to think that the concept of post natal depression is overused?

[moondog]

HOW COME WOMEN HAVE TO HAVE A LABEL (sorry) for so many things?

PMS
AND
PND
Menopausal
OCD
Passive/Aggressive

It seems that the concept of being low/cross/nasty/bitchy/tired/worn out is positively old fashined.

I think tiredlady's post is very interesting.

I do wonder moondog why you went for PND rather than depression.

No reason Madonna.
Perhaps because it is an acronym and these seem very much in evidence these days in all spheres.

Be disingenuous all you like OP, but to sneer at those conditions and say they are overused is ignorant.

You are neither a health professional nor someone who has suffered a real depressive condition, so a DM stylee dig at women who do is both deeply msogynistic and lacking in compassion at the very least.

And to coat it with a sugar coating of suggesting its all too overdiagnosed now is offensive. You might do well do consider how underdiagnosed it has been in the past.

I'm all for treating people with depression!

" think we live in a time when we no longer accept deep melancholy and really quite severe distress as being within the normal range of human experience."

And that was always a good thing? How many of those people who "accepted" that as part of normal human experience went on to either lose someone close to them through suicide or kill themselves?

I my (limited) experience women would much rather be considered "a bit low" than admit to being treated for depression - there is still (in my circles) a huge stigma to mental illness.

Have never come across anyone claiming to have OCD who didn't very visibly have it.

Perhaps I live in a bubble?

well said, MillyR.

"suck it up" as a response rather lacks the qualities of a civilised society.

Has that point been made MadameD? About overofficious prescribers? Or is it a question of the most effective treatment? As I read tiredlady's post, she is suggesting that for many people, there are other approaches that would be very helpful, but are sidelined owing to a 'depression - take anti-depressants' view.

Moondog, why did you include OCD in your list. It has nothing to do with being low/cross/nasty/bitchy/worn out or tired. Does it just fit your list of imaginary phsyciatric disorders?

Interesting thread, and I think Tiredlady has some good points.

In RL people, myself included, tend to run a mile from discussing their own mental health diagnoses, are you thinking on MN/media take on mental health or real life conversations MD?

In terms of OCD, are you thinking of throway comments - I'm a bit OCD about handwashing/cleaning, or that it is overdiagnosed by medical professionals?

I wonder if this is itself related to the stigma around mental health issues. Anti-depressants are a medicine, and a chemical imbalance is an ilness, whereas a talking therapy is a much less medicalised thing in public perception perhaps?

I don't think it is a case of someone has a bad life so they should get therapy rather than anti-depressants. Anti-depressants may help lift someone enough that they can then benefit from therapy and make changes to their life. Of course there are other people who will not benefit from anti-depressants.

exactly Milly - when XH was on the psych ward for those 3 weeks he had medication and other "therapy"

I agree TFM, there are other options which are v. useful. But there is a point where depression becomes an entrenched physiological condition...the body's chemistry is altered. Therefore a chemical rebalance is needed.

But I do believe the OP feels that other therapies are pointless nonsense too. I am loath to refer to other posts on other threads, but in this instance I think it pertinent. Moondog has at least once said she believes talking therapies to be self indulgent nonsense.

But I am prepared to be corrected on this, if I misinterpreted her.

But isn't there a sidelining of non-drug therapies? How many people are able to access them? I'm sure I've read something about this.

How do yuo mean 'throaway comments' TC?

It is the linguistic phenomenon of giving a name/label to something that interests me, something that hitherto perhaps did not have a specific label but was refereed to descriptively.

but I should add the various "groups" offered by the OT department weren't offered/used until the psychological state of the people using them had improve enough to for them to be able to benefit from them.

I grew up with a wonderful mother whom I still love dearly, but there is no doubt that she went through at least one period of severe depression. These days, she would have been given medication or therapy; in other words, her problems would have been dealt with, at least to some extent, outside the home. In those days, admitting that you had a mental health problem was an extremely shameful thing to do- so instead we children were left to watch in bewilderment as our mum started to behave increasingly oddly and noone would explain to us what was going on. As the OP likes to see, the problem was dealt with by empathy from the family, mainly that of her young daughter.

I wish the OP would explain to me what the advantage of this was. From my point of view, I mean.

MDF,many talking therapies are ineffectual.
Some aren't, or are at least more clinically effective than others.

CBT
ACT (yielding some spectacular results actually)
It wouldn't really be a rational state of affairs to go around the place going
'Yaaaay, talking therapies are great!' without ensuring they undergo proper scientific scrutiny.

MD - I suppose by throwaway comments I was getting at the difference between someone labelling themselves, possibly semi-jokingly, as having OCD and someone having a diagnosis from a consultant psychiatrist.

Total, I would agree with other posters that many people suffering from depressive illnesses are the last ones to recognise the problem they have, in RL. In terms of the media, there are other agendas at play as we all know. the DM for example would probably have you believe that the entire UK is peopled by hysterics (mostly women) draining the NHS resources of funds to get over their unhappiness at the death of their budgie

MN I think is an interesting place because I think it provides a space for people to actually acknowledge how bad they might be feeling, which they might be loath to do in real life.

But most people who suffer from depression aren't treated as inpatients. Or are affected as your H was Toccata.

I don't know. But a 5 minute consultation, a tick-box diagnosis of depression and a prescription for ADs doesn't necessarily add up to a helpful intervention IME. And that is the sum total of the intervention for the majority of the people I know who have been affected by depression.

I see what you mean.
I would refer to myself jokingly about being 'OCD' about housework and order, it's true.

well you'd better go and tell the psych unit in the next time they're wasting their time then with all of the things they offer to their in-patients (oh and out-patients for 4 weeks after discharge - after that they're "on their own").

TC, the normalising of the terms such as OCD does result in its use in way which does not actually refer to that illness.

But I think it no bad thing that there is a greater awareness of it.

For example, if I say I am really anal about cleaning my bathroom, I don't expect people to assume I am clinically anally retentive...

It becomes a handy phrase.

Does that doe a disservice to those with OCD disorders who seek help? I wouldn't imagine so.