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Until I saw an tv ad for Paxil, I didn’t know social anxiety disorder was a thing... visited their website, took their ‘survey’ and talked to my Dr. Started taking it and it was very helpful. Then after a few years, I didn’t need it anymore.

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Yeah, see, here your GP would refer you to a psychiatric provider (probably a nurse) or you’d see it a pamphlet in the waiting room when you came to talk about how you feel because you saw your doctor more than once every 2 years because you weren’t terrified by how much it cost/if you would lose your job taking time off work.

At the time, my healthcare was fully paid for with small copays. Went to Dr as needed. The issue is, that until I saw the Paxil add talking about social anxiety. I thought I was just very shy, so why would I talk to my dr about that?

The Ad changed my life.

It worked for you but consider the vast population who are not as privileged to have easy access to health care. Do the ads help them? Will their lives be improved by more ads, or by removing barriers that make it harder to get medical assistance (physical & mental)?

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