Angry Letter - Rough Draft

Dear Longs Drugs Pharmacy Customer Service,

I’m writing on behalf of my father who had ran into some problems when trying to get the medicine he was prescribed by his doctor.

On December 7, 2010 at around 5:15 PM, my father dropped off his prescription to your pharmacy. He waited for 15-20 minutes as instructed by you and waited just like how every customer does. But when you called him back, you said that his prescription cannot be processed because you did have medicine available, but the size was wrong. My father was prescribed the 10 mL Prednisolone eye drops, but you only had the 15 mL at that time. He needed that medication right away because it was an emergency. Earlier that day, he had scheduled an emergency appointment with his eye doctor because he had a suspected inflammation in his eye, and the doctor gave him an emergency prescription for it. Of course my father was really unhappy and upset when you couldn’t provide him with his needed medications because he really, really needed it that night. He asked to you to call his doctor so that this problem could be settled and so that you could give him the 15 mL Prednisolone eye drops instead of the 10 mL. Knowing that this was an emergency, you should have already known to call the doctor right away if it was possible to change it. Eventually, he did receive his needed medication, but the process was just time-consuming which was very unnecessary and upsetting.

My father feels that you make people wait too long and unnecessarily waste time. With that, I also feel that you could improve on serving your customers more to the best of your abilities. I understand that there are days where it is super busy, but still, as a worker, you should be able to provide excellent customer service which includes, fast service and better communication, especially when the situation is an emergency.

Sincerely,

Sharmaine Sebastian

Risky Business Rough Draft - Teen Depression

Teen depression isn’t just bad moods and occasional melancholy. It is a very serious issue that affects every aspect of a teenager’s life, which includes family, friends, and school. If it is left untreated, mild depression may develop into the extremes. But now, the question is “How should teen depression be treated?” The most common treatments are drugs and psychotherapy. The differences between these two are that drugs give more rapid results, but it isn’t the best solution. And psychotherapy takes more time and patience, but it is more effective. Regardless of the fact that pharmacological treatment has the advantage in relieving depression quicker, it may be harmful to an individual’s health and difficult to find right medication; therefore, psychotherapy is more advantageous.

Depression is a common but serious illness. It can seriously affect one’s life in many ways and can also cause serious problems if left untreated. It can change a person’s habits, including eating, sleeping, working, relationships, and how they think about themselves. For teens going through depression, they tend to become more irritable and angry. In addition to that, they experience vague aches or pains such as headaches and stomach aches. After a while, they start to isolate themselves away from their friends. Other effects include low self-esteem, eating disorders/change of eating habits, giving up easily, use of alcohol and drugs, self-mutilation, violence, other reckless behavior, and suicidal thoughts. The best possible way to prevent mild teen depression from becoming an even bigger problem, it’s very important to get help right away.

In order to help someone with depression, you have to know what their situation is. You also have to know the symptoms to determine if they are really suffering with depression. Symptoms include persistent feelings of sadness, anxiousness, hopelessness, worthlessness, and restlessness. Teens with depression may also feel guilt, anger, fatigue, and indifferent. They too tend to lose interest in the things they love to do; for example, maybe a sport or friend outings.

It has been proven that treatment consisting of mainly pharmacological therapy was effective for many people. Drugs had a quicker effect on the symptoms of depression than talk therapy. It also stated that a combination of counseling and medication worked best in relieving major depression and anxiety. However, the individuals in whom their treatments included more talk therapy did nearly just as well as if they had 13 more sessions with their therapist. It would be better for teens to get the talk therapy treatment because it allows them to let out and release all their tense feelings which reduces the stress in their life and prevents suicidal thoughts from increasing. Also, it lessens teen exposure to drugs that could possibly become addictive.

One of the biggest issues with medication, such as antidepressants, is the side effects in which some are very serious. Apparently there is a link between antidepressants and suicide rates among teens. Teens might increase suicidal thoughts and behaviors while taking antidepressants. On the other hand, like what I have stated earlier, psychotherapy allows teenagers to express their thoughts decreasing the possibility of suicidal thoughts from developing.

Most people prefer pharmacological therapy because it offers faster results. However, another big issue with drug therapy is that it often takes trial and error to get just the correct medication for a certain person because it depends on their needs. By that, I mean that it might take quite a while to find the proper drug treatment without undesirable side effects. So technically, drug treatment isn’t the quickest way to fix depression. Even though psychotherapy doesn’t give results right away, the later outcomes are worth it. Compared to drugs which you can constantly change, it would be difficult to change your therapist because it would take some more time to get used to you new therapist. Also since you’ve know your therapist for a long period of time, he/she knows exactly what your needs and preferences are. It would be hard for someone, especially a teen, to adapt to a new environment as well.

Whether it is drugs or counseling, teens with depression or developing depression should get help as soon as possible. However, one method is better than the other and that is psychotherapy. Admittedly pharmacological treatment has its advantages regarding speed, but it’s not worth wasting your time changing from medication to medication for, it’s not worth suffering side effects for, and it’s not worth committing suicide for.