Murphy died, many in Hollywood immediately assumed it was drug related. Her mother was furious, telling
People
magazine her daughter was merely “high on life.”
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The coroner ultimately concluded her death was accidental due to pneumonia and iron deficiency anemia but with multiple-drug intoxication—all prescription drugs— as a contributing factor.
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Obviously, I have compassion for a grieving mother. But this would appear to be classic codependency. We must deal with the big elephant in the room and confront any loved one who is using even a single prescription pill for an invalid reason. Tough love is never fun. But consider the alternative.

Chapter Three
THE CYBERS: Addicted to Tech

It’s hot in Reno, Nevada. But a man and a woman in their early twenties are blind to the weather outside. They are not even conscious of being on this planet. Michael and Iana Straw are living in a parallel universe. Their portal to this other world? The Internet. And where, in this fantasy landscape, have they staked their claim? In the cyberland known as Dungeons & Dragons, which has been described as the “most realistic combat system of any online game,” where you play with your “unique and highly customizable” D&D character, fighting “bad-ass monsters and dragons” and evading “traps left by an ancient race,” all in “vast and dangerous” Eberron.
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Back on planet Earth, off in the corner of the Straw’s home, their two little children slowly starve. Cops say the Straw’s toddler son and infant daughter were severely malnourished and near death when social workers rushed them to a hospital. “They had food; they just chose not to give it to their kids because they were too busy playing video games,” the prosecutor said of the parents, who pleaded guilty to child neglect. Their two children were put in foster care.
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