(Peacebang’s post here. Chalice Chick’s response here.)
Here’s what I hear, out and about. I hear some folks saying that going on meds is a great experience, some folks bitching about feeling dulled and deadened by their meds, and other folks asking desperately why they can’t find the right meds.
More often than not, meds change people. That’s why people take them. They’re hoping to be changed.
We experience any significant change as a loss, so taking meds, even good meds, leads to a loss. It can be a liberating loss or a devastating loss, but taking effective meds is going to take something from you. You may end up happy about that. You’ll need to talk it through either way.
Back when I read thick books, Julia Kristeva wondered if taking meds would replace the hard work of spinning your own life story. She’s a recovering Freudian, so she’s interested in you spending all your time and energy tying off every loose end in your subconscious instead of purchasing the “short cut” of meds. Sadly, there aren’t any meds yet to cure Freudianism. I guess she’ll have to find a therapy-only solution.
One thing good meds do is give you enough of a reprieve to quit living whatever shitty story you were telling yourself while you were depressed. For some folks that’s enough, and they can quit the meds once they write a better story to live out. If your biology isn’t so docile, you’ll need the meds no matter how great a story you get. Them’s the breaks.
Don’t admire people who get over clinical depression without meds any more than you admire people who get over pneumonia without antibiotics. It’s impressive, granted, but not admirable. Somebody always wins the biology lottery.
There were things about your pre-meds life that weren’t shitty. Some of them were pretty cool, and a few of those cool things might disappear when you take the meds. But if your meds work, you’re a better person when you’re on your meds. You’ll have to get over losing some of the old coolnesses and have to get used to some new coolnesses. Them’s the breaks.
Take your meds. Your friends and family thank you.
so true.
Depression was considered fairly rare in our society until the drug companies developed medications for it. For many of us, using antidepresants is trying to cure a spiritual problem with chemicals. Suggested reading: “Finding Meaning in the Second Half of Life: How to finally, Really Grow Up” By James Hollis, Ph.D., a Jungian analyst. He says that what we should be looking for in life is not happiness but meaning.
Nathan, we’re still learning a lot about the brain/mind, and we can debate all day long whether more clinical research has resulted in identifying a pre-existing condition or “creating” a condition where none existed before.
However, for some individuals, SSRIs give them a clearing ground to do the cognitive work necessary for a better life. Most reflective people who have struggled with depression (and those who treat them) recognize that there are biological and mental causes. (Whether one reduces to the other is a question for another day!)
If your internist doesn’t suggest you get involved in cognitive behavioral therapy, start exercising, modifying your diet, etc, but instead hands you some Zoloft, be concerned. But, whether the med is a placebo or genuinely influencing brain chemicals that impact behavior, some people cannot get going on those things without them.
Handing someone Jung if they haven’t the energy to turn a page, or to even consider meaning as an option, isn’t helpful. (Which may not be what you are saying–just wanted to get that out there, as an echo to what Chutney’s saying.)
For decades I wrestled with my “meloncholy” and “Seasonal Affective Disorder,” telling myself that it was simply a spiritual problem, a “dark night of the soul,” some sort of pseudo-psychotic, creative/romantic soul-sickness that it would be unmanly to medicate my self over (notwithstanding the fact that I was medicating myself plenty anyway). But when I started waking up every night in the middle of the night feeling like I really ought to just go hang myself from a basement rafter if I could only find the energy, I decided that maybe it would be a good idea to get a little help. My trusted M.D. put me on an SSRI, and since then my life has never been happier…or more meaningful. Wouldn’t ya know, it was just biochemistry all along! I figure that since I spent a good portion of my mispent youth developing a pretty robust Seretonin Output capacity, it probably doesn’t hurt to inhibit its reuptake a little. Maybe if I’d been a little more inhibited when I was younger, I wouldn’t have these problems now. Or who knows? Maybe I was just born this way. But that doesn’t mean I have to live that way.
I didn’t mean to suggest that antidepressants are wowrthless, but I did mean to say that they are vastly overprescribed. ConsumerReports magazine has repeatedly stated that depression was considered fairly rare until the drug companies produced a book sometime in the 1960s (I think), which they sent to every physician in America, promoting their products.
I believe it was about 10 years ago when it was estimated that 54 million prescriptions for antidepressants were filled in the U.S.
Consumer Reports has consistently stated that drugs are no more effective than psychotherapy. It has been shown that psychotherapy can alter brain chemistry.
I wouldn’t hand a book on Jungian phychology to a depressed person, but I would suggest that there is more than one way to treat the problem.
I am a student of the Enneagram, and my personality type is one of those that can easily fall into depression. The Enneagram offers suggestions for dealing with depression.
Nathan, thanks for clarifying. I figured you weren’t saying, “Hey, just read some Jung!” but I’d be careful about statements like:
“Consumer Reports has consistently stated that drugs are no more effective than psychotherapy. It has been shown that psychotherapy can alter brain chemistry.”
I wouldn’t get your facts from Consumer Reports on this one. There is certainly a placebo effect for depression drugs, but we don’t understand brain chemistry well enough yet to make hard and fast conclusions on either side. And yes, the brain is definitely plastic in the sense that we seem to be able to make physical changes by changing our thinking patterns (but yet our thoughts are physical? huh? causation!?).
Anyway, my interest in the topic is in part because I know quite a few 1) depressed people on and not on SSRIs and 2) neurologists, neuropsychologists and philosophers of mind.
So I think that the drug reps have had an effect, yes… but that perhaps we’re also more aware of biological propensities towards depression. I think that the topic is immensely complex and recourse to meds or Jung, without a holistic approach, is rarely helpful.
Well, I guess everyone’s writing about this now… I have a longer response at my blog, but the problem I see is that more and more people are taking meds without therapy. I know several. And I’m still very confused why we are continuing to lump “depression” into one giant biological category. Is anybody looking at the cultural roots of depression out there?? If it were all biological, then why are some age groups and cultures more prone?
It depends on the case. Your mileage may vary.
I’ve a family member who went on… got herself unkinked… and came off, and is better off for it. But facts are that she never went on a serious dosage. She needed and got some help–assistance.
I know a young woman who has been diagnosed since a young age (known her since then). She needed the meds. Without them she ends up hospitalized. Period. She needs and will need the meds. Always. Her issue isn’t needing therapy; her family has a history, and she drew a couple of genetic short straws on this… and needs the meds.
Period.
I know one person who needed meds for an extended period, and they likely saved his life. Given time, AND therapy, as well as meds… he was eventually able to write a better story, and is now fine without them.
Cases vary. Experiences vary. This is an area where few rules are really reliable….
I’ve been on and off SSRIs since 1990. In the past I’ve been able to take them for a few months and then get off. This last round has lasted for about 2 years. I take them not only for depression, but for hormonally induced serotonin fluctuations that cause migraines.
Fluoxetine has been a life-saver for me. Just my $.02.
Nathan Jay – never heard of the book, but thanks for the reference. I do tend to think that meaning – not happiness – is what I’m after – and what many other people are after (even if they don’t realize it).
I know a few people who are on meds and they basically need them to get through the day. I know a lot more people who are prescribed anti-depressants for “mild depression” by doctors who see them for 15 minutes every few months and don’t prescribe any other form of treatment. In my view, it’s a money racket – it has nothing to do with the health or well-being of the patient.
I am appalled at how easy it is to be given medication that affects one’s brain – with no additional work done to address the underlying issues. But it’s not surprising to me. Physical ailments are treated much the same way. For example, I would never suggest a person be denied critical or urgent care, but prescribing someone blood pressure medication and doing nothing to address their diet, fitness, and nutritional needs seems irresponsible – and potentially harmful.
[…] easy for me to say this without having experienced the depth of darkness that others seem to be in. Others agree with me: suck it up. I can’t really engage in the contest of “who’s more […]