By Steve Levy
Earlier this month, talk show host and comedian Bill Maher had a must-see segment on his HBO show Real Time.
As has been discussed in this column before, the psychology/depression corporate complex that is a multi-billion-dollar cottage industry has helped our culture devolve into one of victimhood, dependency and hopelessness.
Maher’s best line related to the common diagnosis that people requiring psychological intervention lie somewhere along “the spectrum.” As Maher points out, everyone sits on some point of the spectrum. That’s why it’s a spectrum. Nevertheless, the spectrum is often used as an excuse for bad behavior.
Says Maher, sometimes a person is just an undisciplined A-hole. The concept of being on the spectrum gives an excuse to these people to continue to be A-holes.
If only they were diagnosed earlier or had their psychotropic drugs consistently provided, they would no longer be A-holes. Well, as Maher so eloquently noted, sometimes people are just A-holes
Enough with the excuses.
The number of people feeling depressed or on depression-related drugs has skyrocketed. It hasn’t reduced depression. It’s increased it. Instead of people employing a policy of self-responsibility and understanding that sometimes life is unfair and you have to move on, there is a tendency to give up.
In the past, people were considered moody. Now, they’re bipolar, which requires drugs and therapy. Surely, there truly is a legitimate bipolar diagnosis for some people, but it has spread too far among the population. It’s a crutch and an excuse for big Pharma to make billions from people they trap into dependency and this sense of victimhood.
Psychiatric intervention is a necessity for many disturbed people within our society. But unruly behavior doesn’t always stem from some Freudian dystopia. Sometimes it’s a lack of structure or consequences. Sometimes we have to come to an understanding that life is not always going to go our way and we have to grind it out. We don’t need psychotropic drugs to get us through it. Sometimes it’s just good old-fashioned perseverance, hard work, and personal responsibility.
Ask those of the Greatest Generation who had to endure a Depression and a world war. They didn’t zone out on psychiatric drugs. They dug deep down and raised their standards of living, life expectancy and hope for the future.
Steve Levy is President of Common Sense Strategies, a political consulting firm. He served as Suffolk County Executive, as a NYS Assemblyman, and host of “The Steve Levy Radio Show.” He is the author of “Solutions to America’s Problems” and “Bias in the Media.” www.SteveLevy.info, Twitter @SteveLevyNY, steve@commonsensestrategies.com