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 see a lot of medical histories in my working day and yes anti depressants are very very common

personally I think it’s often a quick fix - easier for the GP to prescribe than to sort out other ways of dealing with issues -
I say that as someone who had PND after baby and the speed at which I was offered drugs ‘to cope’ shocked me as I knew all I needed was time and practical help ( I refused the meds)
but offering drugs was quick and easy - I felt like they were just fobbing me off

I'm on them and have been since January due to dreadful anxiety most likely caused by perimenopause. I can honestly say they have really helped me find some head space and feel more on top of things. The knot of anxiety in my stomach has gone. I'm happier. Exercising more. Doing more with my children. Not as angry. I am incredibly grateful to have been given them and to feel so much better.

I feel like part of it is spending the majority of our waking hours in an environment where you're necessarily self conscious as a lot of jobs require you to project the right image to progress. Certainly in most office jobs.

Some people thrive on this but others like myself find it tiring despite me being a sociable person in general. It's fine when I feel genuine but I hated having to smile and chif chat in an office on days I didn't feel like it. Making appearances and all that.

I'm much happier in the construction industry driving trucks and doing stuff onsite. Physically tiring due to always being on the move but not in a way that destroys the body like continuous heavy lifting. I feel like that kind of tiredness can be healthy as I really find it easy to relax afterwards, unlike mental tiredness which can lead me to stray into negative thinking.

So many people spend most of their time being pretty sedentary but nonetheless continually preoccupied with phonecalls, emails, meetings, project planning etc. I don't think that's really good for you. I was stressed af when I was a bid manager.

Let’s hear it Amitriptyline! Perhaps you made me bleed 10 days apart to the point I nearly fainted in Iceland. Let’s hear it again!!

In response to 'how quickly' antidepressants are offered... Depression and anxiety can spiral out of control very quickly to the extent that making a GP apt is beyond people.

There are also regular threads on MN of people saying 'my gp prescribed me antidepressants and they're not helping', and the advice is always to see the GP again.

I don't think my PND would have been severe enough to put me into hospital had I had more practical help, but I didn't and it did, and antidepressants kept me from becoming that I'll again.

I came off this because I couldn't stay away. Sure a full night's sleep was great, but it was frustrating falling asleep at 2pmp every single day.

And they took me off Nortriptyline because it made me suicidal. Urgh.

But therapy would have taken time.

and you were a mother with PND

so a quick and easy fix - seemed bloody sensible to me.

Whilst anyone can have horrific problems caring is a low paid profession, which in turn brings stress. What sort of partners do your colleagues have, is it likely they also have low paying jobs?

With low pay comes the very big chance of poorer housing which has a major affect on MH. Also care work is often shift work, doing years of night shifts actually shortens people’s life spans. Being poor and not being able to feel fully part of society, scrimping for school shoes, worry about bills, no treats.

This could explain why the number is so high in your workplace.

I was on meds when my child died. I hated the way they made me feel. I ended up having therapy a mixture of private and NHS, the private therapy was £50 PH. I had 5 years in total and my MH team agreed I could come off all meds.

I also think many women are on meds because men make them miserable and they are trapped due to economic reasons and as you are in a Caring profession I bet the majority of your colleagues are women.

I was offered them for chronic pain, awful things, never worked and I felt like my brain had been removed and flushed down the toilet.

Amitriptyline is the work of the devil.

I think it can also be the struggle of coming off antidepressants once you are on then.

I was prescribed sertraline when I was in an awful relationship and riddled with anxiety. It helped me find the headspace I needed to leave and get back to a good place, but then there was the worry of how much of that 'good place' was the drug propping me up and the fear of my mental health falling apart it I tapered off it. I did in the end (and am absolutely fine), but I stayed on it for probably 2 years longer than I needed to.

I think it’s seen as a quick fix, especially for women. I went to my doctor multiple times with symptoms and always got told I was depressed and ended up on them for 20 years. I didn’t feel depressed but assumed the doctor knew better. Turns out I was autistic and no one had really taken note of what I was telling them but just made assumptions. I feel quite angry I was on them for 20 years and didn’t actually need them.

I cam off them at Christmas and have realised they weren’t needed at all.

So you came off at Christmas and… what happened?

@OwlRightThen

given the suicide rate amongst men is very substantially higher than for women…

@Passionfruitroulade Well it wasn’t much fun, the withdrawal was horrendous and made me see why so many people stay on them.

But nothing has happened. I came off them, no depressive thoughts or feeling low. All of my symptoms weren’t depression they were my autistic brain that struggled with situations and thinks a certain way, I just didn’t know that. Now I do and I’m learning how to navigate being neurodiverse not depressed

When were you diagnosed?

I've often thought about trying them but 1) I haven't got a very good GP and 2) I'm worried I won't come off them. So I struggle on. I know I shouldn't.

I went on setraline

no biggie
thankfully no side effects
But a definite positive uplift

i have zero problem with being on them for life

My mum is on them. Only 1 of my work colleagues is on them that I know of, of course some others might be and haven't shared.

Never been on them myself.

Society is stressful and shit for women in a patriarchal misogynistic world.

I've taken them for years.

Women uses to take valium to cope with the crap just because they were born women.

Men have a much much higher suicide rate than women

so could be argued even worse for them!

Same! I was prescribed sertraline last year and I took it for a month. The side effects weren’t great. I had awful heart burn and I needed omeprazole to combat that. I had a lightbulb moment where I realised I was going to end up medicating problems that never existed before the sertraline. Nausea was also terrible.

i can occasionally be very very anxious and I don’t get why doctors won’t prescribe Valium.

I've been on them for 17 years, whenever i try and wean myself off I become very depressed and suicidal! They have no bad side effects for me so im just going to keep on taking them.

l9 September 2022: males (78%) females (22%)

suicide

I agree that the 'mental illness is just like physical illness' rhetoric is really unhelpful.

Mental illness is almost always a response to some external factor. The evidence base for antidepressants is very poor, but I guess everyone's looking for an easy fix and there is a bizarre amount of faith in pharma.