Depression Meds

[daniellaaarisen]

I'm actually glad this thread came up, because for the first time in my life, I'm taking psychiatric medication and I'm not very happy about it. I kinda got coerced into this entire thing. I had to go see a psychiatrist to up my Ambien dose (yay insomnia) and she was like, "your mom called and said you have huge anxiety issues. She wants me to prescribe you something."

To make a really really long story as short as possible, I'm taking Lexapro for my apparent anxiety issues, NOT depression. Right now I'm only taking 5 mg tablets but I'm eventually supposed to go up to 10. I'm generally opposed to taking medications for a variety of reasons.
a) Although my worrying/anxiety/overanalyzing definitely makes my life a little more difficult, I LIKE overthinking everything in a weird way. I just want to feel like I understand how my own life works-- I want to constantly care. I have no idea if this is healthy or not, but whatever. It undoubtedly plays a huge part in my writing and how I process things; I don't think I'd be nearly as artistically inclined if I wasn't like this. I only started Lexapro two weeks ago so we'll see what happens. I'm already feeling weirdly content with life and letting things go.... its almost disconcerting. Hah.
b) I've spent my entire life watching my mom suffer with depression, bi-polar disorder and at one point, potentially schitzophrenia or something similar?? (she used to literally talk to dead people aloud, even in public-- she's talked to a therapist about it but never a psychiatrist, so we don't really know). Because of this, she's taken a wide variety of medications and I've seen both the best and worst sides of it. I just never wanted to get involved in that. I don't like associating myself with her own mental issues, and by taking medication for myself, I instantly connect my own issues with hers. I've spoken with many pschiatrists and have even had my brain scanned a few times, but I've never been diagnosed with anything but insomnia. It still petrifies me to think that I could ever be like her in this regard.

I don't even know. I'm taking the pills because everyone wants to see me "happy" and stress-free. It sure is easier already and I'm sleeping better at night because of it. I'm just not feeling particularly motivated to do anything with myself on a creative level because I'm not mildly tortured about anything.... this sounds crazy, I know, but I seriously thrive off of that. I'm too happy, damnit!

[Ghost_Tracker]

Originally Posted by jannieC

Do you remember where you found this study?

No sorry, I just remember seeing it "somewhere down the line."

[skcin]

I don't have any advice relating to people's specific meds. I think that's a bit too personal to be discussing out in the open on a message board. I will say this - if meds help you, great. From what David's mentioned here several times in past years, it's obvious he needs them to function.

But not everyone does. It's OK to feel something. It's OK to be down & sad sometimes. It's OK to get pissed off & angry. It's OK to be elated/happy beyond words. FEELINGS & A RANGE OF EMOTIONS ARE NORMAL. If it's negatively affecting your life (ie - can't get out of bed, you are violent toward yourself or others, you have suicidal thoughts, you can't leave the house, etc.) then meds can be a tool you should use in conjunction with therapy/counseling to deal with that. PART of the solution - there is no magic pill to fix everything.

But in my experience as a psych nurse, I've had so many patients come up to see & say "I'm upset. She pissed me off. Give me my *insert name of med here.*" It worries me. We are society that wants an easy fix & that isn't always possible.

[GODDESS6]

Originally Posted by skcin

I don't have any advice relating to people's specific meds. I think that's a bit too personal to be discussing out in the open on a message board. I will say this - if meds help you, great. From what David's mentioned here several times in past years, it's obvious he needs them to function.

But not everyone does. It's OK to feel something. It's OK to be down & sad sometimes. It's OK to get pissed off & angry. It's OK to be elated/happy beyond words. FEELINGS & A RANGE OF EMOTIONS ARE NORMAL. If it's negatively affecting your life (ie - can't get out of bed, you are violent toward yourself or others, you have suicidal thoughts, you can't leave the house, etc.) then meds can be a tool you should use in conjunction with therapy/counseling to deal with that. PART of the solution - there is no magic pill to fix everything.

But in my experience as a psych nurse, I've had so many patients come up to see & say "I'm upset. She pissed me off. Give me my *insert name of med here.*" It worries me. We are society that wants an easy fix & that isn't always possible.

i more than agree w/ you~ i grew up w/ a mom who abused meds in the way you describe & she didn't know how to function w/out them~ she always tried solve everything, or so she thought by meds~ she still does~

[Lee]

Originally Posted by daniellaaarisen

I'm actually glad this thread came up, because for the first time in my life, I'm taking psychiatric medication and I'm not very happy about it. I kinda got coerced into this entire thing. I had to go see a psychiatrist to up my Ambien dose (yay insomnia) and she was like, "your mom called and said you have huge anxiety issues. She wants me to prescribe you something."

To make a really really long story as short as possible, I'm taking Lexapro for my apparent anxiety issues, NOT depression. Right now I'm only taking 5 mg tablets but I'm eventually supposed to go up to 10. I'm generally opposed to taking medications for a variety of reasons.
a) Although my worrying/anxiety/overanalyzing definitely makes my life a little more difficult, I LIKE overthinking everything in a weird way. I just want to feel like I understand how my own life works-- I want to constantly care. I have no idea if this is healthy or not, but whatever. It undoubtedly plays a huge part in my writing and how I process things; I don't think I'd be nearly as artistically inclined if I wasn't like this. I only started Lexapro two weeks ago so we'll see what happens. I'm already feeling weirdly content with life and letting things go.... its almost disconcerting. Hah.
b) I've spent my entire life watching my mom suffer with depression, bi-polar disorder and at one point, potentially schitzophrenia or something similar?? (she used to literally talk to dead people aloud, even in public-- she's talked to a therapist about it but never a psychiatrist, so we don't really know). Because of this, she's taken a wide variety of medications and I've seen both the best and worst sides of it. I just never wanted to get involved in that. I don't like associating myself with her own mental issues, and by taking medication for myself, I instantly connect my own issues with hers. I've spoken with many pschiatrists and have even had my brain scanned a few times, but I've never been diagnosed with anything but insomnia. It still petrifies me to think that I could ever be like her in this regard.

I don't even know. I'm taking the pills because everyone wants to see me "happy" and stress-free. It sure is easier already and I'm sleeping better at night because of it. I'm just not feeling particularly motivated to do anything with myself on a creative level because I'm not mildly tortured about anything.... this sounds crazy, I know, but I seriously thrive off of that. I'm too happy, damnit!

I have two siblings that take medicine for depression. My brother says that he takes Lexapro for "anxiety". And my dad talked him into going to the doctor & getting something after an alarming chat with him. My brother lives in the Mid-West. One of my sisters was taking Lexapro, but for some reason, she was switched to something else so says my mother. I don't talk to this sister much; I pretty much can't. She's told me off numerous times & for my own personal sanity, I keep my distance from her. My mom fills me in on how she's doing. I'm in contact with my brother though by phone & e-mail. Just the medicine seems to be helping them, but as others suggested, David, maybe therapy would help.

Lee

[jannieC]

Originally Posted by Ghost_Tracker

No sorry, I just remember seeing it "somewhere down the line."

Be careful when making statements like that.

[Ghost_Tracker]

Originally Posted by jannieC

Be careful when making statements like that.

Yeah, I understand what you're saying.
For whatever it's worth, it was a major news network such as cnn quoting a study that appeared in a major, peer-reviewed medical journal.

[HomerMcvie]

Originally Posted by skcin

I don't have any advice relating to people's specific meds. I think that's a bit too personal to be discussing out in the open on a message board. I will say this - if meds help you, great. From what David's mentioned here several times in past years, it's obvious he needs them to function.

But not everyone does. It's OK to feel something. It's OK to be down & sad sometimes. It's OK to get pissed off & angry. It's OK to be elated/happy beyond words. FEELINGS & A RANGE OF EMOTIONS ARE NORMAL. If it's negatively affecting your life (ie - can't get out of bed, you are violent toward yourself or others, you have suicidal thoughts, you can't leave the house, etc.) then meds can be a tool you should use in conjunction with therapy/counseling to deal with that. PART of the solution - there is no magic pill to fix everything.

But in my experience as a psych nurse, I've had so many patients come up to see & say "I'm upset. She pissed me off. Give me my *insert name of med here.*" It worries me. We are society that wants an easy fix & that isn't always possible.

I couldn't agree more, Paula. People seem to want a pill for everything. Several years ago, I had dinner, with my closest friends from high school......I'm not trying to pigeonhole any segment of society, but these people were the cream of my class, intellect-wise(not that I necessarily consider myself to be above average intelligence, but this was the group I ran with - the smart party crowd). Anyway, after dinner, we were all drinking, and the talk turned to depression meds..... and ALL of them, save for me and my best friend, were on depression meds. Ten, out of twelve people! My friend and I just looked at each other, in disbelief. While I'm sure that some people REALLY need them, I can't believe that the percentage could be THAT high.

Like Paula said, life's full of hills and valleys, highs and lows. Suck it up, Nancy....it'll get better tomorrow!

I'm not trying to be mocking, but I just don't think most people really need them, to COPE. Coping, is called life. Live it, not drug yourself through it.

[LukeA]

Add me to the list. It never ceases to amaze me just how overly medicated (generally speaking) our society is. There should not be ads for prescription drugs on television; its validated the irresponsible concept of people going to doctors and telling them what drug(s) they need, empowering those who feel a doctor's medical diagnosis is annoyingly perfunctory at best.

[Ghost_Tracker]

Originally Posted by LukeA

Add me to the list. It never ceases to amaze me just how overly medicated (generally speaking) our society is. There should not be ads for prescription drugs on television; its validated the irresponsible concept of people going to doctors and telling them what drug(s) they need, empowering those who feel a doctor's medical diagnosis is annoyingly perfunctory at best.

"And she goes running for the shelter
of her mother's little helper..."

Yeah, I agree with this, at least to a point. Perfect example, Michael Jackson. (Not for depression meds, of course, but I feel it ties in as far as drugs allegedly being prescribed when they're not needed.)
Having said that, I'm certain there are many people who genuinely need them - - - apparently the neurotransmitter serotonin is considered to be the "culprit" these days.

At the other extreme, it annoys me a bit - - just being honest - when Scientologists such as Tom Cruise discount ALL possible benefits of meds for psychiatric issues. It seems to me that he's stubbornly ignoring legitimate results from medical science and choosing to believe what he believes simply because he WANTS it to be that way. Maybe that's fine for him but i.m.o. he's taking it too far when he speaks out publicly and causes thousands of people to go off their meds, simply "because he said it so it MUST be true." I honestly feel he's abusing his power as a celebrity when he does that; and he's doing it in an ill-informed, misguided way.

[HejiraNYC]

Originally Posted by LukeA

Add me to the list. It never ceases to amaze me just how overly medicated (generally speaking) our society is. There should not be ads for prescription drugs on television; its validated the irresponsible concept of people going to doctors and telling them what drug(s) they need, empowering those who feel a doctor's medical diagnosis is annoyingly perfunctory at best.

The reason you see so much direct-to-consumer advertising of drugs on TV is that the federal government has essentially banned via legislation any form of "promotion" directly to healthcare professionals- you know- the people who should actually learn a thing or two about the medications they are prescribing for their patients. DTC advertising is accordingly a backdoor way of promoting drugs since physicians will be forced to learn about these meds via their patients. I agree, this is not ideal, but you can't expect an industry to be sustainable if you have snuffed out any chance they have of promoting their products. Sure, everybody likes to take pot-shots at big pharma. But guess what? They are actually saving people's lives and preventing/delaying major medical complications. What's the alternative?

I would rather see a ban on ads for Pepsi, Coke, Hershey, along with everything else that contributes to the worsening of public health.

[WildHeart69]

^This is not the case... detailing drugs to physicians is completely legal and is always done. The "promotion" you are speaking of is that in the form of pens, clocks, mugs, etc that display the name of the drug, and promotional spend for lunches for nurses and office staff... and even in this case, there is no "legislation" that bars this practice; there are "guidelines" that have been put in place that outline the desired practices for drug companies as far as how they can promote their products in this manner, but these guideline are not really laws. Drug companies follow them, however, because they all kind of keep each other in check and nobody wants to be the one to "break code" because it will look bad for the company...

And as far as direct to consumer ads, I would sort of agree for the most part... but the main reason they do it is because of the type of system we have in place and simply because this is the only country in which they CAN air them (besides New Zealand...but thats another story). You can hear one group of doctors that DO like DTC, one that doesnt, one that says that they aren't influenced by what their patients come in asking about, and some that say they are.... but I think the bottom line is if these ads WEREN'T boosting sales, then they wouldn't be airing them (or printing them in magazines, etc...).

[Remy]

Also, please remember that medications aren't the full answer. It's crucial to EAT PROPERLY. Increase folic acid and B-vitamin intake (vegetables), reduce sugar and fat.
It's widely known by now that depression can also stem from toxic overload in the body - caused by processed food, chemical and hormone-filled meat.
it seems nowadays we are advised all those "quick fixes"... while getting out of an illness of whichever nature, requires much more effort than taking a pill.

[skcin]

Good posts, everyone.

Absolutely, Remy! Eating right & exercising is a HUGE part in keeeping healthy mentally AND physically. I'm not saying you have to do an hour of cardio every day or lift heavy weights or eat only vegetables. But a daily walk around the block does wonders. So does cutting some of the garbage out of your diet. Take some vitamins - it certainly can't hurt.

Unfortunately, most people want the easy way out. I compare it to trying to fill a bucket of water that has a hole in it but not bothering to repair the leak. Sure, it will fill up but you'll need more & more water faster & faster to keep it up. Eventually you have to repair the cause of the problem, not just tape it up & hope for the best.


As for the drug companies, I go back & forth. There are no more free vacations & cruises for docs given by the companies, and lunches/dinners must be accompanied by actual education about the drug & the condition it treats. I do miss my pens & pads of paper though. And seeing a drug's name on something certainly didn't make me recommend that drug any more than another to patients, so making that illegal is kind of silly, IMO. And yes, the drug companies make a lot of money, but they also spend tons on research & assisting low income folks to pay for their meds.

I do think the TV & magazine advertising is awful. Like Luke said, it's great that patients are informed but they are only getting part of the story. They come in to the office & demand a certain drug, then get pissed when the doc won't prescribe it because they feel it's not the best choice for that patient. I can't tell you how many complaints I've received that "I came in for a prescription but the doc wouldn't give it to me." Um. Too f*cking bad. This isn't a takeout restaurant. You don't walk in & place your order & get whatever you want or think you need.

Ed - forced to learn through their patients? Really? I don't know about that. It's not like the drug rep can't leave you literature or that you can't do some online research. Missing those free dinners, huh?

BTW - we're getting free lunch today. I will come back & tell you all about what I learned.

[HejiraNYC]

Originally Posted by WildHeart69

^This is not the case... detailing drugs to physicians is completely legal and is always done. The "promotion" you are speaking of is that in the form of pens, clocks, mugs, etc that display the name of the drug, and promotional spend for lunches for nurses and office staff... and even in this case, there is no "legislation" that bars this practice; there are "guidelines" that have been put in place that outline the desired practices for drug companies as far as how they can promote their products in this manner, but these guideline are not really laws. Drug companies follow them, however, because they all kind of keep each other in check and nobody wants to be the one to "break code" because it will look bad for the company...

And as far as direct to consumer ads, I would sort of agree for the most part... but the main reason they do it is because of the type of system we have in place and simply because this is the only country in which they CAN air them (besides New Zealand...but thats another story). You can hear one group of doctors that DO like DTC, one that doesnt, one that says that they aren't influenced by what their patients come in asking about, and some that say they are.... but I think the bottom line is if these ads WEREN'T boosting sales, then they wouldn't be airing them (or printing them in magazines, etc...).

Well, yes, I should clarify that it is more of a witch hunt than "legislation." Even if a drug company is working completely within its legal bounds, even the threat of a consent decree or an investigation means years and millions of $$ trying to defend yourself. And doctor detailing is strictly educational in nature; however, the reality is that doctors have tended to deny facetime with reps if there is no incentive, e.g., free lunch, knick knacks, etc. Accordingly, the marketing departments of big pharma have shrunken considerably since all of this has come to pass...

A side effect of more DTC pharm ads is that there is a heightened sense of awareness about personal health. It can only be a good thing IMO. Sure, there are hypochondriacs. But they were around long before DTC ads came into existence.