UK - ‘Hooked on happy pills’? How the media demonises mental health medication

[JessFR]

I've been hooked on recreational drugs.. I am NOT hooked on my antidepressant. Antidepressants bring me up to 'almost' the normal that most people have naturally. Drugs bring me up to that normal and beyond.

Drugs are a roller coaster of making life awesome and making life a living hell. Antidepressants brings my life back to being somewhat of a life.

"You don't want to be on pills for the rest of your life" some people say.

No I don't... but I would much rather that than being DEAD.

So **** you media.

I tried quitting my antidepressant once, cause, you know, I'd been good for a while, over a year, thought I was through the rougher parts of my life and maybe now I can cope without my antidepressant.

Took a little while to get off it, things for fine for a little while, then within a few months I started looking back and going "I am so horribly unhappy, I mean things weren't perfect on antidepressants but I could at least cope with this crap without wanting to cry and slit my wrists". So I started them again and got back to that just-before baseline level of emotion.

For the record I'm not on an SSRI.

 

[23536]

there is an class of anti-psychotics that are VERY useful for people who need them, I will never try and deny that. Even SSRIs can be extremely helpful to some..

I'm pretty surprised to hear this coming from you. What made you change your mind about this?

People with severe psychotic disorders--especially people who hallucinate as a result of their condition--really benefit from antipsychotics. I've seen this over and over again. I'd say they're about 0.5% of the population (see epidemiology of schizophrenia and add a fraction of a percentage point for the schizoaffectives and severe bipolars).

But what percentage of the population is prescribed antipsychotics? Does anybody know this? The pharma companies certainly push them really hard, and psychiatrists are lazy and like to absently pass them out instead of doing real work on their patients.

 

[JessFR]

I'm pretty surprised to hear this coming from you. What made you change your mind about this?

People with severe psychotic disorders--especially people who hallucinate as a result of their condition--really benefit from antipsychotics. I've seen this over and over again. I'd say they're about 0.5% of the population (see epidemiology of schizophrenia and add a fraction of a percentage point for the schizoaffectives and severe bipolars).

But what percentage of the population is prescribed antipsychotics? Does anybody know this? The pharma companies certainly push them really hard, and psychiatrists are lazy and like to absently pass them out instead of doing real work on their patients.

I've never had a non-drug induced hallucination in my life and I've been prescribed seroquel, seroquel seems to be the new go-to offlabel drug for anxiety. Made me sleep but not much else.

 

[ro4eva]

Seroquel was Rx'd to me on a couple separate occasions as a sleep aid. And I got my ass kicked.

One time, I was high on a meth bomb ecstasy pill, and I eventually sped up to the point that it was becoming uncomfortable. Well, I didn't have anything else other than Seroquel, so I swallowed either 50 or 100mg (don't remember precisely). It knocked me out cold for 12 hours.

 

[JessFR]

Seroquel was Rx'd to me on a couple separate occasions as a sleep aid. And I got my ass kicked.

One time, I was high on a meth bomb ecstasy pill, and I eventually sped up to the point that it was becoming uncomfortable. Well, I didn't have anything else other than Seroquel, so I swallowed either 50 or 100mg (don't remember precisely). It knocked me out cold for 12 hours.

Seroquel is great for that. I mainly used mine for sleep rather than anxiety after it became clear that it was useless for me for anxiety. I seem to be one of the few people who feel pretty good after a seroquel induced power sleep. Mirtazapine on the other hand, ugh, don't feel right the whole next day.

 

[New]

^ The problem is, many^^^ people get dependent on them and they AREN'T helping. And when SSRIs have been shown to be as effective as placebos in studies, I really don't see how ANY doctor could feel safe in prescribing them... forget about having half of a generation on them.

Maybe I'm just biased because all I hear about is people who now can't roll because their serotonin receptors are so desensitized even years after they got off the drugs and never and good studies about them, in fact, I am. I would have been put on an SSRI though, several times. I don't need it NOW though, I have largely overcome my manic-depressive tendencies and though I still live with them, I feel better about myself with learning how to deal with it the natural way. If I had been put on drugs like some authority figures in my life had wanted, I would have likely not made those positive changes in my life and instead just hoped the pill fixed my problems.



That's all just Paxil and such though, there is an class of anti-psychotics that are VERY useful for people who need them, I will never try and deny that. Even SSRIs can be extremely helpful to some.. but I think we can all agree that there are WAY too many people prescribed medications they don't need.

Well, yeah. A lot of people get pushed SSRIs who don't actually need them. That's not fair to the patient, who more often than not aren't warned about the accompanying physical dependency by less than ethical GPs, who only prescribe a certain medication due to kickbacks or patient demand and aren't prepared and/or willing to engage in the proper trial-and-error in order to find a truly effective antidepressant, whether that be SSRI, SNRI, tricyclic, or a phase of bipolar disorder. Mental illness is tricky, and medication oftentimes is only truly effective with psychotherapy.

I also don't think it's fair to overgeneralize in the opposite direction, either, as that may drive sufferers of honest to goodness Major Depressive Disorder away from life-saving medication interventions. You're extremely lucky, Folley, in having a mild enough case where you can use learned coping skills to improve your life. It's important to point out that there are people who aren't concerned with rolling in the future for whom SSRIs are the only option...my brother being one of them. He's unable to function without an SSRI, a mood stabilizer, propanalol, AND 100 mgs of adderall daily(legitimately prescribed and legitimately treating SEVERE ADHD). He wants to be on pills for the rest of his life, because without them, he's dysfunctional to the point of having no life. His metal illnesses are purely haywire brain chemicals that require intense treatment.

The only real way to stop overprescribing pills is to teach customers with unbiased materials. Otherwise, they'll end up doing some dumb shit like stay on a med that isn't working because the doctor told them it is, and believing them while feeling like assholes for bringing it up. There's a lot that's messed up about them pharmaceutical industry, but it's important to remember all the good they do as well to prevent reflexively throwing out the baby with the bathwater.

 

[23536]

Otherwise, they'll end up doing some dumb shit like stay on a med that isn't working because the doctor told them it is, and believing them while feeling like assholes for bringing it up.

A really interesting thing happens when the patient suffers from some type of delusional disorder and cannot tell if the medicine is genuinely not working or if he delusionally perceives it is not working. 8( Although, if he perceives it is working and his perception is irrational, what does one do with that?

I also wonder if the historical formation of the phrase "throwing out the baby with the bathwater" involved any actual tragedies.

 

[New]

What I meant is they believe it isn't working, they tell the doctor, then the doctor tells them that it is working, so, despite their misgivings, they stick with the ineffective medication because "the doctor knows best". I didn't mean to imply some manner of ontological mindfuck.

 

[ro4eva]

I'll never forget the first time I received a prescription from my previous shrink. He wrote it with a pen which had "Effexor XR" printed all over it. The backboard he used to put his prescription pad on in order to be able to write my Rx while standing up and away from his desk was covered in zee Zoloft logo.

P.S. - I received a prescription for Effexor XR 75mg OD. And one weeks supply of free samples, "to tide me over until I can afford to pay for my medication." How nice of him.