To be shocked the amount of people on antidepressants?

[Hotfuninthesummertime]

I know I'm unreasonable as I've been on them for years. However i work in a very close team and am aware of 10 out of 15 of us being on anti depressants for various reasons or life stressor. I was shocked so many people are being treated but it's so common! Is it more recognised now ? Or overtreated ?

I've been on them since childhood and without them I'm just a mess, but it's madness to me when friends/colleagues go the GP feeling stressed out need a week off work or counselling and come out with a fuck ton of sertaline and diazempam, it's the first port of call and I'm very pro antidepressants, just not because you need a break, iyswim

In my area other forms of help are quite difficult to get… CBT and talking therapies etc.

I first went on them when I was struggling after a traumatic birth. I was treated as though there was something ‘wrong’ with how I was feeling and my mental state, in hindsight I was suffering a perfectly rational and expected reaction to what I’d been put through during childbirth. Some sort of therapy to try and unpack all of that would have probably been more effective. Or better yet if the maternity system was different in the first place and I hadn’t experienced perfectly avoidable trauma like so many other women.

I totally agree with you and I am glad that Dr was so helpful for you.

Yep. Seriously so many people on them. Most probably down to the “mental illness is like a broken leg, your brain is broken rhetoric”, which is of course nonsense.

I am a clin psych and my particular service went very quiet during covid. Many people had better outcomes with their mental health during a time when life’s pressures eased. (Not for all of course, but for many). I would only ever take them if I had a serious tragedy in my life but they would absolutely be the last resort.

I think, sometimes, whatever the tragedy, you do have to just deal with it. Every day, I miss my DH, I have meltdowns, I grieve, but I know that I've got to deal with it.

'Mind numb-ers" won't help, I've got to find a way.

Not everything is helping by suppressing the feelings.

Antidepressants don't numb emotions.

Agree with everyone saying we aren't given time to process big life things. That's often where many other things come in to help us cope.

@JamSandle

It is a known side effect. Even at low doses they can numb you.

That’s how my friend describes them.

@Zebedee55

Wishing you well. I agree with what you’ve said so far. I hope you find the joy again soon, or in fleeting moments. I am certain you will. 💐

I take a ssri, I have taken them previously but short term (around 4 months) twice before.
This time around is different as I had severe untreated depression and anxiety for 3 years before reaching out thinking I was equipped to battle it alone but I would of never of been able to speak to a therapist without the aid of my ssri. I will say they have enabled myself to drag myself out of a very very dark and bleak mental space.
I am well aware that my recovery is 50% the tablet and 50% me chipping away at old thought patterns ect and I have had in-depth conversations with mental health professions about this. That said, I cannot see me not needing them anytime in the near future.
I think I'm in this for the long haul.
It depends on the GP on whether they seem the patient to be depressed enough, I know some people are directed straight to talking therapies etc. So I suspect it's a bit of a post code lottery.

So why do you think depression might be over-diagnosed? Why would your colleagues’ mental health problems be any less genuine than yours?

They are often used for chronic pain and some anti-depressants are currently the goto drugs for treating Long Covid. Also depression to some degree is a common secondary effect of other chronic illnesses. Drs are very willing to offer anti-depressant if they can't offer any meaningful treatment.

Thank you. I'm trying to find my mojo again, but it takes time and it doesn't need anti-Ds.😉

Yes, we're over-treated. I recently read Anatomy of an Epidemic by Robert Whitaker and it was eye-opening.

They can a real bitch to come off, too. I came off an antidepressant last year and had months of debilitating withdrawal symptoms. People don't think about this when they go on them. The drug I was on was too sedating and it was affecting my work and business by making me unproductive. I started making a lot more money once I came off it.

I beg to differ. My experience of being prescribed Sertraline for a few months was that they very much did. I didn’t feel despair or completely overwhelmed at having to make the simplest decision any more, but I didn’t really feel anything. Everything - positive emotion as well as negative - felt at one remove, in a way that it didn’t before or after I was on the a-ds.

DH has finally sought help after many years (we've been together 18 years and it's more far reaching than that) and was offered AD's before seeing the GP face to face or even having standard blood tests run.

FWIW I completely believe he needs them, but I was shocked at the casual ease they were offered. He's recently upped the dose and I expected some challenge (however mild) from the GP, but he didn't bat an eyelid before agreeing.

I don't find they numb me
2 of my pets died while I've been on them and I've definitely felt grief, and love and happiness
For me they stop me having panic attacks, and I don't want to die because I'm so ugly/worthless any more
I've been on and off them since I was 16

Yeah, I've known friends on them. All their emotions were suppressed. Not good really.

Some people really need them - but many don't. It's just become an easy option for sone GPs.

The problems start when people wish to come off of them.

I was prescribed SSRIs for migraines, and didn't get on with them at all. As I wasn't depressed or anxious, I disliked the giddy feeling they gave me, and they didn't seem to help with migraines anyway. Had no guidance whatsoever about coming off them. It was hellish.

Then I was put on escitalopram for a period of acute anxiety and stress, and was very carefully taken through the tapering for coming off them, which was still hideous.

It's very disturbing that they're chucked at patients like sweeties without going into the side effects.

@JamSandle

Antidepressants don't numb emotions.

They did for me, both good and bad emotions. I was like a robot. That was on sertraline.

Yes, I agree it's quite shocking how many people have been prescribed them. Surely we should be trying to address the systemic problems causing our stress and depression-inducing society...but that would be complex and wouldn't make as much money for pharma, so we probably won't bother.

I think they are very over-prescribed. Cheap option rather than dealing with the core problems.

I was prescribed them once after I had some low mood when DD was about 1 and a half. I picked up the prescription, but then also had some phone counselling and the counsellor suggested going for a walk every evening. I started doing that, lost 20lbs and felt so much better and never ended up taking the tablets. Sometimes all someone needs is a little nudge in the right direction from a kind, empathetic person to get the ball rolling. I never forget that kind lady and if I ever get low these days I start up the walks again.

Because its easier, cheaper, and less of an inconvenience for doctors to just chuck pills at someone rather than invest time in that person and find the root cause of their problem and how to help them.

Because mental health services in this country are over-subscribed, an abomination and, frankly, unfit for purpose.

Life is more chaotic, busy and stressful, and people need something to help them cope. In the UK, minimum wage is not enough to live on, and people need to work every hour they can to make ends meet. Thus having very little time to rest.

A lot of young people think they have failed in life because they don't have a six-figure salary, the body of a model, a perfect family by 25, etc, thanks to social media.

Just a few reasons I can think of.

Been on antidepressants for 10 years.