[senior citizen]

We have had several good neighbors over the past 43 years who were diagnosed as manic depressive or bi polar.

At first one might not have even realized as these five women and one guy were all the HIGH ENERGY happy go lucky type and life of the party.

The problem was, according to their family members and doctors, they never "came down" to a reasonable calm level.

They were usually flying high......making the rest of us look listless in comparison. Like a bunch of slugs.

They typically all had grand schemes and plans. When younger, it was just taken as "ambition" or what have you.

However, eventually, they were put on high doses of Xanax, Buspar, Lithium (heavy duty stuff), and various other drugs whose names escape me at the moment.......but all psychotropic drugs.

One of these ladies' husband was a physician. He told me , at one of our barbecues, how truly difficult it is to regulate these drugs per patient to get it to a correct level for whatever their mental disorder was. His lovely wife who had a great sense of humor became a total ZOMBIE on pharmaceutical drugs.

I had one childhood friend with Systemic Lupus, diagnosed at age 19 and put on heavy doses of Prednisone........she began having manic episodes and urges to commit suicide after going on the Prednisone....as did her older cousin (also diagnosed with Lupus and taking Prednisone). This was back in the 1960s when it probably wasn't as refined in dosing as nowadays. The cousin jumped to her death from the hospital window.
Very sad. All mental illness is very sad........no one should treat it lightly.

Most recently a neighbor's husband who always got depressed in the winter time with a seasonal type affliction, due to lack of sunshine.....finally agreed to see the doc. He was put on a heavy duty psychotropic drug which only made him "act out" against his wife.

She had to call five police cars to the home to handle him. He was taken to a mental facility and bounced around the state to various others before being diagnosed as manic depressive schizophrenic.......the doctors themselves admitted to the wife that "he had a bad reaction to the drugs we gave him"...........she was scared to death as he had attacked her, thus our police station sending five cars to the house.

When not on drugs, he is a big male pussycat. On drugs he becomes a beast.

Many people are just quirky or individualistic in their free thinking without having a mental illness per se. I've always believed in freedom of speech for everyone........and with that comes freedom of thought. If we all thought the same way, we'd be a bunch of robots or Stepford Wives.
Or even, Stepford Husbands. Now, that wouldn't do, would it?

Getting back to the drugs..........many young friends, in their twenties, children of our older friends........have been handed drugs to help their anxiety, as if they were candy...........they also were the high spirited type gals. They've had the common sense to come off all of these drugs.

My pet peeve are all the kids we read about being given Ritalin and other A.D.H.D. drugs in elementary school, which I've read can lead to heavy duty chronic recreational drug use as they get older..........

Times have surely changed......as far as a little pill for every malady under the sun.