Anxiety around current medication talk

[dangermouseisace]

There’s a thread on here, but it’s everywhere.

I’ve been waiting a long time for aGP appt. My reducing medication has not worked. I am not functioning in day to day life.

I’m anxious that when I finally get my appointment I’ll be told to “do some exercise” (already do) or something due to the current anti depressants do nothing discourse. I’m dragging myself through each day and failing at everything. If I am dismissed as there’s nothing wrong I don’t know what I’ll do. As in I don’t know what to do. I’m already panicking.

I feel the same

I can understand this would be worrying. But the media have twisted the study really. It wasn't designed to show the efficacy of antidepressants and that they don't do anything. It looked at whether depression is caused by a lack of serotonin or not, and concluded that it isnt. But that doesn't mean that increasing levels of serotonin through medication isn't beneficial in treating it.

I would hope that GPs would still support medication, it works for so many people (myself included).

I’ve read that thing, it sounds like a right load of tosh. There’s no talk about brain inflammation which anti depressants help with.

One if these things come out every year or so then due a death. They always seem to be supported by people who haven’t had to take them.

They have a ‘placebo’ effect but work for 2/3 of the huge worldwide population with the leading cause of disability in the world? Some bloody placebo.

They will have to force my Venlafaxine from my dying hands.

The 'chemical imbalance causing depression theory' was first debunked back in the 1990s - and regularly since - and nothing has changed so I doubt the most recent findings will make any difference. Bear in mind that 100% of drug trials in the UK are funded by pharmaceutical companies and the antidepressant market is a multi billion $ industry worldwide. Nothing will change until the next wonder drug is discovered.

Don't worry. If your ADs make you feel better, and your life is a much lower quality without them, you won't have them taken away from you.

Solidarity to fellow worriers. It’s not that the medication will be taken away, I think I need something re-introduced or increased.

there’s so much of this, “it’s a normal response, eat decent food, do exercise, talk” stuff going around. As if nobody does that! I don't think people remember that in the past people like us languished in institutions.

@dangermouseisace

It depends on the situation, depression and anxiety can be a normal response, it can be caused by factors we can alter and some people do not help themselves BUT for others they have tried the self help and talking therapy approach and need medication in addition. We aren't all the same so there mustn't be a singular approach.

Take a friend of mine, her work told her to go to the doctor for meds because she was depressed - she was grieving the loss of both her parents in quick succession, it was very much a natural response (she's ok now, what she needed was a short course of grief counselling, doctor offered meds, she refused). Everyone else in my household is on antidepressants so there was much discussion over dinner last night.

Let’s face it. The NHS isn’t going to give us all access to high level talking therapies. CBT is a bit of a hit and Miss and doesn’t suit everyone. It failed 3 times for me.

And as the NHS is on its knees, l think they will be giving us pills for a long more time. They’re cheap after all.

pills shouldn’t be prescribed for grief, or instead of therapy (although they are).

I’ve had a fair bit of talking therapy over the years (I’m fortunate in that aspect), as well as CBT. Which has helped me emotionally but does nothing for the physical/cognitive side of depression/anxiety.

What has been said?

People are interpreting a study saying SSRI’s don’t increase serotonin levels to mean anti depressants do not work at all. Which isn’t what it said. There is a lot of “people have been duped/deluded/taking placebos”/ “just eat properly and exercise”/“depression is normal emotion get a life” kind of talk.

Don't you think it's reasonable to make people aware that the explanation they've been given as to why they've been prescribed a drug, which has been shown to have possibly serious side effects, has been proved incorrect?

Pills should indeed be prescribed for grief if it is preventing functioning.

I take Venlafaxine 337.5mg MR for depression which actually works on serotonin and noradrenaline.
I tried two different SSRIs and they didn't really work for me. Then the Venlafaxine worked but it took a few weeks and I've gradually had to have the Venlafaxine dose increased over the years.
I don't believe the study mentions noradrenaline either??
I also take a high dose of anti psychotics for Schizoaffective disorder.

I tried cbt, exercise etc but it's anti depressants especially the Venlafaxine that saved my life.

@Eyesopenwideawake but I have seen you on several threads recently pushing your own agenda of hypnosis or whatever it is you've decided to train yourself in. From what I've seen you appear to have done a relatively short, not even sure who it's approved by qualification, and are now passing yourself off as an expert, encouraging people to PM you so you can tell them more.

Now you've made a thread about ADs because wouldn't it be great does your industry if everyone stopped taking their meds and started turning to barely qualified therapists to look after their mental health.

Maybe you should let qualified mental health professionals decide whether prescribing medication is appropriate, and remember the majority of posters here are in the UK, where our relationship with big pharma is wildly different from what happens in the US.

*for your industry

Your last sentence is correct. In the US only 40% of drug trials are carried out by drug companies. In the UK it is 100%.

And yes, I did do a AMA about remedial hypnosis which most people seemed to enjoy.

I have NEVER, and would NEVER suggest that anyone stop taking meds; I am not medically qualified and have never suggested I am - I don't even look at threads about ADs.

But I DO believe that therapy - be it CBT, hypnosis, EDMR or the like should have their place in treating mental health issues rather than automatically prescribing potentially dangerous and addictive drugs, don't you?

I often link videos. Tim Box's Ted Talk (and for full disclosure he trained and certified me) has has 1.9m views. Johann Hari's Ted Talk has over 9m views and he has written extensively about depression and addiction. I believe knowledge is hugely important in every aspect of our lives, without it we can't make informed decisions.

But I DO believe that therapy - be it CBT, hypnosis, EDMR or the like should have their place in treating mental health issues rather than automatically prescribing potentially dangerous and addictive drugs, don't you

Yeah but pills are cheap and work. And they aren’t dangerous. And I’ve never had addiction issues on any of them. Perhaps if you’d like to fund the NHS to allow everyone to access the things you mention immediately it could work.

But you can’t. So we are stuck with our ‘dangerous placebos’ that actually work a treat.

This thread is all about ADs so I'm not sure why you are posting on it if you never look at such threads.

Tim Box has created a brand and is making money from training people such as yourself. I think this is certainly something to be wary of. I don't think people with a mental illness should seek treatment from people who are not professionals and I think you are very close to that line.

Knowledge about medications, in all fields, is constantly improving. There are some drugs where the mechanism is not know. Quetiapine is one example where the mechanism is unknown, but it is effective. As with any drug, the possible side effects need to be balanced against the positive effects.

In the US the way in which big pharma and drug sales work caused the opioid crisis and the FDA doesn't have a great track record - thalidomide is case in point. Also I'm curious about where that information as from anyway because as I understand there are various organisations which fund clinical research?

1.9m views is hardly anything considering the size of the global population!

Some gaming YouTubers get more than that in a week!

Johan Hari is renowned for making stuff up. He is shameless and I personally would not pay any attention to anything he does. I have read other critical voices.

Therapies do have their place, and are used in secondary mental health services.

For some, therapy is enough. But for many people those therapies are no use without medication along side it. Hypnosis isn’t a solution in itself. I was in hospital many years ago that was anti medication and there was a hypnosis professional. I don’t recall a great success rate. Most of us were there a very long time, very unwell and not everyone survived.

@dangermouseisace sorry I think your thread got derailed a little. I honestly think it's unlikely your GP will stop prescribing a medication that is working for you. Have you spoken to this GP before?

"If you have D&V, you should wash your hands a lot because it stops other people getting ill too. We've tried it out — people who don't wash their hands, often the whole household gets sick, but people who do wash their hands, that happens less often.
"We think this works because skin pixies on your hands cast a D&V spell on anyone nearby, but the water sends your skin pixies to sleep."

"Hey — we've looked really really closely, and turns out that water doesn't send your skin pixies to sleep at all! They're all wide awake and frolicking in the suds."

"So should we tell people to stop washing their hands, since it's not sending the skin pixies to sleep?"

Doctors are used to having treatments in their arsenal where they don't really know exactly how it works, only that it works. If a hypothesis about the mechanism of action turns out to be wrong, I don't think it's going to usually be that big a deal.

@rustnot yes I have spoken to them before, which is one of the reasons why I’m worried. I believe I need an increase hence the concern I’ll be dismissed.

clumpingbambooisalie 👏👏👏

Basically, GPs are not looking to the Daily Mail for guidance on how to do their jobs.

It's already well-known among GPs and psychiatrists, and has been for years and years, that depression isn't a simple matter of "not enough serotonin" and that how antidepressants work is still a live question. They prescribe the drugs anyway because of evidence that they work, their own experience of prescribing, and, frankly, a lack of other available/workable options. Media excitement about a study on mechanism of action is not going to make doctors suddenly decide that the balance of benefit/harm of antidepressants is totally different to yesterday.