Chemicals versus Medication

Abstract

Human beings have used chemicals to alter their experience of life since the beginning of time: peyote, magic mushrooms, Scotch, marijuana, cocaine, nicotine, caffeine, heroin, red wine. The list of chemicals used by human beings for the purpose of feeling different is very long. It is only metaphoric—and a profoundly dangerous and ill-chosen metaphor—to call these “medications that treat the disease of life". Instead, psychiatrists would have “chemical repositories,” maybe not unlike liquor stores, where they dispensed chemicals-with-powerful-effects whose effects changed moods, tranquilized anxiety, slowed a racing brain, and silenced voices, and so on. If mental health professionals could reserve “drug,” “medication,” or “medicine” as words that they only use when they are talking about treating actual biological disorders, it would amount to a giant step forward. There are some camps in the mental health field with respect to so-called psychiatric medications: those who prescribe and advocate for them, whether or not they fully believe in them.