Posted by Jeanna7 on January 10, 2002, at 15:52:57
> i was just talking about this subject the other day with someone.. i think it's both.. more socially acceptable to be depressed...and i think as a society overall, we're getting soft. myself included. we worry about stuff that our predessesors would have slapped us upside the head for being so whiney when they had more important life and death things to worry about like feeding the family. but....
>
> i also think that our society is going straight down the toilet as far as how our families are doing mental-health wise. we have so much more dysfunction, and we put it on jerry springer for all to see, and our kids are having kids and can't fight themselves out of a wet paper bag. we're getting soft and totally forgetting how to raise decent kids.. love them to death but teach them the life lessons they need to survive as adults without too much head-banging against the wall. spoiled kids end up being depressed adults. i've thought about this subject over and over in my mind and i think i can speak from experience. my depression is psychologically based, but i treat it with drugs...(and therapy) go figure...band-aid approach????
>
> > One thing that I have a lot of questions about is, has depression always been this frequent? Is it that it is more "out in the open" now or is there an increase in depression on a large scale? Although I know
> > that depression seems fairly common now (being one of the many myself), especially after reading the different messages on this site, has it always been this common? Anybody have any thoughts or answers to share
> > on this? I am close to two weeks being effexor free and I do feel better (as I mentioned in a previous post),especially now that the withdrawal effects are getting a bit better, but I feel more in control of my
> > life now and although I am continuing in my counselling (with a psychologist rather than a psychiatrist), I do feel that I am in the right frame of mind to tackle the "source" rather than the "symptoms".
> >
> > But I am still curious...is it just the age that we live in now, stress, anxiety, etc.?
> >
> > Teva
> >
Here here! Bring from the Midwest originally, I was brought up that we just didn't talk about problems, and we'd just have to 'deal with it' no matter how awful we felt.In 1988 I moved to California, (the anti-depressant capital of the world it seems) and fought the idea of seeing someone. My father died 3 years ago, and I went to a "grief therapist" no drugs, just her letting me babble for 45 minutes at $60 a pop. I got nothing accomplished except an empty wallet.
Recently, after a few more deaths and dyings going on in my friends and family circle, I couldn't stop crying (gotta love that phase!) and realizing it wasn't going to stop on it's own, heard an ad on the radio for a Pharmecutical Research Institute, where they were conducting a study on depression. I signed up and was enrolled in a double-blind study with a new test drug, Paxil and placebo. After the 9 week study was completed, The guessed that I was on Paxil (having gained 3 pounds a week). So, they tried me on Celexa. Can I just say 'white polka-dots'?? Itchy all over and no sex drive.
I was immediately switched to Effexor XR and I LOVE what it does, although, I still have a few of the white polka-dots, but nowhere near as bad.
So, coming back to the original point (OK, so maybe it doesn't help with attention defic... oooh, look! Shiny!) Too many people are drugged for no real reason. It took an act of desperation for me to seek help. In California it seems if you get choked up at a movie you go to see your therapist. I would like to feel better without drugs, and I hope that I will be at that point soon.
I'm actually going for my first REAL (outside the research lab) therapy session on Tuesday, so wish me luck! (OK, reading over that, I DO sound a bit off...)
Anyway, please post any words of advice or comments!
Thank you,
Jeanna
poster:Jeanna7
thread:16620
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/social/20020102/msgs/16620.html