Anyone have any experience with anti-depressant medication?

Thats a pretty ignorant statement. People who don't understand how the person on these meds does obviously can't even begin to understand.

There are people that spend their whole day sleeping, they are just so down they can't handle what life gives them. ADs are more of a short term management. They help the individual deal with lifes stresses. I have been on so many ADs for anxiety etc in the past and I agree, it is not the root of the problem. But for the time being, they allow them to feel like they are human around other humans.

I know you weren't intending to, but it is very insulting to people who are on them when you say something like that. It is a gloomy ass world totally different from what you perceive.

 

All I know is that when I worked in a hospital, doctors prescribed those things like candy to psychiatric patients and turned them into walking zombies.

 

No, it's not. Emotions are a part of life. You just have to deal with it and it will pass with time. Maybe I should take meds because I'm always in a good mood. People think pills will cure all. There's a time when you just have to grow up and deal with your problems instead of popping pills.

 

Exactly. I see all these tv ads and I'd rather be sad for awhile then having the possible threat of a heart attack.

 

Usually, in hospital psych wards they are much more liberal with antipsychotics, like thorazine, Haldol, and Seroquel. Those also tend to be the drugs that turn people into zombies.

 

When used therapeutically under properly controlled conditions to correct a chemical imbalance they can be a miracle drug in the short term. Without the necessary psychological and/or physiological treatment of the underlying cause of the disorder they can become problematic with unwanted side effects over the long haul.

 

It should. Talk man-to-man to your friend and help him out. Pills are not the answer.

 

So you feel the same way about alcohol right? And chocolate? Or are those ok because they're not in pill form?

 

You seem to have a pretty superficial understanding of depression.

Here is a simple primer that might help:

http://www.articlesbase.com/fitness-articles/physical-aspects-of-depression-204127.html

 

If you have to drink alcohol to feel better, than your in trouble, cowboy. You should even know that.

A snickers bar doesn't have a side effect of a stroke or heart attack or death like pills, so do what you want with that.

 

there are certainly people out there who benefit from anti-depressants, but we are way, way over-medicated.

as someone who experimented w/ a wide variety of drugs (legal and non) in my day, i can honestly say that the most dangerous thing i ever messed around with was prescription pills. i would also say its had the most negative long term effect on me.

its an easy drug to abuse - not hard find yourself taking 5 then 10 then 20 a day. rush limbaugh admitted that he was taking 100 oxycoitin a day. thats insane, but theres plenty of people out there like that. one can only imagine the level of addiction michael jackson was at - or corey haim.

again, im not some tom cruise dude saying nobody should be taking them...clearly they are beneficial for some. but too many people are too quick to get on that stuff.

 

Not really. Pills are not the answer. Sorry, but I don't have time to read that.

 

I wouldn't have expected you to want to disturb your carefully constructed house of cards.

 

Thank you. Say no to drugs!

 

Alcohol enhances your mood, and changes what your emotion would be otherwise. I'd call that interfering with 'normal human emotions.'

You're obviously ignorant about the subject of depression and don't care to educate yourself. Good luck with that.

 

No kidding sherlock.

Just dealing with it is the stupidest advice you can give to someone who is going through a deep depression. My guess is that you really don't know anyone that has gone through this.

By the way, just for reference, I have never taken AD pills.

 

Duh. Like I said, If you need alcohol to feel better, than you're in trouble.

 

It's the best advice. You find a friend or counselor and deal with it. Stay off AD pills.

 

Dude....AD's are not controlled at all. You seem to have a misunderstanding between barbiturates, opiates like oxy and w.e.

Those give a general feeling of euphoria, AD's are nothing like that. I've had both. Its not like you take more than one pill a day for AD, on the contrary whenever I upped my dosage I felt worse. Its not pop one pill in you feel good.
Its more of a gradual thing where you start to feel better in the long term.

And to ryan, I had a depression problem for ten years of my life. Everything that I look back upon is just dark, the biggest mistake I made was what you are advocating. Just swallowing everything and not telling anyone. I never realized how much better I am for it. So like I said, its really easy to be on the other side and preach on, but unless you know what its like I wouldn't say much.