I've always wondered about the actual morality of prescribing mind altering drugs to humans, I mean, it's one thing if they choose to alter their minds, but another if a doctor says "your natural personality isn't acceptable to us, we've decided to call it a disorder, so we're going to prescribe you pills that will change who you are." That is to say that while I think that mind altering drugs can be used for both good and bad reasons, I feel like many of the people, both those who prescribe the drugs, and those who take them, don't really understand until it's too late what the ramifications are of giving someone drugs that will change them.
I had a friend who I got fairly close to for a while, she'd been diagnosed (by her psychiatrist father) as a child with a depressive disorder. She told me that the drugs made her feel mentally happy, but physically made her feel awful. She ultimately ended up being an alcoholic, and I wonder if it had something to do with these drugs being such a big part of her childhood.
Anyways, I guess my question would be "what is your take on the use of mind altering drugs on things like ADHD and Bipolar disorder? " I don't know whether you take them yourself or not, but either way your choice either to take or abstain from them I'm sure is at least in part affected by your own feelings on the matter, I guess I'd just be interested to know how someone in one of the affected parties feels on the issue.
