Oh, what a character that Dr. Pieter “Pill-Pusher” van der Merwe is! Now, now, don’t go rolling your eyes at me, this is not that kind of story. We are not glorifying what some people might call a “pharmaceutical fanatic” or a “medicine maniac”, rather we are taking a satirical saunter around his life. Quite like going on a safari, if the Big Five were replaced by questionable psychiatry practices, improbable cures, and South African bureaucracy. If ever there were the embodiment of the phrase “there’s a pill for that,” it would be our good doctor. From sadness to gladness, from anger to excitement, there isn’t an emotion he can’t fix with a pill or twelve. Got an existential crisis? There’s a bright orange capsule for that! Too much joie de vivre for your shirts to handle? He has a baby-blue tablet ready to tone it down just a touch. The man’s office looks a scene straight out of Alice in Wonderland, with an array of magical “Eat Me” and “Drink Me” potions lined up in pristine containers. They say a man’s workspace reflects his mind, and if so, van der Merwe’s office reveals an oddly satisfying level of chaos, with a taste for color-coded eccentricity. Despite outcry from more traditional medical practitioners about his ‘unorthodox’ methods, his clients – ahem – patients rave about the inventive cocktails he whips up. However, sometimes it seems they are confusing him with a local mixologist rather than a licensed psychiatrist, as van der Merwe concocts potent combinations to cure a bout of Monday-morning-blues, or a sudden onset of excessive-enjoyment-of-rain. And back to you, reader. Oh yes, I’ve noticed you there, peeping through your fingers, half-awake from your mid-day nap, torn between horror and fascination. Imagine you are a world-weary South African, desperate for a quick fix to your wandering mind and wayward emotions. Who would you run to? Your high-priced, Harvard-grad psychiatrist who has a fascination with Freud, a pickaxe to hand and a penchant for mining your worst childhood memories? Or our good Dr. van der Merwe, with his cabinet full of rainbow masons and a pervading pill perfume that promises immediate, mind-numbing relief, possibly with a slight risk of developing a tail? Now, while tales of misadventures in the wilds of psychiatry are amusing, and a metaphorical safari royal, it’s essential to acknowledge the graver reality lurking behind them. Treatment should be personalized, listened in, and paced, instead of trying to quick-fix with a one-size-fits-all solution. Much like mental health itself, this article, brimming with oddities and colorful characters, is layered with nuances that must not be silenced in the midst of laughter. Injecting humor into the discussion can chip away at the stigma, but let’s not forget that behind van der Merwe’s outrageous parade of pills, there are real people with real struggles. From the incoherent rambling of our beloved Dr. Pill-Pusher, there is a lesson to be learned — mental health care shouldn’t be a farcical circus of quick fixes, nor should it be an unreachable luxury for those avoiding Freudian-psychiatrist induced traumas. The system needs moderation, and more importantly, humanity. A pill might suppress a symptom, but it won’t mend a mind. But then again, remember that we live in a world where Dr. Pieter “Pill-Pusher” van der Merwe exists. Oh, what an absurd world that is!