According to superstitous people, satan never commands, he only suggests.
He suggests by showing tempting visions to distract the faithful, though man's thoughts are easily distracted by this images of temptation.
However, satan is no master of mind control. Only a person has control of his or her mind, but may decide at his will to place faith in a leader out of compliant need of an authority figure.
With suggestion, satan might tempt such a figure, but that person may be so egocentric that the thought of being tempted by satan never crosses his mind. Yet he is not so egocentric as to deny the existence of God, which happens when one's ego becomes so big that the shining of his imagination is mistaken for "no God but I".
Today, the modern terms for human behavior influenced by satan are "mental illness" and "the evil that men do." However, most mental illnesses have nothing to do with satan according to the biochemical model. This theoretical model denies supernatural influence on human behavior, and substitutes the biochemical "superstition" for the spiritual one.
For the biochemical model of mental illness is a superstition because much of the reasoning that explains how psychiatric medications work is theory, and often certain medications do not work as the literature says.
A famous example of this is paxil (paroxetine): Glaxo-Smith-Kline claimed that the antidepressant had few withdrawal symptoms. However, it turned out that research which indicated that test patient indeed did have problems with withdrawal from the medication was suppressed and a big court case was fought over it.
Another example is mirtazapine, which is a sedative affecting the histamine receptors. When 30+ mg of mirtazapine is administered, the anti-histamine properties lead to changes in serotonin levels which affected the adrenalin receptors, leading to changes in alertness.
Mirtazapine actually reduces the serotonin-meditated side effect of nausea, due to its anti-histamine effect. As well, it also improves access to memory, resulting in a nootropic effect. Despite the initial anti-histamine effect, the brain adapts to the changes that mirtazapine causes, resulting in changes in sleep behavior at night, leading one to wake up hungry and willing to snack.
Though, the resulting sedation caused by mirtazapine results in the ability to realize that life is go on. Then, after three months on the drug, one day it will poop out and the only thing to do at that point is taper off rather than play the frustrating game of "hoping the medication still works", which involves taking the first 15 mg dose in the morning and the last dose at bedtime.
Finally, after tapering off and enduring the mild chaos in the mind due to it, even one dose of mirtazapine has the effect of strong sedation, so strong that I wonder why I ever took it!
Overall, mirtazapine is a strong sedative, rather than an antidepressant. Yet few people in the psychopharmacuetical field have re-explored the anti-histamine model of depression relief. Instead, the SSRIs are peddled, despite the fact that most of them cause akathasia (where one's anxiety morphs into an extreme case of nerves with attendant restlessness) which is actually due to serotonin re-uptake inhibition. If you actually want to calm a person down after taking an SSRI, just have mirtazapine prescribed with it, since its sedative effects are caused by anti-histamine side effects.
Doctors have a short explanation for the way medications work: "Modern science does not know exactly how psychopharmaceuticals work, but they work."
However, the ones that harm you less and allow you to explore the world actually work more effectively than the ones that lead you to seek the comfort of your bed and that occasional evening snack.
Originally posted: December 24, 2012 2:30 PM
Reference:
Paroxetine: Controversy: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paroxetine#Controversy
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