mba boot camp

So today I got up at the crack of dawn (literally at 5am – it is still dark here) to take B to the buses for LOE (LEAD Outdoor Experience) in Wisconsin. {See, more and more like camp everyday. When he starts singing songs and wanting to roast marshmallows, my hypothesis of B-school as summer camp for rich kids will be proven. Just you wait. They already have several sets of matching t-shirts.} It was weird getting on the elevators and seeing all these future business executives looking sleepy and like they were ready to crawl back under the covers instead of conquer the world. I was so tempted to take a picture, but I figured that might be too much and four guys against one girl in a tiny elevator might not be the best way to make friends.

It ended up being just B and me on the ride down. He said he offered rides to a couple of the others but I guess there weren’t any takers. Or maybe B just really isn’t an Operations kind of person. I think we got off Lake Shore Drive too soon, but at least it helped me figure out where to take the train tonight. Still I really could have done without the pre-dawn tour of Hyde Park. We didn’t get too lost and I tried to be nice when he got out of the car.

I went around the block (lots of one ways around the campus) and saw a woman walking two Westies. I couldn’t help but smile. It made me miss the dog who lived next door to us (a Westie named Trixie who always barked hello when I came home).

Without too much difficulty I found my way back to Lake Shore Drive. It seemed that the lights literally turned off as I zoomed past each post and the city of Chicago started to come to life. Of course the speed limit states it is 45 mph, but most drivers were easily going 60 mph or more. It was kind of scary.

I was going to be daring and try to navigate my way to find a new way into the beloved “bat cave”, but chickened out as I reached the turn off. It was early and I had gotten little sleep. It didn’t help that on Morning Edition they were talking about a family whose 17-year old daughter had committed suicide by hanging herself in their 90-year old spider ridden garage. They blamed the Zoloft she had been on for a week.

Don’t get me wrong, I truly feel for these parents. The loss of a child is the heaviest grief to burden. And I don’t mean to play armchair psychologist, but as far as I recall, most anti-depressants don’t have any real effect for at least a couple of weeks. It takes time for the drug to build up in the blood stream.

It seemed to me like the parents were looking for someone to blame. Of course many of the details aren’t included in a radio piece that lasts for five minutes, but the only treatment other than drug therapy that they had tried was group therapy. And having been a 17-year old girl once myself I can say it would be highly unlikely for one to admit to a group of strangers that she was having suicidal thoughts. Adolescent girls typically don’t work that way.

And how they found out is really sketchy too, but I think gives some insight into perhaps the problem. The father had called his daughter to see if she wanted to come to a swim meet for her brother. She told her father she just wanted to be alone. They said they loved each other and sometime thereafter she hung herself.

The family came home (early because of a storm) and just assumed she was upstairs in her room. They didn’t check on her until they went to bed and when they didn’t find her, decided she was just breaking curfew.

When she didn’t come home the next morning and wasn’t at her grandparents’ home (nearby), they got more concerned but just went about their chores. It seems that they were packing for a trip, and that is when they found her – when the father went out to grab a suitcase in the 90-year old spider ridden garage.

As I said, I am not trying to fault the parents or place blame, but I think it is just as ridiculous that they try to place blame on a drug that hadn’t had time to even enter her system. It is sad to me that they feel like they are championing for other families out there – to protect them from their fate. The sad reality is that their daughter didn’t receive proper care for her depression. So much more needs to be done in this area: education, acceptance, proper covered benefits, etc. I wish they would jump on that bandwagon instead. Even worse they have professionals behind them helping them spread the word (that anti-depressant drugs are harmful to children (of course one could argue that a 17-year old is far from a child)).

The good news is that Morning Edition is offering another story tomorrow in which the parents credit the drug with saving their daughter. Not having heard the piece I can’t say much more than at least they are presenting another view. My best guess again is that it isn’t really the drug, but a proper plan of treatment along with a willingness on the part of the family to find a comprehensive treatment plan (anti-depressants monitored by a physician along with talk therapy).