The Depressing thing about Anti-Depressants

[XPlumpedXLipsXandXArsenicX]

I have a good freind who is on the maximm dosage of Prozac she can be on for her body weight. Anyway, before she was taking the drug, she was actually much more fun to be around, and, while she was extremily sensitive (in a bad way) to things said to her, she has confided that she wasn't all that sad. Now, she can't even wirte poetry anymore, she says the emotion she used to use is gone. Not that she's emotionally numb, per-se, but she used to talk to me about he elegance and beauty of despair, and how even though it hurt, it was a pleasant pain. But she thought prozac would make her life better. Unfortuantely, Prozac can't fix 18 years of family problems and abuse by a stalker-ish stepfather.

 

Ultimately, this made me question antidepressants in general. Yes, I"ve done reasearch, yes chemical imbalace and all that. Imbalance as compared to what? Happy people? Yes, I suppose. But maybe that imbalance is natural for that person, and fixing it with antidepressants is really over kill? She wasn't miserable back then. She cried and went into fits less than I do, but I'm not on antidepressants. I don't know. I can't put what I mean into words properly...I guess what I mean is

 

Is it right to alter a person's veiw of the world with a drug?

 

ESPECIALLY if they were NOT a danger to themselves or others without it?

[Catara]

Was she forced to take Prozac? If she feels that she was better off before, why doesn't she stop taking it? It sounds like she expected to start taking Prozac and have her problems disappear. You don't say how long she's been on it, but it takes some time to balance things out and her doctor may need to adjust her dosage. Severe depression can be a very serious illness, but sometimes the cause of the depression is external rather than internal. Medication can't fix the external problems.

 

Our society has started to become dependent on chemicals to get us through the day. Whether it's anti-depressants, caffeine, nicotine, alcohol, marijuana or whatever, we are a society of addicts. Doctors are "diagnosing new disorders" all the time. The answer to these new "disorders" is always a new drug. This kid doesn't pay attention, give him a pill. This one gained weight, give her a pill. That one lost weight, give her a pill. He's mean, give him a pill. Medication isn't always the answer.

 

Many of the greatest poets, not to mention painters and other artists, throughout history had mental illnesses and/or clinical depression. It's what fed their art. If Sylvia Plath had been on Prozac, would she have written the works for which she is so famous? What would Van Gogh's paintings have looked like, or would he have painted at all, if he hadn't been a little crazy?

[XPlumpedXLipsXandXArsenicX]

Ah! thank you for your input. She has been on prozac for awhile...She was on a lower dosage last year. Now she's ben on the higher dosage for...seven months? I think. Anyway, she did sort of expect her life just to be super easy on prozac.

 

I totally agree with you that our society is chemical-dependant.

[multipleoranges45]

It's very true that our society is very chemical-dependant. Just one example of this is my nanny, who's recently come through a horrible chest infection where she had a raw scraping cough for 3 weeks . She remarked to me that she'd been taking 'every drug [she] could find' in an attempt to make herself better. Of course, with the infection that she had, the only thing that could have made any difference was time, which eventually took away the infection from her. The painkillers didn't even help with her chest pain, according to her. She's very rarely hit with illnesses like this, but when she is it always strikes me how desperate she is to get better.

 

I think it's partly that people don't have any understanding of these drugs and their potential side effects. They just think, 'There's an advertisement for a wonder drug. I've got the condition it's supposed to cure, I'll be absolutely fine again if I start taking it.' It was what happened with cigarettes; it was advertised as being good for you but then the press changed their minds. It'll happen with other drugs too, because the reality of it, in my eyes, is that there'll never be a perfect drug. We're trying to do something that nature won't let us do.

 

Enough rambling on from me now, but there you go.

 

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Listening to: Muse - Map of the Problematique

via FoxyTunes

[karath]

I think, that Prozac is a damaging drug (it is a circuit breaker) and no exposed usage of any drug is safe for anyone, because it leads to deep harm of the human body.

[Speedy Sites]

Well if her life revolved around writing emotional poetry then why would she want to take that emotion away even if it was depressing? She should just stop taking it.

[Six]

It's very true that our society is very chemical-dependant. Just one example of this is my nanny, who's recently come through a horrible chest infection where she had a raw scraping cough for 3 weeks . She remarked to me that she'd been taking 'every drug [she] could find' in an attempt to make herself better. Of course, with the infection that she had, the only thing that could have made any difference was time, which eventually took away the infection from her. The painkillers didn't even help with her chest pain, according to her. She's very rarely hit with illnesses like this, but when she is it always strikes me how desperate she is to get better.

 

I think it's partly that people don't have any understanding of these drugs and their potential side effects. They just think, 'There's an advertisement for a wonder drug. I've got the condition it's supposed to cure, I'll be absolutely fine again if I start taking it.' It was what happened with cigarettes; it was advertised as being good for you but then the press changed their minds. It'll happen with other drugs too, because the reality of it, in my eyes, is that there'll never be a perfect drug. We're trying to do something that nature won't let us do.

 

Enough rambling on from me now, but there you go.

 

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Listening to: Muse - Map of the Problematique

via FoxyTunes

 

We do find ourselves in a chemically-dependent society. However, these chemicals are researched and are found to be effective. Yes, there is an argument that drug companies feed us these things to make money, but, these drugs have been seen to make a difference.

 

 

I think, that Prozac is a damaging drug (it is a circuit breaker) and no exposed usage of any drug is safe for anyone, because it leads to deep harm of the human body.

 

It's difficult to justify what you're saying there. Yes, Prozac is a circuit breaker, and I'm sure it does have physical effects. But some people need that circuit broken. I don't know whether you've laid in bed at night and spent hours worrying about what's happened to you in the past, what interactions could have been handled better, what you should have said, what you could've done. These things are very important to us that suffer from depression. We'll analyse every single conversation, become paranoid, drive ourselves to complete character self-deprecation. We don't feel we're as able as the rest of the world. Everybody else seems to be coping so well with life, why aren't we?

 

Well if her life revolved around writing emotional poetry then why would she want to take that emotion away even if it was depressing? She should just stop taking it.

 

Easier said then done. Sometimes you find yourself drawn into a bad place, when all of your talents seem to escape you. You know you're good at this or that, but your motivation hits rock bottom. You think to yourself, we'll I'll stop taking them and then I'll get back on top of things, but you're fooling yourself because once you stop them, all the old insecurities come back, the paranoia returns, you're back at the doctors asking what's going on. It's very hard.

 

Sorry to ramble. I know I'm a newbie. This conversation was just one that hit home this morning, so I joined in.