Poll: Antidepressants, do people really want these?

[RhombusHatesYou]

without wishing to sound like a hippy, I think we need to look at the root causes of depression, not just hand out tablets to mask the effects enough to get people back on the production line again.

The problem is that in many cases medication is supposed to only be a temporary measure that is used to get the patient psychologically stable enough to begin more long term therapies. However there is social pressure for people to accept the quick fix of the pill as being 'good enough' and to not waste time with other therapies.

 

[RhombusHatesYou]

Go try chemotherapy first. If you find that fun, we'll sign you up for the prozac.

Prozac? Stop playing nice. Put them on Thorazine.

If people think the side-effects of antidepressants are bad they should read up on antipsychotics.

 

[Dystopia]

I've been on them for a year (and it's the second time I've been on them). At first I had some awesome side effects which made me feel like I was tripping, and knocked me flat with tiredness. I persevered, then after a week or two the side effects went away. I need them because I needed to be stabilised before I could start cognitive behavioural therapy, and I'm going to be seeing a psychotherapist soon. I won't be able to handle it on my own.

As someone who has been dealing with this for years (started with PTSD when I was 16), it upsets me when people throw around the term 'depression'.

 

[Jaded Scribe]

Depression is largely overdiagnosed. People take being unhappy because their boyfriend/girlfriend dumped them to be real depression, and doctor's will write a prescription for anything these days.

Real depression is not being sad, or needing to "cheer up". It's when your body stops creating the necessary chemicals to make you feel happy, or in reality, anything. That does funny things to your head, and you'll start looking to commit suicide, shut down from friends and family, abandon things that were previously important to you.

Antidepressants, when used properly and long term, helps your body manufacture the chemicals you need to feel emotions. They are, by and large, good drugs that do good things for people that truly need them. The problem is being prescribed when they shouldn't be.

 

[templargunman]

I suffer from relatively severe depression, as in I have considered suicide (not that I'm any where close to performing that act, but I have considered it, and options related to it). I personally don't want to be put on antidepressants because there is something that helps me more in less time. I'm in the process of trying to get my OMMP (Oregon Medical Marijuana Permit) because I honestly feel a lot better after smoking weed than with anything else. Of course, regardless of whether or not I get the card, I smoke every day.

 

[Swaki]

i used antidepressants for 2 years, the only side effect i had was that when i sat down my leg would shake a little, not a big deal just meant i couldn't pull of "the thinker", i think its fine that you try and do what you think is right by warning other people, but there are plenty of different antidepressants, and endless variables to consider, not everyone will have side effects especially not at lower potents.

I think a reason that that many people at your gymnasium wants antidepressants is because they don't know what they do, they don't make you happy, some people seem to think of them as this wonderful drug that makes you happy and fills the world with rainbows, and best of all its legal and sometimes the government will even pay for it, its free meth for the working man.

But they do help allot of people, and every psychiatrist that would give them a receipt will also warn them about the possible side effects, you don't need to run around and warn them.

 

[loc978]

...I have been prescribed, and taken, antidepressants in the past... and I voted do not want*.
They didn't make me feel sick, but they did make it hard to think. I felt mildly intoxicated all of the time, which is not a feeling I like to have stick around for long. This did not make me feel better about myself. It made me feel more useless.

Basically what I'm saying is: everyone reacts to pharmaceuticals differently, and there is no "cure" for any mental ailment. There are only treatments... and the life changes necessary to treat depression always fall on the patient to complete in the end.

 

[smashmaniac64]

I'm on antidepressants because it's illegal for me to truly get help for my real problem untill I'm 18 for some reason.

a lot of the stronger medications for depression aren't safe to use before your an adult
ironically, the medicine that helps with depression can cause suicide -_-
either this has less effect on adults or adults are allowed to make the decision for themselves, idk for sure

 

[XzarTheMad]

They're not meant to cure pain. They're mean to fix the chemical imbalance in your brain during a depression. People want them because without them they want to kill themselves. Take it from someone who knows it.

 

[GodofCider]

Well, I am not depressed, so I don't want anti-depressents. Otherwise, I suspect I might.

 

[SketchyFK]

Depression is becoming the "mental disease of the month" if you will. Many people are saying they have it. I'm not quite sure why they do, though. I mean, I get depressed, but I don't have any sort of depression. I just get sad sometimes? and the word depressed is used to describe when you're sad, people (stupid ones) think that the two are related?

No one should want medication without knowing for a fact that life would change for the better because of it.

The above words I find very interesting and truthful. I was diagnosed with severe clinical depression (I think I was at 29 on their scale, although I don?t know how many people understand the NHS? medical scale). They said I should be suicidal I was so bad. I wasn?t mainly because I was like that throughout my teen years. They put me on antidepressants and sleeping tablets (the depression badly affected my sleeping pattern).

However, I didn?t take them.

No-one should want to have anti depressants...
Calumon: Normal happy is the best happy. :3

The reason I never took them is because one of my friends, who has experience in this area, said that they get do work BUT as soon as you come off the medication the depression kicks straight back in again. So the happy doesn?t last.

the word depressed is used to describe when you're sad, people (stupid ones) think that the two [depressed and clinically depressed] are related.

I?m not so sure ?stupid? more as misinformed. I hate and hated talking about my depression, this was also one of the major reasons it?s taken me so long to recover. Since few people talk about it most people won?t know any better. I think it?s more stupid for people to be ashamed if they become clinically depressed. While there is nothing to be ashamed of, every ounce and fibre of our bodies want us to be stronger than that.

 

[Chrono180]

Funny you should ask this because I was thinking about this exact topic when I saw your thread. My situation is very complicated, to make a long story short the anti-psychotic medication I am put on to control my Asperger's and paranoid tendencies has the side effect of making me so numb and depressed that I spend all day wishing I was dead. Problem is, without it I am unable to function in society because I start thinking everyone is part of some worldwide conspiracy out to get me.

So I am currently trying various anti-depressants in hopes of finding one that works. Problem is, they tend to either not work and/or have side effects. So far, I have tried Lexapro, which made me unreasonably angry at the world and didn't help my depression, prozac which did absolutely nothing as far as I could tell, and I am currently on zoloft, which is helping but has side effects that are not really appropriate to discuss on this forum.

So I am really in a catch-22 because if I take anti-depressants I start having side effects, but if I don't my depression causes me to seriously ponder suicide. So I don't know what to do.

 

[RhombusHatesYou]

People want them because without them they want to kill themselves.

Not entirely true. Suicide is not the only end-point scenario for severe clinical depression, nor does clinical depression always have suicide ideation as one of it's symptoms.

 

[Lynx]

I suppose antidepressants are commonly mistaken for "a quick fix" for sadness. It sounds arrogant, but most people who haven't experienced a clinical depression don't understand the difference between that and mere sadness. And I don't think the people who do understand it would make the mistake of "wanting" the antidepressants.

I myself was on meds for both depression and anxiety for 2 years. My side effects weren't that bad, but my dosage wasn't that high either.

 

[timeadept]

That may be the reason, actually. Because it is called depression, and the word depressed is used to describe when you're sad, people (stupid ones) think that the two are related. So when they feel depressed, they think they have depression, thus driving them to crave these antidepressants.

You're forgetting that not everybody speaks English. In German, for example, there is a clear difference between being depressed and having depression. So no confusion there.

I see your point though, depression is treated like the sniffles nowadays, the general image is that everybody gets it at some point or another. Many people don't realise that anti-depressants are for people with a real mental disease.

"depression is treated like the sniffles nowadays, the general image is that everybody gets it at some point or another. Many people don't realise that anti-depressants are for people with a real mental disease."

pretty much this

 

[Kitari]

I used to be on a drug called Citalopram. It was awesome. No more struggling to get out of bed, no more constant downers and the best side effect I've ever experienced: Lasting an hour to an hour and a half in bed - Not that I had issues with that before, but it did boost my ego.

After a 6 month course along with some therapy, plus life improving in general, I'm all better now. Unfortunately I lost the massive sex drive/ability, and for a week after coming off of citalopram I was finishing in thirty seconds or less, but that stopped.

Was it because of the drug? The therapy? Life not sucking anymore? I have no idea, but it didn't hurt.

 

[Canid117]

Why do people want them? Because life sucks and people are too lazy and scared to just deal with it.

Oh FFS, because there's no such thing as a chemical imbalance, it's that everyone with problems is a giant pussy. Aren't you the enlightened one.

OT: I take Zoloft to help with 'Bi-Polar disorder'. I put that in quotes because I am leery of the psychiatric field, but after several failed drugs (some with awful side effects indeed), the zoloft seems to help 'take the edge off'.

Not everyone is like that but most of the self diagnosed people are.