To think that most women are taking anti depressants?

[Jambalaya76]

Hi

I have been on and off these for most of my adult life. Life is easier with them and I find I am more able to cope with life stresses. I feel normal and tend to let upsets go over my head. Life is better with them. However, I have had a lot to deal with in my little life so feel like a need a little help.

Over the years, I have met so many people who say they also take them. Not that I ever bring it up. It made me wonder if I was to ask people, I wonder how many are taking anti depressants? This seems the perfect forum to ask.

So, how many of us woman here take, or have taken, antidepressants?

I haven’t taken them. I would rather try sort the funtional cause. I suffered awful anxiety in my 20s and was too ashamed to seek help. It cleared up though once I totally dejunked my life.

I know a number of people on them and I reckon a lot of people don’t say they are. Fair play to them if it works but i think the underlying damage to the body remains in terms of inflammation and gut bacteria

What a ridiculous thread. I've never taken them. I know some who have but not many. I may know people who have that I don't realise. Does it matter - is someone counting?

There was a long term study on contraceptive pill that linked it to anxiety and depression:
www.independent.co.uk/life-style/women/contraceptive-pill-bbc-documentary-horizon-mental-health-depression-anxiety-suicidal-thoughts-zoe-a8645151.html

Plus pnd - there are in our society less support networks for new mums which may be contributing to higher rates of pnd.

This may mean more women need anti depressents.

I don't take them but my husband did - to be brutally honest I think people take them because they don't have proper coping mechanisms in place to deal with real life. In my husbands case the doctor told him he was depressed so he must be depressed.....right? Or is it that it's so easy to get a prescription for them now the doctors don't want to get to the root cause of why people feel 'down'??
real life isn't like it is in films and books it's a hard slog and yeah we ll be most likely working jobs we don't like until our 70s in marriages that wasn't the fairytale we imagined. But that's life!
Taking pills to make you feel better isn't fixing what ever is wrong it just masks it? And that way you ll always rely on them to pick you up and that's not fair on you or those around you - particular children and partners

I take an antidepressant and mood stabiliser, and in all honesty probably would not be here without them.

My depression was so bad last year I could barely speak, was paranoid to the point I thought people were trying to kill me and had clear suicide plans. The only reason I wasn't hospitalised was because I refused 1st time it was suggested and then when I wanted to there was no beds. We talked about ECT as a possible option. Right now I'm functioning pretty well.

I am still cautious about antidepressants, a lot of them have serious side effects, and serious withdrawal effects which are only now starting to be properly recognised. I would love to get off meds (I think the mood stabiliser is causing my current stomach problems) but it is probably not realistic.

Depression can be a killer, not to be underestimated.

Sad to see the stigma on this thread, alongside understanding too. I take them (GAD). I also excercise and practice mindfulness. I no longer panic to the extent that I am calling an ambulance while pulled over on the hard shoulder thinking I’m dying. Or wake up with palpitations unable to breathe.

It’s a medical condition and unless you gave had a glimpse into the pain of mental illness it is very hard to understand the good that ADs can do.

I take them for bad anxiety that started in September. They helped massively, along with therapy, yoga and learning to knit. I know quite a few people who take them, but certainly more who don’t!

I’m not going to read anymore posts because it’s too depressing. I coped with a LOT without them. It’s ok to feel down. I coped with an ectopic pregnancy and a whole heap of relationship crap.

Not knowing why you are panicking (life is fantastic now!) Now that is terrifying.

I remain unconvinced that they do much more than placebo There is a wealth of very clear evidence that they do, especially in short-term depression, including a big meta-analysis published last year in the BMJ. (This is statistically of course, it is not a claim that they help every single person who is prescribed them, or that they are always appropriately and correctly prescribed).

Depression can be a killer, not to be underestimated Absolutely. And glad you are now better Ginger

Yes there's a lot of "all in the mind" attitude on this thread.

I don't take them now. But, was on them for a few months, 18 years ago. It was prescribed along with other medicines, to treat my migraine..! I know, I know.. Young and naive, I didn't question!
It left me with really bad side effects.
I have since read a lot about the side effects of ADs. L

MH is just as important as physical health. And ADs do have a place. But, I feel alternative options should be actively considered, alongside possibly. Exercise, running, therapy,. ..Especially, in young people.

There was a documentary by Stephen Fry, few years ago on his own MH issues and medications. He has been on medications himself. It wasn't a for-or-against type of documentary, just a collection of case studies, if you like.

Something that I came across recently on anxiety and depression.
(Again, ADs absolutely have their place.)

How running cured my anxiety – and a broken heart

www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2019/jan/05/running-cured-anxiety-broken-heart

Johann Hari: ‘I was afraid to dismantle the story about depression and anxiety’

www.theguardian.com/media/2018/jan/07/johann-hari-depression-brain-lost-connections-book-interview

Depression is not the same thing as "feeling down", or as having a lot of difficult life circumstances.

It may be a case of, if you are the type to need them you may be in a social group of similar background so you are all subject to the same issues and problems.
The type to need them? @starzig Please explain what 'type' you think this is? What sort of background?

No offense to anyone who feels they help. But they should always be for short term use.
They become a crutch otherwise.

Honestly, I do often feel that my ADs Are a crutch. They 'mask' the real cause of my depression. And the real cause is that actually, life is shit. There's no point to it, no higher power, it's just day after day of existing, of doing task after task to keep myself and my family alive, for no real purpose, because there IS no purpose. Yes, there are some bright times, some happy moments but they are meaningless next to the never ending pain and distress of being alive. And love is the most painful thing of all, because it forces you to not only stay alive rather than ceasing to exist. Not only that but love forces you to put on a brave face, to 'smile' to try to believe that yes, it's better to be alive than to stop existing, even when it seems completely, utterly obvious that ceasing to exist would be far better, far kinder.

I actually often find it ridiculous than anyone, anywhere would want to be alive. Would want to live.

So, yeah. My ADs mask are a crutch. They enable me to carry on living. Not for myself - because that is just laughable, why would I ever WANT to live? But for my loved ones. Because in the baxk of my mind, I know that I may not be seeing clearly. Maybe I'm wrong about life, and it is actually something worth having.

Maybe. If that's the case, maybe I should give it my best shot to enable my daughters and my husband to enjoy life.

I'm not. Years ago I went to GP suffering with bad headaches and was given some tablets. I looked them up in the library (shows how long ago it was) and found they were anti-depressants. Didn't take them and was angry I wasn't told what they were. Appears he thought headaches were due to exam stress.

@dreamsofnr2 I can’t even begin to explain how wrong you are. Unlike a previous poster, I can remember the time when I didn’t suffer poor MH. I was 4 and that was the only time. How does your ‘just can’t cope with life’ theory stand up against that? I was a 4 year old, I hadn’t experienced life.

Your poor husband. I do hope you were far more empathetic towards him when he needed help than you have been here. There’s scores of information out there, just waiting for people that think like you, to access it. Please do, you might be surprised or horrified.

MrsKCasle I am glad your ADs are helping you to an extent but to be honest you sound very much still depressed and I would recommend you go back to whoever is treating you and have a medication review. You may be able to be better helped than you are being currently.

I not an expert but I believe some anti depressants are effective for headaches. Did you find that out about the exam stress for sure?

Taking pills to make you feel better isn't fixing what ever is wrong it just masks it? And that way you ll always rely on them to pick you up and that's not fair on you or those around you - particular children and partners

Oh, really? Well, I think my DH and kids would rather have me here, playing with them, engaging, going out and doing things than fantasizing about leaving and living on the streets because they'd be better off without me.

@Dreamsofnr2

to be brutally honest I think people take them because they don't have proper coping mechanisms in place to deal with real life

This simply is NOT true and is a dangerous and stigmatising.

Taking pills to make you feel better isn't fixing what ever is wrong it just masks it? And that way you ll always rely on them to pick you up and that's not fair on you or those around you - particular children and partners

I don’t even know where to start with what’s wrong with that load of bullshit. I’ve heard some shit spouted on MN, but that must be a prize-winner...

You have obviously never suffered from depression, but that’s no fucking excuse.

@cooljule43 ADs can be used to treat physical symptoms of illnesses that have nothing to do with your mental health. For example Amitriptyline can be used to treat chronic tension headaches and migraine. It’s all on the NICE website.

I have a pretty average number of good friends - about 25.

Among my close friends, only one takes ADs, plus one family member. These 2 people seem more messed up than they were before they started medicating. They are in a cycle of trying to come off them and then thinking they can't cope.

I would try anything before I tried medication.

A family member has been on anti-depressants for 5 years and they don't do anything to help his anxiety and depression. They just give lots of side effects. Treatment-resistant supposedly.

Psychiatrist said they are only successful in 5% patients anyway. What's the point then?

theDudesmummy thanks but I am ok. I'll probably always be depressed to a certain extent and I am being investigated for some other health issues.

I'm really just trying to get through to people that are implicitly, if not explicitly, saying that people with depression need to find ways of coping better rather than relying on the ADs. It just doesn't work like that.