The Flame-Free Confession Thread

You can’t buy a lot of things here without being 18 and have your ID. Glue, mouthwash, spray paint, cough syrup, all that type of shit. We have a very big “get fucked up on anything you can” culture here. It’s ridiculous. I went to school in a backwoods school where most lived on a dirt road in a trailer. They would drink bottles of NyQuil and make it a game to see who would pass out first, take handfuls or ibuprofen, or some other muscle pain reliever to get fucked up, etc. add that to the other actual drugs they were doing with alcohol and cigarettes and it gets really sad really fast.

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I’m always blown away by the drug advertisements. “Visit your Dr. to see if pill XYZ is right for you! Side effects include depression, anxiety, bleeding from the eyes, your poo becoming a sentient life form and killing you, inexplicable rapture, etc.”

As far as I know, in most other developed countries, pharma companies aren’t allowed to advertise their products to consumers. This makes sense to me.

I know it happens, but what kind of person is sitting there at NBA halftime and sees a drug ad and phones their doc for an appointment? Like oh yeah maybe Zoloft is exactly what I need for reasons?

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Sorry, what?

My brain struggles with this one. Do you mean localized pain in the quads?

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It’s because our culture is lazy and wants the quick fix. The list of symptoms also applies to every human being.

Do you feel:

Tired
Sad
Happy
Nervous
Bored
Calm
Anxious
Thirsty
Quenched
Hungry
Full
Tall
Short
Average
Your hair is brown
Your hair ISN’T brown

And that’s how they get weak individuals to buy that crap.

I have a script for gabapentin that was given to me for nerve pain when I hurt my back. Side effects include:

Allergic reaction: Itching or hives, swelling in your face or hands, swelling or tingling in your mouth or throat, chest tightness, trouble breathing

Behavior problems, aggression, restlessness, trouble concentrating, moodiness (especially in children)

Blistering, peeling, red skin rash

Change in how much or how often you urinate, bloody or cloudy urine,

Chest pain, fast heartbeat, trouble breathing

Dark urine or pale stools, nausea, vomiting, loss of appetite, stomach pain, yellow skin or eyes

Fever, rash, swollen or tender glands in the neck, armpit, or groin

Problems with coordination, shakiness, unsteadiness

Rapid weight gain, swelling in your hands, ankles, or feet

Unusual moods or behaviors, thoughts of hurting yourself, feeling depressed


You also have to taper off of it. Needless to say I chose to chill with the nerve pain.

Most individuals are perfectly fine with taking a drug for one minor problem even if it causes 10 more. There are pills for those problems too.

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I think the biggest issue is that people have bought into an idea that any moment spent NOT experiencing happiness and bliss is some sort of bug in their programming that requires a fix.

Most of life is spent idling. Occasionally you hit some highs, but with that comes some lows.

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I think this is a stupid comparison.
I can’t comment too much on America’s health system and how easy it is to get anti depressants but you are basically comparing a person that seeks help in fighting a deadly and life crippling disease with yourself who wants drugs to get better at his hobby (without even competing)!

I do take anti depressants and seek help in counselling. I know a few people who have to deal or dealt with depression. Not all of them are alive today.
My life might have come to an end if it wasn’t for help I got (not only anti depressants obviously, but counselling and life changes).

Still as someone who has been treated against cancer for 3 years I feel I can comment on the severeness of an illness and I think that depression has had worse impact on me than cancer.

I get that there may be bad apples who may or may not fit your description and yes depression and the like might be over diagnosed, I still think you shouldn’t touch this topic that thoughtless.

Would it than be wise to risk your health taking drugs that you do not need? Even when prescribed by a doctor?

I know I might not fit into this thread with my answer since it is supposed to be flame free, so feel free to ignore me. I just got mad and wanted to response to this.

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This would be a good reason to NOT do steroids.

Dude, do you think I would be using steroids if I had important shit to do? Like child raising, advancing in career etc?

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Not in America. The use of anxiety and depression meds is bad. 1 in 8 adults are on anti-depressants. It’s increased 65% in 15 years. I think it’s because it’s easy to get and widely available. A family doctor won’t refuse you if you come I and request it. They also can’t force you to try counseling.

I often deal with unemployed people under the age of 25 who are of a steady diet of meds for depression, anxiety, and bipolar. People self diagnose themselves and confuse bipolar with being human and having to deal with life (my brother-in-law is a legit bi-polar schizophrenic).

I firmly believe that steroids can be used responsibly and improve ones quality of life. Even if it only improved a sense of satisfaction or self esteem then it’d be worth it (from a big picture perspective. It would obviously make you bigger and stronger as well).

That could be said for training in general. It’s all about balance.

What if a small and responsible dose of doctor prescribed anabolics improved depression?

No offense taken by me. I’m always open to some dialog.

Not the same at all.

What is a “small and responsible dose”? If depression is caused by certain things like hypogonadism or adrenal insufficiency, then it’s a valid medical prescription for an actual ailment. A proper diagnosis would be required.

If one is depressed because of insufficient muscle mass, he should consider counselling instead lol.

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It’s a pretty touchy topic for sure. There are plenty of folks that truly need pharmaceuticals and counseling. My best friend suffered from severe anxiety and had to take prescription medication to get it under control. The onset was fast, dramatic, and pretty life changing for him. Discussing mental health is becoming less taboo in our culture, but there’s still plenty of apprehension for folks suffering to come forward and share it.

They’re pretty easy to get here, and big-pharma has plenty of attractive ads that make you want them, but just because someone has a shitty job and hates their life for 8 hours a day doesn’t mean they’re medically depressed.

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Inhaled corticosteroid is the first that comes to mind.

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Absolutely agree.

A good thing that it is talked about more. It makes it easier for people in need. If I made one big mistake in dealing with my own depression, it is that I didn’t seek help, talk about it in any way or even confessed to myself that I have a serious problem.

Ok this is very surprising to me. There are definitely no ads for anti depressions or any prescription medications (if I am not mistaken) where I live. I think, from visiting my TV memory, that only prescription free meds are advertised in TV.

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Gabapentin was my savior while I waited for my hip operation, being a carer and father I needed to be mobile and not crying like a baby while doing stuff and Gabapentin allowed me to do that although I didn’t seem to have any of the side effects, I also weened myself off sensibly and as quickly as I could as soon as I got home from my operation

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Well, I’m glad you came around to seeking help my man!

There’s still a significant amount of our population that would argue mental health issues aren’t real (smh) or acknowledge they are but folks need to “man up” or “keep it to themselves” or whatever (smh harder). Most of these people aren’t medical professionals.

Yeah if you were to mute a TV and watch ads for anti-depressants, boner pills, alcoholic beverages, and high-end vacation getaways, you’d pretty much be watching the same ad with different logos.

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I was obviously right that I couldn’t legitimately comment on the situation in America. This is pretty surprising to me. Although we have to factor in that psychological illnesses are drastically on the rise not only in America, so we shouldn’t interpret the increase in prescribed anti depressants solely as more people abusing prescription medication.

As can meds against depression and anxiety. Is using steroids to support your hobby of working out a justifiable reason to use them? You seem to think so, Maybe we have to agree to disagree here.

Ironically this was me. I also thought I had no justifiable reason to be depressed and that I should not feel bad since my life could be tons worse.
It is important to understand that being medically(!) depressed has nothing to do with your state of mind, with being sad or feeling bad because of event XY. It is a disease and it can mess you up really bad.

This is both funny and outrageous.

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On to more serious things…

Apparently, people regularly masturbate in the toilets in the workplace.

I have to say, I’m fairly repulsed by this. Even at workplaces where they go out of their way to keep the toilets clean, they are fairly disgusting places - by 3pm I often consider calling the police because they can be mistaken for a crime scene.

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This is haunting. But I know it’s true.

This makes no sense.

Let’s say there’s really an enormous over-prescription of depression meds. So what? Should there be an equal over-prescription of TRT drugs as well? How about just don’t over-prescribe either?

What you are saying is that people who are not really depressed get to abuse depression drugs and therefore you should get to do the same for TRT drugs, which makes it unfair to you.

This is similar to the silly statement “ibuprofen abuse is statistically more harmful than roids, therefore I should be able to abuse roids”. That’s absurd. Don’t abuse either if you care for your health.

There is no guaranteed “safe use” of steroids. Getting away with using them has more to do with genetics than how you use them. If you screw with your hormones and something goes wrong, even your doctors may not be able to figure it out, at least not for a lengthy and costly period of time.

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Well there’s a bit of nuance in this discussion here.

Depression isn’t caused by a lack of Zoloft in the brain.

All that responsible Dr. Prescribed TRT is doing is bringing your testosterone levels back into range.

I think it’s hilarious that it is 100x harder in the US for a man to get legit testosterone than it is for a woman to get estrogen and progesterone for birth control. A guy has to search out an “anti-aging clinic” run by a chiropractor or a rogue endocrinologist just to back get to 800ng/dl.

Depression has increased by 450% in the US since 1987. Not saying everyone who ever sought treatment for depression is lying. But some of that increase has to be misdiagnosis.

http://happierhuman.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/P2.-National-Trends-in-the-Outpatient-Treatment-of-Depression.pdf

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