Hmm… as a Buddhist, the goal is realization that every identity, including ‘human’, is not real. So, I think your first step is pretty spot on actually. Letting go of what is expected of me is certainly my biggest challenge. I am a caregiver by nature and place a lot of pressure on myself to take care of everyone and everything around me, often to my own detriment. Thank you for the reminder.

Hello, I would like to subscribe to your “dancing through the world with glee” newsletter. That is the ideal state, as far as I’m concerned, and most of my practice is focused on getting there.

I’ve sort of run the gamut, but I spent several years as a Hare Krishna that informed most of my current practice - I’m glad I did it and learned a whole lot but there is damage to undo.

Currently I practice my own homebrew blend of Discordianism and Buddhism. Since I came from a high-demand environment, I reject the idea of spiritual authority now - no teachers, no gurus, no organizations. My practice is not beholden to anyone. I also reject the idea of dogma, which is not out of bounds in Buddhism when you consider the hundreds of sutras that directly contradict each other. Buddhists know they cannot all be true, you take what works and leave the rest.

One thing that I heard at a dharma talk once was “write your own sutra.” Start with “This I have heard. One day, the Buddha was teaching…” this and that student was there, someone asks a question, the Buddha answers. The speaker encouraged everyone who had a question they were struggling with to write a sutra, ask the Buddha, and see how he answers. I liked this approach so I’ve written several sutras myself. I write, I meditate, and I do mantra chanting as my primary day to day practice.

I have been pagan in the past, before I came to dharmic practice, so I’m open to a lot of different ideas. I do sometimes do chaos magick in the form of sigils, and I do some deity work, mostly tantric. I read tarot, but only for myself. I’m very open, generally, to all forms of sincere practice, and when pressed on my beliefs, I paraphrase Robert Anton Wilson and say “I don’t believe anything but I can imagine quite a bit.”

Edit: It’s a little stream-of-consciousness and silly, but if you’d like an insight into my practice, https://ChaosBuddha.org.

Malicious compliance time. Bedpan in the house chamber.

It is possible for addiction and physical dependence to have overlap (and for many drugs this is common) but they are mutually exclusive - one does not necessarily imply the other and the presence of one does not mean there is the presence of the other.

Interesting. I’d always used the terms interchangeably, because I did not realize that there was a difference. I’ll look into it, and won’t repeat the mistake. Thanks for taking the time to respond.

Many psychiatric conditions are incurable. As a result, these lifelong conditions can only be treated by the lifelong administration of medicine.

I agree with you.

And I’m willing to entertain that maybe the word ‘addiction’ has a connotation that I’m not seeing, but as far as I can tell, there is certainly a physical dependence upon SSRIs. No one is abusing SSRIs or getting high, but if they cause the same withdrawal symptoms as drugs of abuse, and as severely, what would you call it if not addiction? Honestly asking, because I’m willing to be educated here.

What happens to those people if they ‘voluntarily’ agree to go to a labor camp but never wind up ‘cured’?

I would certainly hope that such a facility would be staffed by medical professionals who would be able to recognize “Nope, you need medication” in those cases.

Now, whether that’s what RFK is envisioning here is debatable. And it wouldn’t surprise me if he thought you could just put people to work and they wouldn’t need meds anymore. I have no desire to defend RFK or anyone else tapped to be in the next administration. I just don’t think it’s necessarily a bad idea to have a safe place available for people who need to deal with withdrawals for anything.

Nowhere did I even begin to insinuate that people who are depressed should be punished for seeking treatment, or that mental illness is curable. Where did you get that idea? Sometimes seeking treatment includes refining treatment, which involves moving from a medication that isn’t effective, or is no longer effective, to a new one. Of course no one who is depressed should be punished for seeking treatment.

If someone needs to stop taking a particular medication for whatever reason, but severe withdrawals inhibit their ability to function for weeks or months - or worse, result in other MH symptoms which may cause harm or death, why is providing them with a venue in which they can safely manage their meds a controversial idea? Doesn’t have to be a farm, it doesn’t have to be this idea. This has zero to do with RFK. I’d never suggest it be involuntary, and it’s certainly not a punishment.

Yes, antidepressants are not considered addictive by the same big pharma companies who told us that Oxycodone was not totally fine.

Honestly asking, because I don’t know. What is the difference between a physical dependence and addiction? Because there is certainly a physical dependence with SSRIs, whatever word you want to use.

If they aren’t addictive, but cause the same withdrawal symptoms which result from addiction, in some cases severely, then what should we call them? Again, I’m not trying to be snarky. If I am using the word “addiction” incorrectly I’m willing to be educated. I’m just speaking from my own experience.

If you read this and saw me defending RFK, you misinterpreted me. I specifically said I’m not a fan.

This is what I am saying. Antidepressants are highly addictive and it doesn’t get talked about. The commenter I replied to said that this article deeply misunderstands addiction, which I interpreted to mean that the commenter doesn’t know how addictive SSRIs are. That’s not surprising, a lot of people don’t know how addictive they are. There are many valid reasons to stop taking an antidepressant, and it’s very difficult. We should do something to help those people besides force them to check into a psych ward. That’s what I said, and I meant it.

It’s very common to be misdiagnosed with depression and put on an SSRI when it’s not going to help. (SSRIs will generally not help a mood disorder like bipolar, for instance). SSRIs are highly addictive in that discontinuing them often comes with pretty severe withdrawal. So it’s not just a matter of “you can think your way out of depression” because a lot of people quit SSRIs for very good reasons - moving to a more appropriate treatment being one of them, and often it requires hospitalization because of how awful the withdrawal is, even with tapering the dose down.

I am not a fan of RFK Jr. Politically I’m a good distance to the left of liberal. But honestly, if implemented correctly this could help a whole bunch of people who are trapped on SSRIs prescribed by a doctor who didn’t really know how to diagnose them, and could also help a lot of nonviolent offenders who just need help beating their addiction. I understand that ‘if implemented correctly’ is a big ask with this administration, but let’s maybe not throw the baby out with the bathwater.

While I’m not a fan of RFK Jr., this seems to be a misinterpretation of what he’s saying. Regarding antidepressants, he said, “other psychiatric drugs, if they want to, to get off of SSRIs, to get off of benzos, to get off of Adderall, and to spend time as much time as they need…” (emphasis mine)

It seems like, in addition to drug related offenses (which is its own rather thorny issue) he intends for this to be for people who want to stop taking SSRIs, benzos, and other psych meds and need support doing it. I’m not seeing any indication that this would be involuntary, and I’m certain that if he said anything like that the quote would be present, but it’s not.

Having seen how devastating the withdrawal can be for some psych meds, even with tapering, I can’t say that this seems like a bad idea on its face. So many people try to quit psych meds and end up hospitalized; I’ve believed for a long time that there should be some sort of recovery program for people coming off of these medications, because they will 100% mess you up when you start taking less.

Now, adderall I don’t really understand its inclusion here, because it isn’t known for withdrawal.