Lithium?

The past year and a half I have battled recovery, and even so boldly to put it, from mental illness. Yes, that's right, mental illness.

In a recent class discussion in my Interdisciplinary Studies class on Popular Culture of the United States, a peer remarked after viewing a documentary on Robert Crumb (and perhaps, if you have seen this film you may think the same as her) that the main character's brother "NEEDS TO BE ON LITHIUM". While perhaps he was suffering from a mental illness, supported by his honest divulgence of being on psychotropic medication, and later the disclosure he committed suicide, her remark actually made me squirm in my seat. Lithium? I was shocked not only because I know what Lithium is and what it's used for, but the fact that she did her own personal diagnosis of this man who she had seen in a documentary and paired him up with, maybe the only, psychotropic medication she knew about (which, I have to point out, is not actually used to treat the diagnosis that she provided)

But this is our culture. You're sick? Oh here, take this. Side effects? That's ok, we have another pill for that. Still experiencing depression? Let's ad X,Y,Z to your "medication cocktail"

And here in lies the problem. In American culture we lust for bigger, better, faster ways to accomplish the "American Dream". And I want to make sure that it is understood I am not dismissing the use of anti-psychotic and psychotropic medications, because they are an invaluable tool in treating mental illnesses, helping millions of people every year. However, this American Right to do things the American Way and to be Always Happy and possibly be Better Than Everyone Else has me questioning the drive of Americans and their psychiatrists and primary doctors. This isn't as simple as bottom up or top down culture, this is a combination from both ends of the spectrum amounting into an undeniable explosion of the over-medication of American psychiatric patients.