MHO as a retired (yes!) shrink, is that the disorder, depression, itself, is the underlying scourge and not the anti-depressant medications, whether they be SSR or tricyclics or whatever. Depression can be very serious and very debilitating to body and mind. Recovery therefrom is not always smooth sailing no matter whether Rx is used or not.
To this I can (personally) attest. Another way to look at this I suppose is that the current generation of SSRI's are much less annoying than, say, MAOI's. (Which thankfully, I never had the "pleasure" of being prescribed).
My concern about all these anti-depressant medicines is:
when people are depressed, rather than do the hard work of:
1. figuring out what is bothering them;
2. figuring out whether it SHOULD bother them;
2.5 not allowing themselves to get depressed over things that shouldn’t depress them (I don’t mean to be flippant - I know that’s HARD work)
3. altering what they are able to alter that’s bothering them;
4. accepting the things they can’t alter, and changing their responses to them;
5. facing the wrong behaviors/attitudes they possess which they must change within themselves;
6. seeking help;
7. discipling themselves in appropriate ways;
8. reaching out to others in order to alleviate overly self-centered thinking -
9. making sometimes big, hard changes like moving, changing careers, changing environments, changing diets, changing relationships;
10. developing positive and life affirming hobbies, habits and thought patterns -
most of which is hard, grovely, time consuming effort, two steps forward, one step back, start to do better then get knocked on your keester -
they take pills and try to skip all the hard work.
And you know, I just don’t think that, long term, pills work. MAYBE they work for a short term. and MAYBE, enjoying their effects for a few months makes you even less able to cope with hard core depression the old fashioned way.
Depression can be totally debilitating and should not be treated lightly. I think using prescription meds is a way of treating them lightly. I’m not a medical professional. It’s just my observation. I think you need to fight your way out of depression, and often you need help, but I don’t think the pills are help.
According to Dr. David Healy in "Talking Back to Prozac, the depressed don't commit mayhem.
Making Sense of the Great Suicide Debate Just follow the links please.
But he also saw that his position would be strengthened if he could cite the results of a drug experiment on undepressed, certifiably normal volunteers. If some of them, too, showed grave disturbance after taking Pfizer's Zoloft—and they did in Healy's test, with long-term consequences that have left him remorseful as well as indignant—then depression was definitively ruled out as the culprit.
First of all, I hope that you’re enjoying your retirement.
Well, in reference to the article title, Depression has a very real and well known dark side too.
I currently take 10mg Prozac (Fluoxetine) / day.
It was the only thing that worked to lift me out of a dark pit that gradually decended on me when I was in my early 40’s. I can see why some people with Depression kill themselves. you don’t know what’s happening to you - I thought I had early onset alzheimer’s because I could not think straight and felt like I was in a dark pit all the time.
It took a few weeks to start to work, but over several (about six) months I was back to normal as I was before. Wow - Amazing stuff.
However, I think it is wrongly prescribed or over-prescribed in some cases. Keeping in mind that with SSRI’s the patients can somestimes flip over to Mania, it’s not like taking aspirin for a headache. Which is how I think some people look at anti-depressants.
I take 10mg Fluoxetine because 20 mg a day makes me too jumpy. On the other hand, my sister takes 60 mg a day because less than that is not as effective for her.
A friend of my wife takes Paxil. So after taking to my doctor I gave it a try. On the second day I woke up shaking like a leaf and seeing sparklies all around and things seemed to be jumping off the wall at me, plus a loud rumbling / rushing sound all around. I called the doctor, took an Ativan, took the day off work and slept the rest of the day and went back to my dose of Prozac.
Only thing I can guess is if a brain chemical such as 5HT is pushed by Anti-Depressants in the same way Serotonin is, and if brain chemicals like 5HT are part of what gets affected in the brain during LSD experiences, that might explain my reaction. If so, sure glad I never dropped acid...
Well, I guess everyone’s different. Seems to me most of the problem is not treating SSRI’s as just a Tylenol or Advil for the brain, instead of the powerful drugs that they are.
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Doctors IMO are not being near careful enough in ruling out actual underlying medical conditions. For example Anxiety Disorders as related to Vestibular Dysfunction. Doctors about sent me over the edge with SSRI's. The correct low dosage consistent 4Xdaily of Xanax however did wonders. I've been on Xanax almost 14 years now no problem. Also my wife has severe neurological disorders {quadriplegia and Inner Ear issues associated with it } Zoloft and Trazodone gave her acute Serotonin Syndrome twice in one week and six doctors at two hospitals did not even know what it was till I showed them a pharmacology alert from a respected {their university} pharmacology professor I found on line. They insisted she needed more Zoloft. It came very close to killing her and she was in it almost a week.
Needless to say the doctors were angry when I pointed out the problem and called it rubbish till I asked if their professor taught rubbish.
SSRI's need to be used with far more caution than what is being given and patient and family needs to be educated to their possible adverse side effects including the bursting bladder ballet leading to Dysreflexia which also happened to me and I am trained to recognized the condition.
For most people taking anti-depressants, vigorous regular physical activity would be a far more effective prescription.
I have often wondered about the numbers being used... think about it for just a second - people being treated for DEPRESSION taking their own lives? Hello - isn’t that a fairly common (and unfortunate) trend among those depressed?
Fact - a depressed person is many times more likely to kill themselves than a person who is not depressed...
Am retired from formal counseling but teaching part time . . .
Am torn about what summary to give my students.
Imho, there are significant hazards with the modern meds and more with the older ones. And if the modern meds are not greatly more useful than plecebo . . .
‘Taking each thought captive’ as Scripture exhorts seems like at least as viable a Cognative therapy option as the meds and I think the research is clear . . . just as effective in most cases . . . .
And, IIRC, going on and off the meds for some teens . . . can be quite hazardous.
So, what summary would you give to a class of intro-to-psych students re the modern anti-depressants?
I take Prozac for heart palpitations. Every time I try to quit Prozac the palps come back. Although I’ve been told that the PVC’s are benign, I still would rather do without them, even if it means I stay on Prozac all my life.
when are these doodoo doctors and the fda going to wake up and realize that these pills are providing a totally false sense of peace...apart from God. There is a darn good reason why some people are depressed; alot of anger. Anything given to assuage that anger instead of honestly facing and letting go of it, is only going to cause it to grow stronger in the long run. That’s why so many of these mass shooters are on these drugs...the anger continues to build and eventually it comes out. The fhu.com has a tried and true be still download that really works for so many people. Simple and real and now being used to help military personell in overcoming battle stress.