141–150 of 167 posts
What these articles seem to ignore is that depression is only one disorder they're approved to treat. They're approved for GAD, OCD, and a host of other anxiety related disorders.
I do note that everyone (including myself) who's promoting Lexapro on this thread is talking about the positive effects it had on their anxiety
If you give a single person medical advice, you can be sued for malpractice. If you propose medical policy for millions, you can be an anonymous staffer at The Economist. [Needs citations.]
Statements like this need to be worded very carefully. In many people's minds, saying something like "most people don't need antidepressants" quickly becomes "antidepressants are useless". Many people who may benefit from them get scared away. Speaking as someone who has been on/off antidepressants for GAD+OCD for the better part of a decade, I've had countless people tell me that antidepressants are useless and just…
>But for me, they are life changing This is not something you can claim. How could you possibly know that the SSRI is responsible for your recovery? I'm not going to say that antidepressants are useless, but it is important to understand how placebo works. The key point is that placebo works and it is impossible for an individual to distinguish between a placebo and a life changing drug. In antidepressant studies, SS…
I’ve never been on antidepressants but I had a period in my life where I went through a long depression. Inevitably I came to accept I was depressed because my body was telling me something in my life just wasn’t right, and I suspected what it was but didn’t really make an effort to do something about it. Once I made necessary changes things started getting better with time and eventually I got back to normal. Howeve…
Prescription of antidepressants really should be coupled with therapy (and often is), which if done right should prompt plenty of introspection. Also in those with severe depression, functioning is so low it can be difficult to even engage in therapy or make life changes without other treatment first. I think you make an interesting broader point though. Clinically there is not enough consideration of life circumstan…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
> what‘s the reason so many of use are anxious, depressed, neurotic, autistic, ADHD, etc. without obvious cause? Because modernity hasn’t been an unmitigated success. In the pursuit of abundance, we’ve made all sorts of trade offs that we are now realizing have had unintended consequences to mental and physical health. Every leap forward has felt like progress but has underlying negatives. The world has trade offs! T…
Mental illness is not a byproduct of modern society, its study and treatment is. Why is the rate of mental illness going up? It's because the stigma over mental healthcare is dropping rapidly and more people are getting formally diagnosed. That's like saying schizophrenia didn't exist in antiquity, people were just attacked by actual demons and everyone else was "normal".
If you have data on the incidence of depression in hunter gatherer societies we can compare to modern societies feel free to share it.
"Why is the rate of mental illness going up? It's because the stigma over mental healthcare is dropping rapidly and more people are getting formally diagnosed."
So in your mind the functioning of a society has no impact on the rate of mental health problems?
It's people like you who keep the world turning.
I’m someone who has dealt with mental health issues over the course of my life. The main causes are the following: 1) Illicit drug use. 2) Stress/anxiety/fear/grief The answer is to accept the hard truths and understand what is the root cause of your depression. Is it lack of friends and family? Lack of hope for the future? Lack of enjoyment in things that previously made you happy? Belief that somehow success/truth…
>The answer is to accept the hard truths and understand what is the root cause of your depression. Is it lack of friends and family? Lack of hope for the future? Lack of enjoyment in things that previously made you happy? Belief that somehow success/truth comes at the expense of enjoyment of life (“ignorance is bliss”). Is it past trauma? A job/relationship you hate? Body/health issues? Aging? Feeling like you’ve ach…
I’m not sure what the solutions to those other problems are, but I think there would be solutions of a similar vein.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Why would a huge chunk of the population have a imbalance of brain chemicals? That's what I think about from time to time as well. I have ADD and take meds for it. But I'm pretty sure that I only need these meds to be able to work in an open-space, corporate IT environment with dead-lines, responsibilities etc. Without meds I get overwhelmed and panicky quickly, when taking them they turn me into kind of an office…
Same here, man. It’s for the reason you described in your first paragraph. Working in a soul sucking corporate office space is so painful for certain personality types. For me at least, I’ve always thought it would be cool to be a delivery driver or someone who’s out and about everyday moving around… but I stuck with IT because it makes astronomically more money. So sitting at a desk all day will require me be medica…
Statements like this need to be worded very carefully. In many people's minds, saying something like "most people don't need antidepressants" quickly becomes "antidepressants are useless". Many people who may benefit from them get scared away. Speaking as someone who has been on/off antidepressants for GAD+OCD for the better part of a decade, I've had countless people tell me that antidepressants are useless and just…
>But for me, they are life changing This is not something you can claim. How could you possibly know that the SSRI is responsible for your recovery? I'm not going to say that antidepressants are useless, but it is important to understand how placebo works. The key point is that placebo works and it is impossible for an individual to distinguish between a placebo and a life changing drug. In antidepressant studies, SS…
By noticing their effects? Seriously, what kind of condescending question is that, implying people can't tell severe differences in their own state of mind. Disregard it as "beyond worthless" anecdotes as much as you want, when this stuff works it's very clear and not some "might be placebo" kind of deal, including remarks from other people who notice the changes.
> That makes it even murkier. SSRIs take a long time to work, and if you try several of them that's going to take months to years.
Better months than the rest of my life.