"Why? If I didn't know better I would assume this is typical USer puritanism that so often accuses users of mood altering drugs to be morally defective. So what is your objection now that you know money isn't the issue?" --------------- I don't know about the money you mention. My shrink charged me about $900/mo for three visits a week. He charged on a scale, and being a single working mother put me on the low end of the scale. My best friend is married to a shrink and I believe he still charges $85.00/hr. and he takes medicare patients for which he makes about $5.00/hr after he's done with all the paperwork. I'm not sure why my mother was given anti-psychotics (prolixin) -- she suffered from extreme agoraphobia, post partum and normal depression, anxiety and anxiety attacks, and writer's block. She is also a controlled alcoholic...and to this day she drinks and take this medication.
I think I favor talk-therapy as a treatment because I believe that consciousness is the best long-term solution. It's not about being a puritan. I found analysis to be devilishly hard, fascinating, and extremely helpful. I think it is basically a form of guided meditation and nothing more. I think when it tries to be more, it is harmful. At any rate, I still feel that it's the best money I've ever spent. I still suffer from mild to middling anxiety and, when it gets really bad, I take a bit of xanax. So, you see, I'm not a purist. I could also make it go away by meditating, doing Yoga or Tai-Chi, but that takes more time than taking 2.5 mg of xanax. I exercise from 1-2 hrs a day...and while that helps enormously keeping things steady, for me, it's not enough. I also need that more meditative stuff.
Everybody is different. If I ran the world, I would let everybody have whatever drug they wanted. I would also make other forms of therapy available. But, if a friend came to me for advice, I would help them find a good therapist.
But you know if you really think that mental illness depends on brain chemistry, you have to explain why it has gotten so much worse. I think "mental illness" is a normal reaction to the world in which we live. Some, like Thomas Szasz,would agree with me.
Joanna