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.

My psychiatrist told me I'll need to take medication for the rest of my life, and no doctor I've found has contradicted that.

I believe I can make a full recovery and get off these drugs in the future. It seems you agree with me rather than with my psychiatrist, FruitCider. But how do I convince my doctors, when the time comes? 

I was told at 17 to get myself a "easy job as you will be ill for the rest of your life. In fact you may never be able to work".

I did not ask for permission to come off my medication, I told my psychiatrist I was coming off it, and told them how I was going to do it. They discharged me from their service for "non engagement" . I have no requirement for their services these days anyway!

I can't advise you on what to do, as I don't know your particular circumstances. I don't know if you need your medication or not! However I know many have requested a "medication free trial". Some like me have laid out clearly their plans. Whatever you do, keep your doctor informed. This might be a helpful read for you.

www.comingoff.com

Enthusiasm, my dd received masses of support. CAHMS were wonderful, absolutely cannot fault them.

But any support that is not medication requires that the patient is in a state to listen, to understand, to do exercises, to engage with the treatment. Dd was completely incapable of doing this, however much was offered and however desperately she wanted to get well. And judging from this thread, she is not the only one.

Otoh her medication has not prevented her feelings at all: it has just reduced her generalised anxiety from the intolerable to a state that enables her to get on with life. She is now a lively, engaged, thoughtful and mentally active young woman who lives life to the full and makes plans for the future. She still has to use her CBT techniques to deal with everyday life, but the medication keeps her stable enough to be able to do that.

She did attempt to leave off the medication following advice at a medical review, but very quickly reverted to the zombie state.

I don't know what doctors prescribe a medication for life: even my BP medication gets reviewed at regular intervals (as do dd's AD's)- does this not happen elsewhere?

Cory I agree, I struggled on for ages because I didn't feel too bad, I wasn't in tears 24/7 therefore I was ok. Yet I was driving to work everyday whilst pushing thoughts about crashing my car out of my head. I still feel a fraud, I still feel maybe I am not actually depressed and reading this thread makes me think that even more.

I think I am probably being irrational.

I would hope, fruit that in your career, you don't make a habit of making MH patients go cold turkey from medications such as mirtazapine. That is very worrying indeed. Whilst non-addictive, it is not a good idea (to say the very least) to stop taking SSRIs or similar medications quickly, rather taper to a lower and lower dose.

I never make people go cold turkey from anything. The opposite actually! I quite often ring doctors and say "are you SURE you want to reduce this persons pregabalin from 600mg a day to 0mg in 14 days? It seems quite fast". Or "this patient is not coping with reducing their diazepam this quickly. Can we stabilise them for a fortnight before reducing further?" Or "look, I know this patient said he wants to reduce his methadone by 4ml every 4 days, but he is scoring 21 on COWS. Is it ok if I have a chat with them about slowing their detox down?"

Having withdrawn from citalopram myself, I know how much one can suffer. I'm not there to punish people. However there comes a point where people must be detoxed/withdrawn from some medications. That process has to start at some point and for many, the thought of losing their medication is utterly distressing, even if it is in their best interests and done at a slow pace.

I hope my point is a bit clearer for you now?

"But at a absolutely basic level, every process within our body will be either electrical/chemical. Every thought we have, so to say that depression isn't caused by or as a result of chemical imbalances seems a bit odd."

Is embarrassment caused by blushing? Is sadness caused by crying?

Correlation does not prove causation.

sorry I didn't think you daughter got any support

sadly many people are just getting prescribed ad's, doses are upped when they once again feel anxious because they are fearful of becoming depressed again far far too many people never have any contact with mh professionals and are left taking ad's for years

with the NHS now having the IAPT service this might change things lets hope so the answer can not be to have lots of people taking drugs that they might not need to take but are too fearful and do not have the support or haven't learned strategies they need to manage to come off them or lower the dose

that is how ad's are meant to work but many people struggle to manage after a period of not feeling anxious or very little anxiety/low mood when they do again (mild anxiety and feeling low to some degree is part of life) their dose is increased rather than learning to manage how they feel, for some they need support to do this.

Its really worry how many people I see (I work as a therapist) that are on such high doses of ad's without ever having any other support for years and years. They should have at some point had contact with MH services and their medication reviewed

I did not ask for permission to come off my medication, I told my psychiatrist I was coming off it, and told them how I was going to do it.

I'm aware that I don't need permission, but if and when I feel it's time to stop, I'd like to do so under medical supervision.

My impression is many people are now taking antidepressants who previously might have drowned their sorrows in drink or drugs or taken their emotions out on other people. People are drinking and smoking and taking fewer illegal drugs than ever before, and I believe rates of domestic violence are also going down.

I agree with treaclesoda that many modern workplaces don't counteract depression the way they used to, and the difficulties of finding work are likewise more Kafkaesque and provide less chance of being physically tiring. Add other modern stresses like hearing so much more about all the terrible things that happen across the world, much more being expected of parents, media trying to induce guilt so you'll spend more, and depression isn't an unsurprising response.

Depression can be situational, but even when it is, ads can help you get energy enough to help yourself. Especially when there just isn't other support available, I certainly don't blame GPs for prescribing them. They're cheap drugs - it would be unethical IMO to refuse patients something that may well help them just because of some feeling that they 'should' be able to manage without tablets.

I get severe SAD so take ads for about 4 months each year. This has enabled me to hold down jobs and cope with other things. Similar issues run in my family leading to various alcoholics, psychosis, in-patient stays in hospital, bad-tempered parents taking it out on children, etc. Ads have to be an improvement!

2ndSopranos - I am sorry that this thread has upset you. I think that what I was trying to do was reflect on the fact that, actually, even though people seem ok on the surface, often people are struggling. I have said myself that people are stunned when I open up about being on medication.

I think what got me thinking was having a conversation with a woman at work who I have often thought is a bit bossy and full of herself. But now I can see that actually, its a protective mechanism, much like my own.

Sometimes I wonder why I am on ADs, after all, the problems I have faced in life are no worse than many others, but well, I'm not about to sit with a head ache and not take paracetemol because someone has a worse head ache than mine.

The last thing I wanted to do was question why people are taking ADs, just expressing surprise that so many others need them.

I think anxiety and depression are contagious so as more people suffer, others around them will also be affected.

MrGrumpy you sound a lot like me. Don't doubt yourself. I have a 17 yo dd with autism. You get on with it day after day, because you have to.

You seek support for your child meanwhile your MH goes on the back burner.

Ads have to be an improvement ? You're kidding ? They are blocking out the pain or whatever of people's shit lives just as alcohol and drugs always have ... Rather than improving people's shit lives

Really interesting thread OP. I agree with pp saying in the past people would have just suffered. My grandmother spent time hospitalised for depression, whereas I am able to take ads and live a normal, fulfilling life with my family. I count my blessings that ads are available.

I completely disagree with the poster who said ads blunt emotions and feeling. Untreated, my mind is a black whorlpool of misery and I cannot function, I cannot enjoy my children, hobbies, dog, reading. I am just a mass of misery. On ads I can enjoy all these things. I still feel sorrow, anger, joy, I have got my emotions back, not lost them.

I don't think medicine, especially mental health medicine, is an exact science. I do know that for me (and I have been on and off ads enough time to be as convinced about this as I am about anything) ads work for me and allow me to live without depression and anxiety.

Really interesting thread.

Newbrimmie My life is not, as you so elegantly put it, shut. My life is fabulous. I have a wonderful husband, two gorgeous children, the sort of house in the country I have always dreamed off, a (very) part-time job so I have lots of time time for my family and my hobbies. And guess what, I suffer from depression and anxiety. Your theory is bollocks.

Obvs shit not shut.

Do I still fondly remember that thread StealthPolarBear started where we all posted rhetorical questions to ourselves?

Why yes, yes I do.

NewBrummie you seriously have the wrong idea about antidepressants!!!

Newbrummie Mon 19-Dec-16 13:29:10

"Ads have to be an improvement ? You're kidding ? They are blocking out the pain or whatever of people's shit lives just as alcohol and drugs always have ... Rather than improving people's shit lives"

Have you not read the thread? Several posters have explained carefully how they, or their relatives, have lives that are anything but shit until the anxiety/depression makes them shit. Cared for in childhood, married to someone they love and who loves them back, gorgeous children, interesting career, a nice place to live- that is actually the reality of several people I know who suffer from depression. How do you set about improving that?

Ads do not 'block' emotion. They enable sufferers to cope.

Without ads I can't make basic decisions, self care goes out the window, I forget to eat, can't sleep etc.

Without ads I would be an inpatient and my daughter would be living with her father (who is useless and couldn't give a shit about her).

Not only would that be distressing and damaging for us both it would more than likely lead to HER having major mental health problems in the future (more expense for nhs in her treatment) and more expensive intensive care needed for me.

So even from a cost/resources perspective it's a ridiculously impractical notion to not have me on ads.

On ads I still feel, I experience joy, (normal) sadness, anger, contentment. But I'm not in a permanent very depressed and anxious state unable to remember how to boil a kettle!

My life is not shit either, NewBrummie - I have a long history of depression and anxiety, rooted in years of bullying when I was aged 10-16. If I don't take antidepressants, my mood gets lower and lower (no matter what I do in terms of self-care, using CBT techniques etc), until I am in such a black place that I want to die.

If I take antidepressants, they replace the missing chemicals in my brain, and level my mood out. They don't make me happy, but they keep me out of the darkest pit.

They have literally kept me alive. Without them, I would have got bad enough to commit suicide. But you don't think that that is an improvement.

Why do you think it would be better for me to be in the darkest depths of depression, contemplating suicide, rather than being on the tablets?

Depersonalisation (being detached from your surroundings) as a very well known side effect of some antidepressants. Just because you haven't experienced it, doesn't mean it doesn't exist!

What if the "pain or whatever" in your life can't be improved. If it's not/unlikely to change?