Teleftaía Anapnoí
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- Jul 6, 2023
- 127
The following text is part of my suicide letter, or rather suicide book. I am a professor of philosophy and a scholar of Cioran's existentialist philosophy. It was through him that I truly and rationally considered going CTB. Also, I translated the text to English with Google translator, can be mistakes inside. I apologize for that.
I would like to know, how was the treatment for depression or any other mental condition for you?
Of the shortcomings of treatment methods.
(...) However, it is important to bring a certain scientific discourse to deny any help and not fall back into the ruse of those who think they know the mind. I will talk a little about non-acceptance of medication and treatment. Well, well, if I'm sick, then let me seek treatment for the disease and live well. They will initially say, but if we do a thorough analysis, without filters that mask suicide, we will clearly see that year after year the numbers of suicides grow. While it is undeniable that in minimally developed countries the numbers are falling, this just proves my point that it is impossible to be healthy living on the periphery of late capitalism. This fact would explain, at least in parts, the phenomenon of 1 suicide per hour in Brazil. Annually we lose 700 thousand people to the abyss. We lose about 6% of the Brazilian population per year.
Even though treatment methods are always being innovated, new remedies or miraculous shamanic cures always appearing, it seems that the phenomenon persists. It is ironic that the package leaflet of the most varied antidepressants, those that supposedly would save us suicides, contains a warning of the risk of suicide. Attention, the medicine that will cure you can bring your illness as a side effect. There are indeed scientific explanations for this, but the truth is that nobody understands what depression is. They seek biological answers and fail. They seek psychological answers, and it seems to be insufficient. Even the sociological responses, those that seem to shed more light on the phenomenon, turn out to be shallow in the end.
Then comes the statement that suicide is multifactorial, incomprehensible and a real taboo. Now, nothing can exist in nature that is not part of itself. If we cannot say that suicide is immoral as Hume demonstrated, nor can we say that it infringes our duties to society, then we will say that it is a disease. For it is difficult to conceive that it is a crime since it does not damage the physical integrity of other people like murder or rape, but also because it seems too cruel for us to judge that being in intense suffering as a criminal. However, we can run the risk of arguing in favor of murderers, since they exist naturally, and therefore it would be acceptable for me to be too. I believe, however, that neither the murderer nor the rapist are moral, and we can fairly easily prove that they breach their duties to society.
Is there then the defense of diseases? Would illnesses then be a natural and constitutive part of life? From existing? From nature? There are those who praise serotonin inhibitors, but we forget that our research is still weak and that mere animal tests prove nothing. It's funny how we measure the rate of improvement of someone depressed by how much that being manages to be active and produce, well there is my criticism of the capitalist mode of production. If I take a miraculous medicine and go back to work immediately, then I will be cured in the eyes of the mediocre. However, there are few studies that show the suffering of those who can no longer feel like such. In fact, when I take the miracle pills I return to a state of normalcy, the fascination with the void disappears and I am ready to resume capitalist production.
Although antidepressants have considerable therapeutic benefits, low adherence to treatment by patients is common. According to studies carried out by Moreno in 2000, approximately one third of patients discontinue therapy in the first month, and 45% do not continue treatment after the third month. Well, hasn't science yet decided to explore these alarming numbers? I would say yes, but science has its limits and the existential abyss is a place for philosophers to step into, not scientists. These are no longer prepared for such a feat. If antidepressants really can do something against suicide, then why do they seem to not work in most patients? In order to better analyze this issue, I leave here a table.
It is possible to state that all antidepressants available on the market can, to some degree, cause unwanted side effects. In October 2003, the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) released a statement warning about possible adverse events related to suicide attempts and/or suicide in children and adolescents who used Selective Inhibitors Serotonin Reuptake System (SSRI), as reported by Mitchell et al. (2014).
What was the scientists' solution to this alarming fact? The US Scientific Advisory Panel released three recommendations to the FDA regarding the use of antidepressant medications:
(1) introduce a black box warning on SSRI prescribing labels to indicate the existence of a risk of potentially dangerous adverse reactions;
(2) caregivers must sign a document indicating that they are aware of the suicidal risk associated with SSRIs;
(3) guidelines must be delivered to those responsible, indicating the benefits and risks with the use of SSRIs (MITCHELL et al., 2014).
Well, that's kind of funny. Sign this paper saying that you agree with the risk of committing suicide and make it clear that "this medicine here cures depression but causes you suicidal ideation". Olfson and his team conducted a comparative study in patients with severe depression, with the aim of evaluating the effectiveness of antidepressant medications. A significantly higher rate of suicide attempts was observed in patients who were undergoing drug treatment, as described in Olfson (2006). It is outrageous the way we are treated. Here are my reasons for distrusting health professionals who study this phenomenon, they don't know what to do, what to study or how to deal with the alarming numbers. All our actions are to cover up the explicit fact: suicide seems to have natural roots, roots in the deepest part of the human mind.
No more seeing you with cruel facts. I think that's enough about not adhering to antidepressant treatment or suicide pro-live treatment. In the end, there is no treatment. If it's a game of luck, maybe you'll come out better and get your life back, you'll never look into the void again and lose the desire to throw yourself into the abyss. However, it's down to luck. Can I flip a coin and decide the direction of my life with a coin toss? If it's heads, I'll kill myself tonight, if it's tails, I'll kill myself tomorrow. Here are the miracle remedies.
I can predict those who will say, "The risk outweighs the benefits." Benefits for whom? For the business owner who will take back his abusive profit at the expense of the sufferer? Because for the sufferer who is affected by the disease, all he has left is apathy, erectile dysfunction, nausea and a brief desire to do things. It's not about a cure, it's about covering up the adverse effects so that you can go back to work, to the productive cycle. This is also why suicide rates are falling in richer countries. But as I said, enough about that. I will return to Cioran's existentialist philosophy. (...)
I would like to know, how was the treatment for depression or any other mental condition for you?
Of the shortcomings of treatment methods.
(...) However, it is important to bring a certain scientific discourse to deny any help and not fall back into the ruse of those who think they know the mind. I will talk a little about non-acceptance of medication and treatment. Well, well, if I'm sick, then let me seek treatment for the disease and live well. They will initially say, but if we do a thorough analysis, without filters that mask suicide, we will clearly see that year after year the numbers of suicides grow. While it is undeniable that in minimally developed countries the numbers are falling, this just proves my point that it is impossible to be healthy living on the periphery of late capitalism. This fact would explain, at least in parts, the phenomenon of 1 suicide per hour in Brazil. Annually we lose 700 thousand people to the abyss. We lose about 6% of the Brazilian population per year.
Even though treatment methods are always being innovated, new remedies or miraculous shamanic cures always appearing, it seems that the phenomenon persists. It is ironic that the package leaflet of the most varied antidepressants, those that supposedly would save us suicides, contains a warning of the risk of suicide. Attention, the medicine that will cure you can bring your illness as a side effect. There are indeed scientific explanations for this, but the truth is that nobody understands what depression is. They seek biological answers and fail. They seek psychological answers, and it seems to be insufficient. Even the sociological responses, those that seem to shed more light on the phenomenon, turn out to be shallow in the end.
Then comes the statement that suicide is multifactorial, incomprehensible and a real taboo. Now, nothing can exist in nature that is not part of itself. If we cannot say that suicide is immoral as Hume demonstrated, nor can we say that it infringes our duties to society, then we will say that it is a disease. For it is difficult to conceive that it is a crime since it does not damage the physical integrity of other people like murder or rape, but also because it seems too cruel for us to judge that being in intense suffering as a criminal. However, we can run the risk of arguing in favor of murderers, since they exist naturally, and therefore it would be acceptable for me to be too. I believe, however, that neither the murderer nor the rapist are moral, and we can fairly easily prove that they breach their duties to society.
Is there then the defense of diseases? Would illnesses then be a natural and constitutive part of life? From existing? From nature? There are those who praise serotonin inhibitors, but we forget that our research is still weak and that mere animal tests prove nothing. It's funny how we measure the rate of improvement of someone depressed by how much that being manages to be active and produce, well there is my criticism of the capitalist mode of production. If I take a miraculous medicine and go back to work immediately, then I will be cured in the eyes of the mediocre. However, there are few studies that show the suffering of those who can no longer feel like such. In fact, when I take the miracle pills I return to a state of normalcy, the fascination with the void disappears and I am ready to resume capitalist production.
Although antidepressants have considerable therapeutic benefits, low adherence to treatment by patients is common. According to studies carried out by Moreno in 2000, approximately one third of patients discontinue therapy in the first month, and 45% do not continue treatment after the third month. Well, hasn't science yet decided to explore these alarming numbers? I would say yes, but science has its limits and the existential abyss is a place for philosophers to step into, not scientists. These are no longer prepared for such a feat. If antidepressants really can do something against suicide, then why do they seem to not work in most patients? In order to better analyze this issue, I leave here a table.
(Description of the image in English: a series of antidepressants that contain the danger of suicidal ideation in their leaflet. A Brazilian regulatory body - Anvisa)
It is possible to state that all antidepressants available on the market can, to some degree, cause unwanted side effects. In October 2003, the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) released a statement warning about possible adverse events related to suicide attempts and/or suicide in children and adolescents who used Selective Inhibitors Serotonin Reuptake System (SSRI), as reported by Mitchell et al. (2014).
What was the scientists' solution to this alarming fact? The US Scientific Advisory Panel released three recommendations to the FDA regarding the use of antidepressant medications:
(1) introduce a black box warning on SSRI prescribing labels to indicate the existence of a risk of potentially dangerous adverse reactions;
(2) caregivers must sign a document indicating that they are aware of the suicidal risk associated with SSRIs;
(3) guidelines must be delivered to those responsible, indicating the benefits and risks with the use of SSRIs (MITCHELL et al., 2014).
Well, that's kind of funny. Sign this paper saying that you agree with the risk of committing suicide and make it clear that "this medicine here cures depression but causes you suicidal ideation". Olfson and his team conducted a comparative study in patients with severe depression, with the aim of evaluating the effectiveness of antidepressant medications. A significantly higher rate of suicide attempts was observed in patients who were undergoing drug treatment, as described in Olfson (2006). It is outrageous the way we are treated. Here are my reasons for distrusting health professionals who study this phenomenon, they don't know what to do, what to study or how to deal with the alarming numbers. All our actions are to cover up the explicit fact: suicide seems to have natural roots, roots in the deepest part of the human mind.
No more seeing you with cruel facts. I think that's enough about not adhering to antidepressant treatment or suicide pro-live treatment. In the end, there is no treatment. If it's a game of luck, maybe you'll come out better and get your life back, you'll never look into the void again and lose the desire to throw yourself into the abyss. However, it's down to luck. Can I flip a coin and decide the direction of my life with a coin toss? If it's heads, I'll kill myself tonight, if it's tails, I'll kill myself tomorrow. Here are the miracle remedies.
I can predict those who will say, "The risk outweighs the benefits." Benefits for whom? For the business owner who will take back his abusive profit at the expense of the sufferer? Because for the sufferer who is affected by the disease, all he has left is apathy, erectile dysfunction, nausea and a brief desire to do things. It's not about a cure, it's about covering up the adverse effects so that you can go back to work, to the productive cycle. This is also why suicide rates are falling in richer countries. But as I said, enough about that. I will return to Cioran's existentialist philosophy. (...)
