Why are people normalising antidepressants?!

[mumyes]

Just watched yet another reel on Instagram about "the thugs that make me happy"...coffees with friends, downtime, fresh air...and my antidepressants.

It feels like the entire world thinks it's normal to take them.

I am in no way judging those who do, it just feels bloody tragic that life is so shit for so many people that this is now becoming what seems like the norm.

Lessen stress on people, pay them more, treat workers better.

Oh no, let's treat people like shit & shovel pills into them so they don't care.

Surely this is not a good thing.

Do they? How many doctors rooms have you sat in?

They make me "normal"
I've been on and off a low dose since I was about 16. Basically they stop me lying on the floor wondering how to live and help me function without panic attacks, generalised anxiety and depression
They make me more likely to be able to eat well and exercise which in turn helps me feel better too

You are really asking if we should normalize treating a health problem?

Do you have any problem with people normalizing insulin for people with type 1 diabetes? Normalizing plaster casts for broken legs?

As someone who has struggled with my MH for over 20 years, I’m glad we are slowly normalising MH issues. It used to be a huge secret for me, and even now I still get looks and side glances off certain people, who think ‘oh you’re crazy’ or ‘you’re a psycho’ etc. if youre brave enough to admit you have a MH illness. If you’re on antidepressants, or any other MH medication, you’re not abnormal either. You wouldn’t call out an asthmatic for normalising the use of inhalers.

You’ve misunderstood me. I think that alternative, efficacious treatments should be offered rather than ADs alone/ alongside them where necessary. Sometimes it seems ADs are first line treatment (speaking from experience)

Exactly. They prevent depression - the clue is in the name! If they made you happy then they'd be called 'euphorics' and would almost certainly be illegal!

There are other options to explore if antidepressants are not what the patient wants or don't work for them.

So I think patients are free to explore these.

Cousin is school psychologist and is also concerned at how many teens are being prescribed anti-depressants as first port of call. OP has a valid point.

I also wonder would you say why we as a society normalise the contraceptive pill for example?

Youve clearly never been through the UK NHS mental healthcare system.

I was going to say, it took me a long time to get a prescription. So im not convinced that GPS everywhere throw them out like skittles. That must surely depend on the surgery and the GP.

Er no. You find out the cause of the pain and try and treat that.

Same. It’s taken years of too and fro, therapists, physicians, phycologists, CBT, hospital admissions, I’ve had to push and push to get the help I need, and I’m still not ‘fixed’ and probably never will be.

This tbh. Though mine manifested more as anxiety. The antidepressants knock down the anxiety to the point that I can function normally and not be massively snappy and grumpy at my family. Not have an emotional breakdown because I forgot something, or went the wrong way, tell my husband I feel like I want to "rip my own face off" because I chose the wrong colour drawers etc. In hindsight, I've always been like it. Undiagnosed ADHD didn't help.

I feel more like a grown up, more able to cope with life's ups and downs.

I take thyroxine every day for my dodgy hormones, B12 every 8 weeks because I can't absorb it, and sertraline because I can't regulate my stress responses. C'est la vie.

Because depression often isn’t about life circumstances. If you look at my life, it looks great. Not perfect but I’m paid a lot, live in a lovely flat, great parents, etc. But I’m just starting to rally after over a year of every day thinking it’d be better to die.

Incidentally, I’m not on antidepressants but that’s because I’ve never found the right one. If I could, I would. And I definitely could have done with some this time last year.

Exactly. This is what I meant.

But they don't treat depression do they? They mask it.

Actually, I have. Been sectioned multiple times, lots of hospital admissions, lots of pills, lots of therapy, many years in the mental health care system.

Because taking antidepressants is normal. Why would it be ok to take insulin because your body doesn't produce the amounts your need, but not take antidepressants even though your brain doesn't produce the chemicals you need. It doesn't make sense.

And this

I think anti-depressants are over prescribed.. in my case I was b12 deficient - but rather than investigate it - I was offered anti-d's for a good 10 years - took a lot of 'fighting' to get the right treatment - a lot of people need b12 - but it is cheap - and big pharma does not make profit on it - so it is massively under diagnosed and treated.

I found out after changing GP's - that my previous 2 GPs got kick backs for giving AD's.. so interesting that they chose the route of offering those rather carrying out proper diagnostics.

There is quite a lot of research that depression does stem in the main from people having lives that don't meet their needs it is very rarely a chemical imbalance.

I'm not sure what you mean by this?

Thats like saying antihistamines mask allergies. The person may have allergies for life. Likewise they may have depression for life.

The medicine allows a person to live there life without the depression (or in my example the allergy) as a block.

It worries me how quickly people are given antidepressants. I've never known anyone (me included) that had anything more than a 10 min consultation with a GP to be given them.

And that's exactly what happens already.

GP's don't just chuck pills at you and tell you to fuck off. I was offered all sorts of other help and support - but I didn't feel able to access any of it without taking the pills first 🤷🏻‍♀️

no, they aren't like energy pills, almost the opposite.
With the caveat that antidepressants, like any other medication, affect different people differently and results/side effects vary depending on individual hormones, strength of the antidepressants, mixture with other medication etc.

GENERALLY antidepressants in small-moderate doses 'take the edge off' or try to bring someone suffering with depression/anxiety to a moderate keel, i.e. so they react in a 'normal' or 'appropriate' way (i.e. within the standard range, or basically the way someone not suffering with depression/anxiety would) to circumstances. So, for example, when I was suffering something really quite minor like forgetting to pick up milk from the shops would have me in tears. When the antidepressants kicked in I would react 'normally' or proportionately to that - i.e. mild annoyance. It wouldn't stop me feeling at all, just would stop me 'over-feeling.' You still have your feelings, they are just more proportionate and you can manage them better. However very high doses of antidepressants can basically mask your feelings too much so you almost don't feel anything - that's why there is sometimes the stereotype of someone being 'spaced out' on high doses. Similar with the side effects, because they 'reduce' emotions some people find their creativity is stifled, or sex drive is lowered etc.

Plus as other posters have said, most people needing antidepressants also do some/all of the non-medicinal treatments (exercise, socialising, therapy, etc.) too.
In exactly the same way as if you were recovering from heart surgery you'd be encouraged to eat well, take light exercise when appropriate etc. but it would be IN ADDITION to taking all your medication, not as a replacement!