Personal Blogs

I wrote this a few years ago when I was working on the show about mental health, Waving not Drowning. I came across it the other night when I was going over some old files. I wasn't sure if I had posted it before but I can't find it on the blog. I thought it very appropriate for now. The director of the show rejected it as she didn't think people would know what the reference to Tom Cruise was about and also, that medication can help people, sometimes. I wasn't looking to present a balanced debate, I was pointing out how the field of psychiatry in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders appeared to be labeling normal human emotion and behaviour as a mental health problem and then to medicate it. The title was something I heard in a programme about ADHD, that pharmaceutical companies, with the complicity of the medical profession, were creating illnesses so they could sell more tablets. Apologies if it was posted before.

An Ill for Every Pill

In the science of psychiatry, although Tom Cruise would disagree

We like to watch and see if we can find, those little anomalies in your mind

then label them from our dictionary and give it a medical pathology.

Chorus

Because we’ve got an ill for every pill

Just pick which one you’d like

and we can keep you medicated

for the rest of your natural life

‘The house burned down, my husband died

and now I’m feeling low’.

‘No, no my dear, you are depressed

Now take the pills and go

My childs too active he won’t sit down,

What am I to do?’

Just bring him in and we’ll settle him

With a daily dose of Ritalin

Chorus

We’ve got valium and citalopram

and don’t forget the prozac

They’ll dull the pain and stop you feeling

But keep you coming back!

and if they  don’t work

and you can’t see the Doc

Then there are others you can buy

there’s always the soluble solpadeine

or give neurofen plus a try

Chorus

That codeine adds a nice little kick

And will brighten any dull day but more importantly for us

it keeps the pharmaceuticals in pay

and even though,  over time, they might make you sick

We’ll have another pill to cure that ill

Because that’s our cleverest trick

Chorus

Just sitting watching the news (if it could be called news) on the topic of chemical weapons and Syria, one question comes to mind.  If you bomb a facility which makes and 'stores' chemical weapons as claimed by the West, then surely you will be releasing more toxic chemicals into the surrounding area?

There is so much propaganda and lies, you wouldn't know who or what to believe.  I still go back to Radio 4, (about 3/4 years ago, I think) when an army general announced we would be going to war with Russia within 3 years.  John Humphreys was taken aback, to say the least and basically said, 'you must be insane', or words to that effect.  The general then went on to explain that they had these new nuclear weapons which they wanted to try out.  If that is where we are headed then, I take comfort in the fact that 2 other empires perished on the Russian frontier, France under Napoleon and the Third Reich under Hitler.  So, go for it, they sooner it happens, the sooner it will all be over, and then we might finally get some peace!  Come to think about it, Germany is being very quiet on this, I haven't heard a word from Merkel?

Talking about peace, why can we not just have peace?  Why is Russia our enemy?  Who decided that?  The mentality of those in charge really needs to be looked at.  In the US, they are all paranoid, living with a mind-set that is 60 years out of date and what is all the secrecy about?  Why do we not just share our knowledge and try to find ways to improve the lot of everybody?  Why can't the US and the UK just mind their own business?  If the people of Syria want rid of Assad, then it's up to them to sort that out.  If the West is so concerned with the well being of down-trodden others, will they be bombing Saudi Arabia now over their treatment of the people of Yemen?  Of course, they won't, the hypocrisy is sickening!   Why can't the US and the UK just stay in their own country and take care of their own people! 

But at the end of the day, the buck stops with us too and we have to carry some of the blame for sitting back and shutting our minds to it all, for letting others do our thinking and for not questioning more.  Going out to vote and voting for people who basically don't give a crap about any of us, which is worse here because all they do is vote for their tribe regardless of how competent these people are. 

The media is complicit too, we don't have journalists any more, with the exception of Jon Pilger, all we have are reporters, who merely report what they have been told to say.  Thank God for the internet, at least there, you can find out more and are able to access other opinions.

I watched another good documentary online recently, All Wars are Bankers Wars, (because you'll never get this on Sky or the BBC) worth a look if you have 45 mins to spare.  But when all is said and done, I know the answer to all those questions, and as Tom Cruise says in Vanilla Sky, "What is the answer to 99out of 100 questions? Money."