In Women, What is ATD?
- Thread starter Ninjerk
- Start date
antidepressants.
nasty little things take away the highs and lows and leave you bland and lethargic and apathetic.
nasty little things take away the highs and lows and leave you bland and lethargic and apathetic.
Digney in Burnaby
donkeys live a long time
Thanks for that. Came across a mention of "ATD" in the poem "love is a dog from hell", p. 229-230, from the same book, last night, and wondered what it was myself. Now I know. Cheers (without the need of ATDs)!
G
grayxray
Antidepressants work for some people - prozac nation, etc. Personally I think a nice bottle of red wine works as well, but then I have never been clinically depressed.
chronic
old and in the way
Prozac and that sort of antidepressant are pretty new. I think hoochmonkey is talking about major antidepressants like thorazine. When I was a drug-seeking youth (aka the good old days) I once took one of these only to end up feeling exactly like hoochmonkey describes... deadened and just wishing I could go to sleep until it wore off.
G
grayxray
Thorozine is for psychotic problems not depression, like bi-polar, schizophrenia, etc. Never heard of it being used for depression, but I could be wrong, maybe thorozine was used for other stuff in the old days, but it is one powerful anti-psychotic!
My cousin used to sleep all the time when he was on a variant of Thorazine. In any case, I've been mostly enjoying Women. It's been reading like Hot Water Music I think in that it's like a bunch of short stories (but in this case the craziness is mostly due to Lydia, who also happens to tie the narrative together). Although, this has caused me not to be able to read it for an hour or more at a time.
HenryChinaski
Founding member
the first time i read women, i really didnt like it very much. the second time i read it, i was reborn and now its a favorite of mine.
Bukfan
"The law is wrong; I am right"
I can't find anything about it in chapter three! It must be in another chapter (unless they fucked up when they translated it into danish)...
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it's in chapter 4. I had to hunt a little to find it.
Bukfan
"The law is wrong; I am right"
I've checked chapter four. The fucking danish edition don't mention ATD. Only that Lydia had a breakdown and spent time in an asylum, nothing about medication. That only goes to show that Buk has to be read in english. You loose too many details in translation. Thank god I only have three of my Buk books in danish (Women, Factotum and Hollywood). I'll have to buy the english editions or I'll need ATD's as well...:)
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Bukfan
"The law is wrong; I am right"
I've seen him on tv many times. He's a writer and not a translater per se. I've compared "Ham on rye" in english with his translation into danish and he does take some liberties with the language here and there. F.ex. he translates the word "crazy" into "dybt go'nat" ( something like "far out" in english). I think he should have used the danish word for crazy instead of choosing a slang expression. He's not the worst choice for translating Buk into danish but I wish he would have stayed clear of danish slang and the like. And if he don't know what ATD is, he should find out. Instead he chooses to ignore it, which to me is a kind of censorship. Lydia was on ATD's in "Women". That's important to know. You can't just leave it out...
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Bukfan
"The law is wrong; I am right"
I see. So it's not Lydia but another girl. Still, it's left out of chapter four. You said in an earlier posting that the word ATD appears about four more times in the book. I have'nt checked the rest of the book in danish yet, but my guess is that it's left out completely since it's not in chapter four. Anyway, it just shows you that one should'nt read books in translation when you don't have to...:)
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Nobody was taking antidepressants in the 70s when Women was written. I believe "ATD" refers to anti-thyroid drugs. "April was on ATD and fat." A side effect of these drugs is weight gain.
mjp
Founding member
What David said. I think we discussed it elsewhere, but it makes sense for the context and the time frame.
Hey, but I admitted I was wrong a few posts later...
Oh, I didn't read that far into the thread. Well done.
Thanks David. I believe you are correct. I dug around and saw there was a piece called "ATD Or You And We". There was an alternate title/version listed called "AFDC for you and me". AFDC seems to be a much less obscure welfare program. Presumably these terms were common 40 or more years ago.
Skygazer
And in the end...
They were, but not in the volume of today, Sixties and Seventies it was Benzodiazepines that were being overused, highly addictive and over prescribed.
Thorazine is an antipsychotic with a tranquillizing effect, if you're not psychotic... and I don't think you are, at all chronic:) then it would make you want to sleep or keep you out of mischief a while.
Benzodiazepines are not antidepressants.
They are actually among the most commonly-prescribed antidepressants in the U.S. Although they are commonly viewed as tranquilizers/anti-anxiety drugs, the same nervous system effects caused by benzodiazepines to treat anxiety are effective in the treatment of depression.