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've taken them before when I became severely depressed after my mother died. I'd seriously struggle to go back on them again; the citalopram family of drugs in particular being impossible for me. It has a soporific effect, leaves me permanently exhausted, and when I'm on Citalopram I have to sleep for two hours in the afternoon just to be able to function. Sertraline has the same effect; marginally less so but bad enough. In the meantime, just like everyone else I have to continue working and parenting.

I don't know what I'd do if ever I got to the point of needing such medication again. I'd probably have to suck it up and ride it through, or hope I never again get sick with depression. Neither option seems too appealing to me.

I've been prescribed them on and off.
For pain, for sleep, for depression, for anxiety.
I know a lot of people who are on them but I wonder whether this is because I am honest about being on them so they feel able to talk openly, or because birds of a feather flock together.

I am and so are half my female friends.

Not unreasonable. OP I would be interested in knowing where you live (big city, town, north, south etc)

Hi @whatacrapusername2306 I only got as far as your post so apologies if you’ve had lots of answers. I’ve got GAD and OCD (diagnosed by a psychiatrist*). Initially when I was diagnosed I was on 60mg of fluoxetine (‘Prozac’), which I believe is quite a high/maybe the highest dose, and felt amazing, best I’ve ever felt. ATM because I’m breastfeeding I’m on 40mg citalopram. Not as good for me personally but still much better than nothing IYKWIM. I think it’s a case of different medications work for different people. Unfortunately it can take a couple of weeks to start noticing the effects and you can feel worse before you feel better

I take them, as do many of my friends. They've helped me so much and I can't imagine what a wreck I would have been for years without them. I had quite severe anxiety and depression starting from a young age.

I don't plan on taking them the rest of my life. I feel like I've improved, but when I made the decision to TTC both my psychiatrist and my obstetrician told me to continue taking them. They told me Prozac is one of the safest for pregnancy, and if it has been working for me, then the benefit outweighs the low risk. If my depression and anxiety come back when my hormones are all over the place, then that's no good for the foetus because of elevated stress.

Jambalaya it's that weird feeling that stops me because that first citalopram (and last) scared me ... I thought I'd end up in the psychiatric ward ... no way could I stand to feel like that for more than a day, never mind 3 weeks. It's a real shame because I've had hardly any life for the past 12 years and if these tablets were easily tolerated to begin with, I'd be on them no problem ... wish there was one with no side effects

People may think isn't it worth going through it for 2 or 3 weeks, but when you have severe anxiety and every tiny symptom brings on sheer panic, it's not an option that I can consider

I’ve been on anti-depressants for nearly 12 years, a number of my close friends are on them or have been at some point but I also know a couple of men who have as well. Definitely wouldn’t say the majority of women but it is getting more common.

A poster upthread mentioned that they were unsurprised by the uptake of ads because life is pretty shit. The thing about mental illness is that for some people it doesn't really matter how good or shit life is. When i became ill I was the happiest I had ever been. I was in a fantastic , loving relationship. I had a small child who was easy to care for. No work worries...no money worries... no adverse childhood experiences....good friends. But out of the blue i stopped sleeping the insomnia meant i became anxious and it spiralled. I had a chemical imbalance in my brain. The ads corrected the imbalance and i had cbt for the insomnia.

We cant view depression and anxiety and their treatments as a one size fits all. Each person's experience of mental illness is unique to them and needs a bespoke recovery pathway.

I have been on antidepressants for around 7 years, with a couple of unsuccessful breaks. I'm not sure I could quite say that they've saved my life, but they have definitely saved my marriage and my relationship with my children. They make me... not exactly want to live, but feel ok about living. I can sometimes enjoy being alive, whereas before it was like constant torture.

When I first took them, no one knew except my husband. Not friends, not close family. It was only when I needed some time off work that i was forced to be a bit more open about it.

The people saying that they would never take ADs may not mean to imply any kind of stigma, but they do make it sound as though treatment for mental illness is optional, in a way that it wouldn't be for physical illness. I was very resistant to taking medication at first. I believed very strongly that I wasn't I'll, there was nothing wrong with me except that I was a useless failure who couldn't cope with life. I 'knew' that everyone felt the same as me, that it was perfectly normal, but everyone else just pulled themselves together and got on with it. Those people saying they'd never take ADs take me back to that time and I begin to think that I'm one of the weaker ones, that I failed at life because I couldn't get by without tablets. That I should just do better.

I know that isn't the intention. I know that my thinking is still a bit disordered because of the depression, which - of course - makes me prone to interpreting things in a negative way. I'm just trying to explain why people like me might feel prickly at the statement "I would never take ADs"

People saying that they know no one on them are delusional.

Prescribing isn't uniform around the UK the map shows the variations in England with perscribed anti depressants.

If you’re in an area with low prescription rates combined and in an age or social group with low levels you could easily not know anyone taking them– though I agree people may not “know” either.

I do know women who have taken them though never myself.

At least one was wrongly prescribed – assumed pnd actually thyroid issues and that had gone on nearly 2 years with resulting complications before it was picked up.

I have taken them. I don't think 'most', but I reckon probably about a fifth of the adult population either takes them or has taken them at some point, given the prevalence of depression. To the person who doesn't know anyone who takes or has taken them, you definitely do. They are very common and people wouldn't necessarily tell you they were on them. I told very few people and I don't tell people when I have taken an aspirin either.

I must say I was okay on them but was very relieved to stop taking them, even though my moods were worse. I can't explain why. It wasn't side effects, but I somehow didn't feel right on them. This was fluoxetine.

I don't think there's any way to treat the root cause of my depression. It was there when I was tiny and has been there no matter my life situation. As I said, the only thing that 'fixed' it was exercise at least once per day (Sunday's off and I'd feel terrible by the evening, Saturday run, Tue and Thu twice per day, M/W/F three times a day) or Sertraline. None of those are fixing whatever is causing the problem, they're just minimising the symptoms enough that I can ignore them.

Some people are just depressed, there's nothing 'wrong', it's just how they're built. I imagine in the past they would just top themselves TBH.

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 absolutely agree that all treatments have to be very much tailored to the individual person and their condition, but sometimes you do have to treat symptoms of a condition acutely, even if the treatment of symptoms does not immediately remove the root causes of the condition. The type of conditions that antidepressants are used to treat typically require various forms of treatment (as for many medical conditions), but sometimes treating acute symptoms is the immediate priority. That doesn't mean you don't look at treating causes as well. Using the sticking plaster analogy, if you are bleeding to death, you are not going to cure the cut by putting on a bandage, but the bandage might enable you to survive long enough to get to the hospital for the stitches...no-one is going to say you must choose between the bandage and the stitches

I have never taken antidepressants before and don't think I would do so. What I have done is engaged in psychological therapy which was really helpful.

When I was suicidally depressed I needed the anti-depressants just to get me to the stage where I could benefit from therapy. And once the therapy the ADs had helped me to recover to the stage where I no longer needed them, then just self-care & running were enough.

But if I was ever bad enough to need the pills again I’d be on them like a shot.

I take them
No shame here 😊
I’d rather not..but hey they make me,me !

I've never taken them but was thinking similar recently actually, loads of people do seem to take thm and I had no idea :(

they do make it sound as though treatment for mental illness is optional, in a way that it wouldn't be for physical illness Yes, this is the tome that I found worrying on this thread

People saying that they know no one on them are delusional.

People who think they know everything about the friends of a stranger on the internet are delusional. In any case, as has already been pointed out, most people saying they don't know anyone on anti ds probably means they are not aware of anyone they know being on them. Or that their really close friends definitely aren't.

Years ago I went to the doctors saying I was having trouble sleeping, and he gave me anti-depressants. The cause was physical, and cleared up after a time. I never took the pills.

I take them.🙋 Have done for nearly a decade. But very very few people know. I told one close friend only recently who was shocked.

'But you're such a cheerful person' she said.

Yup. That's because I take my medication! Without it I would be unrecognisable. Most people I see daily are not aware. I think a lot of people who take them keep that information private.

thank you bigkiteflying

I know most of my circle of friends and most of my colleagues take them. Eight out of 10 good friends and 6 out of 11 colleagues.

Gummy yy I agree that myself and siblings were able to use counselling as we had situational depression rather than a chemical imbalance.

My mum was on them most of her life and now my brother is. So in a roundabout way I'm very against them.
Feels that my whole life, they have ruled it as my mum's moods were all over the place and I can't help feeling that I would be judged for taking them.
'She's turned into her mum', kind of judgement.
So I'd rather use exercise and wild camping to sort my sh!t out.
No offense to anyone who feels they help. But they should always be for short term use.
They become a crutch otherwise.

I've never taken them but I do like exercise which is meant to do the same thing