Link: In the near absence of friendship...

I needed to read this today. Monica Cassani, "In the near absence of friendship..." about the abandonment and isolation of being chronically ill.

People are afraid of and do all they can to run from life’s pain and our physical and mental frailty it seems. Those of us who are faced with it discover a side of humanity most are in denial about.

I have this persistent idea that lack of friendship and companionship means I'm Doing It Wrong. Maybe it simply means I'm Doing It Honest, and there have been a lot of hard things in my life. It feels a lot better to think of it as a characteristic of our modern rushed mobile society, than as a deep failure in the way I live and relate.

My cat Lilac is now painfully thin from renal failure. I just started her on a new food which she eats enthusiastically and apparently without ill effect, so perhaps the end is a little delayed, but it is clearly coming. I grieve not only her impending loss, but also the fact that she is my only close companion. Meanwhile I enjoy seeing her sprawled luxuriously in the sun-warmed upstairs room, and treasure each moment when she seeks me out, purring.

Link: Chemical imbalance myth takes a big public fall

I always thought it was more complicated, but I didn't realize there was no evidence! Chemical imbalance myth takes a big public fall, by Monica Cassini. Lots of links and references in the post, including one to this detailed post: The chemical imbalance myth: by Chris Kresser.

Drug companies use the chemical imbalance myth to boost their profits. Psychiatrists use the chemical imbalance myth to hide the fact that they don't understand how (or if) the prescribed drugs work.

I understand that psychiatric drugs help many people and I'm glad they're available for those who find them useful. I wish there weren't lies involved, and I wish other modes of treatment were as readily available.

via tim, How To Do Things: Some Preliminary Notes, who says, "[T]he neat, tidy story that such illnesses are the result of random brain misfirings shifts blame from a society that enables systematic abuse of children and everyone else placed in a position of lesser power, onto individuals who can be deemed as defective and disregarded."