It’s a tad depressing

[erastes]

When you see the adverts for 4g phones, and realise that one’s own phone is just scraping 1½g. Two at a pinch. Bah. No-one rings me on it, anyway!

However, I must say OMG about the adverts on American TV for prescription drugs – we don’t (obviously) have adverts on the TV for these over here and I’m bloody glad!  If you’ve never seen one, nip to Hulu and watch for a while you’ll soon run across one – this is basically what they are like:

“If you suffer from XXX – then you’ll know how inconvenient it can be, not only the pain, but the way it restricts you from doing what you want to do.  PRESCRIPTION DRUG can help, so talk to your doctor to see if PRESCRIPTION DRUG is right for you.

P.D. may cause the following side affects.  Depression (often the drug is FOR depression).  PD may cause headaches Dizziness Coughing Fatigue Myalgia Viral Infection Rhinitis Nausea and/or Vomiting Abdominal Pain Back Pain Diarrhoea Upper Respiratory Infection Insomnia Somnolence Bronchitis Dyspepsia Asthenia Pharyngitis Vasodilatation Vertigo Chest Pain high blood pressure, eye problems, uterine bleeding and in occasional cases coma and or death. So do speak to your doctor to see if PRESCRIPTION DRUG can make your life a better one.

!!!!!!!!!! (and that’s NOT an exaggeration!)

Watched Tristan and Isolde today – God. How DULL was that?  I couldn’t get to the end – how on earth could they have made it SO bloody dull?  With the delicious Rufus Sewell?  Awful. Just awful.

OH AND CONGRATS ALEX BEECROFT!!!! she came 15th out of 100 of Dear Author’s best Romances of 2009.

looks like the Christmas dragons are the same as last year too.

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Comments

[moons-storm.livejournal.com]

Oddly, every doctor I've seen -- from my GP to a psychiatrist -- the choice of drug has always been up to me. I tell them the symptom I want treated, they tell me the various options, and I choose what I want to take.

Though, I agree, the ads over here bug me. And every depression medication here does come with the warning that it may increase the depression or cause suicidal thoughts/tendencies. Wow. I find that a special sort of special.

[erastes.livejournal.com]

i soppose in a way a choice would be good--we are just given what we are given!

[moons-storm.livejournal.com]

*ponders* My GP has always been exceptionally open about what drugs I take. He views it as it's my body, I should be able to choose what goes into it. I've refused drugs, chosen different ones after doing my own research, as well as taken his professional advice on what's best for me (I suffer from chronic insomnia and I thought to take something like Ambien or Lunesta, and he was quite firm that he'd like to never prescribe those sorts of drugs to ANYONE -- because he's always let me make my own decisions, such a stance really stuck out and I went with his alternatives to those drugs).

I think it is because we pay for our insurance/health care and want to feel we have some say in what we're paying for. I'd not like to be paying out as much as I do (we pay about $8,000/yr in premiums) and have no say in the care I receive and the drugs I take. :)

Advertisements, though, need to go. I find them misleading as well as encouraging abuse of various prescriptions. The way the ads are worded are so vague, they apply to just about everyone.

[erastes.livejournal.com]

Well we pay for our healthcare too, you know, its NOT free. National Health Insurance is taken directly from our salaries and everyone pays it. Not $8000 of course, but that's probably because NOT everyone pays it in the USA.

[annephoenix.livejournal.com]

My OH's NI contribution is something like £115/month (and probs going up with the new budget) and he's not a high earner and he has not once been to the GP or hospital in 10 years of living in the UK ... so that's £12000 of someone else's medical bills (touch wood it stays that way; i.e. I'd rather he stayed fit and healthy!) ...

[moons-storm.livejournal.com]

It would be nice if everyone here had health care. I wouldn't mind paying out of my taxes instead of my income. It would also be nice not to worry whenever I do get ill if my insurance company will view it as a legitimate illness they should be covering or if I'm just SOL and need to suffer with it or pay out of pocket for it.

Our heath care system needs a serious overhaul, and that includes our prescriptions prices. Oi.