The saddest Calvin and Hobbes ever

[tugrik]

Comments

[cargoweasel.livejournal.com]

That strip is fake and I hate it.

I prefer this rebuttal:


more good stuff here

[araquan.livejournal.com]

Now that I like.

[circuit-four.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I mean... speaking as someone who is currently on Ritalin and it's only made him weirder if anything... :D It bugs me the same way it bugs me when people say something like "Prozac-addled zombies" when, really, I know more people who stopped being depression-addled zombies when they went on the right medication. As ranted elsewhere today, Drugs Don't Work Any Given Way For Everybody. :)

[monoceroset.livejournal.com]

I'm in the somewhat uncomfortable position of both agreeing completely with your general point but also admitting to deep skepticism in my particular case.

[circuit-four.livejournal.com]

FWIW, I have definitely had several friends attest that Ritalin made them feel like their creativity had been dampened somewhat. I just don't think it's as cut and dried as public opinion and popular culture (the above comic, the "Timmy" episode of South Park, the "Focusin" episode of the Simpsons, etc.) seems to assume it is!

[monoceroset.livejournal.com]

I've never been on Ritalin myself; I was thinking of various other drug regimes I've been on. This did include dexedrine once, however, although not for very long. I didn't feel like any of the drugs were blunting my intellect somehow, only that they weren't doing what they were supposed to be doing.

The Focusyn episode, ah yes...the quality of "The Simpsons" really was in free-fall by that time.

[kakoukorakos.livejournal.com]

Well, that would mostly indicate that the drugs were working as expected. As much as modern medicine does understand about how our brains function, it's only the tip of the iceberg. The crude experimentation we do with crude chemicals will be looked back on someday and regarded with roughly the same level of ridicule as we regard "medicine" from the Middle Ages.

More to the point though, most psychiatric medications are concoctions that were found to dampen the extremes which, in some cases, ruin people's lives. However, it's difficult to just dampen that extreme without dampening a bunch of other stuff. None of our current drugs are targeted to a specific part of the brain, only to specific neurotransmitters. The drugs are just dumped into the circulatory system and go everywhere. Specific targeting of a brain region or function is generally impossible, since neurotransmitters are the same throughout the brain. A drug that inhibits seizures in one part of the brain (which also have anti-psychotic uses as well) will necessarily dampen other parts of the brain and cause the common side effects (blurred vision, coordination and other motor control problems, etc.).

Of course there are the more subjective symptoms such as, "I just feel that the drug is dampening my intellect or creativity" and observations that the drugs just flatten someone's personality out...no highs, no lows, can't get excited at all, they're just "dull". Sometimes, that's just the price one has to pay to become "functional". To each his own; some of the greatest works of art and invention would probably not be a part of our culture had it not been for untreated mental illnesses.

[circuit-four.livejournal.com]

And ooh, yeah, I really like the rebuttal. First time I'd ever seen that, thanks! I particularly like the implication that, given his daughter's not actually looking toward him at that moment, Calvin can still see Hobbes just fine, thanks. ^___^

[tugrik.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I figured it was a fake. Saw it in a comment thread on slashdot and just was a major sadwhiskers-moment. Then made me think. Then made me grumpy about how much it made a demon out of medication. So I posted it to see the reaction.

Thank you for the rebuttal pic. I love it!

[chipuni.livejournal.com]

A wonderful, clever rebuttal.

[panzier.livejournal.com]

I'm glad its fake, Hobbs is special.

[svashtar.livejournal.com]

Hobbes is REAL, dammit. He's more than special.

I have a critter like him. Totally real. A lion with a big black belly button. I've had him for thirty five years, and I will never part with him.

[ladyperegrine.livejournal.com]

Yes. This is the best part of parenting. :-)

[footpad.livejournal.com]

♥

[rah-bop.livejournal.com]

*cries*


(I'm just glad it's not a real strip. I'd be destroyed.)

[iii-demon.livejournal.com]

my favorite theory on where that all went: http://metaphilm.com/philm.php?id=29_0_2

[monoceroset.livejournal.com]

Damn, I was beaten.

[collingslion.livejournal.com]

Holy crap. Thanks for that. :)

[roycalbeck.livejournal.com]

D:-

[timberwuf.livejournal.com]

Well, even if it was a fake, it was a bit stunning.

In November I wrote a novel in which I created some very interesting characters ... and realized along the way that some of them, whom I love, are going to die. I cried. I hope to develop their lives a whole lot more before I ... kill them. (It's tough work, being a god.)

That said, that last panel hurt in much the same way.

Thanks, Cargoweasel. That was a good picture to post.

[inaki.livejournal.com]

Mood drugs absolutely have different effects for different people. My housemate who has fought with bi-polar disorder for most of her life is finally finding control and a handle on it thanks to proper doses of lithium. My SO is finding a similar balance from another perscription.

I however, have a completely different reaction. I was put on ritalin when younger, and it completely killed any sort of creativity. Sure, my ADD was in check, but at a heavy cost. So while the above (yes we know it's fake) strip demonizes the use of drugs to "tune" the mind, at least in my case, it had exactly the effect the strip shows.

I now maintain my ADD by making use of browser tabs and virtual desktops. :)

[kigeni.livejournal.com]

D:

[zeeth_kyrah]

This comic, and a handful of other things kind of converged on a subject I had to deal with today.