Posted on 08/17/2007 12:11:03 PM PDT by Kaslin
Too many people are being diagnosed with depression when they are merely unhappy, a senior psychiatrist said today.
Normal emotions are sometimes being treated as mental illness because the threshold for clinical depression is too low, according to Professor Gordon Parker.
Prof Parker said depression had become a "catch-all" diagnosis, driven by clever marketing from pharmaceutical companies and leading to the burgeoning prescription of antidepressant drugs.
Writing in the British Medical Journal (BMJ), he said the drugs were being marketed beyond their "true utility" in cases in which people were unhappy rather than clinically depressed.
(Excerpt) Read more at guardian.co.uk ...
The author may be Batty, but he’s right.
Well now, that's just depressing....
“Under the current diagnosis guidelines, around one in five adults is thought to suffer depression during their lifetime,” he said hopelessly.
It may just be that people want to be diagnosed as suffering from depression, rather than fight the root of their unhappiness. Much like how many tend to blame their obesity on “glandular disorders” or “slow metabolism”.
But people demand a quick fix for all that afflicts them. Feeling a bit blue? Pop a pill and feel great.
Reminds me of Soma from a Aldous Huxley's Brave New World
with some overtones of 1984...
That's a good distinction and one that, as the author notes, is not always respected in practice. As with numerous other diagnoses, major depression requires significant impairment of functioning, not just feeling unhappy.
Most times, it only takes a little bit to make people snap out of unhappiness, I have found. Take a walk through a zoo or volunteer with children. Pills are not the answer, most of the time.
He’s right. The 1930’s have been gone a long time.
I understand that I could claim disability, go home and relax - watch a ballgame and drink a beer - while my neighbors, friends and other unknown taxpayers support me and my family.
Well not me really, some consumer-nonproducer I saw on Judge Judy.
Little Tommy is deeply saddened
am I the first?
A little scotch on the rocks with some nice female company does it for me.
I think you are so right.
But there’s nothing to be gained by this admission.
Nowadays, there’s all sorts of pills to treat depression. Has anybody seen that commercial for depression medicine?
It shows a woman standing by a sink. She gazes sadly out a window over that sink then puts her weary head in her hands. Flash to another scene. A dog looks sadly at its owner. The dog’s leash hangs unused from the dog’s mouth; the owner evidently too depressed to take the dog for a walk.
This sort of advertising should be a damn sin.
Everyone feels SAD, unhappy, disappointed...yea all the bad emotions...from time to time.
Those in our world who stand to benefit from a populace convinced that they suffer from depression, which would include shrinks of any kind, the drug companies, government bureaucrats who refer “depressed” people without health insurance to government programs and people who look to the above to cope with ordinary life problems-WANT depression to grow and flourish.
Happiness and contentment are the enemy.
“Most times, it only takes a little bit to make people snap out of unhappiness, I have found. Take a walk through a zoo or volunteer with children. Pills are not the answer, most of the time.”
Great answers. I also love to walk alongside or just look at the ocean or even a Great Lake - it calms me down for some reason.
And on a really strange note - I love air travel!...I like going to the airport...checking your bags..even going through the metal detector and TSA check...getting to your destination in one piece is good too! But going back on the airplane to go home I get a little sad for some reason - return to normal routine I guess.
I’ve had depression off and on all my life. I did the drug routine for a time and had some therapy till the insurance ran out. The drugs made me woozy and incoherent. I can be woozy and incoherent without drugs. Got rid of them.
Best treatment is exercise. Even a brief walk around the block does it for me.
“Those in our world who stand to benefit from a populace convinced that they suffer from depression, which would include shrinks of any kind, the drug companies, government bureaucrats who refer “depressed” people without health insurance to government programs and people who look to the above to cope with ordinary life problems-WANT depression to grow and flourish.”
A good shrink, of which I believe I am one, doesnt automatically encourage anti-depressants. As a psycholgist I cannot. Only med drs and psychiatrists can do that.
I do exactly what some folks here suggest...”prescribe” exercise, positive activities esp re; their families, calling/visiting friends, etc.
Another part of my “job”, should the client agree, is to teach them the signs of their depression and how to “prevent” it from returning. These may include any of the symptoms used in the diagnosis. For example...many folk with depression withdraw into themselves and become stuck in their own misery. The prescription, force yourself to go out with friends, call friends, and go exercise.
IMHO some people tend to “use” mental illness as a way to get attention, get needs met, etc. I teach them how to do this w/o meds. I teach them how to “fish” vs giving them a fish (meds).
Therapy can help to some extent...I did however have one who, no matter what my problem of the week was, blamed my parents. My folks had their “issues” but they did the best they could, as did most parents. There comes a time when you have to stop blaming the parents and take the responsibility for your own situation. That was the kind of therapist I was looking for and the ones I had after this “blame the parents” therapist were much better at getting me to take care of myself.
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