I would have thought that as we close the door on
2005, Big Pharma would be looking towards 2006 with a
new dedication to honesty, sanity, and common sense.
Oops. Sorry, I must have been drinking too much egg
nog while watching yet more television propaganda from
pharmaceutical giant, Eli Lilly.
Eli Lilly has really outdone themselves with their
latest marketing campaign to sell us depression and
drugs. I have come to the point where I believe
pharmaceutical companies that sell depression and
drugs actually think we cannot live our lives without
their lies. Count on Eli Lilly to always come up with
the slickest of slick ways to convince virtually every
member of the human race that they have the answer to
helping you cope with an illness called depression.
Enter the latest insanity from Eli Lilly:
http://www.depressionhurts.com
Log onto this website and you will learn that
depression is now a "physical" illness.
Interestingly, it seems that for years a backlash has
properly emerged putting pharmaceutical companies on
notice with the fact depression is not a physical
illness, that you cannot treat depression like you
would a broken leg or a sprained ankle. One is
physical, the other is mental.
Eli Lilly wants to (and what a surprise!) have their
cake and eat it too. Sure, depression hurts. This
isn't news. Try being a stepfather, you'll learn
either pretty quick or years down the road what
depression is. It's no fun to come face to face with
your own shortcomings or realize that you have a lot
of failed relationships to deal with that most
certainly cause you to feel down. This is natural.
There is nothing wrong with feeling depressed because
there is always something you can do about it. In
fact, it's better to experience depression and learn
from it, rather than fail to deal with things that did
not at least for the moment turn out as they should
have. How you deal with challenges will likely
determine what becomes of your future.
Eli Lilly's Self-Assessment Checklist was developed by
"depression experts" at the University of Michigan.
Aren't we lucky to have their expert opinion ask us if
we are having "nagging aches and pains that don't get
better, no matter what I do." You see, Eli Lilly has
decided that as a marketing tool of sorts, they are
going to lump the physical with the mental as it
pertains to convincing you - you're depressed to the
point of needing "their drugs." This is another
beauty from the Checklist you are supposed to check
off: "I have trouble concentrating or making simple
decisions." We have graduated from the class of
Prozac Nation to ADHD Nation. How pathetic and sad
can we get?
Perhaps the slickest portion of the
http://www.depressionhurts.com website is the Symptom
Body Map. This is quite a hoot. We are supposed to,
"Use this tool to explore information about some of
the common emotional and painful physical symptoms of
depression." Furthermore, "When you finish, you'll be
able to print out your symptoms and share this
information with your doctor." I am not even sure I
am believing what I am seeing. There is a colorful
stick figure with eight marks of alleged depression
problem areas. It's like Eli Lilly is now
manufacturing video games.
However, this isn't a game. Our lives are at stake
here. What Eli Lilly is doing is both shameful and
harmful. It's one thing to market products, but why
is depression being treated like a market? Why do we
want more depressed people in this country? How did
we all get so depressed in the first place? Why are
we now labeling infants as mentally ill?
2005 was an interesting year in that the psychiatric
and pharmaceutical (what's the difference?) industry
came under attack on many fronts. Say what you will
about Tom Cruise, at least he did not lie. Again, Eli
Lilly is now mixing the physical with the mental
regarding depression because people are getting a
little wiser to the game of: a pill for every ill.
When we realize that there really isn't a mental
disorder for every American, this is not good news for
Eli Lilly. It is, however, good news for us and our
children. It's good for the heart and soul of
America. We are a nation whose individual members of
society experience depression from time to time, but
we do not let it define us. This is what it means to
learn from an endless number of life lessons.
Let's stop the semantics. Depression is not an
illness we must live with for the rest of our lives or
get out of only with the digestion of drugs. If
depression hurts, Eli Lilly is killing us. Their
carefully crafted website,
http://www.depressionhurts.com is a form of propaganda
that speaks to how low Big Pharma will go to keep us
in chemical handcuffs.
Zizza serves as Vice President for the State of Georgia
for the non-profit organization,
Parents For Label and Drug Free
Education.
