did anyone catch the name of them? my mom was a dieter in the 70s and often had moody freakouts so i wonder if she was on them, too...would like to know once and for all what caused all the drama! :p
thanks :)
I think you may have your answer, awamutu.
I know all the way back in 1939, the studio worried about Judy Garland looking thin enough onscreen in The Wizard of Oz so they gave her "appetite suppressants" in the morning and then had to give her downers in the evening so she could sleep. (Poor kid. We all know how that story ended.)
Turns out Hollywood was just ahead of the curve for the rest of the country.
My father, a doctor, told me that in the '40's there were lots of seminars with pharmaceutical reps touting the exciting new drug protocol for women who were worried about their figures--more of the upper/downer combo. Yeah, he didn't think that sounded like a good idea.
But by the '60's plenty of doctors were writing scrips for the "safe and easy" weight loss cure and I'm sure most people didn't realize there was anything more to it than that. My mother, for example, was a very responsible parent but she noticed my friends were losing their baby fat and I wasn't, so she gave me a little pink pill to take an hour before lunch. Ai-yi-yi, I was an eight-year old on speed, crashing during third grade arithmetic. (My father was FURIOUS.)
Later on--much later on--I really liked amphetamines. I used them to study in college and grad school or when my apartment needed to be really, REALLY clean. They work best if you have a particular project you need to focus on. But the woman in the movie is shown popping a dexedrine in her mouth at least three times a day, just to jazz up her regular routine. She'd feel like a skyrocket going off in a shoebox most of the time and would be extremely messed up when the crashes happened.
Does that sound like your mom?
your mom was worried about baby fat at 8?! i think i still have mine!! luckily, my mom never pushed me in the dieting direction. in fact, it was the opposite. i got aaaaalllll the fattening stuff i wanted. i wonder now if she did it so she'd look even skinnier compared to me. yes, she was that weird and shallow. (edited to give her credit as she wasn't horrible all of the time....maybe she let me eat whatever i wanted because maybe her mom gave her grief about weight...? who knows...i know my grandma was very concerned about appearances, sooo) Anyway, i never saw any pills aside from laxatives. but laxatives don't make you psycho like she was. she hid things really well..... so there were the laxatives, tab soda, coffee all day long (to this day), not much food except for sweet stuff- oh and, like a religion, half a grapefruit and toast every.single.morning.
it must have been dexadrine because that scene in the movie where the daughter is hopped up on them and they're in her bedroom all strangely lovey dovey then very, very hateful was EXACTLY how my mom would behave- except for without the lovey dovey part :(
thanks for your reply and sharing the personal stuff.🐞
Tab! 👙
Did you ever have any cans of Sego at your house?
You know, I was just sitting here thinking that I've always been proud of staying vigilant about alcohol--the problem in my family--but way too much of my life still revolves around food issues left over from my parents, from approximately a million years ago.
Ay-yi-yi. Does anybody ever get totally out from under that stuff?
Cheers, awamutu; good talk, good luck.
lol, hey, my mom had that bathing suit! ;) (She had MANY....)
the name sego doesn't ring a bell so probably not...
alcohol is in my family, too. my mom and her other half (my step dad ish) never drank but my dad did and everyone in his family did. my mom's dad drank, too...and now i do. i always swore i would never end up like my dad but i have done so 10 fold. i wish i could remember that swear every time i have a drink :/
ai ai ai nope :/ we all have our ghosts and demons and anyone who says they doesn't is full of poo! lol
cheers and luck to you, too :)
It's off topic but if you're interested, this is a brief article that explains how "many of us develop patterns over the years, whether positive or negative, that become ingrained. We each create a subjective world for ourselves and discover what works for us. In times of stress, worry, anger, or another emotional high, we repeat what is familiar and what feels safe. This creates rumination of thoughts as well as negative patterns in reactions and behaviors".
We can get out from under (!), generally with a type of therapy called, "Cognitive behavioral therapy". It's wonderful - one doesn't sit on a sofa and review their life session after session with a silent therapist, year after year - instead we learn to re-shape thought patterns that lead to behaviors that just aren't working for us. One engages with the therapist and practices new ways of handling problems-it's highly effective and the results of changing these patterns bring new choices- we become, "unstuck". Anyway, I recommend this type of therapy for many people-I've used it myself and it works.
Ok, hopping off my soapbox! Sorry if you're not interested....feel free to skip this and onto the next comment!
http://psychcentral.com/blog/archives/2013/06/29/repetition-compulsion-why-do-we-repeat-the-past/
Cheers.
"Eventually, all things merge into one, and a river runs through it." Norman Maclean
Nope, I think that's an excellent soapbox, Spoon, and I'm glad I found my way back here to catch your post before the whole IMDb Message Board system detonates.
I'll give Auwamatu (sorry, the name is not before me at this exact moment) a "Reply" nudge as well. Maybe she and I can both leverage ourselves out of the ruts in those well-worn tracks.
Good job, thanks.
Thanks for your comments-I appreciate it. I get excited about certain things and didn't want to go overboard. Fwiw, I'm currently reading a wonderful book about becoming, "unstuck". it's been hugely helpful and given me a lot of insight. It has a ridiculous name and cover which threw me initially but I've found it incredibly helpful AND easy to read. It's called, "If the Buddha got stuck". I know-silly but it's fantastic.
It's exchanges like this that I will miss when IMDB closes. I understand that the site become unwieldy to moderate plus the times are a changing. I don't have a twitter account-I guess must finally acquiesce and join the pack.
"Eventually, all things merge into one, and a river runs through it." Norman Maclean
post is taken from: https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1981/01/27/amphetamines-other-drugs-prescribed-for-harris-by-lover/11717628-34bd-4abd-bf1d-49e997a75cb8/
In my opinion, Jean Harris should have plead Not Guilty by reason of insanity brought on by a decade's use of Desoxyn. Desoxyn was the "rolls royce" of amphetamines. Smooth and powerful....
Amphetamines, Other Drugs Prescribed for Harris by Lover
By Joyce Wadler January 27, 1981
In the three years before he was shot to death by Jean Harris, Dr. Herman Tarnower prescribed for her 17 separate prescriptions for powerful and potentially addictive drugs.
They included, according to testimony in her murder trial here today, Valium, a sedative; Percadan, an extremely powerful pain-killer and Nembutal, a sleeping pill and anesthetic.
But the drugs provided to Harris most frequently by Tarnower -- in 10 of the prescriptions -- were amphetamines, the stimulant referred to, in the language of the street, as "speed." Harris, according to a local pharmacist who took the stand today, received three prescriptions for amphetamines from Tarnower in 1979, and earlier, testimony indicates that an unidentified prescription she received in the mail, the day after Tarnower was shot, contained amphetamines as well.
There was no testimony regarding the quantity of drugs prescribed to Harris in each prescription, or the dosage. There was also no testimony today regarding the effects of the drugs. But medical sources outside the courtroom noted that amphetamines, which have been traditionally used for weight control, are drugs which, used over a period of time, may result in irritability, hyperactivity, paranoia, and personality change. Medical experts also warn that the drug has the potential to be habit forming, as well. e
Former headmistress of the Madeira School in McLean, Va., Harris has been in court since October, charged with second-degree murder in the shooting death of Tarnower, her lover of 14 years. The defense, throughout, has called the shooting "accidental" and termed Harris "suicidally depressed." hIt has hinted, inside the courtroom, of the presence of drugs in this case, and outside the courtroom, mentioned drugs in stronger terms. It has suggested that Harris -- the anti-drug headmistress of Madeira -- might herself have been the victim of drugs, and that her supplier was none other than Tarnower.
"What's the one thing a doctor could give you that nobody else could?" a member of the defense team asked often, as the trial began.
It was a neat trick, presenting the accused assailant as victim and the victim as assailant, making the late cardiologist out to be an uncaring sort of Dr. Feelgood, dispensing drugs in place of love.
And today, with a White Plains pharmacist on the stand, the defense seemed to be setting the legal ground work to pursue that point. Having subpoenaed the pharmacist, Joseph Eisenberg, defense attorney Joel Aurnou asked him to identify his pharmaceutical records -- records that clearly indicated Harris' drug use and left no question that her supplier was Tarnower.
"And whose name was on the prescription?" asked Aurnou time and again, as he moved down a list of 17 prescriptions. "And who did you give it to?"
"Dr. Herman Tarnower," answered the pharmacist to the first question. "Jean Harris," he replied, to the next.
Under direct examination from the defense attorney, the pharmacist enumerated Harris' drug use, beginning with a 1977 prescription for methamphetamines, under the name Desoxyn, and ending with a prescription for the same drug in November 1979, four months before the doctor was shot. (There was testimony earlier in the trial that Harris, the day after the shooting, received in the mail a vial of pills having "a short name beginning with the letter D." That prescription was not included in the 17 prescriptions discussed today.)
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According to the pharmacist, Harris received three prescriptions for methamphetamines in 1977. In 1978 she received four prescriptions for methamphetamines and a prescription for Nembutal, a sleeping pill; and Percobarb, a pain-killer. In 1979, there were three prescriptions for methamphetamines; Percadan, a pain-killer Plexodal, a barbiturte; and two prescriptions for Valiums. The seventeenth prescription was not identified.
The reaction of Harris, as the list of drugs was recited in court, was composed but tense. Pale, visibly irritable and exhausted, she said nothing as her attorney questioned the pharmacist. But later, when prosecutor George Bolen began questioning the witness, and suggested that someone might have forged the signatures, she was outraged.
"That's disgusting!" she snapped at her lawyer, in a voice that could be heard in the first two rows of the courtroom and possibly by the jury as well. "He knows what the signature is . . ."
Her lawyer had already objected. But a second attorney, a young woman, turned her attention to Harris in a soothing gesture that is seen more and more often at the defense table.
"SSssshhhhhh," she said.
Just as every cop is a criminal, And all the sinners saints As heads is tails Just call me Lucifer..
Heads up, awamutu! The whole system is about to be histo and there are a couple of meaty posts in this, your thread, before it disappears.
I opened a stupid Twitter account yesterday as ParkerGoodall, if you ever want to give me a hashtag or whatever, and I suppose IMDb is going to force me to succumb to the gods of Facebook, too. (I hope that's not a serious indicator that resistance really is futile after all, because, you know, #Resist.)