Posted by hyperfocus on June 2, 2011, at 17:48:20
In reply to Do we expect too much of antidepressants today?, posted by jono_in_adelaide on June 2, 2011, at 0:22:15
I'd have to say no. I think at some point people who have gone through a long period of crushing sadness or grief or hopelessness, or have experienced severe anxiety for a long time, come to realize that what they are feeling is not normal and has gone beyond the normal human response to trauma or loss or stress, and needs to be treated medically. Antidepressants do not make you happy AFAIK. They just normalize your emotional response. That's all that people with MI want, generally. If you think taking an AD will make your life wonderful then you may not need to be on an AD. I don't take meds for social phobia to make me be the life of the party and have 5 girlfriends - I take them so I can go to the supermarket and not feel like I've got three heads and five eyes. I don't expect ADs to make me feel wonderful and glorious - I'd just like to wake up in the morning and not feel this huge weight of sadness and bad memories of inconsequential events ten years in the past crushing me all the time.
>Now, we seem to expect antidepressants to cure not only endrgenous depression, but every unhappiness life can bring, dissatisfaction, disafection, misery and sadness.
A lot of the time dissatisfaction, disaffection, misery and sadness is caused by the illness we have. So it's logical to believe that if the illness is gone we can at least try to do the things that bring us satisfaction and happiness. There's no guarantees in this life but at least when I roll the dice I'd like them to be fair and not loaded. That's not expecting too much.
What I would say is that doctors need to go deeper and test for things like dissociation and bipolar and psychosis etc., together with disorders like PTSD which can be co-morbid with or simply the cause of clinical depression and anxiety. People classified with TRD might need a deeper exploration of their illness and different kinds of medication besides ADs. Also recovering from any long debilitating illness requires a lot of psychological, behavioral, emotional, spiritual/philosophical work.
C-PTSD: social phobia, major depression, dissociation
Currently on 150mg amitriptyline single dose at night.
Improving.
poster:hyperfocus
thread:986896
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20110529/msgs/986960.html