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.

They are over prescribed. I know 3 GP's who recommended them to ladies who weren't depressed.

Oblomov how do you know they weren't depressed? Are you a dr/psychiatrist/psychologist?

I did a mental health training at work and met 5 members of my team there with anxiety issues. I thought I was the only one. Now I know of 3 more people.
I think the society we are living in feeds anxiety and depression...

I know what you mean OP.

I think GP's hand them out far too easily now. I don't mean they shouldn't be available, but they are drugs and should not just be offered out to anyone for anything IYSWIM.

My husband has anxiety and depression. And I mean real anxiety, real depression. He feels physical pain and sickness if his anxiety hits, he has tried to kill himself in the past.

Not long ago I was definitely not feeling myself, short tempered, very emotional, etc. He sent me to the GP. The GP barely looked at me or listened to me and at the end handed me a prescription for Sertraline and a number for Self referral to CBT. I felt like a total fraud. I tried the CBT but the only appointment they had was miles away and in work time. So I deleted social media from my phone, excercised, talked to my friends and family, practiced mindfulness.

A friend lost his father and was offered anti-depressants. He refused as grief is a natural process, it would surely be more worrying if he was not down after losing his dad. Likewise a friend suffered a miscarriage and was offered anti depressants as she said she was feeling down.

It seems so horrible and I fully expect to be flamed but I have reached my peak tolerance level with people who say they suffer with "mental health issues" when in reality they have no idea. I have every sympathy with the millions of people who do have them, but I no longer believe everyone who says they do, couldn't feel a whole lot better by a little less navel gazing and a little more action. But if they are being told by GP's they need the drugs then they aren't really to blame, are they?

I really don't want anyone to be offended, my point is more that AD's shouldn't be so readily produced rather than attacking people who feel they need them.

ADs can help people get to the point where they can "pull themselves together" and get on top of the lifestyle factors that they can do something about.

People who say "just pull yourself together" have clearly never felt (or have forgotten) the apathy, self neglect, inability to think about a future, that come with depression. Yes, there are things we can do to help ourselves, but at my worst I just can't do it. I have zero motivation and can't think beyond the next day at a time, I can't think about diet and exercise and engaging in therapy. ADs get me to the point that I can.

oblomov

That happened to a friend of mine as well

Having said that i also know a lot of people who feel better after taking ADs

Ultimately we all have the same hopes and fears, sometimes we get fixated on the negative, we are human, we ponder.
Ad's can be a brilliant way to find sense and a way to more positive feelings, a crutch to build spirit.
As with all psychoactive drugs, long term usage brings problems, loss of reality, blunted affect et all.
Ideally used as a short term support to overcome and change perspective and situations they are fantastic, however the change must come from within the person whilst medicated.
Long term use is less clear.

Some interesting responses. Im too tired to read them all but i wanted to pick up.on one point.

Yes some ADs are used for other things. Migraines. pain relief, epilepsy i agree.

However i was referring to people on SSRIs such as sertraline, citalopram etc. I should have made that clear.

I have actually thought of two more people who are on meds since i started this thread.

Sometimes i do worry that i can't manage without them because i have been on them too long and wonder how i would have coped without them.

I don't anyone is saying "pull yourself together" applies to full on depression. But an element of people who claim to be depressed are just a bit Meh about life and need to be more resilient.

I'm currently in the care of the local mental health team. I know what it is like to be THAT low and THAT anxious. I still maintain there is inevitably a root cause - be it chemical, hormone or life issues - to it that needs changing to get to the root of the issue. Medication is great as a tool to help you get kick started but shouldn't be a long term tool. Gp's are also undertrained in mental health to the point one gave me a sertraline prescription alongside my other medications and told me to take a relatively high dose. I got to see the psychiatrist who told me in no uncertain terms to stop the sertraline immediately as it had serious interactions with other medications I'm on - serotonin syndrome or something.

I know what the root of my mental health issues are. They can't be changed so I'm working on acceptance.

Something OP seems not to understand - many are on anti d's due to a chemical imbalance in the brain.
Therefore they need the meds.

Strategies for beating anxiety/depression don't work for everyone.

I'm one of those people who others think is a 'happy, go lucky person with a good life'.....but that's just me 'getting on with it' and masking my real state.

I used to think like some if you, regarding other things that would be 'more beneficial'. I'm now on Fluoxetine!

Yep,there are loads of things that would make people feel better BUT they need to be able to do them.

My brain functions perfectly well, I know everything that would make me feel better in general. I can even plan to do them. But there's this little cloud that hangs over and somehow prevents me from doing things, I give up, motivation goes. I can sit and say I need to do so and so NOW but can't get up to do it.

So it's not as simple as 'running should be prescribed'.

I feel a darn sight better with my happy pills and now I'm on a higher dosage I'm not feeling so clouded and feel more like me. That means I can do more to make myself feel better. That is the whole point.

It's also not about resilience. I'm a very strong woman, have had an incredibly shite life in a sense but it just happened. Maybe it was a tipping point, but I've suffered a huge amount to get to that point if that's the case!

Are they overprescribed? Probably. It does seem like they are handed out like sweets and that is concerning, but nobody really knows

I do wonder if some of it has to do with societies intolerance to normal emotions, in particular grief. I've lost count of the amount of people I know that have ended up on ads as a result of bereavement. They've ended up at the doctors because they aren't "over it" and seem to think they should be.

How often do you see threads on here where people say that they're really grieving but people don't want to hear it. Maybe you would feel like you need help if others around you seem to think you should be over it by now.

Interesting report here <a class="break-all" href="https://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=www.samaritans.org/sites/default/files/kcfinder/branches/branch-96/files/Suicide_statistics_report_2015.pdf&ved=0ahUKEwjH6_K25P7QAhUZNFAKHTNDBnkQFggaMAA&usg=AFQjCNFKJaFRKIwnK3rIJ8uMu40YzkvqVg&sig2=KO4sUQmhWLTKBHlQYPF1Ow" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=www.samaritans.org/sites/default/files/kcfinder/branches/branch-96/files/Suicide_statistics_report_2015.pdf&ved=0ahUKEwjH6_K25P7QAhUZNFAKHTNDBnkQFggaMAA&usg=AFQjCNFKJaFRKIwnK3rIJ8uMu40YzkvqVg&sig2=KO4sUQmhWLTKBHlQYPF1Ow. about suicide rates since 1983.

It seems they have fallen very slightly in Britain over that time but increased very slightly in Ireland. It would be interesting to compare to the number of anti depressants prescribed over that time. I worked in mental health and believe that on the whole anti depressants don't work, two different psychiatrists have separately told me that the evidence that they do work is very flimsy indeed.

I wonder if we are better able to save people after they have attempted suicide might be a factor in the decrease as well?

I think they are overprescribed in my area at least. I have chronic pain due to rheumatoid arthritis and I've lost count of the number of times my GP has offered me ADs. I really don't think I'm depressed or need these at all. I have low days when the pain gets to me and I feel tearful but I think that's a normal part of a chronic condition and I have way more days when I don't feel like this.

Of course they do have a place. Most of the patients I work with would likely be in absolute crisis, if not dead, were it not for their medication.

I started on them for panic attacks (propranolol and citalopram). I came off the propranolol but stayed on the other
I had a bad time, probably an understatement but some stuff happened and I couldn't see a way out. Exercise etc is all great and yes it helps me but I needed the meds to get me to a point of being able to do that. When you're on the floor and you can't see how to get up and how you are going to survive another 24hrs, that's why I needed them

I heard a programme on the radio a while ago about history and emotion. These days happyness/contentment is a goal and is seen to be the normal state of being, anything other is wrong, every shyness can be seen as a failing. In the middle ages this was very different. Happyness was seen to be ungodly, frivolous and undesirable, the goal was to be dutifully, serious, head bent in respect and reference to god.

For many people, they are as essential as insulin to a diabetic and the idea that mindfulness and counselling would work instead are as valid as they are for diabetes . let's grow out of the 'big pharma' kneejerk, shall we?

In other cases, other therapies would help. So.let's up the taxes and improve funding.

I agree with you Special. My dd was diagnosed with clinical depression and PTSD, ADs made a huge difference to her. It makes me so angry when people say they don't work and a little chat with someone once a week will cure things.

I don't think people are saying that Biscuits.

I'm one of the posters who said about exercise. I don't think running a marathon will work for, or is possible for, everyone. ADs certainly have their place and I've no doubt when people have PTSD they are needed.

But there are people who have ADs chucked at them by GPs who, I believe, would do a lot better with coping strategies, like running. And learning how to manage their condition - taking action before they are completely on the floor and unable to function to halt the decline.

It won't work for everyone, but it does work for a lot of people. It's what works for me, ADs did bugger all. Loads of people I run with and at parkrun run for sanity.

Again, not saying this is the case for everyone. Just that I think it should be worth a try for many people rather than immediately prescribing ADs long term.

Members of my family have suffered from high anxiety and depression for at least 4 generations, probably more. Which in its turn has meant that other family members have had to dedicate themselves to propping them up.

Dd is the first that has been prescribed AD's, but I was lucky in getting betablockers for high blood pressure which turned out also to take the edge of the anxiety.

As a result no one has to walk on eggshells around either dd or me, or spend their time anxiously watching what they say around us. I think that's a pretty good result to start with.

Dd has been able to engage with CBT thanks to the effect of ADs (she tried without them first and got nowhere).

We have both been able to push on with our career dreams and not had to live with the constant sense of disappointment that I remember seeing in my DM when I was a child- she had wanted to do so much and anxiety got in the way.

We can get on with our lives at any time of year, instead of spending our winters under a deep dark cloud of depression like some older members of my family.

Spot on, special. I have had group therapy and CBT, and these have helped me - but it's the antidepressants that keep me up out of that place where life simply does not seem worth living, and I start to think about suicide.

I suspect the modern workplace is probably quite damaging to a lot of people's sense of well-being.

In the past when people were largely employed doing fairly physical work there probably was a huge element of hard work 'taking your mind off things'. You went to the factory in the morning and you lifted heavy boxes from A to B all day and you came home physically exhausted.

Now, whilst life is undoubtedly easier in many (most?) ways, so many of us are employed in offices where our every move is scrutinised and criticised, we're expected to use the right buzzwords and we're not allowed to think for ourselves. We come home drained from frustration or office politics but we don't have the physical tiredness that doing physical work brings. So our mind races, we don't sleep well, and the vicious circle begins.

Also, not every GP hands out ADs like sweets. Dd had to wait for 3 years, despite being a known suicide risk; they tried pretty well everything else first.

Thisthincalledlide - i understand that perfectly actually. Although that is a bit of an oversimplification of things. If it were as simple as fixing a chemical imbalance mental illness would be far easier to treat.

My post was a genuine reflection on why so many people, myself included, need medication rather than questioning over prescription.

I doubt I'd still be here without it but it does bother me that i am reliant upon it.