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Originally Posted by jannieC
I too have noticed the overwhelming amount of doctors prescribing anti-depressants these days. Most of the time, your family doctor will prescribe you one if you say you're feeling depressed.
On the one hand, as a psych grad (and someone is hopes to be a therapist), I know that these meds can be life savers for people who are truly clinically depressed. On the other, I feel like we are a society who wants to take the easy way out and pop a pill because we're feeling badly. Psych meds are no joke, and can be very difficult to come off of, which can be very dangerous. Personally, I think a lot of people could do really well with some good old-fashioned therapy occassionally. But who wants to deal with that when you can take a pill to make your worries go away...  |
You took the words right out of my mouth, Jannie. Great post!
There are people who are seriously depressed & need meds, whether it be temporarily to get them through a tough time (Brian) or long term for chronic depression (Suze). Then there are people who feel sad, or blah, or whatever so rather than try other methods to make themselves feel better (therapy, exercise, yoga, meditation, whatever) they would prefer to pop a pill. Then they can't figure out why "these pills aren't working."
When I worked psych, some of my patients used to have a bad day & come to us crying "I need a med increase, I need a prn dose, etc." They were always shocked when the psychiatrist would tell them "You know what? It's OK to FEEL something. It's NORMAL to be sad sometimes. It's not always a bad thing!"
You guys used the "broken leg" analogy, I'll use the back pain analogy. It's easier for people to take painkillers than it is to go to therapy, get some exercise, lose weight, stretch daily, learn & use proper body mechanics, etc. Not to say some people don't NEED pain meds for serious injury, but it drives me nuts that my 55 year old FIL can't understand why his back still hurts, even though he weighs over 300 pounds.
IMO, general practitioners should NOT be prescribing antidepressants. Most of their education about these drugs comes from drug companies & medical journals. Mental health is usually NOT their specialty. They should be prescribed in conjunction with some sort of psych eval, whether it be by a therapist, a psychologist, a psychiatrist, someone with specific mental health knowledge. JMO.