[Indrid Cold]

The theory is, or at least it was, that people suffering from unipolar depression don't have enough energy and motivation even to kill themselves. The antidepressants apparently bring them "up" just enough so they can accomplish it.

[CobaltBlue]

Unfortunately I've known several people who committed suicide - none in a couple of decades, thank God. Prozac, Zoloft and all these new drugs weren't available back then. Could they have saved my friends?

Who knows? It's so hard to prove causation. It's impossible to ethically set up a double-blind test for this.

I just know that a lot of people are ashamed to get therapy or take medication because they listen to selfish, stupid, self-absorbed people who tell them that they just have a bad attitude and need to pull up their socks and get with the program, and other such nonsense.

Depression runs in my family. Several people in my family take antidepressants regularly. I take them once in a blue moon - that's what I call it - I get the blues every year or two for a little while - and the pills help a lot. Last time was when my mother nearly died and was in the hospital for a month and then recuperating for a couple of months. For some reason it really hit me hard.

Time before that was when I was finally accepted that my rheumatoid arthritis was never going to go away.

I am not ashamed to admit it, and I urge people with depression to get medical help.