Tempting the God of Housecalls

I was mildly entertained during 45 minutes of the popular movie, Interstellar. The physics was wrong, and the politics of its dystopian future defied logic, but the production held my interest.

Then my phone buzzed for a housecall. Theaters will refund my money at any time, but I don’t ask unless the movie has just begun. Admission is cheap compared to my fee, and I can always return. Half the time, I’m happy to leave. When I go to a live performance, I ask a colleague to cover but never for a movie, although I sit on the aisle so I can leave without disturbing the audience.

Doctors agree that patients phone at the most inconvenient time, but I look forward to calls, so I try to persuade the fickle God of Housecalls that I don’t want to be interrupted. Going to a movie or restaurant or the dentist seems to accomplish this. If I have no plans for the afternoon, I may lay down for a nap in the hope, often fulfilled, that the fickle God will jump at the chance to wake me up.

I saw the final two hours of Interstellar a week later and remained mildly entertained. I won’t give anything away, but when a Hollywood movie features a conflict between science and love, only one outcome is possible.

Major and Minor Tranquilizers

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.