Sumatra Quake, Anxiety/Depression, "Kono Statement"

久しぶりに明け方まで眠れなかった。その後も眠っていたのかどうかわからない。数時間、ベッドであっち向いたり、こっち向いたり。11時頃やっとベッドから抜け出した。 いすに座っていると、数秒間、弱い揺れを感じた。新たな症状の発現かと思ったら、スマトラ地震だった。ここで地震を感じたのは初めて。午後１時、銀行に行って兄に送金した。

Of the significantly disabling substances of abuse, the most common is alcohol, which can do an excellent job of drowning out pain. While drinking during depression is not unusual, some people drink less when they are depressed, often because they recognize that alcohol is a depressant and that excessive drinking during a depression can severely exacerbate the depression… The problem is that the same alcohol that takes the edge of anxiety tends to exacerbate depression, so that you go from feeling tense and frightened to feeling desolate and worthless. This is not an improvement. I’ve gone for the bottle under these circumstances and have survived to tell the truth: it does not help. (p. 225)

人と会って、飲酒した翌日の嫌な気分。二日酔いの身体的な症状とは明らかに異なる。

The benzodiazepines (benzos) – Valium, Xanax, Klonopin – and their cousins Ambien and Sonata are perhaps the most confusing drugs of all: they are addictive and they are useful for psychiatric complaints. They are very effective against anxiety, but because there is a lot of cross-tolerance between them and barbiturates or alcohol, they should not be prescribed for people likely to abuse those substances… To take the benzos daily long-term is ill-advised and dangerous… Covering up symptoms with benzos is like taking antacid for stomach cancer. (pp. 233-234)

… It is important to use the benzos only for their primary purpose, which is to allay anxiety; this they will do fairly consistently at fairly consistent levels… The withdrawal symptoms from Xanax – which I had been taking on doctor’s advice for several months at a rate of, on average, two milligrams a day – were horrible… My eyes hurt and I had an upset stomach. At night, when I was not really asleep, I had unrelenting, terrifying half-waking nightmares, and I kept sitting up with my heart pounding. (p. 234)

１日に２ミリグラム。自分が処方されているのは、朝１錠（0.25 ミリグラム）と夜１錠（0.25 ミリグラム）で、その４分の１。中毒を自覚したことはない。悪夢はあるが、Xanax の禁断症状が理由かどうか疑わしい。

Depression enables addiction. Resisting desires takes so much energy and will, and when you are depressed, it is too hard just to say no – to food, to alcohol, to drugs. It’s really simple. Why should you say no when no will lead you only to more intolerable misery? (p. 242)

その場の不安を解消するか、それとも飲酒後のまっ逆さまな墜落を避けるか……。

… We no longer treat alcoholism as a side effect of depression: we treat it as a problem that occurs simultaneously with depression. Suicidality is at least as independent of the depression with which it often coincides as is substance abuse… (p. 243)

… Suicide is not the result of passivity; it is the result of an action taken. It requires a great deal of energy and a strong will in addition to a belief in the permanence of the present bad moment and at least a touch of impulsivity. (p. 244)

… Karl Menninger, who has written extensively on suicide, said that suicide requires the coincidence of “the wish to kill, the wish to be killed, and the wish to die.” G.K. Chesterton, following in this mode, wrote:
The man who kills a man kills a man
The man who kills himself kills all men
As far as he is concerned, he wipes out the world. (p. 252)

… So a stressed male with a genetic predisposition to low serotonin who has had a deprived upbringing, abuses substances, and has low cholesterol would fit the profile of a likely suicide… (p. 254)

日本を避けようとするのは現実逃避か？ここにとどまる努力をせず、さらに日本から離れようとするのは、「どこか遠い場所」に行こうとする気持ちの表れか？

米下院での謝罪要求決議案提出で、またもや「河野談話」が問題化している。「業者」とはどんな人だったのか？

慰安婦関係調査結果発表に関する河野内閣官房長官談話（平成５年８月４日＝抜粋）
「慰安所は、当時の軍当局の要請により設営されたものであり、慰安所の設置、管理及び慰安婦の移送については、旧日本軍が直接あるいは間接にこれに関与した。慰安婦の募集については、軍の要請を受けた業者が主としてこれに当たったが、その場合も、甘言、強圧による等、本人たちの意思に反して集められた事例が数多くあり、更に、官憲等が直接これに加担したこともあったことが明らかになった。」

軍の要請を受けた募集業者は日本人だけだったのかな？？