Poll: Antidepressants, do people really want these?

[Sightless Wisdom]

Anti-Depressants are used to treat Major Depressive Disorder. They work by adjusting the uptake levels of neurotransmitters in the brain. The reason for clinical depression(Major depressive disorder) is mainly an imbalance of said chemicals. Treatment without medication using placebos and therapy is roughly 60% less effective than medication.

The problem with anti-depressants is that they do have side-effects, but they are the most effective thing for balancing chemical levels in the brain, the bigger problem however is not in the drugs being used but in the doctors prescribing them.

In many cases mood disorders(Depression, Bi-polar disorder, etc) are misdiagnosed and patients are simply given an antidepressant. Treating bipolar depression with anti-depressants made for treating mono-polar depression... is not a good idea.

Essentially nobody wants anti-depressants but they are overused because they are relatively effective and easy to prescribe.

NOTE: Depression=/=Sadness, it is a serious chemical mental condition.

 

[meece]

Treatment without medication using placebos and therapy is roughly 60% less effective than medication.

That's assuming they can't identify the placebo, studies have shown that in up to 90% of cases doctors *and* patients could identify if they'd taken a placebo or not due to the presence or lack of side effects. Otherwise you're quite right.

 

[Sightless Wisdom]

Treatment without medication using placebos and therapy is roughly 60% less effective than medication.

That's assuming they can't identify the placebo, studies have shown that in up to 90% of cases doctors *and* patients could identify if they'd taken a placebo or not due to the presence or lack of side effects. Otherwise you're quite right.

Regardless I assure you that chemical problems do not simply disappear if the patient thinks they will.

 

[Raven's Nest]

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.

Way to generalize and stereotype "most depressed people"... People tend to self diagnose before they seek help in the first place, usually at this point clinical depression has taken over them and their brains stop functioning normally... A classic symptom of true depression is to deny there is even a problem and it usually takes some manner of intervention before someone self diagnoses and seeks help. Any time depression is trivialised by some douchebag who has a bad day, someone like you will hold a false preconception and disregard anyone suffering real, involuntary and physiological illness. So please stop spewing nonsense about a delicate topic you clearly know very little about...

 

[Grabbin Keelz]

Now that I think about it, I really know nothing about actual involuntary depression. I just hate it when someone I know (who isn't clinically depressed) tells me they need medicine.

And if you go to your doctor and tell him/her that your depressed, chances are they're gonna prescribe you to something rather than say "Suck it up and be happy". When I was doing bad in school, the doctor's most logical reasoning was to take medication to 'help' me focus. They're a little too quick to go to the pills.

 

[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.

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

Way to generalize and stereotype "most depressed people"... People tend to self diagnose before they seek help in the first place, usually at this point clinical depression has taken over them and their brains stop functioning normally... A classic symptom of true depression is to deny there is even a problem and it usually takes some manner of intervention before someone self diagnoses and seeks help. Any time depression is trivialised by some douchebag who has a bad day, someone like you will hold a false preconception and disregard anyone suffering real, involuntary and physiological illness. So please stop spewing nonsense about a delicate topic you clearly know very little about...

I didn't say "Most depressed people" I said "Most self diagnosed people." If you actually have depression then go ahead and ask your doctor for something to help but without a qualified professional saying you need these pills (like several people that the OP describes) then you do not need them. I am not depressed. I have had bad days but I am not depressed and do not need these pills. Neither do many who claim depression but in fact do not know how to deal with stress. I think you misunderstand who I am critical of. I am not critical of people suffering from depression but the people who think they are depressed because they had a bad day. I apologize for any mis-communication.

 

[Raven's Nest]

I didn't say "Most depressed people" I said "Most self diagnosed people." If you actually have depression then go ahead and ask your doctor for something to help but without a qualified professional saying you need these pills (like several people that the OP describes) then you do not need them. I am not depressed. I have had bad days but I am not depressed and do not need these pills. Neither do many who claim depression but in fact do not know how to deal with stress. I think you misunderstand who I am critical of. I am not critical of people suffering from depression but the people who think they are depressed because they had a bad day. I apologize for any mis-communication.

It's cool, thanks for clarifying what you meant. I do agree with your sentiment about people being quick to complain of depression when it is not true depression. This coupled with an apparent misunderstanding of what antidepressants are used for and how they work, just further clouds the issue for people who are suffering depression who may find it difficult to approach their GP about it.

In an age where Internet guided self diagnosis is ripe there are two sides to the coin. One one side, you have many people who might come across isolated incidents where they are struggling with certain aspects of their lives, look up advice on the Internet and arrive at a potentially false conclusion. These people are at risk because they end up saddling themselves with a much more serious problem if they attribute other problems in their lives to depression. It becomes very easy to convince themselves that depression is the cause of their problems and will convince a doctor to prescribe medication which ultimately won't help them address ongoing issues in their lives. I agree that doctors need to find better ways of distinguishing between true clinical depression and those who genuinely need medication against those who would probably be better served by talking to a trained counsellor over a period of time. On the other side, and this is perhaps the driving factor in the reason that many more people are coming forward with symptoms of depression, is that the wide availability of information is simply helping more people give a name to reason they feel the way they do. People didn't come forward before because their was so few people with a real understanding of how depression works, and they were very unlikely to approach these people because they didn't even know that they existed. I would also put it down to the "suck it up and deal with it" attitudes of the older generations but that probably did them more harm than good.

Self diagnosis is here to stay as like I said, it's usually a prerequisite to visiting a doctor about depression. Its not always necessary but it certainly isn't "mostly trivial". So the less false information and misconceptions about depression and antidepressants around, the better... I do believe that GP's should reasses how, why and to whom, antidpressants are distributed. I personally think it should be a trained counsellors call after 6 weekly sessions to properly asses the scale of a patients problem. it is way to easy for a moody 16 year old kid here in the UK to convince one of our "newly qualified" doctors that they have depression and that they think taking a few pills will make it all go away. The worst part is that the doctors don't even have to inform their parents that they are prescribing their children drugs as potent as 60mg of Prozac...

 

[sosolidshoe]

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.

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.

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

In my country, one in four people will suffer some form of mental illness over the course of their lifetime. One in six people are suffering from one at any particular time.

This whole "depression is a fad" idea is bullshit, spawned from the same ignorant pontificating which sent tens of thousands of people to Bedlam to be tortured, because they were odd, or "work-shy", or "perverted"(read:gay). These days, it's not polite to talk about sending all the loonies off to an institution, where "normal folks" don't have to think about them, so instead we get idiots spouting these myths about vast swathes of the population "faking" at mental illness because it's cool, or to get on benefits. It helps them feel secure in their normality, and their own sanity, to package people up; I don't need to worry about being a loony, 'cause there's not many of the freaks, and all those stat-u-ma-whatsits showin' there's lots of 'em is just down to people fakin' it!

Anti-depressants have saved countless lives by preventing suicides, and when combined with the proper anti-psychotics have given back normal lives to hundreds of thousands of people with severe bi-polar disorder. So yes, they're worth it, and no, the OP and others shouldn't be deciding whether or not somebody is depressed based on a partially-overheard conversation and ancient prejudices against those who threaten the solidity of their own reality.

 

[Asuka Soryu]

I took anti-depressants. They worked... only downside, I replaced sorrow with pure anger. Without reason to. I'd just get pissed off and want to hurt something.


Maybe in the future that magnet device will finally be able to turn in more then 1/3rd of tested people cured of depression.

 

[Zechnophobe]

Antidepressants, a word that is being tossed around around a lot now days. And I am bit worried of this.

I am in Gymnasium atm, Thats 2nd level education in Finnish system (and also in commonly in Scandinavia) to clear it for those who do not know.
I been listening my friends and other students in my school and many of them complain about depression or something similar and would like to have antidepressants. But they aren't given out that much in Finland, at least not the more potent ones.

To understand my point here you need to hear part my story.
I myself have to take a potent antidepressants as part of my pain medication for my nerve damaged hand (It is used to help me to sleep and increase my pain tolerance level), along with other medication. The antidepressant was the last part of the pain medication given to me.
After a while of use I started to have severe side-effects, these include; Fast blood pressure changes that cause headaches, my heartbeat goes up and down extremely easy example: I laugh and my heart start pounding really hard and I have issues with sleeping, I fall asleep easy sure, but I can wake up middle of the night feeling like I had nightmare but I do not remember it, also I sleep really heavy and waking up is painful (Which is not normal to me). I was warned of these ahead and yes I have reported them to the doctor but she doesn't want to take me off them yet, before she has done some more tests.

I feel extremely ill because of these, but the medication allows me to use my hand. Before this full medication I had to spend time out of school because the pain spikes on my hand got too severe. So there is pro's and con's
I have chatted with few other friends of mine who also used or has used antidepressant, they have had similar experiences.

So my question is:
Why do people willingly want these drugs? They have more side-effects that positive ones. They are horrible to use. Why do people want these?
I have chatted with few people and they don't even know how they work or what they are used for. Is this the reason? Is it some kind of running fad? Is it cool to be on antidepressant medication?

I am worried of the people I care for around me who want these. I don't want them to even try how horrible it feels to be on these, thats why I tell them with my other friends how horrible they are, but they still want them.

Sorry for the language, I am not native to English.

I think you have a lot of misconceptions here. Not all anti-depressents have the same effects, and not everyone reacts the same to each one.

Depression is a *real* thing. Many people suffer from it, and will have a hard time being happy without these drugs. Your own experience is not the only experience.

 

[DatCracker]

As a person who takes antidepressants for acute bipolar depression, I see nothing wrong with them, and encourage people who actually need them to take them.
Sure, the side effects suck. But I prefer a sour stomach and occasional drowsiness to what happens when I don't take them. The smashed mirrors and broken walls in my house agree~
Besides, it's not like you can get addicted to them (unless it's a brand that uses skeevy shit in their meds). They're not pain killers, they balance dopamine levels

 

[Devil's Due]

The pills are not the problem, your doctor is. Any sane doctor that see's their patient with such severe cases of side-effects should automatically take you off the pills and give you an appropriately different one, there's hundreds out there for the different people in the world. Also, it's part of your problem for blindly taking them and not getting off them. Just because she says to stay on it doesn't mean you should, especially when you feel such negative side-effects and her lack of action.

I took Anti-Depressants a few years ago for a total of eight months, and they seriously helped me during my suicidal stage of life when so much shit went down. My doctors actually deeply cared about me and would monitor me monthly that I was improving emotionally and that the pills were working. Any possible side-effects they'd see and they'd immediately consider looking at alternatives, depending on the severity. Just because you're having a bad experience with something doesn't mean it's bad for everyone else, my friend!

EDIT: Also, why are you on the pills, anyways? Anti-Depressants are for those with a mental disorder of a chemical imbalance, causing constant depressed thoughts for months and possible suicidal tendencies, not just for a flesh wound. What you need is something else: pain killers.

 

[Penguinness]

Can't say I've experienced depression so I wouldn't know when I feel sad or if it's depression, and so unless diagnosed and advised to I wouldn't really want to deal with any side-effects.

 

[Sarah Frazier]

I used to take anti-depressants and actually felt better with no obvious side effects other than smiling and laughing more easily. Why was I given anti-depressants? Because my mother had died and the school staff were worried that my already withdrawn behavior could turn to suicide or other dangerous things. I willingly went through the process of finding something that worked without too many bad effects because I knew I was miserable and wanted even one month's relief from it.

As for how anti-depressants work, I don't know all the details since I'm not a chemist, but it helps balance the chemicals the brain uses to function. Too little of something and the person will go through periods of instability. Some people may take anti-depressants because other people are, but mostly they're prescribed by doctors and therapists who look for a quick fix. That quick fix is usually demanded by the patient who doesn't want to take a close look at their life and make changes to get away from any physical causes for their depression.

 

[Verator]

The first medication I was put on, lessened the effects of depression (in that all emotional states were muted and less severe) but the side effects were not worth the problems. Also, I was able to change my situation enough that I could recover some, so I went off them.

My problems came back recently (severe anxiety/ depression causing sleep issues, and severe emotional changes that weren't triggered by any events, and panic attacks.) and the new medication I'm on has no negative side effects beyond more vivid dreams, but its actually possible for me to fall asleep in under 2 hours now, and feel rested sleeping for less than 14.

In addition, simple tasks like doing laundry aren't causing crippling panic attacks and I can actually perform in school again. So, not all cases of anti-depressants are from over-zealous doctors, and there are situations in which they work very well for people. The main issue is that its difficult to find a perfect fit for each person and can require several iterations, because neurobiology is still an evolving field.

Its also important to note that not all cases of depression are caused by life situations, they can be caused by purely biological triggers, such as my second case was. In these situations, antidepressants are very useful and can do a lot of good.

 

[Verator]

Man, I'm bad at these captchas evidently.

 

[Verator]

accidental double post

 

[Verator]

stupid browser errors

 

[bushwhacker2k]

Well, when you feel so depressed that even death may be too much trouble, a few annoying side-effects are somewhat beside the issue. If that weren't the case, then anti-depressants wouldn't exist.