I was reading a very interesting blog article yesterday and as such, i thought that i would post it in here.

Now i certainly am not experienced enough to make any firm comments on wether the Authors views are correct or incorrect and i post it merely so that you can read the article and make up your own mind.

Quote:Psychiatry & Depression

depression

Should depression be treated with pills, Anti-depressants? Should Psychiatrists treat patients with depression in the first place?

What is Psychiatry? By the general definitions you read online, ‘Psychiatry is the medical specialty devoted to the study and treatment of mental disorders.’ – wiki

You don’t even need to read down past that first sentence on Wikipedia, or any other site with a similar definition because the first sentence is so full of inaccuracies and false assumptions/claims that it only strengthens my opinion on what Psychiatry really is, a sham. Let me break down the little definition for you to help you understand my way of thinking.

Psychiatry is the medical specialty devoted to the study and treatment of mental disorders.

It is not a medical specialty, because a specialty in medicine is a branch of medical science (source – wiki – ironic) and as you may or may not know, Psychiatry is not a science. You doubt that statement? You think Psychiatry is a Science? The psychiatric literature is so confusing that even the dissidents disagree on whether it is or not. I’m not trying to argue whether it is a science or not here, so I’ll stick to the topic at hand, depression.

Think about it for a second, you can study and treat a disease with science, you can see a disease under a microscope and treat it, right? If someone has a crazy infection or something, you can see it, if someone has cancer or freakin swine-flu, you can see it! If someone has a brain tumor that is life threatening, you can; slice open the tops of their heads and SEE THE DAMN THING. You can treat what you can see with science. Medicine can be used to treat such diseases.

Who the hell has ever seen depression? I’m not talking about that sad, unmotivated fellow sulking at Starbucks or the likes; I’m talking about ‘depression’. Can you see it? No. Therefore, how can it be treated with medicine? How can you pop a pill and expect to be cured if there is NOTHING FOR THE PILL TO CURE. Oh and let me stop you before you comment with “But, MRI, EEG and event PET scans can help you tell if someone has depression”…it’s not the same. They do not reliably detect anything, even those claiming they work ‘sometimes’ will tell you, it’s pretty much a hit or miss. You can scan a perfectly normal happy person and get the same results you would someone consistently trying to severe their own limbs.

People, why have you become sheep? No, really, you’re numbed by society’s acceptance of the absurd and you just roll with it. Apologies, I got carried away there, I didn’t really mean to call you all sheep… let me tone it down a little and ration with anyone who believes depression should be treated with medicine or be associated with psychiatry in any way.

Do you know anyone who has lived to be – say 50 – and not once in their lifetime felt depressed? YOU have felt depressed at some point in your life, right? You might even feel a little depressed now. Maybe you’re breaking up with someone you think you love, rough time at work, things aren’t going great with friends or family, you might be ill and just feeling under the weather…does that mean you should shove anti-depressants up your ass to feel better?

Look, pills, medicine, it’s not evil. If you take a pill to fight a disease or something you can see under a microscope even, then that’s fine. The pill has something to eradicate, kill, and cure. The medicine has a purpose and it is doing what it’s supposed to do. But if you take a pill for something like depression, what the hell is that pill fighting? What is it curing? I mean, you can’t see depression right? How can all the good stuff in this anti-depressant pill cure anything? Are you starting to get the picture here? No?

What these Psychiatrists are trying to do is play the role of Houdini. They prescribe you these anti-depressants and say, hey, pop a couple pills a day and in no time, you’ll feel right as rain. You don’t question them, you figure, hell, if it’ll make me happy again, why not. And you start popping these little fellas in like skittles. Cool, but here’s what these pills are doing – they’re fighting something, that’s very true, they’re in your system, and they’re eradicating things, that’s what they do, they’re fighting human emotion. They’re hiding your depression, they’re covering it up…but I just said we can’t see depression? How then can these little pills hide and cover depression up? By making you think it’s gone, when in truth, nothing has changed at all.

That’s what anti-depressants do, that’s why over 65% of Psyc patients that go off anti-depressants get even more depressed afterward and need to go back on their medications and get re-evaluated and that only leads to things escalating. Why over 65% and not all? Well, because some people cure themselves regardless of the anti-depressants. Just like a mood swing. That’s all depression is, really. It’s not an actual disease, and let me stop you again, don’t even argue with me about depression being considered a disease because frankly the standards of deciding what a disease is are miserably flawed.

Do I think Psychiatry, depression and medicine should be in any way shape or form related…no. Remember something, health is not at all profitable, but guess what, sickness – as sad as this might sound – is. I’m not going to bother painting the full picture, I can’t dedicate endless hours, days, citing papers, studies and scientific proof that depression should not and cannot be treated by a psychiatrist or medicine. If you read this article and don’t at the very least question the idea of taking anti-depressants for something that doesn’t physically exist in you, then I can’t help. pop that mind altering pill, go ahead. What do I care? Plus, who am I to denounce what all these PhD wielding psychiatrists do?

But if you really want to fight depression (I even hate the word itself) then go for a walk, a few walks if you must, try to reflect on life, figure out what is upsetting you and make a change. Family problems? Face them. Problems at work? Life is too short. Issues with friends? Grow up and move on.

If you find yourself having to decide between taking a pill that will temporarily make you seem happier with your life and possibly end up making things 10x fold worse, or having to face this ‘depression’, this downer state of being for a bit, wad through whatever you’re going through. Don’t give up, comment here if you have to and just talk to me, just talk to someone who doesn’t charge you by the hour only to put you on medication for the heck of it. Don’t be lazy; you’re capable of so much more.

Someone very close to me was diagnosed with early signs of depression by her shrink this week and has since been prescribed anti-depressants. Sadly I can’t be there physically with her as she’s in a different country. Talks on the phone upset her too much and I hate to be one of ‘those’ people. I wrote this in the hopes that once I email her the link and she reads it, she’ll talk to me, and we can get through whatever it is she’s going through ourselves. If not that, then I hope she reconsiders what she’s doing. If you’re depressed, you don’t need a psychiatrist to tell you you’re sick and need to be on medication. All you need is a different outlook on life and to tackle whatever is upsetting you, one step at a time. As lame as it may sound, you’re not alone, I promise.

I know this has not been one of my normal articles, but sometimes when we feel strongly about something, we have to speak out. Luckily I have a platform that enables me to reach tens of thousands of people through this blog. I hope that this article reaches someone out there and helps them, I truly do.

The original article can be viewed on a blog called Ego Taco .

I do not have time to read this whole article at the moment. I'm in class. However I WILL finish it. With that being said, what I did read was nuts. For one quoting wiki is the first clue. Its completely unreliable information that can be put in by anybody. in college you CANNOT quote that site because of how unreliable it is. Secondly, it mentions that you can't "see" depression. But you can not really "see" any mental illness. Like schizophrenia isn't real either?

It also tries to make "feeling" depression and being chronically depressed are the same things. Yes everyone is depressed sometimes. most people are not depressed every minute of every day of their lives for years and years. Its no longer just a "feeling".

I understand someone not wanting to treat it if they are able to deal with it. But I also am not going to judge someone who tries to treat it when its something they have been dealing with for years. And certainly the suggestion of a new outlook which is simply "go be happy" is a joke.

I tend to agree with your comments Slaka, especially given the information i have read and the many things i have been told by members in here.

I did however feel it was worth posting so that people such as the Author, have an opportunity to express their opinion and recieve the feedback from members who have endured this, or similar issues.

Enjoy your class

Well if someone who is depressed and has been able to change their life and help themselves by changing their outlook and changing things around in their life then that is absolutely great for them!

However its discouraging when you are someone who is depressed and people you care about tell you to just go be happy. :/

^the last day to my class is Monday! So excited to be done!!

I would like to know if the author of this has ever had depression, not as in just 'feeling depressed' every now and again but actually being chronically depressed. Maybe they would have a different opinion?

Quote:Maybe they would have a different opinion?

I cant say for sure but hes a nice guy and seems to have no issues.

As mentioned previously i allowed this post and linked to it for two reasons:

1. I treated it as news so that the author could voice his opinion, i dont believe Admin of the forum should censor or unfairly promote any stance on any issue.

2. It provided a great insight into what the general public feels and says regarding the mental health issues.

For the record, i have the same personal opinion as yourself

O k
I would like to chime in with some hopefully intelligent comments. I have been suffering from some form of depression for most of my adult life about 32 years and unless you have it you will never understand it. That includes those in the mental health field itself. I feel the author's both passion and pain. I disagree with much of what he considers "facts" . To begin with there are so many levels of depression that no two people react the same so it is far from a "perfect " science. Also attitude does go a long way to help but that comes only from very good therapists who have many skills like DBT . A good caring dedicated psychotherapist can do wonders. I say this because after 29 years of taking every antidepressant and little actual therapy I all but gave up. Recently though I entered a day treatment program that had one sharp staff. Although not a "private " for profit organization the staff were still caring and dedicated and always encouraging. Armed with actual skills that a patient can learn I found a tremendous improvement in my ability to function. As far as medication is concerned , He is right in the sense that the brain is so complex there is at the present level of technology no real way to know for sure what parts of the brain malfunction to create any mental illness. A lot of people DO benefit from medication some do not. There is another issue of course that is going to make me sound a little off beat and that is business and greed. It is cheaper to keep the mentally ill drugged up then it is to fund mental health facilities. As I post the center i was attending is to be closed by the end of the year. And yes i am mad. I saw first hand how a well run program used both medication and great therapy to produce great results. But as great as it was it was worth nothing to to a corporation owning 17 hospitals with a reputation of having the latest and greatest diagnostic equipment. I hate to say it but as far as mental health is concerned we are on the low end of the totem pole. I also read an article in a science magazine where they produced drugs that were supposed to act on the brain in the opposite manner (reduce re uptake of certain brain chemicals )to conventional antidepressants and when given to depressed patients 68% did just as well. Leading to the idea that patients were benefiting from the "placebo effect." Mainstream science does however attack the mental health system saying it is not a provable science for many reasons but personally I think many do a great job given the limited resources.