First let me say that I have suffered and been treated for depression most of my life. In 1994 I was diagnosed manic depressive and they added lithium to what I was taking. Enough of that.
On the news these days I hear about how antidepressants are making kids commit suicide (sorry no cites). Never does anyone state what I believe is obvious: people (any age) that are depressed enough to be seeking medical attention ARE GENERALLY SUICIDAL and people don’t like to admit it. My mother, for instance, is always looking for the cause of things. People like to think,“my child wouldn 't normally do that kind of thing, it must be the drugs.”
I think the blame is in Quacks that just push pills and don’t require therapy. It’s a good idea to learn to think yourself sane rather than depend solely on medication but that takes a little work. That’s my rant for the day.
Adults do this too – if you’re depressed to the point where you can’t do a damn thing, that includes suicide even if you’re thinking about it. So the meds get you functional enough to DO it. This is why I don’t get why people do meds without some sort of counseling to go with them.
Many health insurers are willing to pay for drugs, but not therapy (or not much therapy), because therapy is much more expensive.
The stigma surrounding going to a shrink, especially for men. I will never understand this, but in the last year, since I began being treated for severe depression, I learned that my dad and all four of his siblings are on medication for depression. However, all the men (4 of them) have refused therapy, because “men just don’t talk about their feelings.” Only their sister goes, and NOBODY talks about it.
Also, there seems to be a great deal of reluctance on the part of men to confront the flawed thinking that contributes to/is a symptom of depression. My dad quit therapy after the doctor asked him, “If something unexpected happens to you or your family, or at work, and you couldn’t have prevented it, do you still feel responsible/guilty?” Dad realized the answer was “yes” and promptly stopped going to the therapist.
There’s also a great reluctance for people to have their kids diagonsed/medicated/in therapy. My dad took Prozac for years, and all the while refused to acknowledge that I desperately needed to see a shrink (though Mom talked about it all the time). My dad has kept my condition and the fact that I’ve been in the hospital a secret from everyone. Sometimes it’s just too hard to face the fact that your kid has “mental problems” because of the tremendous guilt and sense of responsibility.
So, a lot of times it’s easier to just take a pill in the morning–one you can get from a GP instead of a psychiatrist–and never talk about the problem.
I heard this on the radio yesterday and thought the same thing. There was one father suing someone because his 17-year-old daughter comitted suicide after one week on Prozac. First of all, Prozac takes longer than a week to kick in. Second, DUH! The kid was depressed, she killed herself. The cause and effect is easy: depressed girl=girl commits suicide. How could it be said that anti-depressant=suicide? That’s really stupid.