Better than ever

I take medication for depression and last week the psychiatrist decided to change it. It seems that I will need about a month to wean off the old one, and am starting the new one right away, so for the next few weeks I'll be double medicated and I can already tell there are side effects. So far, it seems to involve focusing my eyes. Have you ever paid attention to the ads on TV for the various drugs? Lipitor is one of my favorites, at the end of the ad the announcer whips thru all the possible side effects -everything from nausea, headache, etc. to liver damage - they say it so fast you can hardly catch it. I think, Yeah, I want to take THAT medication. Don't you wonder how much those ads cost, and how much they add to the cost of the drug? And they're not OTC, you still need a dr.'s script. And all the stuff the drug reps. unload on the doctors, promoting this or that drug, pens, calendars, toys, clocks, kleenex, not to mention bringing the whole office lunch or dessert. It boggles the mind, when you see it all, and then the drug companies are still raking in billions in profits, which they say they need for the "Ongoing search" for cures for whatever. I'm in favor of research, but do they really need to do all the advertising to the patient, and all the free junk to the doctors? That's not even mentioning all the free travel to "meetings" and other big-ticket items. Somehow, when you compare their excess to the problem regular people have paying for their meds, when they have to decide between which meds they need the worst, or what else they can do without, it doesn't seem ethical. It seems greedy and wicked and uncaring. Our country is so very wealthy in material things, it is a sin that our citizens can't afford medicine that they need. But the politicians throw out red herrings to keep us arguing about the wrong things in life -- crap like whether homosexuals can marry, and wars against the wrong people, to keep from having to tackle the tough things. Maybe I'm not the only one having trouble keeping my eyes focused.