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?

God that was the worst link ever sorry about it that! It's called 'recovery and renewal: your essential guide to overcoming dependency and withdrawal from sleeping pills, other benzodiazepines and antidepressants'

TheDudesmummy - I cant speak for 'the nhs' but at my place of work no-one really uses it now

I know of a few women who take them and it's no big deal. People talk openly about it so, no, most women do not take antidepressants.

I have never taken ADs and I have been through more shit than most in my life, including the death of a child. I have suffered and grieved and been through unimaginable (to most) pain, but I have never been depressed.

My lovely niece takes ADs and will have to probably always have to take them. Nothing especially bad has happened to her, she has had a lovely life, but she has clinical depression. It is an illness.

I think it is important not to conflate terrible life experiences with having an illness, which depression definitely is. No one needs a reason to be depressed, just like no one needs a reason to have asthma or diabetes. And although it cannot always be cured it can often be managed with medication, which is a good thing.

Am I this patronising to my imaginary patients?

No, nor the real ones - fortunately they've never been that rude to me though!

I was prescribed them for PND when I had DC1 but they made me feel like a zombie so I had to stop. Never taken them since and hopefully never will again.

I have one female friend who takes them and my Mother does but AFAIK that is it.

My mother was prescribed anti depressants for pain relief, so I wonder if people prescribed them for pain will affect the statistics too? She changed them as she didn't like how they made her feel. Other than that I only know of one individual who takes them.

"Do the council do counselling courses, Graphista?" I was being a bit sarcastic but as a result of your post had a quick look - and shockingly some do apparently!

Psychedelicsheep - ok I'll be more specific - what are your pharmacology qualifications?

I've just AS'd you and you've made some really appalling clearly ill informed comments on mh!! Especially on mh meds so I reserve the right to consider you may well be not as qualified/experienced as you claim and have an agenda regarding psychiatric medicines!

Yet you're weirdly not at all critical of weed - which is unregulated, largely untested & varies greatly in type and strength, known to cause/trigger mh issues! To the point you think it should be decriminalised.

I hope to never come across a therapist like you, I think you've likely done more harm than good with your posts on mh.

As for your friends experience, while unfortunate I'm not convinced she is best qualified to comment given she also is a therapist and not a psychiatrist nor apparently trained in pharmacology. (Is this really you?)

Plus a little digging into her takes me here:

cepuk.org

Which I cannot find any decent info on the founders, their qualifications etc but just that first page I find EXTREMELY concerning that they have a worrying and largely unfounded agenda against psychiatric meds.

I do! I've been on and off them my whole adult life, been on them for 5 years now, longest period on, but GP told me to stop quitting them when they help.

I would say most of my friends have used them at some period. Can only think of one who has never mentioned it to me, but I wouldn't be surprised if she was to.

No stigma in my circle!

Graphista in the U.K. psychotherapists don't need to have pharmacology qualifications, so throstle doesn't make me under qualified to do my role.

I don't prescribe meds, neither do I ever advise clients to stop taking them.

I do however say let's see how a psychological approach goes first before starting on them.

psychedelic presumably then your place of work is not a health facility treating people suffering from schizophrenia, then? OK, fine. But mine is.

Absolutely agree that for many people psychotherapy is first line treatment. That is a totally different issue from the untrue things you are saying about mental illneses.

Throstle - that doesn't. I think!

My employer is in community psychology but we have meetings with the mental health teams a couple of times a week so it's very joined up working which is good.

Having meetings with metal health teams does not make you a psychiatrist. Nor does it allow you to dispute the existence of medical diagnoses.

I wouldn't want to be a psychiatrist.

DH had some prescribed I had to tell him to stop taking them he went very strange and for the first time in 35 years I was scared of him, within days he was back to normal

For serious mental illnesses like psychosis, medication is a life saver. Talking therapies are a waste of time if the person is not in touch with reality.

Whether you would want to be a psychiatrist is neither here nor there. I wouldn't want to be an endocrinologist. That does not qualify me to dispute the existence of diabetes.

Yes there is a whole body of theory questioning the existence of various mental illnesses. And we do know that how distress is displayed is determined very much by the culture we live in, which questions the precise categorisation in the DMS. All of that is true.

But we also know that people do get very down, try and kill themselves, lose touch with reality, and get extremely over anxious. All of that is true as well.

I have never taken them. Neither has anyone in my family, although my mum should have been prescribed them when she had PND badly, but her PND went undiagnosed too.

But in the last 5 years or so I have become aware that a lot of the peoepl I know do take them, and I am surprised at how many. Mostly women, but one man too. Most are quite open about their problems (and I tend to meet them in a context where they do tell you stuff like this)

BUt as someone previously said, I thinkit is important to distinguish between bad life experiences, which may or may not lead to depression long or short term, and depression as an illness which may need long term medication.

The thing I find hardest thoguh is that most of the people I knwo on them have not been offered any other support, but AD seem to be the answer, rather than something to help while other things are also tried/used/explored.

It s true that medications can save lives in psychosis, as they can in depression, but, clairemcnam it's not right that you cannot use talking therapies in psychosis. Even in chronically psychotic people who are, as you put it "out of touch with reality" there are many ways in which appropriate talking therapies can help (alongside medication).

I've as much right to express my opinions that on here as anyone else.

But, if as you say, you are a qualified health professional, is it responsible or ethical to post anecdote/ opinion as fact like you have several times on here?

You have presented yourself on here as someone in authority and substantial knowledge and experience of mental health disorders, yet made many claims that are at best theories not facts, and at worst, completely untrue. I have never worked alongside any HCP's who would do the same, thankfully. It highly unprofessional and goes against any sort of medical guidelines or protocol.

Post your opinions all you like, but don't present them as facts, or yourself as someone much more highly qualified to hold these opinions than anyone else as it simply isn't true.

Well done for Graphista and theDudesmummy as well as others for calling you out on some of the stuff you have posted. There is enough misconception and ignorance surrounding mental health conditions as it is without so called HCP's adding to the problem.

mummy Yes fair enough, you can still engage with people with psychosis. But it has to be alongside medication. And not everyone with psychosis is capable of engaging in talking therapies. I am talking from the position of having had a relative with psychosis episodes.

@ psychedelicsheep I'm sorry but for you to say that mental illness is never caused by biological factors is just shockingly wrong and frankly stupid. I know for a fact, as explained to me by a consultant endocrinologist, that my very sudden descent into depression was because of the disruption to my endocrine system and neuro transmitters. It was purely biological factors.