What'd they give you?

"Thorazine? Haldol? Any dose is an overdose, it's elementary."

So it is, Brad Pitt from 12 Monkeys. And now we're pumping our kids with these drugs at an ever increasing rate. I remember when the ADHD/ritalin craze was just getting started. Suddenly, tons of kids that were just being kids were "hyper active" (they're fucking kids), "unruly" (they're fucking kids) and had "difficulty paying attention in class" (they're fucking KIDS!). I can understand this being a problem if you're in your 30's and you're always running around, freaking out and unable to concentrate, but that's normal for kids. Now the US has jumped guns from ADD/HD pills to full blown anti-psychotics.

American children take anti-psychotic medicines at about six times the rate of children in the United Kingdom, according to a comparison based on a new U.K. study.

In the U.K. study, anti-psychotics were prescribed for 595 children at a rate of less than four per 10,000 children in 1992. By 2005, 2,917 children were prescribed the drugs at a rate of seven per 10,000 -- a near-doubling, said lead author Fariz Rani, a researcher at the University of London's pharmacy school.

By contrast, an earlier U.S. study found that nearly 45 American children out of 10,000 used the drugs in 2001 versus more than 23 per 10,000 in 1996.

Side effects including weight gain, nervous-system problems and heart trouble have been reported in children using these drugs and there's little long-term evidence about whether they're safe for them, the study authors said.

Thioridazine, sometimes used to treat hyperactivity in attention deficit disorder, was frequently used early on. Its use decreased after 2000 when a U.K. safety committee warned of heart-related side effects, the authors said.

Reasons for the increases are uncertain but may be similar to those in the United States, such as an increase in autism cases and drug industry influence.
- Source

It's not just the ads that are pushing these drugs, it's a national attitude. Feeling down? Pop a pill and fix it. Kids driving you nuts? Give 'em some pills. It's all part of today's fast culture. No one wants to sit through therapy and find the root of their unhappiness, they want to quaff some drugs and get super happy fun time now-now quick! We don't look for real solutions to our problems, we look for a way to patch it. When that patch fails or even creates new problems, we go ahead apply more patches hoping that it will all work out in the end.

It seems that we are moving closer and closer to a Brave New World.