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vanblah · 06-02-2006, 11:40 AM

I think that MOST people would agree that antidepressants are over-prescribed. I do believe that depression is on the rise (this is something for another thread though) ... and it's certainly true that there are people who need these drugs because even mild depression can be devastating.

I do agree with you on several points, for instance, depression as an excuse to get out of something is also certainly rampant. I'm guilty of it myself ... as recently as this week I allowed myself to get "down" so that I wouldn't "have" to work on the house for a couple of days.

It was a way for me to offset the guilt I felt for not working on the house. If I was depressed I had an excuse. In reality, I could just as easily said, "Screw it, I'm not swinging a hammer today," but because I have a problems with guilt I CHOSE to use the depression scapegoat.

Of course, I wasn't really depressed because what we are calling depression in this thread is NOT really depression. Depression is a debilitating mental state. "Doldrums"; frustration; fatigue; anger; boredom; feeling overwhelmed etc. are what we're really talking about and I'd say most people who call themselves depressed are really just suffering from these things.

Unfortunately, we've moved along to a point where people aren't taught the skills to cope with the doldrums or whatever. We just go to the Dr. and after a 15-minute evaluation we're put on an SSRI. The word depression has been bandied about for so long and it's been thrown into our faces and etched its way into the American mindset that we just use it to mean anything that deviates from our normal mood.

So to say that depression=failure is unfair at best. Depression is not something that most people can just "snap" out of. Depression, REAL DEPRESSION, will and does interfere with normal life in such a way that a person will fail at almost any task including the task of "not being depressed." I hope to never have to deal with that.

Only the person going through the problem really knows what they are feeling anyway. What might be a slight feeling of sadness to you or me might be the equivalent of debilitating depression to someone else.

06-02-2006, 11:40 AM	#14 (permalink)
vanblah Junkie	I think that MOST people would agree that antidepressants are over-prescribed. I do believe that depression is on the rise (this is something for another thread though) ... and it's certainly true that there are people who need these drugs because even mild depression can be devastating. I do agree with you on several points, for instance, depression as an excuse to get out of something is also certainly rampant. I'm guilty of it myself ... as recently as this week I allowed myself to get "down" so that I wouldn't "have" to work on the house for a couple of days. It was a way for me to offset the guilt I felt for not working on the house. If I was depressed I had an excuse. In reality, I could just as easily said, "Screw it, I'm not swinging a hammer today," but because I have a problems with guilt I CHOSE to use the depression scapegoat. Of course, I wasn't really depressed because what we are calling depression in this thread is NOT really depression. Depression is a debilitating mental state. "Doldrums"; frustration; fatigue; anger; boredom; feeling overwhelmed etc. are what we're really talking about and I'd say most people who call themselves depressed are really just suffering from these things. Unfortunately, we've moved along to a point where people aren't taught the skills to cope with the doldrums or whatever. We just go to the Dr. and after a 15-minute evaluation we're put on an SSRI. The word depression has been bandied about for so long and it's been thrown into our faces and etched its way into the American mindset that we just use it to mean anything that deviates from our normal mood. So to say that depression=failure is unfair at best. Depression is not something that most people can just "snap" out of. Depression, REAL DEPRESSION, will and does interfere with normal life in such a way that a person will fail at almost any task including the task of "not being depressed." I hope to never have to deal with that. Only the person going through the problem really knows what they are feeling anyway. What might be a slight feeling of sadness to you or me might be the equivalent of debilitating depression to someone else.