I am tempted to write, “Yes, BUT...” However, it’s really, “Yes — AND,” because I think you have articulated beautifully how current practices over-rely on medication to avoid dealing with root causes of mental pain or disorders. However, the opening scene is missing one important qualifier: it seems to describe the initial interview with an insured person.
For anyone with any resources at all, their intake is likely to go just as you describe: kind assurance that they are ill and need treatment, followed by immediate trial of medication, regardless of the etiology of the illness or disorder. And you are quite right to recommend that a better result will follow if they will add self-reflection, patient insight, or modification of their life-style. All of that should help — as long as they can afford the treatment, the medications, the therapy, the counseling, the meditation time, the journaling, the diet, the yoga, what have you.
But I cannot help but think how meaningless those additional recommendations can sound to someone working two minimum-wage jobs, living in a food desert, or unemployable because of a prison record. To be honest, I don’t know what Medicaid covers in those areas. I do know that AA and NA are free programs; I do know that there are community resources available. But I also know that the lower we go on the class scale, the harder mere survival gets, until sometimes maybe a psychotropic, received through a program, is all that’s keeping that person showing up for work.
Like another of your other commenters, I require medication to survive, and I am quite convinced of that need. At the same time, I have also diligently worked through many spiritual and healing practices, all of which I am sure have made me a better and happier person, but none of which have changed the way my brain and body work for more than a short time.
My take-away is that we are all different, and it is important that each of us be supported in finding our best path to our best and healthiest life. As a side note, the best support is not necessarily coming from the ones making the biggest profit from our ailments.
Keep the faith, dear colleague.
