Beware the Bubble Beast

So, my insurance has been trying to not cover my SNRI because it is new on the market and no generic available yet, so pricey.

I apply for a refill and the request gets locked for review. Again. For the 3rd time.

This time I call and immediately ask to speak to the actual doctor making these clinical decisions. Very politely. Must be a slow day because they allow it.

ME: [Teacher voice] I'm calling in regards to the SNRI you have placed a lock on. Why was this decision made?

DOC: Well, there are dozens of other medications on the market in that tier, and far cheaper for you and [insurer]. We have sent a request to your doctor to consider alternatives.

ME: I am aware of that. So, can you do me a HUGE favor and look up my prescription history really quickly and tell me how many SSRIs and SNRIs were only filled once in 2022 for me, showing they were poorly tolerated?

DOC: It looks like eight.

ME: Great job! Now, can you please look at my genetic test for psychiatric drug tolerance and tell me how many medications are listed in the safe category?

DOC: Two.

ME: Awesome! Now, can you tell me what type that other drug is that I'm not taking?

DOC: Yeah, totally, it's an MAOI.

ME: That's correct, you're really knowledgeable! Should I be taking something as dangerous as an MAOI with my other medications, or even just in general?

DOC: It's contraindicated for sure.

ME: It is! So true! So, last question since you've been incredibly smart and helpful. Is it less expensive for [insurer] to pay out for the medication knowing they already get a huge manufacturer discount anyway, or is it more expensive for them to pay for me to need potentially long-term inpatient psychiatric care?

DOC: I'll clear the code, ma'am and flag it as medically necessary. I'm sorry about this.

ME: I appreciate you SO MUCH. You have a great day now.

Yes, I was tearing through books constantly, and talking to this teacher at least weekly. Because even though I always loved reading as a kid, literature was always a very weak subject for me in terms of a teaching-to-standardized-test school setting (I just do awful on "what color were the curtains" type multiple choice questions. Those details don't stick in my memory THEY JUST DON'T). But that didn't matter for this class. I could just read my way out of any bad test score. I have always had fond memories of how I "fudged" my way through that class and "abused' the extra credit policy.

These chucklefucks support the notion that birth control is harming women. Can it be harmful? Sure, talk to your doctor about that. But as a whole, birth control has enabled women to stay in school longer, to have higher paying jobs, to have better economic status, to keep from unwanted marriages, to keep their health in many cases, and, most importantly, to not have unwanted children. This has led to a declining birth rate, and white supremacists are convinced that white people not having babies is allowing people of color to "out-breed" and overtake the white population. Tradwives and their supporters push the idea that birth control irrevocably changes your brain chemistry (it doesn't), makes women manlier (it doesn't), makes men into women via trace birth control in the water (it doesn't), and causes sky rocketing rates of heart disease, embolisms, and cancers (mostly untrue... Birth control can sometimes cause clots but that's a rare side effect. Again, talk to your doctor).

They also reject basic and well settled science on nutrition and food safety. It should be no surprise that the raw milk movement is directly connected to the traditional family movement.

There is nothing wrong with wanting to be a stay at home mother. There is nothing wrong with wanting to have a piece of land where you can raise some chickens and a nice sized kitchen garden. There's nothing wrong with wanting to live as naturally as possible and avoid unnecessary medicine or medical treatments. But that's not all this movement is, and they take it all to the worst extreme and for the worst reasons.

And let's be really truthful. Convincing young women to discard higher education and personal development to undertake this extremely labor intensive, health eroding, intentionally isolating and fully dependent lifestyle within a year or two of graduating from high school is setting them up for physical, emotional and financial abuse that will also be meted out to their children.

And when their husbands tire of them because they have put their foot down about no more babies or because they have complained "too much" about their workload or simply because a middle aged woman with life experience isn't as enjoyable to a "traditional husband" as a naïve, nubile teenager, they are left with nothing. No skills, no income except whatever support they are ordered, (which will be paid begrudgingly, slowly, or not at all) and no good way to start all over again with limited money and a bunch of kids they'll still be primary parent for. And that's a part of the movement too, keeping women compliant, agreeable and silent through fear of what happens if they are left.

I know there is a lot of discourse (tm) around this right now but listen to me

If I were lean down and say “unfortunately the big beach ball for some reason fills you with such an unadulterated rage that is beyond human comprehension that you scream until you pass out, so mama had to remove the beach ball from the premises until you can better regulate your emotions” she would simply stare at me like I had 3 heads full of equal betrayal.

HOUSE OF THE DRAGON 3.05, "Unbowed and Unbent"

HBO's House of the Dragon (United States, 2022) Season Three, Episode Three

Matt Smith as King Consort Daemon Targaryen.