Say No To Smugs
On Reason's blog, Jeff A. Taylor knocks "preening" Newsweek editor Mark Whitaker for bragging, in the light of recent Rush revelations, about Newsweek's coverage of the spread of Oxycontin. Taylor explains:
...Oxy was portrayed as the scourge of the rural America, the "hillbilly heroin" that Newsweek had positively over-running the town of Hazard, Kentucky with its cheap, alluring high. Excepting the gullible souls who got hooked by accident -- they lack quality, affordable medical care or a basic understanding of body chemistry, you see -- Oxy helped blot out hard-scrabble blue-collar life.If that accurately explained Oxy abuse, then yes, there is absolutely no conceivable connection to a well-cared for, fabulously wealthy, immensely adored entertainer in Florida. But, of course, that 2001 scare story did not get the Oxy story right.
The truth is Oxy -- or any drug -- can be used and abused by a cross-section of the populace with a wide array of outcomes. If Oxy was getting people high in backwoods trailer-parks, then you can bet the folks in uptown penthouses were in on it too. The only real difference between the two groups would be the quality of their legal help.
My friend Cathy Seipp managed to have a bottle of Vicodin (a chemical kissing cousin of Oxy) in her bathroom without turning into an upper-middle-class junkie. As addiction treatment industry critics Stanton Peele and Archie Brodsky point out, drug abuse is not a disease, but a matter of priority and choice. "Reason's numerous deflations of the Oxy scare can be found here," advises Walker.
If we accept Jung's definition of mental illness as the refusal to endure psychic pain, then a society susceptible to pain-killer addiction is, in the Jungian sense, a society on the verge of madness.
Something to think about. No wonder Newsweek was so keen to ascribe the phenomenon to a bunch of toothless hillbillies the rest of us can safely scoff at. Newsweek doesn't want to face up to the pain either.
modestproposal at October 21, 2003 8:37 AM
"Mental illness as the refusal to endure psychic pain"
That's positively Pre-Raphaelite! And what century are you living in today, Ophelia? I can't remember the last time I heard such a romanticization of illness. I suppose you also believe that people get cancer because -- like Newsweek -- they don't want "to face up to the pain." Oh, the pain.
I would sooner buy a bag of dope for my nephew than let him be exposed to these Jungian "ideas" about mental illness.
Lena Cuisina at October 21, 2003 11:44 AM
Anyone who believes addiction is just a matter of priority and choice should have to supply as evidence more than one acquaintance who found it incredibly easy to stop smoking after many years.
I don't think people can just choose to have strong wills or not. Most people I know either do or don't, and show no capability for change.
LYT at October 21, 2003 12:03 PM
Dear LYT --
Strong wills can be developed. Check out Joan Didion's old essay "On Self-Respect." It's as therapeutic as covering your head with a Von's shopping bag in the middle of post-break-up crying jag.
No one would argue that there's no physiological basis for addiction. My understanding of the cognitive/behavioral perspective is that people make a series of decisions in the process of becoming addicted (physiologically). For reasonably intellegent people with a few resources, each one of those decision points represents an opportunity to halt the process.
Addiction is something that can take decades to develop fully. One of my gripes with AA/NA/CA/CMA etc is that they've completely focused on helping people only after they've ruined their lives. It doesn't have to spin out of control.
Sincerely,
Lena Cuisina (the chick with her head planted firmly in a Von's bag)
Lena Cuisina at October 21, 2003 12:39 PM
Lena, you are a glowing oracle of wisdom today. Oracle! I said oracle, not orifice! I like Epictetus' definition better: that it's not things that disturb us but how we think of them. Here's a little page on my guy, "E" - http://www.philosophos.com/philosophy_article_20.html
and another on one of his intellectual heirs, Albert Ellis:
REBT.org
Who says that you're disturbed because you're thinking irrationally, and that if you change the (irrational) way you think, you can change the way you feel. He's right!
Amy Alkon at October 21, 2003 2:20 PM
Oh, the Epictetus note was to the Jung fan, not a criticism of Lena.
Amy Alkon at October 21, 2003 2:20 PM
Mental illness is a refusal to accept mental pain? What a crock. Addiction is a choice. But most mental illnesses are not. Who chooses to hear voices or hate themselves so much they try to kill themselves? Who wakes up every morning and says "yes please" to that? Most mental illnesses are genetic and a chemical imbalance is to blame. Cognitive behavioral therapy represents the best way to treat these disorders, in conjunction with proper medication management of course. I'm not saying stay on prozac for years because you had a bad week. But I am saying for serious mental illnesses, medication along with cognitive behavioral therapy represents the single best chance anyone with a mental illness has of living a semi-normal life.
Sarah at October 22, 2003 1:31 PM