4 ms·

> a skin cream to improve mental health — say, to offset the harm caused by social isolation or to treat anxiety or depression? I know there are some serious m

> a skin cream to improve mental health — say, to offset the harm caused by social isolation or to treat anxiety or depression? I know there are some serious mental health ailments that require pharmaceutical treatment, but using Soma-like chemicals to make humans simply feel okay with what's bothering them sounds to me like a surefire way to destroy a society. Things like antidepressants, weed, porn and social media have are already moved us in that direction, but seeing this sort of stuff as an achievement just sounds dystopian to me.

GuB-42 2y ago
The same can be said of all painkillers and yet, opium hasn't destroyed society yet, despite thousands of years of use. These drugs are not to be taken lightly, but I don't like pain, I don't like people being in pain, so if there are ways of making people feel better, I am all for it. And every new treatment we find is a new option, one that we may be able to use as a substitute for something with worse side effects, like opium.
- somedude895 2y ago
  With physical pain you normally treat an illness or injury and use medication alongside it, except in cases of chronic pain or terminal illness. When psychopharmaceuticals are used while fixing the underlying issues, then that's great (the analogue of chronic pain being severe imbalances in brain chemistry, where treatment of symptoms is enough). In both cases the pain occurs to signal a problem. However, mental pain is often inevitable and even necessary for human development to learn to deal with adversity for example. You treat every occurrence of a negative feeling that has massive implications for society and how humans deal with each other, the sort of meddling that I fear no good would come of. The quoted example of treating depression due to social isolation is a perfect example. People already feel depressed because they replace true human connection with parasocial and digital ones, and I think it would be absolutely destructive to just slap a feel-good-patch on every kid's arm rather than us recognizing as a collective that something is going the wrong way with our society.
  - h0l0cube 2y ago
    > I think it would be absolutely destructive to just slap a feel-good-patch on every kid's arm Is the argument here that making pain medication more accessible inevitably leads to misuse? I suppose Tylenol would be problematic then. Perhaps it’s a hypothetical high potency that is the concern? Then fentanyl is the concern here. But what if fentanyl but no side effects? Is that world worse or better?

GuB-42 2y ago

The same can be said of all painkillers and yet, opium hasn't destroyed society yet, despite thousands of years of use. These drugs are not to be taken lightly, but I don't like pain, I don't like people being in pain, so if there are ways of making people feel better, I am all for it. And every new treatment we find is a new option, one that we may be able to use as a substitute for something with worse side effects, like opium.

somedude895 2y ago
With physical pain you normally treat an illness or injury and use medication alongside it, except in cases of chronic pain or terminal illness. When psychopharmaceuticals are used while fixing the underlying issues, then that's great (the analogue of chronic pain being severe imbalances in brain chemistry, where treatment of symptoms is enough). In both cases the pain occurs to signal a problem. However, mental pain is often inevitable and even necessary for human development to learn to deal with adversity for example. You treat every occurrence of a negative feeling that has massive implications for society and how humans deal with each other, the sort of meddling that I fear no good would come of. The quoted example of treating depression due to social isolation is a perfect example. People already feel depressed because they replace true human connection with parasocial and digital ones, and I think it would be absolutely destructive to just slap a feel-good-patch on every kid's arm rather than us recognizing as a collective that something is going the wrong way with our society.
- h0l0cube 2y ago
  > I think it would be absolutely destructive to just slap a feel-good-patch on every kid's arm Is the argument here that making pain medication more accessible inevitably leads to misuse? I suppose Tylenol would be problematic then. Perhaps it’s a hypothetical high potency that is the concern? Then fentanyl is the concern here. But what if fentanyl but no side effects? Is that world worse or better?