[LMB] Rise of the Medications was OT: if civilization fell

[quietann]

On Feb 4, 2008 3:29 PM, Mandos Mitchinson <mandos at allowed.to> wrote:
> I was just reading the fall of civilisation thread and recalling the handbag
> thread and note the apparently very high numbers of listee's on regular
> medication.
>
> I was wondering if the list has an abnormally high number of people on
> medication compared to the rest of society and is there a correlation to
> reading patterns or internet usage.

I think someone brought it up, so people in similar circumstances responded.

There are a LOT of people alive now who would not have survived even
75 years ago, pre-antibiotics.  I am one of them (scarlet fever,
severe kidney infections, strep etc. as a small child.)  The
epidemiology of death is very interesting -- c. 1900 most deaths in
western societies were from infections and accidents.  Now we're
shifted over to chronic illnesses.

As for meds for chronic illnesses, I think there are a lot of us out
here who are just happier and easier to get along with when on some
sort of psych med.  This does not mean we would not *survive* without
them, but it would be much more difficult.  (I personally know that
it's really easy to grow St. John's Wort, as it's basically a weed,
but it might be difficult to keep people from stealing the plants!)
Of course in a scramble for survival, some of us might develop better
coping skills.

I personally would be one of the dead ones, as I am a Type 1
insulin-dependent diabetic.  I suspect a lot of the Type 2s, as long
as they didn't have a lot of diabetes complications, would do fine,
and maybe better in a situation where physical labor would be a
necessity.

-- 
quietann at gmail.com

aka "The Accidental Jewess"