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?

The stigma is the number of people who are saying not for me, I'd never take them. Or 'I don't take tablets' like it's a badge of honour.

I take it if they were diagnosed with diabetes they'd say 'no, no insulin for me. I'd never take it'. Or if they had a heart attack it would be 'thank-you but no life-saving aspirin, I don't take tablets'.

People with depression, anxiety disorders or whatever that have needed antidepressants aren't weak in that they need to take these tablets, it wasn't a choice for them. They just drew a different straw in life.

Great for you that you don't take tablets - but watch out. My DM went from taking none to 62 a day overnight when she developed a medical condition out of the blue. It shows nothing about you that you don't take a paracetamol much.

Never took them and I only know of 2 others that have.

I personally wouldn’t take them either.

TBH I used to say I didn't take tablets. That is easy to say when all you have ever had is the occasional stomach ache or period pain. Then I got really ill and realised how stupid my attitude had been.

"Just treat the symptoms". Yes, antidepressants do treat the symptoms of various conditions, sure they do. Many medications treat symptoms. What is the problem with that? One of the potential symptoms of depresion is suicidal thoughts, so that needs treating, and urgently. In some cases the antidepressants will also be treating the underlying cause/s of the condition, in some cases other treatments (such as psychotherapy etc) may be needed for that.

Treating symptoms of other conditions doesn't receive disappoval. You have a broken leg, the analgesia doesn't heal the bone, the cast does that. Do you refuse the analgesia? You have morning sickness, the ginger biscuit treats the symptom, it doesn't remove the pregnancy. Do you eschew the biscuit? You have Type 1 diabetes. No amount of insulin is going to take away the diabetes, but it will stop you from suffering the fatal symptoms of it. Do you refuse the insulin?

What is wrong with treating synptoms of mental illnesses?

I take them. No one but my husband and parents know - I don't tell anyone, because of attitudes like the ones displayed by some posters on this thread. The world and his wife know I'm on inhalers for asthma, so I assume most people think I'm very open about my medical history and thus assume they would know if I was taking anything else. They wouldn't, and don't.

The tablets I take are Citalopram. It's a very low dose (20mg). When I first started taking them they made me feel weird, but that feeling faded after 2-3 weeks and now I just feel normal. I have put on weight over the years but I am unsure whether this is due to the medication or being in my 40's

I haven't, I have male and female friends that do or have. Everyone deals with depression/anxiety/feeling low in different ways. My way is to exercise because it clears my head, others antidepressants or anti anxiety.

Don't feel it makes anyone less of a person by taking them, in fact I applaud them for getting what they need.

I haven't ever taken them. I have certainly struggled with mild depression at various times, but not serious enough to need medication. If I needed medication to function, I would certainly take it.

I know a few friends, colleagues and family members who have taken anti-depressants at various times in their lives. I'm sure that there are more people who have taken them that I don't know about. I'm not sure that it's most women though.

I know a lot of women who are taking them or have taken them in the past. Not 'most' women, but I'd estimate around 50%.

I believe that some people (me included) have low serotonin levels. Ive been on a low dose anti-depressant for years. I'm absolutely fine, but when I come off it the 'black cloud' creeps back, even though I'm in a good place and have no reason to be depressed.

Just to be clear, it is NOT most women, or most people. Somewhere between five and ten percent in Western countries.

All those people who "Don't know anyone that takes them" - that's what you think. You'd be very surprised.

Just reat the symptoms gets wheeled out over many illnesses, not just antidepressants.

Don't take painkillers - I don't want to mask the pain. Nobody cares about masking the pain, you are rolling around in agony, just take some painkillers. There are no prizes for being in pain.

Chemo doesn't treat the root causes - have you got a degree in pharmaco-oncology? Also, if your other choice is death, perhaps now is not the time to be arguing? But your choice.

Antidepressants don't treat the root cause. But what is the root cause of depression? We don't all have to be psycho-analysed about something that happened in our childhoods. Sometimes it is just a difference in our brain chemistry which anti-depressants do treat, given I can't have someone change my brain genetics.

The stigma is the number of people who are saying not for me, I'd never take them. Or 'I don't take tablets' like it's a badge of honour.

That's just projecting. Nobody on this thread has sounded like it's a badge of honour. Neither has anyone said we shouldn't treat mental illnesses with medication.

I'm on blood pressure tablets long-term. Not many people know that, because I have no need to tell them. Yes, mental illness and depression used to be something you didn't talk about, and it's great that this is changing if that helps people. But tbh, I'm struggling to think of that many medical conditions I'd actually particularly want to discuss with anyone but close family.

I think the people saying 'I don't know anyone who takes them' are saying exactly that. They are saying that 'they don't know anyone who takes them'. A factual statement. They are not making any comment about whether the people they know are simply concealing the fact that they do.

Also, many posters are responding to the 'Id never take them' posts with 'well, would you not take pain killers (etc) then?' Well, no, lots of people do not want to take pain killers, eg in child birth. That is their choice.

I take them and I could count on both hands the amount of others I know who have or still are taking them..

In some cases antidepressant medication may be treating the cause, in some cases not. It's a valid and potentially lifesaving treatment in both these scenarios.

No. I only know a couple, a few, out of the many many women that I know.

I always hope that they will only be on them short term, not long term.

I would never take them again. For me, the aren't as effective as long term therapy (not 6 measly weeks of cbt) and hard exercise.
I'm happier living with stable high anxiety and the black dog than risk the fog, sleepy-head and hyper effects of anti-D's. I tried several and none of them do me any good.

I haven’t, and I know of one person who has.

That doesn’t mean that most people I know don’t take them as I think kosher people don’t talk about it.

I would take them if I needed them. I think people that say they ‘won’t take medication’ are slightly ridiculous. You don’t get a medal for suffering. Take a painkiller, take antidepressants, take whatever you need to feel better.

OP, this thread made me think of this, which you might like:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=OG6HZMMDEYA

(It's a song from 'Crazy Ex-Girlfriend' essentially about how common taking antidepressants is )

I take them because without them I want to die. I don't have side effects or feel like a zombie, I just feel human. I know two other women who do and one man.

Im actually surprised people feel just because they take them everyone else who is depressed should.

Not at all. It’s a choice and it always should be, as with any illness. However, there’s a lot of educating to be done around treatments of mental health disorders and many people don’t know the facts. It’s a myth too that only those with depression take medication. I don’t have depression, I have other disorders that might present with symptoms of depression but I don’t have clinical depression.

Yes, antidepressants do treat the symptoms of various conditions, sure they do. Many medications treat symptoms. What is the problem with that?
I'd assume that the poster meant that it's like sticking a plaster over a bleeding wound - you're stopping the immediate urgent issue but you're not sorting it long-term. It'll still bleed unless you clean & stitch it. Some people just need a plaster so that they can heal, some people need stitches and sticking a plaster on masks that need. Equally some people use the plaster to help them get to a place where they can have stitches. One size doesn't fit all and handing out pills without looking to address the cause isn't that much more helpful long-term than doing nothing.

I definitely don't think most women take them, or ever have. I know two who have (or one of those might be anti-anxiety medication). Most people simply never need them, but would take them like a shot if they did - the only context you might keep quiet about it is in your workplace.

I think it's all a bit moot really, in the nicest possible way, mental health is such a huge stigma socially and professionally, nobody is reliably going to know how many of their acquaintances or close friends even, take them. It's not as though you can tell when someone is .
For what it's worth, statistically we rank highly as a country for AD use, so of course a reasonable % of peopke will take them. From a personal perspective (from them having directly told me) I know several people who have been or do take them. Case in point though, I have a very good friend who I've known a decade who recently disclosed she's been on them for most of that time and feels they allow her the ability to function, I had no idea as she's never mentioned it. You really have no idea. I have taken them myself and only happened to mention it to a few people, nobody else knew.

It's also worth mentioning that, as with many medicines, certain Ad's have many off label uses as effective treatments for physical health conditions, which is why I took one as it happens. Some very odd attitudes and judgement on this thread about medication and what it says about the kind of person. Mental health is no different to physical health. No medication is risk or side effect free, and I say that as someone who takes several.