Student Essay
Be Happy
Katherine Allison
Humans use a variety of substances to manipulate their conception of consciousness. Whether it is in order to escape, to feel happy, to repress, or to cure, drugs have become a way of life for many people. More recently, the use of psychoactive medications has become increasingly popular. Although the benefits of such medications are significant, the growing trend related to psychoactive drugs has some worried that we will forget that sometimes unhappiness is normal, and human.
Francis Fukuyama is worried. In his book titled, Our Posthuman Future he describes several advancements that may very likely lead to our demise. According to Fukuyama, advances in neuropharmacology will lead to behavioral manipulation by the government and a lessened humanness among mankind. In his book’s chapters relating to psychoactive drug use, he frequently refers to the plasticity of humans and the tools we discover to manipulate the mind. He recognizes the practical benefits of certain drugs, but illustrates the slippery slope we may be destined to follow.
Limits are in order. A picturesque nation is not the objective. Fukuyama claims that, “Long before genetic engineering becomes a possibility, knowledge of brain chemistry and the ability to manipulate it will become an important source of behavior control that will have significant political implications.” (Page 43) Government behavior control is far fetched fear, every person is entitled and capable of controlling his or her own behavior as we have for centuries. The ability to manipulate emotion is not a relatively new threat to the human race, but a tradition and aspect of our history and nature.
Since the beginning of time man has used substances to alter and improve our emotions. Michael Pollan, author of, The Botany of Desire: A Plant’s Eye View of the World, states, “With the solitary exception of the Eskimos, there isn’t a people on Earth who doesn’t use psychoactive plants to effect a change in consciousness, and there probably has never been.” (Page 139). It is not the downfall of humans to modify behavior, but human nature. The plasticity of the mind is not increasing, and no new threats have actually been introduced, but we have become more efficient in our quest for altered states. Pollan writes that this, “desire to alter one’s experience of consciousness may be universal.”
The precedents are not evidence enough that we should not fight this neuropharocological drug war. Drugs have the ability to control a person, both positively and negatively as some drugs prove to be significantly more harmful than others. Human beings must maintain personal control of their vices. But if a legitimate medication has the ability to make a person feel better about himself, why interfere? Unlike the use of street drugs, alcohol, and tobacco, these medications require the opinion, supervision, and counsel of a doctor. Medical professionals should be allowed the privacy to confer with the patient in order to acquire the assistance necessary to lead a happier life.
Pollan calls to our attention that even “young children seek out altered states of awareness. They will spin until violently dizzy (thereby producing visual hallucinations).”(Page 140). If one accepts that it is in our nature as human beings to medicate, is it possible still that through efficient alteration of emotion, we loose some valuable attributes that we revere as human?
Walter Kirn, of Time magazine argues in his article, "The Danger of Suppressing Sadness: What if Holden Caulfield had been taking Prozac?" that the use of psychoactive drugs has become the tool to control youth today, by teachers, parents and psychiatrists, and that through this command, human characteristics are lost. People in these positions ease their positions with drugs while disabling valuable developmental characteristics of today’s children. He describes the descent these prescriptions create:
A pill that tones down youthful b.s. detectors would certainly be a boon to parents and teachers, but how would it enrich the lives of teenagers? Even if such a pill improved their moods--helping them stick to their studies, say, and compete in a world with close to zero tolerance for unproductive monkeying around--would it not rob them (and the rest of us) of a potent source of social criticism, political idealism and cultural change?
Were these concerns realized it would be devastating to everything it means to be adolescent. These prescriptions are not magical, they have limitations and the development of a drug that controls the mind to the extent Kirn has described is not only distant, but is not desired.
The desired outcome of prescribing antidepressant medications is not to ‘normalize’ each student. It is not an alternative to discipline or reprimands or the answer to adolescent trauma. These drugs are aids, granted they are not always necessary, but prove to be effective. Adolescents often experiment with drugs. If manipulation of consciousness is human, and many of us will use substances, it is preferred that a teenager take his daily antidepressant as opposed to something cooked in a bathtub.
Neuropharmacology has increased the substances humans can utilize legally to adjust emotion. More than 7 million Americans take anti depressants, these patients have the right to confer with a medical professional regarding his or her treatment.(Cowley and Noonan). The plasticity of humans is not exacerbated by new discoveries, but remains a threat to those who abuse substances, and an aid to the majority. Many of these medications have allowed patients to live normal, happy lives, when they otherwise would be in need of residential hospitalization. The ability to be open to altering our perspective of reality may in prove to be a positive attribute. Along with suicidal depression, one might loose an ounce of creativity, but there is always a price. Everything in moderation.