What we can learn from and get inspired by recent Netflix docuseries “Take Your Pills: Xanax”.
Overall, I find it healthy and beneficial to have this particular topic being brought to the attention of the general public, us. The video also features a pool of interviewees and experts of various age, ethnical, and professional backgrounds, to make it relatable to a platform’s broad viewership.
The main character of the series, as per the title, is specific type of prescription drug designed to address anxiety related issues. Each of human personages had their own story of when they got their prescription – yet for all it had been an outcome of an “efficient” doctor visit – meaning, most of them shared that it really “didn’t take much time” for a medical professional to provide a prescription, without broader and deeper examination of underlying causes of anxiety. As a result, some viewers could have gotten an impression that it was the overly-busy doctors who in pursuit of favorable online reviews had been giving quick fixes to patients. There is very limited if any coverage of the role of the big pharma involved – more like a generic mention of “timely” advertising of various anti-anxiety medications released post 9/11.
So far so good. Yet there is something I found concerning: while the common symptom of all characters was anxiety, the producers of the docuseries almost ignored the importance of alternatives, if not Xanax, then what? The subject was left hanging in the air: what do we do with the information, if there are challenges and dangers of the modern prescription drugs – is there an alternative, is there a hope for those who are experiencing anxiety today?
To give the credit to the creators – there was an important line stressed by one of the experts – that “regretfully it had been the patients who managed to connect the dots” and identify the adverse effects of the meds they were prescribed while feeling increasingly unwell, not the clinics.
The self-awareness of certain patients became a catalyzer for the public, investigators, researchers to start looking into the subject.
To conclude on topic of anxiety – always dig deeper. There is plentiful of modalities for therapy, from various forms of hypnosis to medical meditation that help to find and address root causes, in times being sufficient means by themselves, in other cases – complementing and making prescription medication process more effective.
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