Anti-Depressants: Is The Cure Worse Than The Illness?
This is the sort of book you wish your doctor would read.
It looks holistically at depression considering the biomedical model (i.e. there is something wrong with your body and in particular your brain) as well as psychosocial factors, lifestyle changes and other environmental influences. Is It Me or My Meds is penned by David Karp, who has long term depression and anxiety. He interviewed 50 people (including teens) with major depression and manic depression to gauge their attitudes about taking antidepressants and dealing with depression and the stigma around it.
Why people take antidepressants
Commonly accepted wisdom is that depression is caused by a biochemical balance in the brain which can be helped by taking antidepressants. Not everyone accepts this hypothesis. Some believe that depression and other mental illnesses can be fixed through meditation, counselling or other types of therapy, dietary changes, exercise or sheer willpower.
According to an anonymous academic who blogs here http://clinpsyc.blogspot.com
Please. There may well be brain issues in people with various mental illnesses, but this whole chemical imbalance thing is 95% marketing, 5% science. Find a serious scientist who will step up to the mic (sic) and tell us about the definitive chemical imbalance that causes bipolar, schizophrenia, or much of anything else in the mental disorder world.
While there were many people that resisted medication there were some who welcomed it with relief. Many patients were anxious for anything that might grant them some relief from unrelenting feelings of sadness, worthlessness and at times suicidal ideation.
Individuals reported varying degrees of success with antidepressants. For some, taking medications were a lifesaver that enabled them to feel more confident, overcome feelings of hopelessness and get on with life. However large numbers of people reported dissatisfaction with the side-effects of meds, failure of the meds to work effectively, gained only short-term relief from antidepressants or felt ostracised by being labelled as someone who needed to take psychotropic medications.
There were several patients who refused to take meds, or found themselves hopeful that they would one day be able to wean themselves off antidepressants. Overall, the majority of patients interviewed did not like taking meds for depression, bipolar or anxiety.
This attitude is also reflected in the attitude of the author, who has tried unsuccessfully to withdraw from taking antidepressants and antianxiolytic meds.
The people interviewed referred to searching for identity and not knowing whether the self on drugs is the normal person or the one off drugs. Many felt pressure to conform to societys expectation of normalcy.
The book includes a quote from Francis Fukuyama:
There is a disconcerting symmetry between Prozac and Ritalin. The former is prescribed for depressed women lacking in self-esteem; it gives them more of the alpha-like feelings that comes with high serotonin levels.
Ritalin on the other hand, is prescribed largely for young bots who do not want to sit still in class because nature never designed them to behave that way.
How your relationship with your doctor affects you
It was also evident throughout the book that the relationship of the individual to their health professional made a substantial difference. In situations where the individual felt that the health professional listened to their needs and offered trustworthy advice, patients were more likely to take meds and more likely to have success with them.
In this respect the placebo effect of medications was influenced not only by the knowledge that they were taking meds for their depression but also by their trust in the Health Professional prescribing the meds.
Married to antidepressant meds
The author has a wonderful quote on taking meds:
an unexpected relationship will become permanent
He uses this quote (from a fortune cookie) as an analogy to taking meds. He suggests that many people are encouraged to take meds as a temporary measure not realising that for some they will need to be on antidepressants for the rest of their life either because the illness is too severe or because the withdrawal symptoms of stopping are too painful.
Doctors encourage patients to take meds likening the antidepressants to treatments for diabetes or headaches. However there is one critical difference - antidepressants are mind altering substances.
In my experience with doctors they are all reading from the same script. They all want you to believe that antidepressants are better than the alternative. Im not convinced that is always the case. From my own personal experience the side-effects of meds often outweigh the benefits.
Do the drugs really work?
The author points out many of these drugs are relatively new. While they have been tested and found safe this is only within the parameters of their testing. If a drug has only been around for 10 years there is no way to know what its long term effect may be on someone who needs to take that med for another 50 years.
For many the improvement from antidepressants is only slightly greater than the placebo effect. According to one study of SSRI antidepressants http://content.apa.org/journals/pre/5/1/23
Approximately 80% of the response to medication was duplicated in placebo control groups, and the mean difference between drug and placebo was approximately 2 points on the 17-item (50-point) and 21-item (62-point) Hamilton Depression Scale.
There were many patients interviewed in the book who had little or no relief from the prescribed antidepressants or find the side-effects unpalatable.
The book is sympathetically written and will be helpful for people feeling isolated, confused or curious about anti-depressants. It is ideal for anyone who has ever considered taking medications for depression or other mental illnesses. It would also be useful for anyone who has colleagues or loved ones with depression, bipolar (manic depression) or anxiety.
Talia Mana is a Health Psychologist, inspirational speaker and author who specialises in personal growth and wellness. She is the founder of the Centre for Emotional Well-Being which can be found at http://www.taliamana.com
Her first book, Romancing the Frogs: A Singles Guide to Love & Happiness helps people find love. Her second book The Art of Calm: Freedom from Stress and Worry offers more than 100 tips on stress management and is based on her own experiences with stress-related illness. Talia is currently researching emotional eating and mental health issues.
You can visit her blog at http://taliamana.blogspot.com
For a free forum on everything related to emotional health and emotional eating visit http://www.taliamana.com/forum
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