To be concerned people get labelled as depressed the minutr they express negative emotions

[middleclassdystopia]

I just think sometimes people are sad because they are having a shitty patch in their lives.

Or actually our society gets people down.

The minute people express negative emotions it is labelled as depression and presumed that the best solution is anti depressants.


Typical threads go 'I have low self esteem, can't stop crying etc' then it only takes a few posters before someone states the op should go to GP and get medicated.

I worry that pharma companies make a lot of money from medicating people. Finding the root causes won't will it?

[poorbuthappy]

Problem is whilst CBT etc will get to the root of the problem and hopefully start to address it, funding cuts means there is no one there for people to talk to anymore.
Unfortunately it is a far quicker fix for GPs to medicate rather than address issues.

I needed help, that wasn't pills (personal decision, very addictive personality) The waiting list from our GP was apparently 6 weeks. 12 weeks on I am still waiting.
My DN needed help, needed to address issues and talk. She was given pills immediately without any probing, talking etc. She was just given them.

Its wrong and completely indicitive of our whole society.
Quick fix.

[LEMisdisappointed]

I am on ADs, i am not sure if i have a "mental disorder" in terms of anxiety - I think i may have, but i had a breakdown not long after the birth of my DD. In a short space of time i Had a baby, lost my father after a horrible time with alzheimers and lung cancer, had to deal with my mother becoming increasingly difficult, wrote up a PhD, become really ill with gallstones and was in and out of hospital, had a nightmare with debts that nearly caused the breakdown of my relationship - So a shit phase in my life. I was absolutely helped but anti-depressants. I got better, came off them but didn't really take into account my general anxiety - this has recently cost me a job and I am now on ADs again.

Most medical professionals will suggest talking therapies but sometimes people need the meds to take the edge off of feelings and then there is the ever growing problem of funding and ridiculous waiting lists - its not easy when you just want to throw yourself under a train to hear that you are "on the waiting list" for counselling and this will be at least three months.

Having babies is hard, its relentless and of course people struggle, not everyone who struggles has PND or would benefit from ADs but if i read about a mother who is struggling i would absolutely recommend that she talks to her GP/HV in order to get some support - even if that support is the number of the local NCT group to get some peer support. I wouldn't DREAM of diagnosing someone - its hard enough for health professionals, but my experience does help me to recognise when someone is floundering.

[Sidge]

I think many GPs hand out prescriptions because they are inexperienced in dealing with mental health issues and because they know that locally there isn't much in the way of counselling services.

There is also a culture of expectation in which many people see their GP specifically to ask for medication. They know so many people on ADs that they have become normalised - many people can't face working their way through normal, stressful, difficult life events without medication.

[cory]

Some people are too ill to be able to access talking therapies without medication. Dd spent two years having CBT therapy but it was only after the AD's that she was able to take it in; before it just washed over her.