To be staggered at how many people are prescribed Anti-depressants.

[TheoriginalLEM]

People who seem to be pretty much on the ball with ok lives.

At my place of work there are four of us, that i know of, on the same medication (There are only about 20 employees in total)

Another mother at Dd's school, my friend who i met at dd's playgroup.

My friend from a previous job and both of her children.

So these are people who i know are on meds. People who have been happy to disclose this information to me. I don't have a large circle of friends or aquaintances so the sample group, if you like, is small.

Both my mother and my eldest Dd have both been offered Ad's.

I suffer from long term anxiety and depression and feel like the ADs help me. My Dr has expressed the view that this is something I will need for life.

Thats a lot of people who i KNOW are medicated. Why is this ? is it because life and expectations are such that people are suffering from mental illness or are people being given drugs when they are dealing with life events and should be offered strategies to cope. My personal experience is long waiting lists for counselling that wasn't that effective and given drugs to help in the absence of therapy.

I can't help but wonder why this is, what the statistics are.

I'm in therapy at the moment. It is awful and making me loads worse. I want to stop going.

I've had therapy that made me feel a lot worse, and therapy that made me feel a lot better. Just like meds.

I think thats a really good point almond.

I believe I'm in therapy because it is cheaper for the NHS to send me to a therapist (who seems poorly qualified and cheap to employ) than have me going to the GP every month.

It feels like once they've turfed me off to a therapist they can justify prescribing me drugs without having an actual doctor keeping an eye on me.

But maybe I'm just being cynical or paranoid.

I think this is a very good point op. I know a lot of women who are on AD's, I've often wondered if I should be on them as well. I'm a naturally anxious person. Are they for people like me, who worry and fret a lot? Would they make me easy going and less socially anxious? Or am I just built that way?

I dont know, I think a lot of AD's are desperately needed and a lot are prescribed as a cure all when GP's dont know what else to give out.

Are we meant to be happy and upbeat most of the time? Isnt life about being sad/worried some of the time? When do we know how much should be about happiness/sadness?

I dont know. I do feel a lot of AD's are prescribed when a good friend/family might be the answer, but isnt there. Then again, as described above, many people have a great set up and still desperately struggle.

can I just say, I've recently had 12 weeks of CBT on the NHS and I got more help and insight into my state of mind from a bereavement thread I happened to find on here last night.

how much sadness and worry you feel you should have in your life is surely a personal question.

I personally think there is no value in not being able to do up a buckle on a shoe in under an hour due to anxiety, so I am taking citalopram.

I'm also doing CBT on the NHS and have only managed two weeks. It's about the standard of a Cosmopolitan self help article and quiz.

I've been offered cognitive analytical therapy. Has anyone tried it?

almond, I felt similarly about CBT on the NHS. It wasn't that the counsellors weren't trying but they are so hideously underresourced. 6 weeks is bullshit if you've been struggling for years. 6 weeks after many months waiting. A few photocopies to take away. It is not fit for purpose.

I had a good therapist privately but she was a student and her training ended. It was £25 a time and I do think it was useful. I saw her for 8 months, once a week, and I don't even think that was long enough. If I could, I'd still be seeing her.

I think there's an element of people expecting to feel 'happy' all the time, and when they don't, they think something's wrong, which just feeds into itself, creating increased anxiety/depression. But in reality, it's not usual to feel happy all the time. I also think there's an element of 'quick-fix'. Plus obviously, the placebo effect. And perhaps well-meaning GPs just wanting to do something to help.

But if it works and makes your life easier, then it's all good.

Fwiw, I had mental health problems for many, many years. Name an anti-depressant, and I've almost certainly been on it at some point. This time last year I was on anti-depressants, anti-anxiety meds, mood stabilisers and anti-psychotics. I was a suicidal, partially-psychotic zombie. During my second hospital admission in a year earlier this year, a new psychiatrist said that clearly meds weren't helping, which wasn't surprising as there's little evidence for most of them. He took me off all meds. We talked, lots, and he helped me see the underlying causes of my issues. I also started seeing a wonderful clinical psychologist (privately), who continued the psychiatrist's excellent work.
I made huge changes in my life, and I'm now fairly stable for the first time in decades. And without any meds. I actually said to my psychologist a couple of months ago that for so many years, when people would say "think of something that makes you happy", I honestly had no idea what they meant. Now I do. She cried.
My psychiatrist and psychologist saved my life. Meds ruined it.
I still have lower periods, but that's normal and just a part of being human. And I'm very lucky to have my psychologist to remind me of that.

You might be interested in Prof John Studd's website - he is a world authority on hormonal depression. Reading his website, and then becoming his patient answered so many hitherto mysteries about my behaviour.

Is this him?

almondpudding, to me these two lines aren't related?

*how much sadness and worry you feel you should have in your life is surely a personal question.

I personally think there is no value in not being able to do up a buckle on a shoe in under an hour due to anxiety, so I am taking citalopram*

What I mean is that I suspect most people (including myself) believe that some degree of sadness and worry is part of what enriches life and makes it meaningful.

And how much sadness and worry we each want to have in our lives is going to vary from person to person.

I think the level of worry I experience is debilitating rather than enriching.

I see what you mean.

Drunk - tried phenelzine? That shit is awesome. Makes you feel gooooooood. Then crap for a bit, unless you up the dose, which keeps you going a while but makes the crash worse. But the good bit will be back, and it's amazing And if you take it with something to steady you out a bit, it's great stuff.

So glad you are doing better now Drunk. On reflection, I thought starting me on meds at 12 was a bad move. I was already in therapy but I think I needed more solid help with school and self esteem issues.

I'm severely visually impaired so it's very difficult sometimes to feel normal. I've always felt self hatred and think that would really do with being addressed.

But I can't imagine most want to be constantly happy. Just not nothing or 95% sad, or agitated.

Drunk, that is an inspiring story. You've done so well.

I have been reading a book by Dr Claire Weekes which is meant to be brilliant for anxiety. It asks you to stop fighting and learn to accept and not let the feelings create fear in you. I'm trying, really trying. There are times when I feel like giving up or picking up smoking again (I desperately wanted to quit and haven't smoked now in a year and a half) but I know in my heart that I need to keep going, go forwards and not backwards, develop some way to handle the hard stuff or I never will.

More power to you as you go along your good path

I agree with a lot of what you have posted here Fruit

My husband needs his meds without doubt, however the answer is always throwing new meds at him, increasing one while decreasing another. He is either very unwell or just has a flat mood and awful side effects which affect his quality of life.

Yeah, they have kept him out of hospital for a long time, but if he wasn't so 'doped up' on all these meds I think he might have many better periods as well. He needs some meds for sure, I'm just not so sure he needs quite as many in high doses and I don't think him just keeping out of hospital is a good result.

I take anti ds myself for OCD/Anxiety. They did help many years ago but now they don't seem to do bugger all. I have changed them a few times as well. I have also read the studies that ads aren't all that effective unless someone is suffering with clinical depression. The research is very interesting, especially the placebo research.

stumble suicide is the biggest killer of men between these ages, so many more men than woman. It's scary the difference and I do wonder if this is due to men not seeing Thier GP and not popping pills?

Thank you AgentCooper
Don't get me wrong - this year has simultaneously been the best and worst of my life. When the psychiatrist suggested coming off all meds, I was inconsolable. Even with meds, I was hearing voices, severe self-harming and had suicide attempts. How much worse would I be without them?! As he said though, I already had all of that, even with meds, so what did I have to lose by trying? I'd never expected to hear that - all other psychiatrists just kept upping dosages and adding more and more meds.

I think acceptance is very important. Some things we can change - they might be incredibly difficult to do so, but there comes a point where there's no other option. In my case, the psychiatrist pointed out that unless I changed something, I was just going to keep repeating the same pattern - hospital admissions, suicide attempts until I finally succeeded.

Other things, are not within our power to change. Ill children etc. That's where acceptance comes into play. Yes, this is the situation. Yes, it's utterly shite. Yes, it's perfectly understandable and acceptable to be struggling with it. In fact, it would probably indicate other issues if you weren't. But, it's the situation you're in. Accept that, try to quell your anger about it, and try to develop coping strategies. Easier said than done, I know. And that's where proper, good-quality psychological support is critical.

There's also acceptance of your emotions, or lack thereof. Stop trying to think that what you're feeling (or not) is wrong; that you should be feeling something else. Emotions are never wrong - we don't have conscious control over them, we're not making a decision to feel them. Accept that this is how you're feeling. Make peace with yourself, instead of feeling like you're constantly engaged in battle with your mind. I think perhaps this is the crux of it - we don't want to be happy, we just want to be at peace.

95pc of life is routine or actively shit.
I need a little something to get me through.

I think a some of it has to do with modern life, some examples, inequality, being made to feel ugly or old or whatever else we are told to improve on, made to feel inadequate, unsuccessful, status and material competition, isolation etc. I think society is very unhealthy (yes i appreciate we also have some amazing advances, health care, travel etc) . Would be interesting to compare with other cultures amd times.

I think the increase in Anti -Ds is because we are (in general) less physically active and more mentally active. Hence why exercise is a treatment for depression.
I know when I was going through a particularly stressful time I ended up running up and down the stairs to relieve the anxiety caused by adrenaline. In modern life we have the stress without the release... I think humans haven't evolved for the way we live now. 9-5 and needing to pay the mortgage etc is a really artificial.
Also we are surrounded by images etc of perfect lives and houses and bodies -and told we need to have immaculate houses and new cars, the latest phone etc etc. And that makes us less satisfied with what we do have -less appreciative. I think it is no surprise that the people in the world that come out as the happiness are in the poorest societies ...the ones where they work only to survive - provide themselves basic food and shelter and if they have those they are satisfied. Even weight problems and some medical conditions that can lead to depression are down to the way we live -eg the ready availability of food for little physical effort. Even having an ASD child - wouldn't be such a problem - a worry - if we didn't live in the society we live in -the one in which we have to conform to 'norms'. I have a DD with ADHD ( I think I have it too -currently being assessed) - getting through school, passing exams etc is hard for her. And that makes sense as humans we have not evolved to sit still and focus for hours at a time and she has a genetic make up that makes that particularly difficult for her...

However we do live in our society -so we have to try and get on the best we can.
I am currently on ADs - I was suicidal many years ago after a series of horrible/traumatic events and had therapy etc as well as medication. I think both helped to get me 'better'.
But I have fought off depression on and off over the years - by realising I am becoming depressed and making changes -both life style and in the way I think about things.
However this time I just couldn't, was sinking deeper and deeper into depression until I no longer had the 'tools' -energy, motivation etc to improve my situation - I had to go and get help - I got ADs.
I have read the research about whether ADs really work or whether it is 'just' a placebo effect. Quite honestly I don't care which it is - as long as they work and they do in some cases. I think it is 'dangerous' to tell people they don't work as that could damage any benefit from the placebo effect - I won't let myself think they don't work as when I went to the GP I was desperate and knew that was the only thing the GP could do immediately that could help...
I am seeing a psychiatrist supposedly for a diagnosis for ADHD ...he is now trying to get my mood more stable. But I am finding it tough -it is making me feel worse - and most of the bad things that happened earlier in my life I have accepted and dealt with. Going over them again I don't think is helping - I have dealt with and 'forgotten' about them -in that I don't generally think about them. It is still early days - but next time I see him I am going to say I don't think it is benefiting me.
Actually about therapy - specifically CBT - I read that it had been pushed as a new miracle cure all and had received a lot of funding but actually doesn't work for some people/problems. Other forms of therapy can be more beneficial...I just hope the MH services are listening to that and if CBT isn't working start put patients into different kinds of therapy.

ChickenVindaloo2 nice wine or chocolate ?