Terminally Unique

A note on "Dr. Beast"

Since there has been mention of anti-depressants on here, it is a good time to relay an experience of mine. Back when I was drinking quite a lot of whiskey, about 750mL every night, I felt very depressed (go figure!), so I decided I would go to the doctor and get a prescription for Prozac (fluoxetine). The doctor told me it doesn't mix well with alcohol (a depressant), and the warning label on the bottle said something along the lines of "do not drink alcohol with this medication."

So, I stopped drinking for a week to let the prozac take effect, and indeed, it did seem that it was starting to take effect. But then "Dr. Beast" popped up and said "well, since you are no longer as depressed, surely you can have some whiskey now."

I recalled the label on the prozac, and what the doctor said, and thought it was a very bad idea, but Dr. Beast went on with "What does that doctor know, anyway? You drank to 'cope' with your depression, so now that you aren't as depressed, you don't have to 'cope' as much, and you won't drink the whole bottle like usual."

This sounded like good reasoning to me, and I started drinking again. The fluoxetine held its own for a while, but it didn't make a dent in my alcohol consumption. Soon enough, the alcohol negated the fluoxetine, and I was just as depressed as ever. Dr. Beast had outwitted me.

Moral of the story: there is not a psychiatric medication on Earth that will "work" if you don't quit drinking and ingesting concentrated amounts of high-proof central nervous system depressants.