Why do people treat euphoria like a NEGATIVE side effect?

If I hurt my back and am bed-ridden, if I have chronic headaches, if I watched all my friends die in Iraq when I was deployed; I might be depressed about any of those things, and getting a euphoric feeling might be the only thing keeping me going.

Some people might say that being dependent on a drug for happiness is a bad thing, BUT I don't see how that's different from people who take Zoloft every single day of their lives.

p.s. Finally something I can agree w/ @bobknight33 on

p.p.s. Listening to some music after a hard day's work with some THC in my system is something I miss on a very regular basis.

That sounds a whole lot like some kind of absurd "Reefer Madness" kind of "thinking."

On what are you basing that "feeling?" Leaving aside that serotonin is involved with mood (and not meaning or motivation) and that LSD's binding to the receptor sites increases not decreases the amount of serotonin available in the synaptic cleft (performing the same effect as any other SSRI like Zoloft, Paxil, or Prozac), there is actually no reason why any of the hundreds of successful professionals that I know who have taken LSD multiple times would express such a feeling on the basis of taking LSD.

If anything, your comment reveals a fear of your own mind and, having read your comments, I can't say I blame you.

@ShakaUVM

By that logic, what would make sense is a lower standard of oversight, not none. Scientific studies are not a realistic source of guidance unless you are an expert in the field. Regulatory agencies such as the FDA, should and do exist for the purpose of informing the average consumer. If they are not working they need to be fixed, not circumvented.

If both Zoloft and Wort have discernible and scientifically significant benefits against depression, then medical decisions shouldn't be made by a seemingly arbitrary price classification into pharmaceuticals or alternative supplements.

The problem is, as with any multi billion dollar industry, existing players entrench the status quo. I have no doubt that to some extent existing pharmaceuticals companies benefit from the high barriers to entry the FDA has imposed in being able to deter competition from new starts.

Similarly, they would fight tooth and nail any new and uncertain supplement oversight because of the potential impact on their existing lines of revenue. But purely relying on merit, these are all terrible justifications.

John Oliver is wrong.

Yes, some supplements (say, the milk thistle found in Rockstar Energy Drink) are just snake oil. But other supplements have clinical effects, such as St. John's Wort (http://www.webmd.com/depression/guide/st-johns-wort) for minor depression and, arguably, glucosamine and chondroitin (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clinical_trials_on_glucosamine_and_chondroitin)

Here's the thing though - if the FDA regulates supplements in the same way they do drugs, the price of supplements would go through the roof. It costs 1.3 BILLION DOLLARS to get a new drug approved by the FDA. (http://www.forbes.com/sites/theapothecary/2014/01/24/shocking-secrets-of-fda-clinical-trials-revealed/)

So the supplements market provides a very useful alternative, something that John Oliver simply doesn't understand. You can either pay ten bucks for a 300 pack of St. John's Wort, or you can pay ten times that amount for the FDA approved antidepressant, Zoloft.

The sad truth is that the FDA really does overregulate the drug market, which is one of the major reasons health care is so fucking expensive in this country. John Oliver lives in magical fairly land where regulating supplements would come with no cost, but in reality regulating it would just close down the only inexpensive drug system we have in the world.

Scientific studies do exist for supplements (I read through the studies while my wife was at UCSF Pharmacy School taking their mandatory alt med class), and if you do your research, you can distinguish the snake oil from the supplements that have real effects.

To me this video represents liberalism in society... which is why I want to see what QM says about this. Without liberalism running rampant through the 60's I feel many of these topics would still be taboo. Through liberalism I feel as though consciousness has expanded on many fronts. Although, don't tell that too a business man - they're not supposed to be empathetic with humans who are below them in the hierarchy.

It seems like this video has a couple of things going on. It wants to talk about the evolution of consciousness & how it relates to being bi-polar in our modern world. But, mental illness for the masses in America is just a drug war. "Buy these, don't buy those". It's largely a fabricated industry & consciousness is another story.

As far as I can see on the topic of evolved consciousness - many, many, many more people in liberal cities have evolved. But, I think the internet is a great device so I think if someone is interested in certain aspects of reality they too can evolve their consciousness & thought processes from the middle of no-where in Kansas; if they really care to or know to. I mean we're constantly expanding QM's consciousness - he just doesn't know it yet he's afraid of it!

I was diagnosed with ADHD when I was a teenager by a psychologist... but I may as well have been diagnosed bi-polar. I was pissed off at the world even though I had it all and was fairly sheltered... and that was the problem. It was too peaceful & I knew the world was out there waiting for me to find out the truth. So, I'm not exactly sure if we could say that my affliction was/is the symptom of post-modern evolution of consciousness but just an annoyance of mundane life tangled up with general anxiety.

I definitely think many people could benefit from "alternative medicine". I know it has a new agey bad wrap. I was prescribed both ritalin (legalized speed) & zoloft (what the hell is it? I don't know!) which are obviously fairly potent. I've experimented with herbal shit like 5-HTP which helps produce more serotonin and it works. It's not as potent but if someone doesn't have a serious mental illness it can work for short-term use and is great for people who would rather not turn into a zombie/robot.

As far as weed... I'm not sure if pot is the greatest thing for someone who is "bi-polar" or super depressed... mushies are great for positive consciousness just don't take em when you're feeling low, lol!

Either way, no one can be happy all of the time. We're human after all. Even though I hate the (human capitalist pig waste) fucking world - I am happy & people always tell me I'm super positive hahaha!! They can never know the truth!



As always...

Here's the scoop:

JWH-018 makes you feel more stoned than the first time you got stoned. If you don't know what that means, well... no wonder people were freaking out.

JWH-122 which i use now daily, is a LOT more mellow. I can smoke it once and be stoned all day but relaxed, more CBD like. 75$ for 5 grams that lasts months. I'm talking pure powder that i mix into my own smokable. I don't smoke blends of rose hips and bay bean sprayed with acetone dissolved JWH, like vendors sell.

These are synthetic cannabinoids, they are full agonists and bind very tightly to the CB receptors. THC and CBD are partial agonists and mitigate each others effects. These chemicals are no joke and have been available for a long time, proving that if cannabis was legal that NOTHING bad would happen. These drugs are far more potent and the world has had access to them for years by mail-order, and the results are in.

You WILL freak out if you are not a cannabis user or someone with experience smoking. I've smoked for over a decade before trying these compounds and it was like i was 16 all over again. The strange thing is the intense effects last only up to an hour, then you're ok again. The effects seem additive, whereas you can smoke cannabis non-stop, you actually reach a point of intoxication that can be nauseating (happened two times on JWH-018, I was sweating, throwing up, couldn't come down... but then I did... and it happened from using too much 018 too quick).

Also, my anxiety and depression seemed very well managed on a combination of JWH-122 and Sertraline HCl (gen Zoloft). I no longer get angry and sad, and want to just throw it all away because the world is big and scary.


Cannabis prohibition is very strange. I like being told as an American that i can't be tortured, held without cause, executed in street... but the can'ts should all be bad things. I can't smoke cannabis BECAUSE I'm American. Even the Israeli govt is legalizing medical marijuana for its citizens, yet my country who gives them money to exist, says I cannot. I can't because I'm American. Wierd. So I'll pay less to get more stoned.

Americans need drug companies to integrate their products into our fast food. Just like caring for cattle, you put the antibiotics in their feed. I am thinking "New Pop-Tarts With Zoloft" for example.. the catchphrase could be "Diabetes? Who cares!"

i wear a helmet so people know im a responsible biker and then they can judge how to react... but it only works because i am aware that right-of-way means nothing when physics are involved.

i think people who ride without helmets to look "cool" only make themselves look like little kids, because how .. jerky... is it to say "Hey, take care of my head trauma for me because I don't care about myself".

i take zoloft and i still wear a damn helmet.

when he comes down off that Zoloft buzz he's not gonna wanna dance

>> ^m00t:

SSRIs have some very adverse side effects in a non-trivial percentage of the population which typically include increased aggression and suicidal behavior. Frankly, SSRIs should be banned. They're often more harmful than good and there are alternate medicines that work as well or better with fewer side effects. For medications such as Zoloft the clinical trials were heavily manipulated where patients that committed suicide were removed from the results after the fact, even though the suicide rate for the control group was significantly lower.
Gun owners on SSRIs should have their guns taken from them until they are safely off the medications (after withdrawal symptoms have subsided) and then returned, no questions asked and no records.


Imposter!

SSRIs have some very adverse side effects in a non-trivial percentage of the population which typically include increased aggression and suicidal behavior. Frankly, SSRIs should be banned. They're often more harmful than good and there are alternate medicines that work as well or better with fewer side effects. For medications such as Zoloft the clinical trials were heavily manipulated where patients that committed suicide were removed from the results after the fact, even though the suicide rate for the control group was significantly lower.

Gun owners on SSRIs should have their guns taken from them until they are safely off the medications (after withdrawal symptoms have subsided) and then returned, no questions asked and no records.

Comment hidden because you are ignoring dag. (show it anyway)

I watched Invasion the other night, and was actually pleasantly surprised. It's a remake of Invasion of the Body Snatchers - and it was kind of neat that the message was that Zoloft, Prosac etc are making us into the replacement people.

At least that's what I took from it.

Conversation on whether this is 'art' or 'softporn' reminds me of BBC documentary "How Art Made the World", in which they open by discussing the Venus of Willendorf (http://www.artlex.com/ArtLex/s/images/stoneag_willendorf.lg.jpg), a female-form sculpture from >25,000 B.C..

Turns other there are many eerily similar ancient sculptures from many different ancient cultures... the most attractive thing to sculpt was a female form with exaggerated sexuality (nude with large hips/breasts/etc.) and a lot of weight on her (a rarity with the hard lives they led). The sculptures are also devoid of facial features...

Anyhow, the only point I really wanted to make is that there are a lot of different emotions involved in the human condition, and we've always been driven to control and harness our emotions and the emotions of others. First breakthrough was complex language, then art,... now we have Zoloft and porn on DVD... truly we've come a long way.

I was gonna say something funny, but after reading all the (justified) vitriol in the other comments I don't feel up to it anymore

I think I'm just gonna go paint storm clouds in watercolor instead. This page is my anti-Zoloft

I was prescribed Zoloft by my doctor after having a single panic attack (in the middle of a perfectly boring non-stressful day too). It actually made me feel pretty good and sociable for quite a while, almost unusually so. Then, after a couple event-free months I lost my entire supply, or rather I should say Delta airlines lost my luggage, into which I had stupidly packed my entire supply. Little did I know that quitting Zoloft "cold turkey" would bring about terrible symptoms of physical withdrawal. I wanted to (but thankfully did not follow up on the urge to) punch myself in the temples to get at whatever was causing the awful pain in my head.

I camped out at the Doctors office for some samples, and spent the next two weeks gradually ramping down to ease out of what had apparently become a physical dependence.

I can't imagine quitting "cold turkey" and then immediately switching to something else. I would have gone crazy. No joke.

In the end it turns out that my initial panic attack was a fluke. Thirty some years without ever having one... Then, having one. Then, never having another one. I think I may have just hated my job.