It's hard to have much sympathy for this woman, after hearing she euthanized her cat on a whim. She blamed the drugs, her psychiatrist- pretty much everything but herself!
The Degradation Drug
31–40 of 79 posts
Re: The Degradation Drug
#32The article describes its first subject as having been diagnosed with simply "depression", but describes their medication regime as including lithium and lamotrigine which in combination is strongly suggestive of treatment for bipolar depression in particular. Given that the described behavior sounds very much like a manic episode, the article should have explained this connection before attempting to focus the blame…
Sounds like this behavior change lasted for years though. That is one hell of a manic episode. (Also, key question, was the art any good?)
> (Also, key question, was the art any good?)
I liked the ones in the article. Dark, unsurprisingly.
Re: The Degradation Drug
#33It's hard to have much sympathy for this woman, after hearing she euthanized her cat on a whim. She blamed the drugs, her psychiatrist- pretty much everything but herself!
You’re actually getting at some of the issues the article explores. The case studies are there to illustrate; they’re not the central point. I almost dismissed the piece based on the headline, but I’m glad I didn’t. You might find it unexpectedly interesting too. If I misjudged whether or not you read the OP, my sincere apologies. No harm intended.
Re: The Degradation Drug
#34> euthanized her cat on a whim.
this is the scary bit. Killing animals for fun is how many serial killers get started.
Re: The Degradation Drug
#35It seems to me that issues like this one expose a fundamental flaw with how criminal justice is generally practiced - one that's evident in the term itself.
The focus is on assigning blame and just (fair) punishment. ISTM a better framing might be to determine the desired outcome and how best to achieve it. How likely is someone to re-offend, and what is the best intervention to reduce that likelihood? In the most extreme cases that might mean physically preventing recidivism through imprisonment. In other cases there might be other interventions that could be more beneficial. How likely are others to commit a similar crime, and to what extent, if any, will the outcome of this case affect that (ie deterrence)? And yes, also relevant is how will people - especially victims - feel about the outcome? Does it seem just? However if different norms around the response to crimes were established, feelings would presumably change as well, gradually.
I'm not saying that no one should ever be punished for their crimes, just that the intent of punishment, or of any other intervention, should be to have positive impacts on the future, as opposed to simply an abstract balancing of scales. From that point of view, I expect the handling of cases like these would become significantly simpler.
Re: The Degradation Drug
#36It's hard to have much sympathy for this woman, after hearing she euthanized her cat on a whim. She blamed the drugs, her psychiatrist- pretty much everything but herself!
You could rephrase that to "murdered her cat while under the influence of mind-altering prescription drugs used with inadequate supervision". People in states of mental illness have diminished responsibility for their behavior.
Re: The Degradation Drug
#37Earlier quoted context omitted.
> I have never seen anyone experience any traditional stimulant or dopamine agonist effects from modafinil. What do you mean by traditional stimulant effects? I mean, modafinil is definitely stimulating, even if Wikipedia says it's an "eugeroic". Combines with caffeine pretty badly.
I meant "stimulant" in the context of traditional dopamine reuptake inhibitors and releasing agents like amphetamine and ritalin which are almost incomparable to less controlled or uncontrolled compounds like modafinil, ephedrine, and caffeine. Even a high dose of caffeine will not produce effects anything like amphetamine. The mechanism of action between amphetamine and caffeine are fundamentally different rather th…
Modafinil is a dopamine reuptake inhibitor though, it's just an atypical one. I can't take especially high therapeutic doses of either it or Vyvanse without getting similar physical anxiety.
I assume the reason it's not highly controlled in the US is that it's atypical enough to not be addictive (not that I've ever found Vyvanse to be addictive), but it is controlled in Japan and Russia and it's definitely possible to abuse it. People need their sleep even if it can keep it away for a day.
Re: The Degradation Drug
#38Here’s a hypothesis that would be interesting to test. As the younger generation continues its obsession with social media technology. Is there some physiological change (perhaps mimicd by the medication in the article) that could be happening simultaneously? Some weird type of brain evolution.
I feel like this is already tested, extensively, by the "video games cause school shootings" crowd.
Re: The Degradation Drug
#39It's hard to have much sympathy for this woman, after hearing she euthanized her cat on a whim. She blamed the drugs, her psychiatrist- pretty much everything but herself!
I don't know her but the drug is really known to make some people crazy
Re: The Degradation Drug
#40> euthanized her cat on a whim. this is the scary bit. Killing animals for fun is how many serial killers get started.
It's not really clear how she euthanized her cat. That would seem pretty important.