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'm another who doesn't take them and hasn't and I don't know anyone who does or says they do either.

I’ve been on and off antidepressants for years. I find life in general difficult to cope with and they keep me balancing on the edge rather than tipping over. Very few people know as I prefer to keep things to myself and don’t want people treating me differently, even if well intentioned.

Never taken them myself and am not aware that any women I know take them (but realise I wouldn't necessarily know if they did).

As previous posters have pointed out, it's not difficult to look up whether it's true or not that 'most women' are on them. Statistics show that it's not true.

ChoriChori That is my experience too. People reveal their own struggles with mental ill health if you talk about a close relatives struggles. If I hadn't, I would have never known in the majority of cases.

I had not read the whole thread before, but I have now and am glad to see people being called out for their horrible stigmatising approach to potentailly life-saving medication. Those people clearly have a very poor understanding of mental illness, and that attitude to it is literally life-threatening.

And it is exactly those attitudes that means most people hide the fact that have mental health problems, and/or take anti depressants.

@whatacrap can't say for sure but when I had a period of high anxiety i was prescribed Lustral (sertraline). I was on a very low dosage but within about two weeks I started to feel more rational. I had also been to a few cbt sessions so the combination of both helped me greatly. Within six months I felt normal and within 9 months i had stopped taking them and haven't since - that was over six years ago. BUT i absolutely would if i felt my mental health deteriorating again.

I also believe that diet, exercise and sleep play a huge factor in my mh and know if I've been drinking a bit too much out eating rubbish it affects me. There has been a lot of research to suggest that gut health is linked to mental health (we make way more seratonin in our gut than in our brain) so it might be worth looking at your diet and cutting down things like sugar and caffeine and taking a probiotic too.

Good luck with everything. I hope you start to feel better soon.

My husband takes them and he says a lot of people in his workplace do (male dominated and quite stressful). I don't know any women on them, certainly none that have told me at least.

kaytee87 I had quite severe PND and had CBT. I specifically said I did not want to take antidepressants.

they dispensed 64m of them (but they don't know how many people that many went to, but I'd guess they were split between quite a lot of people, there's only 365 days in a year.

A lot of people just drink alcohol, smoke or take painkillers instead.

I took them they made me feel awful like a giant fog really hazy and tired.
Took up running instead..

I take them. My ex husband has real MH struggles and takes them. My brother takes them. Life can be tough and if they help, whats the harm..

On them now. Fourth or fifth time in my life. Know at least two others mums on them. We all have kids with disabilities.

Yes, for OCD and HA.

I am not entirely sure they actually help anymore. They were a godsend when I first started them 18 years ago and I say they saved my life back then, but even with changing doses and the type of AD they seem to do very little for me now. I will probably come off them soon and continue to use my CBT skills.

I think more people than you think take them but not most and that most of the people that do wouldn’t tell you.

I always think it’s quite interesting that people swear they wouldn’t take them and that they’ve tried but they didn’t work/terrible side effects. These drugs literally save lives. You can’t deny they are scary drugs, not just because of the potential side effects but also because of the stigma. The chemo drugs we use are also very scary. There can be terrible side effects with no guarantees it’ll work or the proposed regime is the best one for you (similarly to ADs) but I’ve never encountered a patient that has turned down anti-cancer treatment because ‘I’d never take them.’ Sometimes I feel we haven’t moved forward in our attitudes to mental health much since the 1800s.

I take them btw and have done for a long time now. I took a short break recently and regretted it in the long run. I’m happy to talk about them and my experience with anybody asks. I don’t care about the stigma.

I take them and many people I know have taken them or do currently.
Sometimes your brain chemistry needs a little boost.

I don't take them but probably should ( long term anxiety ). I'm worried about becoming hooked on them. I know a lot of people who are on them - one of my close friends started on them when going through a bit of trouble with her teenage son , another colleague started taking them when some family drama kicked off. I find it odd that Gp's will start people on drugs at the slightest whiff of a problem but there may be more to it than this although I know both these people quite well.

Nope I've never taken them.

I have never taken anti-depressants, but I have some relatives and friends who do. I dont like taking medication of any sorts, so far I have been lucky and I really didn't need to take much of anything, but if it's needed and it can make me feel better and functioning, I would take it.

WTFdidwedo That is interesting, because the reality is that women are twice as likely to take anti depressants than men are.

Yes, because when I had dc1 I no longer had time to exercise at least once a day to keep depression under control. If I didn't take them I would have continued with my plan to chuck myself off of Beachy Head.

When I had to come off of them towards the end of dc2's pregnancy I didn't go back on them until he was a few months and was again researching tide times. If I didn't take them I wouldn't be here now.

Out of interest, why would you not take them? It's like the stereotype of a man refusing painkillers. I expect to be on them until dc2 is at least 2 and I can exercise more and wean off of them.

I know of more women then men who are taking/have taken them.
However this could be because women are more likely to talk about it.

I have taken them myself in the past and was recently prescribed them again.

Never taken them. Only know of one of my friends who has. Of course others may do without me knowing - none of my business anyway.

MamaLovesMango I know people who have turned down anti cancer treatment and used "natural" methods instead. They both died.

As the stats say it’s somewhere between 1/10 & 1/12 which imo is still a surprisingly large number & says a lot about MH issues in modern society. I’m lucky to have never suffered from depression, but would if I did & empathise with those that need to. I do take other prescription drugs daily (thyroxine- forever).

In answer to the OP though - definitely not most women or men & barely anyone I know, I guess it varies according to who your friends are & just happens you know a lot who do?

Porpentina Women are twice as likely as men to take anti depressants. So if both sexes are equally happy to say this, then you should know twice as many women on average taking anti depressants.