They literally just switched it to something else. If you're on gabapentin for anything off-label (anxiety, bipolar disorder, ect) then, congrats, you're a victim of the opioid crisis!
Not to mention all the abandonded addicts held captive by their own country's medical system. I know people that are being denied help because a doctor prescribed them something that makes them a red flag patient. They didn't want to be an addict you told them it was their only hope!
Please ignore me I'm manic rn
Death to America. Solidarity friend. My wife and I are on several different medications for anxiety and depression. We can't help feel that they are just used to help take the edge of late state capitalism.
Our depression is weird because we used to work in biology/ecology, seeing the natural world you love being killed off for profit was too horrifying and disheartening for us. Combined the with inaction on other societal problems like healthcare and even gender/sex equality just made us fall into a deep pit of sadness.
I think that most people under 40 feel this way to some extent.
Big mood
I've been trying to taper off various things to operate on as few meds as possible. (Still need some) But this political climate and literal climate make it hard to stay away from antidepressants/anti anxiety meds.
Are you and your wife doing therapy? It always feels odd for me to go in once a week and be like "yeah wow capitalism still got me fucked".
I'm uninsured right now so I am not but my wife is. Her experience is basically yours.
One thing I think we really need to think about going forward, is why mental health within the constraints of capitalism aren't effective at treating so many diseases of despair. Richard Wolff's wife, Margret Fraud, offers some Marxist/socialist analysis of mental health that focuses a lot on how material conditions affect mental health. I think stuff like that is important but I'm not sure how to communicate it.