My friend, who is a professor of psychiatry, believes in the art of psychopharmacology. It is not a cure. She believes that the right combination and dosage of medications will alleviate the suffering of patients and their caretakers. Her patients are not the standard dose SSRI consumers like myself. Her art is to find optimal combination for the individual patient afflicted with deep sufferings. She is not a drug dispenser like my shrink, who writes prescriptions away. She is deeply compassionate.
A pharmaceutical company tweaked inactive ingredients of the drug her schizophrenic patient was taking. As the active ingredient was the same, she kept him on that medication. On the next visit, the patient begged her to make “them” stop staring from the air-conditioning unit. “He was so scared,” she said. “I was so sorry for him. Who would know the inactive ingredients had an effect on his condition. I changed his prescription to the one with that ingredient and no more staring eyes.”
There is no silver bullet that works for everybody. If there were, there would be no suffering. That’s why we keep on seeking for the right combination of measures for the particular condition for the particular individual at the particular time.
Meds won’t cure personality disorders, though. My “difficult” 93 year old aunt is a patient of my friend. She put my aunt on standard dose of SSRI. My aunt stopped seeing creatures in the middle of night. She doesn’t scream and wake up her aid anymore. Now she is manageable for her caretakers. “But Doctor S., she is still mean,” the caretaker and my mother, who accompanied her, said to my friend. “Unfortunately, medication won’t change personality,” my friend said. I believe my aunt, who loved me like a precious doll, has narcissistic personality disorder. In her mind, everything is somebody else’s faults.
Because of complicated and fucked up family dynamics, I was diagnosed with a personality disorder unspecified (mainly for insurance coverage of therapy sessions.) While I saw therapists for 20 years on and off, I explored and sought for the silver bullet. I befriended my inner child. My soul was retrieved, (oops I didn’t know I had lost one). Death arrow was burnt at a fire ceremony. I drummed and journeyed many times. I was saged and cleansed. I had my chakra balanced. An entity was extracted. I was gestalted and talked to a chair. I meditated and vipassanaed. I saw channelers, a sound healer, psychic healers and energy healers. While each worked in some way, there were no silver bullet.
It is the process of seeking, which led me where I am.
I’m still seeking, not for a silver bullet, but for something that would free my soul at this particular stage of my life, so that I could keep on seeking.
Beware of a healer bearing a gift of silver bullets, claiming it is the cure.
My friend, who was diagnosed with ALS, told me that she bought “miracle healing water” from a random guy, who claimed it would cure her illness. It was obvious that she was fooled. I doubt that the guy even knew what ALS is. But what can I say? She was desperately seeking for the cure of one of the most cruel illnesses.
Since I was diagnosed with Ménière’s Disease and joined support groups, I’ve learned that everybody with this affliction is seeking for the silver bullet desperately. However, a “cure” of one Ménière’s sufferer not necessarily works for others. So we start to look for the right combination and dosage of whatever works for that particular individual sufferer at that particular stage of illness.
Also I realized when people found somebody had a chronic or incurable illness, they wanted to offer the silver bullet. I happen to know many practitioners of physical and/or spiritual healing, and they offered to treat me. It seems that people believe or want to believe they have some control over my condition, or at least they wish to mitigate my suffering. Each of them did something and probably affected something, but nobody has “cured” my condition. Then a woman with Hashimoto disease recommended me to use “Hydrogen Water.” For a moment I thought of buying it. Then I felt for my friend’s desperation.
I would say if it works for you, placebo or not, good for you. But I don't believe in silver bullets.
Somatic Awareness 