Guests often ask for something to calm them, and I try
to comply by stocking Valium.
Tranquilizers relieve anxiety but not the pain of a
terrible event such as a family death. Unhappy victims regularly ask for
something to “put me to sleep,” but only general anesthesia does that. Even
sleeping pills merely produce drowsiness; if you’re miserable, sleep comes hard.
I give a Valium injection if asked, but I have a low
opinion of its tranquilizing properties. Valium pills work better because the
more you take, the drowsier you get. The effect of the maximum Valium injection
does not impress me. I prefer Thorazine.
Valium and its relatives are minor tranquilizers; the
Thorazine family belongs to the major tranquilizers. “Major” and “minor” have
nothing to do with strength; they refer to the seriousness of problem they
treat. Thorazine helps schizophrenia, a major mental illness. The first of a
numerous class of drugs called phenothiazines, its US approval in 1954 marked a
huge advance because it calmed schizophrenics enough so most could leave mental
hospitals and live on the street, thus saving tax money.
People who deny that schizophrenia is a brain disease
claim Thorazine works because it makes patients somnolent. In fact, many newer
phenothiazines aren’t sedating but work as well. Thorazine and its family turn
off the positive symptoms of schizophrenia:
hallucinations, delusions, bizarre behavior. Movie schizophrenics seem
to enjoy themselves, but hearing a voice inside your head frightens most people
even if it’s God.
Despite their dramatic effects, phenothiazines don’t
cure schizophrenia because they don’t eliminate the negative symptoms such as
apathy, social withdrawal, and self-neglect. Being around a well-behaved
schizophrenic remains an uncomfortable experience. Something is missing.
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