Behavior Control

[mushroompizza]

Tomorrow I will probably be diagnosed with a learning disability (my guess is ADHD) and I will probably get a prescription for a pill that will change my behavior. Should I take this pill even though it will change my personality and individuality, do you think its moral for doctors to regulate behavior? Is this tampering with my will? :confused:

[Sea]

Hi Will. Stimulants, I presume? It is your will to decide how you will take it. For example, it's illegal to crush up and snort double the dose, but that's your will to decide. Or you could will to put the pill and water and swill the pill. Don't get hooked though, or you could end up shilling for a pill. Are you going to write about the pill in your will? Who will foot the bill should you will to write a pill will with your quill?

But seriously though. If you are asking us for advice you are already offering to yield your will. Or are you? After all, you decided to ask. I think the question is problematic because it could be reasoned that if you take it without being forced your will isn't being violated.

[cyu]

http://www.revleft.com/vb/pour-your-heart-t191818/index.html?p=2814908#post2814908

Year 1: Declare that would-be rebels suffer from oppositional defiant disorder.

Year 2: Declare that those suffering from oppression suffer from chemically imbalanced depression.

Year 3: Declare that only happy slaves are sane.

http://bjp.rcpsych.org/content/197/6/426.full

over their lifetime more than half of US adults will experience mental illness.

http://d34jb20qqe27k2.cloudfront.net/content/197/6/426/F1.medium.gif

[cyu]

Come join the country's hottest growth industry as the entire nation goes insane!

[tuwix]

Tomorrow I will probably be diagnosed with a learning disability (my guess is ADHD) and I will probably get a prescription for a pill that will change my behavior. Should I take this pill even though it will change my personality and individuality, do you think its moral for doctors to regulate behavior? Is this tampering with my will? :confused:

It is indeed. But I'd try them. If they help you in your opinion in accepted way by yourself, you should take them regularly. If not, you can always put them in trash can.

[John Nada]

If not, you can always put them in trash can.Please, don't. This makes me cry.:crying:

It's not a mind control pill. Those medications just make it easier to focus on something. As bad as a strong cup of coffee. It's like glasses, it's not bad to unnaturally forcing your eyes to see the world different. If it works, there's no reason to suffer.

[Dean]

There is some truth to both sides.

In the US,there was a movement in the 90s that has led to a lot of overdiagnosis and subsequent overmedication. This can be glaringly obvious with young people being treated for "oppositional defiant" disorder. Professional people will never admit it, but there is a calm calculation going on - our lives in capitalist societies do create mentally unhealthy situations and advocating for medicating people is effectively treating the symptom only. The US strongly favors such "blame each individual" as an element of a "personal responsibility" doctrine.

But there isn't any reason you should suffer on account of knowing the underlying causes of problems, and I wouldn't condescend to claim that your mental condition is necessarily a cause of capitalism.

OP, just be deliberate and cognitive about your choices. It is better not to rely on medication if you can get away with that in the future. But they are not likely to really change your will/attitudes too much. If you are having struggles, there is no reason to deny treatment.

[The Garbage Disposal Unit]

I heard a presentation of a paper one time, by El Jones (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xq9ppO7CzkI), on stimulants, colonialism, and early capitalism.

So, like, hey, feeding us stimulants to keep us working has been a thing for over a century. It can't be that bad for us, right?

Lol, but seriously, ritalin is fucking great. I read most of J. Sakai's "Settlers" in one extended sitting.

Not that my experience of ritalin really matters. Do what you want with your body.

[AdLeft]

Tomorrow I will probably be diagnosed with a learning disability (my guess is ADHD) and I will probably get a prescription for a pill that will change my behavior. Should I take this pill even though it will change my personality and individuality, do you think its moral for doctors to regulate behavior? Is this tampering with my will? :confused:

Assuming your ADHD isn't genetic, what you really should do ask yourself if any of these things are causing you to have ADHD:

1. Social Environment
2. Diet
3. Exercise routine
4. Sleep pattern
5. Any use of drugs or alcohol
6. Stressors or past traumatic events

If you find that none of them are even remotely possible in causing your ADHD, then give the pill a try. But only take the pill as a last resort. Taking the pill will only temporarily mask the problem.

I'm not a doctor but that doesn't mean I'm wrong. It's up to you.

[Luís Henrique]

Assuming your ADHD isn't genetic, what you really should do ask yourself if any of these things are causing you to have ADHD:

1. Social Environment
2. Diet
3. Exercise routine
4. Sleep pattern
5. Any use of drugs or alcohol
6. Stressors or past traumatic events

If you find that none of them are even remotely possible in causing your ADHD, then give the pill a try. But only take the pill as a last resort. Taking the pill will only temporarily mask the problem.

I'm not a doctor but that doesn't mean I'm wrong. It's up to you.

Let me try your method.

1. Social Environment. Maybe social environment is causing my ADHD. I certainly seem to be more distracted when there is noise in the environment. Like the neighbour upstairs nailing things with his hammer. By the way, I also need to put a nail on the wall to hang my new copy of a Mondrian painting. Isn't Mondrian great? I love all those squares! But of course, they aren't actually squares, they are rectangles; I wonder where people get this tendency to call rectangles "squares"; good thing rectangles aren't sentient, otherwise they would probably get offended by it, and start demanding that we call them rectangles. Or perhaps "four sided shapes with four right angles and different side lengths". That would be troublesome. How would one remember such a complicated formula? And speaking of "remembering", what were we talking about anyway?

2. And on an unrelated note, what are we counting?

Luís Henrique

Edited to add:

Ah, yes. This is what I was trying to say: take your pills before you start "asking yourself if any of these things are causing you to have ADHD", or you are most probably end up with a theory about how many people one can have sex at the same time with, or a new and original take on the differences between Beethoven and Clausewitz, or a plan for setting up a factory of wheel-less bycicles, or a thesis on how the Bolshevik party program should have been modified in order to prevent bureacratisation of the revolution. Or a coherent question about what sharks do when they have a tootache. If they have tootaches. Perhaps the salt in the maritime environment prevents the growth of odontolythic bacteria, and...

Further added to edit:

The above, of course, instead of an insight about your ADHD.

[mushroompizza]

Fuck this pill I'm not taking it. So I can work a little better but now I'm hooked on dope, my friend has way worse ADHD than me and this pill shit sounds awful, he got some withdrawls once and became suicidal for a week. I'd rather have a problem of looking at the ceiling than being a drug addict. The drugs we give are kids are worse than the illegal ones kids do at parties.

[noble brown]

I guess it comes down to how well you trust the doctors judgment. Is he able to satisfactorily justify his/her authority as your health advocate? Probably not. Your health is likely not her/his primary concern though she/he may wish the world are so simple and straight forward. On the other hand, you should make an informed choice. This is you exerting your "free will", and you would be remiss to do anything less. This is your life, don't be hasty, be thoughtful.