Not citing any specific threads, but every so often someone will start talking about antidepressants (or the like) and there’s always some yaboo who thinks people don’t NEED things like Prozac, Paxil, Zoloft, or what have you.
I agonized for YEARS before going on Prozac. I didn’t want anything altering MY brain chemistry. The thing is…I spent years trying to do what people told me to do, or what I THOUGHT they were telling me to do.
“You don’t have it so bad.”
“At least you have a roof over your head.”
“You’re not starving or anything.”
“Your family loves you.”
“You have a wonderful husband and fantastic kids.”
“Your problems aren’t so bad.”
“Just suck it up and deal with it like everyone else.”
You know what, you nay-sayers? When you have chemical depression, you CAN’T “suck it up and deal.” I have been trying for 20 years to “suck it up and deal,” and every time I haven’t been able to I have felt more useless. I have felt like I am lazy, stupid, irresponsible, whiny…
Guess what? It’s not all me. My neural paths do not process seratonin correctly. I - quite LITERALLY - do not have enough HAPPY in me to function like a “normal person.” And when any of you say that Prozac is a CRUTCH, and that people like me need to “suck it up and deal with it just like everyone else”…you’re one step closer to Hell, baby.
(Non-directed non-specific rant, sorry for not calling anyone a bitch or a cunt…here’s a shout-out to all my homies, PROZAC NATION REPRESEEEEEEEEEENT!!!)
I hear ya, Hamadryad. I used to be on Prozac myself. Some fucktarts just don’t get that depression is a disease.
Prozac fixes brain chemistry that otherwise would not work properly. To all the idiots who don’t get this, let me say: Prozac is medicine. What if you were talking to a diabetic person? Would you call insulin his “crutch” and tell him to straighten out his pancreas through positive thinking? And what if you met a guy with a broken leg, who was leaning on a wooden stick to support him while he walked? Would you call that stick his cru-- um, wait. Bad example.
(Prozac nation in the HOU-OUUUUZZE! Stick your hands in the air and wave 'em around like you just don’t care! And, really, you don’t!)
Just before I went on an antidepressant, we had an altercation (due to my having been a basket case for some months) in which my SO snarled at me to “Just pull yourself together!”
That was the closest we’ve ever come to getting divorced.
Thank you for this thread. Depression is a common and vastly undertreated disease. There are two basic kinds of depression, organic and non-organic. The organic kind is permanent. The non-organic kind is caused by a particular episode (I call it situational) and is temporary. Of course, someone can have both. The brain is complicated and different people have different causes of organic depression and people’s bodies tolerate the different medicines differently. Some people in fact have no side effects.
There are ignorant people who do not understand that people with organic depression simply cannot suck it up and get on. The best thing to do with these folks is to stop sharing with them, rather than inform them of their ignorance, rudeness and cruelty.
My best wishes to those suffering from depression.
You know, those antibiotics are really a crutch. You can deal with that infection without them! Tough it out! Pull yourself together! You don’t have it that bad! Sure we might have to amputate the leg, but those drugs are a crutch! Of course, after we remove the leg you’ll need a real crutch…
Actually, I took Prozac for five months and it made me unable to sleep, and cranky. I switched to Effexor in August and it’s a little better. If I thought I could “deal” without it, I wouldn’t be spending my money on it.
Just start carrying an actual crutch with you. Then when people start calling your medication a crutch, reply, “No, dumbass, this is a crutch.” Then hit them in the head with it. They should become disabused of that notion in short order.
I’m glad to see that these drugs are helping you, and many others as well. I know several people taking Prozac, and most of them have had nothing but praise.
No one should ever tell you that use of the drug is a crutch for you.
Now, there have been situations where certain doctors are lazy, and they prescribe things like Prozac as a crutch for themselves, but I hope those cases are few and far between.
Much the same thing can be said about the anti-psychotic drugs (as I work for a company developing one). Too many people are convinced that these drugs are not needed for treatment. They fail to realize that things like schitzophrenia are severe illnesses of the brain - its not like the person is in a bad mood or something, their brain is simply not working the way it should.
Hopefully as all these treatments progess and the science behind them gets better, the social stigma will fade and more people will be more understanding of the nature and treatment of mental disorders.
The whole reason I work for the company that I do, is because I feel that I can help make a difference, and my work really will help people.
In a nutshell, COUNT YOUR BLESSINGS. People never seem to realise that when you’re depressed it isn’t because you’ve simply forgotten all the good things in your life. (“Oh what’s this? Why you’re right, there is a roof over my head after all!”) Reminders of all the good things in my life compared to all the bad things in other people’s lives only make me feel guilty and hopeless for being depressed despite every reason not to be. What a way to make a person feel like a complete loser.
I hope you weren’t upset by what I said in the drug thread. I didn’t mean to say that some people don’t have a real need for anti-depressants, just that in my experiance, I have seen them abused the same way people abuse alcohol and heroin.
As I said, five of my closest friends are on anti-depressents, so I understand what goes into making the decision to use them. The one friend I mentioned - I don’t think he needs them. He takes his pills before he goes out drinking and smoking so that he will feel really fucked up. I also think he has a drinking problem, and as much as I’ve talked to him about it - I went so far as to call his doctor’s office and speak with his therapist - no one is doing anything to help him.
I was just trying to say that people put all kinds of drugs in their bodies, from Paxil to Sudafed to pot, to make themselves feel better.
Uh, how does one ABUSE Prozac? Maybe for those who don’t take it regularly it does make you more sensitive to alcohol, but that passes as your body gets used to it. (Thus, I’m not the cheap date I was a couple years ago.) However, if you don’t need it it will have little effect on you.
When I was younger I stole a couple of my dad’s Thorazines. Years later I mentioned to Wife that they did nothing to me. She said, “Then I guess you’re not psychotic.”
umm… dude… throazine can lead to permanently debilitating side effects. that’s why its mostly been replaced by the “atypical” antipsychotics. neuroleptics are not as commonly used because of this.
I hope you were kidding, if not, I hope you realize the very thin line you were walkin by taking thorazine when it was not needed. thorazine… ick, powerful yet nasty stuff.
umm… dude… throazine can lead to permanently debilitating side effects. that’s why its mostly been replaced by the “atypical” antipsychotics. neuroleptics are not as commonly used because of this.
I hope you were kidding, if not, I hope you realize the very thin line you were walkin by taking thorazine when it was not needed. thorazine… ick, powerful yet nasty stuff.
mmmmmm Paxil, I went on this because it sounded yummy. I really didn’t want to reach orgasm for the first year on it, and now I can, I really don’t feel better now I am on it. :rolleyes: Plus the fact that orgasm takes forever (sorry if that’s TMI) but I feel like a person again! OMG, this must be wrong because I am altering my brain chemistry and I have put on 28 pounds! Oh yeah! that’s why I went on it, to gain weight! Hamadryad, anytime you need to talk <g> been there done that.
That’s one of the things I like about you, Cranky…your selflessly humanitarian way of pointing out these microscopic, yet vital, details. I’ll recommend you for a community service award one of these days, I swear.
Nacho, I wasn’t talking about you. I know you weren’t unilaterally condemning everyone who’s ever been on antidepressants.
It was this sentence: “For one, it saddens me to think that people need various chemicals to make themselves feel better or whatever.”
I know that the person in question was talking about “recreational” drugs, but people take this kind of attitude toward people on Prozac or Paxil or Zoloft all the time and it really yanks my chain.
I mentioned it in passing on the drug thread, but I did not make any of the quoted comments. If I offended, sorry. I am all for meds. that make people feel better. I could probably use some myself.
