WE’RE ALL ON DRUGS. Well, maybe not every single one of us, but many of us. Most of us. Even if we’re not taking them daily, we likely take them occasionally. A pill for this backache, a pill for that acne, a pill so I can fall asleep without the grueling effort of having to relax at bedtime, a pill so you can stave off that heart attack while you eat those fries. Wait: I’m not saying that pill-taking is always frivolous or that it doesn’t save lives. And, believe me, I totally understand the desire to make life feel even a little more liveable than it might otherwise seem. It’s just that, well, when I open the medicine cabinet in my—let’s just say “in the home of two reasonably healthy senior citizens who live in the Midwest, where I grew up, whom I’ve known most of my life”—and see more than 40 pill bottles, it makes me stop and think. I think two thoughts simultaneously: “These doctors, the pharmaceutical industry, this country, we are all out of our fucking minds,” and also: “I wonder if there’s something here I might like.”
And so the PillGirlReport. Given the prevalence of pills in our culture, shouldn’t there be a place people can go to read all about them? Not just about what newfangled antidepressant is being unveiled or which diabetes drug has just been branded with a black box warning (the FDA’s strongest alert). In this space, you’ll find everything from underreported news stories about pills (did you know that health insurers in the Midwest have been paying docs $100 a case to prescribe their patients generics?) to the straight dope on what pills my friends are taking and what they can’t live without. Think of it, the PillGirlReport as a TV channel on the far end of the dial: you get pills as news, pills as sport, pills as style, pills as history, pills as reality show. I’ll link you to curious-if-not-crucial happenings (a museum in Scotland where you can make your own tablets; an artist who works in gelatin capsules); I’ll tell you what to do to get your pills in a cute shade of blue instead of the usual drab white; I’ll explain how to determine whether the generic you’re about to take is as good as its brand counterpart; and I may even let you in on some of the lengths I’ve gone to in pursuit of the pills I wanted. I mean, needed. Whatever.
Oh, did I mention that I love pills? I mean, hate them. I mean, I hate that I take them, and yet really appreciate them, and I certainly don’t want to live without them. A lot of people I know have similarly mixed feelings. And they’re not shy about sharing them. Recently, I sent a survey to 20 or so friends, asking all about their pill preferences, and within a few hours I had responses from most of them (and from myself) with detailed, enthusiastic accounts of what’s in their medicine cabinet, what they’re on right now, what they used to be on, and what they’re curious to try.
And there’s a lot out there to try. Between pills for warding off depression, pills for beckoning sleep, pills for clarifying the complexion, pills for stimulating the brain and other organs, today, of course, we’re not necessarily taking pills to get zoned out; often we just want to function a little better. So Wellbutrin? Cialis? Ambien? Ativan? Levitra? Lexapro? Lipitor? Lithium? Lorazepam? Lunesta? The PillGirlReport has something for you, whatever you’re on.
