As I have mentioned before, I have previously had problems when telling people I am on antidepressants. This hasn't always been the case, but there are a lot of people out there who believe that taking medication for depression is somehow perverse. They fall into three main categories, I find.
Category 1: Those who have no experience of depression at all, even just knowing someone who has had a brush with it.
Do these people even exist any more? It seems strange to me that they do, but then it seems strange to me when people have never been to a gay bar, or get uncomfortable when I talk about race (even in the simplest of contexts - seriously, I brought up a discussion about how I had watched Good Hair the other day and experienced a tumbleweed (weave) moment in a very white busy pub - tiresome). Things that I take for granted as being part of 21st century life in Britain, for some people is still alien. So there could be some people out there who just haven't really thought about it, but don't like the idea. This is what I assume they are thinking when I tell them about being on antidepressants and they just go quiet before making excuses and leaving.
Category 2: Those who have had depression themselves, and have successfully battled it without medication.These people think that as this is what they have done, it is possible for others to do the same, and it is, but not all the time. They cannot accept this, and subsequently will go around preaching about how you can heal depression 'naturally' and without the 'evil chemicals' in the medications. LOVE IT.
Category 3: Those who have been on antidepressants, and didn't like it.
Fair play, if you've been on them and found that they made you feel worse than you felt when you weren't, but consider that they might have made you feel better, and that that was probably the aim of the person that prescribed them for you. Not that its a conspiracy to silence the masses and numb the brains of the infidels. Thanks.
So, I realise I might be a bit anti people who slag off anti - depressants, and who can blame me when I've been given a lot of shit about it? But having valid reasons for saying or doing something doesn't make it right, which I have considered after reading this blog:-
This person puts a point across that I have never even considered, that people who have depression and don't take meds for it actually get shit too! I thought they would probably be viewed by the general public as saintly figures, brave and tenacious as opposed to my weak willed 'drug addict' self. But no, it seems people have a go at them for not taking meds, telling them they're in denial, or just a mad scientologist hippy. He says the thing that upsets him most is when people tell him if he hasn't needed medication to get better then he doesn't have real depression. Hand on heart, before I read this blog, although I would never say so, I thought that. My recovery would have been impossible without medication, impossible, but why does that mean the situation is the same for everyone? I know that depression is different for each person, I have always known this, so why do I think the same treatment will work for everyone? Obviously if it had been up to me, the standard prescription for depression would be SSRI antidepressants and The Smiths, but like me, my depression is unique, so I'm gonna put my hands up and admit that I have been guilty of the same ignorance as I have complained about in others. Antidepressants don't work for everyone, and why should they? (The Smiths, however, I would totally recommend).
Exactly! We need to be open to the idea that not everybody is like we are. They need to be free to find their own path. For me, anti-depressants didn't work. They mostly didn't touch my depression, and at worse made me suicidal. My ADHD meds fried my neurological system and gave me Chronic Motor Tic Disorder. So meds were not a solution for me. But that didn't mean I had to remain at the mercy of my mental health issues for life. I had to find ways without meds to take back my life.
ReplyDeleteI *do* think that others can do it, too, but it is very hard work. I spent TEN years learning how to do it. I don't think that everybody, honestly, has the stamina for that effort. Not when they're suffering from Depression. I probably could do it because my life depended on it, and I'm ornery. My message is that for those who cannot use meds, there is a way to take control. I encourage people to look into Cognitive Behavior Therapy.
BTW, the Smith's is awesome therapy for those days when I'm in a mood. I find their music cathartic, though I have to be careful. Sometimes it can tilt me into a deep sadness. All things in moderation; even the Smith's. LOL