The Depressing News About Antidepressants
The Depressing News About Antidepressants
- Madame Filth's blog
- Login or register to post comments
I did my own empirical research about 8 years ago. I tried 4 different ones--W*llbutrin, Pr*zac, Z*loft and S*lexa. The first one gave me head-to-toe hives (which did NOT make me happier), #2 and #4 made me so drowzy that I couldn't function (which did NOT make me happier) and #3 sent me to the ER with heart palpitations (which, I'm sure you can guess, did NOT make me happier).
And, as pointed out in this article that some other wonderful hipmama posted (can't remember who--but thanks for the food for thought): http://www.wired.com/medtech/drugs/magazine/17-09/ff_placebo_effect?curr... --throwing drugs at people DOES NOT have the same effect as, oh, actually caring for them. And the "not caring" thing is so bad that people in drug studies who take the placebos do so well because they actually receive medical, uh, care.
The upshot is, IMHO, of course anti-depressants don't work. Because they are strong drugs that fuck with your brain, and, of course people are worse off when they take 'em because they are given a bottle of pills and sent on their (un)merry little way, instead of actually receiving, oh, care. Instead of someone doing something to change the shit that makes depressed people depressed. (Remember my rant about how the psychology profession as a whole is full of SHIT if they, as a profession, are doing NOTHING about rampant poverty--a leading cause of depression?)
And, in a conspiracy theory way, of course they don't WORK. If they did, people would take them and get better and be done with them, and then drug pushers, I mean the pharmaceutical industry, wouldn't make $$$.
"Mediocrity knows nothing higher than itself; but talent instantly recognizes genius"--Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
...and I suffer from what I will call chronic depression, since it's been here for almost ten years now. I guess the label doesn't matter.
I understand the frustration about these drugs. My dad's told me, ironically, that he's told patients with depression and other illnesses that a pill won't really help them, that therapy and changing habits will help them to feel better. Some patients will beg him for a pill, and he won't prescribe it. He thinks they do work in some patients, but he refuses to prescribe it without also requiring therapy alongside it. I don't defend this because he's my dad, but I felt better about the whole situation knowing at least one doctor out there doesn't over-prescribe.
Oddly enough, me, his own daughter, has been on just Lxapro for about 7 years, and I have gone to a counselor a total of ONE time. I don't know why I don't go. I want to. I know that a counselor would help much more than the drug does. I'm getting sick of the side effects of the drug (i.e. little sex drive, even when I'm not BF-ing.) Money stops me, time stops me, not having help around for child care and the cost of child care stops me, not having anyone to motivate me to go stops me...you name it.
Reading this makes me want to find counseling and stick with it this time. One problem is that I have no health insurance at the moment, and won't for some time. While I do think the medication helps, it doesn't do enough. All I feel like it does for me is put a "floor" on how bad I can feel. I don't fall as low as I used to, but that isn't saying much!
Shades, you make a good point about the psychiatry/psychology profession and poverty. I know individual doctors who do small things to help with homelessness and mental health, such as providing free services or medication, but you're right; it would be more believable if the profession as a whole would step out and DO something. I am constantly frustrated with the efforts made to break the cycle of poverty. Mental health is usually not something that's addressed.
Thanks for sharing the article. I'm curious as to what my dad thinks.
"Thou shalt not" might reach the head, but it takes "Once upon a time..." to reach the heart. -Philip Pullman
One's mental health.
...why don't I think of it from that perspective? I think the antidepressants have fried my brain. I'm terrified, though, to think what can happen if I get off. Now that they're just $10 for a 3-month supply, I can't see it as much of a money-saver or re-route that money to therapy. I feel pretty stuck. I'm pretty sure I'm not the only one.
I'm glad that I trusted my body when I felt like they were wacking me out years ago- I have some really hard moments sometimes- and sometimes I wish that I had something to fall back on- but it sounds like it was better for me to trust myself and not the doctor who was trying to hand it out like candy- I went into the Dr.'s office with a fever from a sinus infection and left with a prescription for Paxil after being told I was chronically depressed (because I broke down crying about my insane roommate who was getting paranoid and had an unregistered gun- I had a fever- people CRY when they have fevers, and/or insane roommates with flesh eating lizards). The Paxil made me feel like I was flying, lol....a little too much in fact, so I stopped taking it after 2 weeks and then I felt LIKE COMPLETE SHIT and had to deal with the post Paxil depression. Ever since that experience, I've felt kind of bad telling depressed friends that I really didn't have such a good experience- I've heard some horror stories about anti-depressants- everyone wants to trust the Dr., especially when depression is eating up the good times in life. It seems to be a really charged issue. And how does someone wean the brain off of these things? Brains rewire themselves to deal with whatever is coming into the body- via the senses or medication- to try to get off of something that your body has adapted to- even if it helps you- it just seems like an invite for the pharmaceutical companies to have customers for life.
Well.
Alright then. I feel pretty good now.
about the medical profession as a whole, but I'm not surprised about the information in MF's link. I tend to be suspicious of MDs as a group since they make so much money from prescribing drugs.
My first diagnosis of 'depression' came when I was 18. I had chronic headaches and was always tired and achy. I told the experts that if I was depressed, it was because I felt awful all of the time, not the other way around. They didn't believe me and encouraged therapy to treat my "denial". I refused, and got labeled "resistant".
After twelve years of being pushed to 'try' antidepressants (you can't 'try' a drug; either you ingest it or you don't), I discovered quite by accident that 1. the headaches were caused by a misaligned jawbone, and 2. the aching limbs and exhaustion were caused by Lyme Disease.
I rarely go to doctors any more, primarily because I got tired of being labeled depressed. If I must go, I've learned to say "my personality is not a disease and does not require medication" when the doctors start pushing those damned pills again.
Glamorous
Memory is a crazy woman that hoards colored rags and throws away food. ~Austin O'Malley
My SIL has this. She saw three doctors who diagnosed her as "depressed" and prescribed anti-depressants. The meds lifted her mood, but did nothing for her blackouts, memory lapses, tingling in fingers and toes and fever aches. She finally found a doctor who diagnosed her with Lyme, and was starting to get better when she had an allergic reaction to the IV antibiotics. Now her insurance company is refusing to pay for the only treatment that was making any sort of real difference. Oh, and every doctor she sees refers her to a psychiatrist. Gosh, I'd be depressed too if nobody wanted to acknowledge why I was really sick, and kept telling me it was all in my head. They tried to suggest it was PPD...and her son is almost three.
Holy crap, this is offensive! Doctors have *got* to start accepting women's complaints as valid and not just figments of their imaginations. This makes me unbelievably angry!
"Do not forget. Remember and warn."
-- Plaque fixed to the hollow shell of Sarajevo's National Library
i read that and thought, welcome to the world of being a female patient. it's not just about SSRI's. when i herniated my disc and blocked off my spinal cord by 80% percent my doctor told me "i know it's christmas time, and i know all the decorations aren't up, but you need to take time for you. he advised me to take a bath, have my husband give me a backrub and "take the day off" from my housework.
i left that day with a rx for claritin, not an SSRI. i'm guessing the claritin people had been giving him kickbacks, rather than the lexapro people.
"and I know all the decorations aren't up"?!? UGH.
The worst part about my SIL's story is that she was basically dismissed because she is a mother. She was seeing a female doctor (not that it should make a difference, but somehow I find it even worse that another woman would discount her experience). She had asked for the Lyme test twice, and was told that "there's no way it's Lyme" even though she lives in the Eastern corridor where it's extremely common and spends a lot of time outside and lives in a rural area where there are lots of deer. Anyway. After her doctor blew her off a second time, she sneaked a peek at her chart and saw this note: "Patient is exhausted and depressed from raising two small children with little or no boundaries."
This because my SIL is a stay-at-home mom living far away from family, and has to take her 4 year old and 1 year old into the doctor's office with her. And then wait for an hour, so that the kids are good and rammy when the doctor finally sees her. Just so the doctor can judge her mental state and deny her the care she needs because she's frazzled. The whole situation fills me with rage.
only see female doctors for this reason, but i found it didn't really help. your doctor is an adversary in a lot of cases, whatever gender they happen to be.
Navigation
Who's online
Who's New
- BeachBunny
- gayle.mallinger
- Mamapocket
- mjcwriter
- addie smith
i liked how he took the pharma's criticisms as a challenge. alright, i'll use your product, i even use your data, and SSRI's do even worse. ha ha....