UK is having the same problems. Personally, I've been on 6 different types of anti-depressants in the past 6 years. Doctors seem to have the attitude of chucking pills at you and seeing which ones stick. I'm currently on amitriptyline and have been for the past 5 years and due to bad side effects, wanted to come off them. Instead the Doctor gave me a different type of anti-d to take AS WELL as the amitriptyline, with the idea of weening me off the ami's. Side affects from the new ones were so bad that I am trying, with the Doctors help, to now ween myself off of them and stick with the ami's, only to now be in the position where I'm addicted to them both and have a maor meltdown when I try and lower the dosage of either. I wish that I'd never gone on them in the first place. Whenever I talk about trying to come off them, I get told by my Doctor that I need to accept that I'll be on them for life. Thing is, my depression wasn't that bad when I was put on them but now just attempting to lower the dose minutely makes me suicidal.

In my office, out of the four of us in here, three of us have prescriptions for anti-d's. Luckily, my friend followed my advice to not take them and instead was able to overcome her anxiety without them. My other friend has also spent the last few months trying to come off hers and it made her so violently sick (literally) that she was off last week and has now had to go back on them.

What really sucks is that I do believe that there are conspiracies to weaken our immune system to help keep pharmaceutical companies money pit overflowing and probably much worse. I only drink bottled spring water, filtered and try and only eat local fruit and veg but it's pretty pointless when the drugs I'm on are probably doing the job even better than anything else TPTB chuck our way.

Ok, reading back on a few other posts on the forum, I wanted eexpand abit on my post above.

I said that before I went on the tablets, I wasn't that bad but in truth, my life was out of control and counselling just made me worse so I had no real option than to try meds. That is not to say that I made the right decision, as a 19 year old I was pretty desperate to feel 'normal' after years of self harming, alcoholism, abusing painkillers and worse.

I am the first person to admit that I am a very very lucky person. I have a gorgeous fiance, loving family and friends, two beautiful cats and alot to look forward. For anyone to blame someones depression on 'self pity', they certainly haven't experienced depression or been close to someone who has.

There are a number of different mental health conditions of which depression is an aspect. Some depression is reactive to events in the sufferers life and others (like me) have no reason whatsoever to feel the way they do. Call it chemical inbalances or karma, or whatever the hell you like, but depression is very real and for the most part, uncontrollable.

For those of you who have little or no understanding (I won't name names but you know who you are), have you ever gone a night or two without sleep and got irritable and snappy with people? Have you ever been hungover and got in a foul mood? Or have you ever just generally had an 'off' day? Now tell ME how you can control those emotions? For the first, you can catch up on sleep, for the second, the hangover will fade, and for the third, the 'off' day generally passes. Now imagine having that emotion except its so so much worse, 100x as bad and constant, 100% of your waking time. As an example, one of the reasons people get down, irritable and anxious when getting little or no sleep, is that when you are asleep seratonin, the happy hormone', is produced. No sleep = less happy hormone. Some people's brains can't process/produce this chemical naturally or, if your depression or anxiety is reactive, you may have difficulty in sleeping, thus the same result. There are many other reasons as to why people can suffer from depression, and as I said above, they are all very real.

Don't be so quick to judge others with depression or cross them off as 'self pitying #'. You simply have no understanding whatsoever of what depression and other similar conditions are about.

Now just to go back to my previous post in terms of the medicine, I do wish that I could have tried to cope without it in the first place. I have suffered with depression since puberty and figured at that age that I'd grow out of it, but I was on a downward spiral so my boyfriend (now fiance) urged me to see my doctor. As I said, counselling made me worse and at that point, I'd had enough. That being said, I do believe that these medications are designed to make the user dependant on them. Perhaps in time, if I hadn't have gone on medication, I would have got over my depression. Or maybe it would have got worse and I wouldn't still be here now. I guess thats something I will never know. I am now, slowly having to accept that I will now be on them for life, which I detest. I now urge everyone I know to avoid them if at all possible, because the chances are that they will f# you up, all the more.

[edit on 4-8-2009 by JennyJen]

Originally posted by muzzleflash
No, those are physical ailments, which medication will actually help.
Depression is when your like "Oh im sad this sucks im bored screw the world" and that is a 100% mental choice, totally based on thought processes.

Actually, depressive illness is a physical ailment. I'm not talking about plain depression, which is a normal response to heartbreak and loss. When you lose someone or something dear to you, you mourn, you slowly get over it. That's normal and natural, and the mourning should be allowed to happen without interference. This is what you are referring to when you speak of "depression". Drugs usually aren't useful for this. We just need to heal from our sorrow by letting Nature do its thing.

Depressive *illness* is experiencing similar feelings, but without the external source of sorrow - or with a trivial source that wouldn't ordinarily cause such a powerful and sustained reaction. Depressive illness and depression are two entirely different things. Depression is a normal, natural, healthy reaction to the inevitable losses life hands us. Depressive illness is an illness - a *physical* illness that can often be adequately treated with medication.

The old Freudian theory that depression (and other psychological problems) is entirely mental is no longer accepted. Most of these illnesses are brain problems, not mental. This is not to say that the mind has nothing to do with it - of course, it plays an essential part in any treatment or healing. However, for people with a brain chemistry that is out of whack, no amount of talk therapy by itself is going to help. Many people actually need these drugs.

Properly used, antidepressants are life-savers. They can turn a person completely around, from a miserable, non-functional mess to an active, energetic, productive human being. It can happen in weeks instead of the months or years that other therapies often take.

The problem is that most of the people taking antidepressants don't suffer from depressive illness. They're depressed over something - job, relationships, money, health, whatever - and instead of working through these issues, they grab the quick fix. This is unhealthy. Drugs always have risks; and if you block the normal mourning process, you leave those issues unresolved. It's like taking codeine for a toothache. Sure, it will mask the pain, but the tooth is still in need of fixing, and the problem isn't being addressed.

Well, what I read so far on this thread is general. I would like to challenge those who only have limited education on depression and manic condition. Look up HPA Axis, but make sure the site you go to is evidence based because there are many site that misleads the general public.
I have been taking antidepressants for years. For those who state that America does not face stresses like other in the world, think again. It is very common throughout this world, people can not afford the medication and do without, this includes the United States and Native Americans. The key factor for the HPA Axis is to help the body to keep balance for a short time during stressors, not months and years like many people face. With continuous stress leads to overload for the HPA Axis that creates changes (chemically). This condition can be passed on to the next generation or aquired. This is the flight or fight you have heard about the HPA Axis controls. With this HPA Axis over used leads to smoking, alcohol, and drugs to cope. My resources are research evidence based from a medical stand point.

Originally posted by chiron613
You ought to see the statistics about how many Americans are on medication, period. It's frightening. In 2004 it was over 2.6 billion prescriptions. That's a whole lot of drugs. I'm sure much of it was wholly unnecessary, too.

I think that with so many people taking antidepressants, something is terribly wrong, and we're trying to fix it by suppressing the symptoms. That's like taking the battery out of a smoke alarm because it's making too much noise. I mean, I'm sure many people do need these drugs, but - so many? It doesn't seem reasonable.

Think on a chemical level of why there can be problems mentally.