Depression, Antidepressants & Marriage

While putting together this site, I’ve approached it from the point of view of a recovering depressed person. As a result, I’ve overlooked some very important people who are suffering right along with us–our friends, family, and loved ones. This was brought to my attention not only by reader feedback, but also by my own experiences. As I’ve begun to get my depression under control, I’ve attempted to extend a hand to others. I’ve been met with reactions ranging from hope to resignation to hostility. When I’ve come upon individuals who aren’t yet ready to come to terms with their illness, I’ve been forced to walk away. This has disturbed me greatly. If it’s so painful and frustrating to not be able to help a nameless, faceless stranger, how must it feel to live day-to-day with someone who’s depressed? We depressives can be downright frustrating. We see everything in absolute terms, no gray areas. We set high standards for ourselves and when they aren’t met, we can’t accept it. We lash out at our loved ones. We’re too wrapped up in our own pain to nurture our loved ones. We may cut ourselves, eat too much, or use drugs and alcohol to take away the pain. We beat ourselves up endlessly because we think we think we’re ugly, unlovable, lazy, and worthless. I’m writing this as someone who’s been on both sides of the fence and can now appreciate the pain of both the depressed and the people who seek to help the depressed. If you care about someone who’s depressed, here are some suggestions for what you can do to help them.

1. Educate yourself. There are countless sites on the Internet where you can learn about depression, it’s symptoms, and treatment. My Depression FAQ is an excellent starting place to find answers to many common questions about depression. Learn about informed consent and the legal aspects of treatment in your state.

2. Put yourself in their shoes. Learn what depression feels like, the misconceptions about mental illness that they must deal with, and get the facts about what depression really is.

3. Take care of yourself. Feelings of depression are contagious. Periodically take some time to step back from the situation and recharge your batteries.

4. It’s okay to feel upset, angry, frustrated. These feelings are a valid response to a very trying situation. Join a support group, talk with a close friend, or see a . The important thing is vent your frustrations rather than allowing them to build up inside.

5. Be there for them. Give them a shoulder to cry on or just listen while they spill out their hearts to you. Be patient with them. Let them know that you care. Share the things you’ve learned while researching depression. Let them know it’s not their fault, that they’re not weak or worthless.

6. Remember that the depressed person’s behavior isn’t indicative of the “real” person. The depressed person has impaired social skills. They may be withdrawn and shy or sullen and angry. When the depressed person lashes out in anger, it’s because they’re actually angry with themselves and the way they feel. You just happen to be there. When your spouse or significant other doesn’t feel like having sex, don’t take it personally. Loss of sex drive is a classic symptom of depression, as well as the medications used to treat it. It doesn’t mean they don’t love you.

7. Depressed people aren’t lazy. They’re ill. Everyday activities like cleaning house, paying bills, or feeding the dog may seem overwhelming to them. You may have to take up the slack for them for awhile. Just like if they had the flu, they simply don’t feel up to it.

8. Therapy is crucial to their recovery. Help keep them on track with treatment. Help to ease their fears about treatment by letting them know that they’re not crazy.

9. Offer hope in whatever form they will accept it. This could be their faith in God, their love of their children, or anything else that makes them want to go on living. Find what works best for them and remind them of it whenever they’re not sure they can hang on any longer. If they’re suicidal, you may need to seek immediate help. There are some very valuable suicide resources on the Internet that will help you to help your loved cope with suicidal feelings as well.

10. Love them unconditionally and let me know it’s their illness you’re frustrated with, not them.

To read on please click here

Having bad days once in a while is normal, but what if you feel down in the dumps for a few weeks, or even a few months? If you have been having feelings of sadness or irritability that won’t go away, you might be experiencing depression. Depression is very common and can affect any person at any age, including teens. This guide is designed to help you understand depression better, so that you will be able to recognize the signs of depression in yourself or people who are close to you and you will know how to find help.

What is depression?

Depression is a psychological condition that affects your feelings, behaviors, and thoughts. You may have feelings of sadness or irritability, a lack of energy, trouble sleeping, feelings of hopelessness or worthlessness, or unhappy thoughts about yourself or your life. You may even feel that your life is not worth living, or think about hurting yourself. Depression can also affect you physically: you can have aches and pains all over, or in specific areas such as your stomach. You may have headaches, trouble sleeping, eating, or concentrating.

Who gets depressed?

Depression affects children, teens, and adults of all ages. No one knows the exact number of teens affected by depression, but we do know that it affects a large number of teens, both male and female, from all ethnic and racial backgrounds. Sometimes it happens as a direct result of a stressful or upsetting situation, and sometimes it appears to have snuck up on you. It is important to try to understand the difference between feeling sad or “blue’” and being what is called “clinically depressed”.

What are the symptoms of clinical depression?

You may:

• Feel sad or “empty” a lot of the time-these feelings may come and go, but last for at least two weeks.
• Not feel like doing things you used to enjoy, like playing sports, hanging out with friends, or studying. It is harder to have fun than it used to be.
• Feel irritated a lot of the time (things get on your nerves more easily), or you may get angry or lose your temper more easily.
• Feel tired or have less energy, or you may be restless and edgy.
• Experience changes in your eating habits. You may eat more or less than you did before you started feeling depressed.
• Experience changes in your sleep, either sleeping a lot more or a lot less than you used to, and/or having trouble falling asleep or waking up.
• Find it harder to concentrate and make decisions.
• Not feel good about yourself or about anything you do.
• Often feel guilty about things that you do or don’t do.
• Feel that things will never get better.
• Have thoughts about not wanting to live or about hurting yourself, or you may have tried to hurt yourself.

How do I know whether I am depressed or just sad?

It is normal to feel depressed or sad sometimes. However, if you have some or all of the above symptoms most of the time for at least two weeks, you could have depression. If you are depressed, you may or may not notice changes in yourself, but usually people who are close to you will notice a change in you. Likewise, if you are close to someone who is truly depressed, you will usually notice a big change in that person’s behavior or mood.

There are no laboratory tests that can be done to prove that you are depressed, like there are for illnesses such as strep throat or diabetes. But if you think you may be depressed, it is worth talking with someone about it. A professional who is trained to understand depression, such as your health care provider or a counselor, will be able to ask the right questions to help decide if you are going through a period of sadness or whether you have depression.

What are the effects of depression?

Depression has many different and powerful effects on people who have depression and on the people around them.

Depression can:

• Make it harder to work at a job or in school.
• Make it more difficult to make and keep friends. It can also become more difficult to get along with family members.
• Affect your physical health. For example, you may feel tired or run down all the time.
• Make you feel tempted to turn to drugs, alcohol, or sex as a way to escape from your feelings.
• Make you feel extremely irritable and cause you to act out in ways that can get you into trouble, such as yelling or fighting.
• Cause you to have trouble paying attention, which can lead to car accidents and other mistakes.
• Lead to serious injury and even suicide if left untreated.

What causes depression?

No one knows for sure what causes depression. The most important thing to keep in mind is that it is not your fault if you become depressed. Most likely, depression is caused by a combination of things, some of which have to do with the chemicals in your brain and some that have to do with what’s happening in your life. Some factors that may put you at risk for depression are:

• Genetics – If other people in your family have had a depressive illness, you may have similar genes and be more likely to get depressed.
• Family problems – A major loss in your family or conflict among members of your family may cause you to feel depressed.
• Feeling badly about yourself – If you are constantly being put down, abused, or neglected, or if you are having difficulty at school or other activities, you may be more likely to feel depressed.
• Feeling alone – Feeling that you are different from others or that your friends and family don’t understand you can make you feel depressed. Some examples of people who may feel alone or isolated from others are teens whom are gay, lesbian, or bisexual, teens who have just broken up with a boyfriend or girlfriend, teens with medical problems, or teens who have a parents/family members going through a difficult time themselves.

These are just a few common examples, but there are many circumstances that can lead to feelings of depression. You may experience many of these things and yet not feel depressed. Or you may not have any of these problems but still feel depressed.

It is important to talk with someone qualified to help you if you suspect that you are depressed. A trusted adult lsuch as a parent/guardian, a teacher, guidance counselor, nurse, doctor or clergy person can help you find the right counselor.

If you ever think that you are going to hurt yourself, it is extremely important to tell someone right away and get help to keep safe: you can always go to an emergency room.

To read on please click here

Why Antidepressants Don’t Treat Depression

by Mark Hyman, M.D. | July 7th, 2010 | Comments (11)
topic: Health & Wellness

Here’s some depressing recent medical news: Antidepressants don’t work. What’s even more depressing is that the pharmaceutical industry and Food and Drug Administration (FDA) have deliberately deceived us into believing that they DO work. As a physician, this is frightening to me. Depression is among the most common problems seen in primary-care medicine and soon will be the second leading cause of disability in this country.

A study published in The New England Journal of Medicine found that drug companies selectively publish studies on antidepressants. They have published nearly all the studies that show benefit — but almost none of the studies that show these drugs are ineffective.

That warps our view of antidepressants, leading us to think that they do work. It has fueled the tremendous growth in the use of psychiatric medications, which are now the second leading class of drugs sold, after cholesterol-lowering drugs.

The problem is even worse than it sounds because the positive studies hardly showed benefit in the first place. For example, 40 percent of people taking a placebo (sugar pill) got better, while only 60 percent taking the actual drug had improvement in their symptoms. Looking at it another way, 80 percent of people get better with just a placebo.

That leaves us with a big problem. However, there are treatments available. Functional medicine provides a unique and effective way to treat depression and other psychological problems. I will review seven steps you can take to work through your depression without drugs. But before we get to that, let’s take a closer look at depression.

What’s in a name?

Depression is a label we give to people who have a depressed mood most of the time, have lost interest or pleasure in most activities, are fatigued, can’t sleep, have no interest in sex, feel hopeless and helpless, can’t think clearly or can’t make decisions.

But that label tells us NOTHING about the cause of those symptoms. There are dozens of causes of depression — each one needing a different approach to treatment. Depression is not one-size-fits-all, but it is very common.

Women have a 10 to 25 percent risk and men a 5 to 12 percent risk of developing severe major depression in their lifetime. One in 10 Americans takes an antidepressant. The use of these drugs has tripled in the last decade, according to a report by the federal government. In 2006, spending on antidepressants soared by 130 percent.

Just because antidepressants are popular doesn’t mean they’re helpful. Unfortunately, as we now see from this report in The New England Journal of Medicine, they don’t work and have significant side effects. Most patients taking antidepressants either don’t respond or have only partial response. In fact, success is considered just a 50 percent improvement in half of depressive symptoms. This minimal result is achieved in less than half the patients taking antidepressants. It’s only made worse by the fact that 86 percent of people taking antidepressants have one or more side effects, including sexual dysfunction, fatigue, insomnia, loss of mental abilities, nausea and weight gain.

No wonder half the people who try antidepressants quit after four months.

I want to talk to you about the reasons why doctors and patients have been deceived by the “antidepressant hoax.” Despite what we have been brainwashed to believe, depression is not a Prozac deficiency!

How we have been deceived by the antidepressant hoax

Drug companies are not forced to publish all the results of their studies. They only publish those they want to. The researchers who reported their findings in The New England Journal of Medicine took a critical look at all the studies done on antidepressants, both published and unpublished. They dug up some serious dirt …

The unpublished studies were not easy to find. The researchers had to search the FDA databases, call researchers, and hunt down hidden data under the Freedom of Information Act. What they found was stunning.

After looking at 74 studies involving 12 drugs and over 12,000 people, they discovered that 37 of 38 trials with positive results were published, while only 14 of 36 negative studies were published. Those that showed negative results were, in the words of the researchers, “published in a way that conveyed a positive outcome.”

That means the results were twisted to imply the drugs worked when they didn’t.

This isn’t just a problem with antidepressants. It’s a problem with scientific research. Some drug companies even pay or threaten scientists to not publish negative results on their drugs. So much for “evidence-based” medicine!

Most of the time, we only have the evidence that the drug companies want us to have. Both doctors and patients are deceived into putting billions of dollars into drug companies’ pockets, while leaving millions with the same health problems, but less money.

What can we do? Unfortunately, there is no easy answer. But I do think functional medicine, on which my approach of UltraWellness is based, provides a more intelligent way of understanding the research. Rather than using drugs to suppress symptoms, functional medicine helps us find the true causes of problems, including depression.

I see this in so many of the patients I have treated over the years. Just as the same things that make us sick also make us fat, the same things that make us sick also make us depressed. Fix the causes of sickness — and the depression takes care of itself.

7 steps to treat depression without drugs

1. Try an anti-inflammatory elimination diet that gets rid of common food allergens. Food allergies and the resultant inflammation have been connected with depression and other mood disorders.
2. Check for hypothyroidism. This unrecognized epidemic is a leading cause of depression. Make sure to a have thorough thyroid exam if you are depressed.
3. Take vitamin D. Deficiency in this essential vitamin can lead to depression. Supplement with at least 2,000 to 5,000 IU of vitamin D3 a day.
4. Take omega-3 fats. Your brain is made of up this fat, and deficiency can lead to a host of problems. Supplement with 1,000 to 2,000 mg of purified fish oil a day.
5. Take adequate B12 (1,000 micrograms, or mcg, a day), B6 (25 mg) and folic acid (800 mcg). These vitamins are critical for metabolizing homocysteine, which can play a factor in depression.
6. Get checked for mercury. Heavy metal toxicity has been correlated with depression and other mood and neurological problems.
7. Exercise vigorously five times a week for 30 minutes. This increases levels of BDNF, a natural antidepressant in your brain.

Overcoming depression is an important step toward lifelong vibrant health. These are just of few of the easiest and most effective things you can do to treat depression. But there are even more, which you can address by simply working through the 7 Keys to UltraWellness.

To your good health,

Mark Hyman, M.D.

HOW DO I KNOW IF I AM DEPRESSED? OR JUST HAVING A CASE OF THE BLUES?
Being depressed means feeling disconnected, isolated, separated Truly, depression or melancholia is the dis-ease of our modern society. Our desire to isolate ourselves from everyone and everything when we are depressing isolates us from ourselves as well.
To recognize how it feels to be depressed more people will be able to liberate and unfetter themselves from their depression; lives will be saved as well.

People describe their experience of depression as being in some kind of prison. One man said that he was in a pit where the walls were of soft clay. One woman said that she was in a brick maze where there was no exit and the walls were closing in on her. “I’m in an infinite desert,”said one man, “there’s just me and a lone, scrawny tree.” “I’m in a cage,” said one woman, “the bars are thick and black and there’s no door.” Inside this prison the person has intense feelings of self-hatred.

Frequently, depressed persons imagine they are going crazy, are crazy or are being afflicted with some bizarre mental illness.

One of the beautiful things about a DA    group is that everyone has the same symptoms, feels the same pain and is relieved that they are not the only ones in the world with this experience. They don’t have to go it alone. They also don’t hear people saying, “Snap out of it.”

The following list provides a guide for those of you who are attempting to see whether you are depressed or not. If you feel you have a good number of these situations going on in your life at the same time and for a number of weeks, your melancholia might be indicating that you need to get in touch with persons like yourself., viz., the fellowship of Depressed A nonymous.

Wanting to isolate and be alone.

Changes in appetite

Shifts in sleeping patterns (too much/not enough sleep)

Waking up early in the morning.

Fatigability or lack of energy.

Agitation or increased activity

Loss of interest in daily activities and/or decreased sex drive.

Feeling of sadness, hopelessness, worthlessness, guilt or self-reproach and possible thoughts about killing myself.

Weeping/not being able to cry.

Lapses of memory

Hard time making decisions.

Fear of losing one’s mind.

Reluctance to take risks.

Difficulty in smiling or laughing!

Dorothy Rowe, in her award-winning book Depression: The Way Out of Y our Prison, describes how people build their prisons of depression by holding the following six beliefs as though they were real, absolute and immutable truths.

1. No matter how good and nice I appear to be, I am really bad, evil, valueless, unacceptable to myself and to others.

2. Other people are such that I must fear, hate and envy them.

3. Life is terrible and death is worse.

4. Only bad things happened to me in the past and only bad things will happen to me in the future.

5. A nger is evil.

6. I must never forgive anyone, least of all myself.

A s already outlined in this book Dr. Rowe delineates the six main ingredients of depression. These beliefs, tenaciously held, imprison the depressed until that day when they make a decision to choose to remove the bars.

Dorothy Rowe, a clinical psychologist from England, has written nine books which deal with how we humans as creatures create meaning for our lives. She possesses an almost universal recognition and respect from professional and lay alike about someone who has done her homework on the human experience that we call depression. She maintains that depression is not a disease or an illness but is a human experience that is truly painful and isolating in nature. She points out that the belief that depression is a physical illness has the good implication that we are not to blame for our depression but the bad implication is that we could get it again, like a bout with the flu or another cold. Psychiatrists who believe that depression is a physical illness don’t talk about curing depression but about managing it.

The bad implication for depression, using a psychological model, is that we caused it ourselves – by the way we think (our six immutable truths), live out our lives, and reflect on the world. But the good implication of this psychological model is that if we caused the depression we can likewise undepress ourselves. This is the approach Dorothy Rowe takes. This is why she calls depression a moral problem –we have to take full responsibility for the way we think, feel and act.

Depressed Anonymous bases its healing and recovery on the premise that once depressed persons admit they are out of control, even to the point of having attempted suicide, they then come to believe that a power greater than themselves can restore them to sanity, while at the same time making a decision to turn their minds over to the care of God as they understand God.

The important thing is not so much whether depression is or is not an illness or a mental disorder but that people have to take responsibility for themselves and their feelings. So many people think that since they are patients of a doctor they must just sit back an wait for the medicine to kick in. The doctor will be doing these people a great favor to ask them what has been going on in their families, their work or with those whom they love. The depressed consumer of medical and mental health services might then get it that maybe they have a choice on whether they stay depressed or not. The consumer might also begin work on themselves knowing that everything they can do to take care of themselves will gradually eliminate the symptoms that we call depression.

So often those depressed are living out of step with their own expectations or the expectations of others, sometimes stemming back to early childhood. It would be great if the many people on antidepressant medication would start talking out why they depressed themselves in the first place. The pain might disappear with the medication but the experience is still part of their lives and memories. Unless one talks about the experience then the depression symptoms will indeed reappear. Depression is a growing global mental health issue, according to the World H ealth Organization. The numbers of depressed worldwide is growing as old traditions and values among groups are being lost, blurred or forgotten. Families become more fragmented with more single mothers attempting to raise children alone. The world is becoming a crowded place. A n aging society in our industrialized nations brings with it those physical illnesses that come with a growing population. L ate- life depression is an especial concern for those of us who are advocates for persons depressed.    We all need to be in the forefront in advocating that more awareness be given worldwide to the need for mutual aid groups which possess the spiritual tool kits which can prevent further individual relapses back into depression. To stay depressed is to stay isolated and disconnected.

The space between one person and several places can pass as “walking distance”, which can easily be covered with a number of steps — the supermarket that stands just a few hundred metres away, the nearby church strategically located five blocks from one’s street, the occasional dinner get-together inside a neighbour’s home. However, regardless of how near the destination is, or how short a 30-minute routine walk is, many people opt to stay home, or hop in the car, instead of walking the surmountable distance.

What many people neglect is the amazing, overlooked role of this simple and easy form of exercise.  Those who choose not to walk actually deprive themselves of an easy way to save lives. They unknowingly choose to deprive themselves of the opportunity to ward off many severe health conditions.

A myriad of health benefits: Why you should start walking now

The benefits of physical activity enjoy a wealthy line of support from various scientific research ventures and evidence. However, a report that delved into the health and physical activity of U.S. residents have shown results which says that more than 50% of Americans do not engage in regular exercise, which may be substantially linked to the prevalence of poor health among several citizens.

In line with the significance of physical activity, walking is an excellent way of establishing one’s commitment to regular exercise. Besides its status as an easy form of exercise, studies show that people who make exercise an integral part of their daily lives are likely to further and regularly stick to various forms of physical activity. What better way to develop exercise as a habit than by regularly undertaking its easiest form? So get up, and walk.

Furthermore, the health benefits of walking and physical activity in general are largely linked with the risk reduction, prevention, and the management of a wide range of severe health conditions.

Depression

Commonplace portrayal by mainstream media usually translates depression to mere teenage “angst” towards the world.  But clinical depression is actually a serious mental disorder that can strike anyone, teenager or not. It can affect a person’s normal day-to-day engagements through the symptomatic loss of interest towards life, lacklustre, and dullness that a depressed person commonly experience. Furthermore, depression accounts for several suicide incidences over the world.

Despite the harrowing reality of this disorder, its symptoms can be easily alleviated or reversed through the positive effects of walking. A survey, involving 1750 doctors as subjects, reportedly yielded results that support the positive effects of walking. Approximately 85 percent of the subjects recommend walking to treat depression. The significant role of walking’s lies in the fact that it renders the person refreshed, lively, calm, and it also gives the depressed person a sense of self-mastery, control, self-reliance and power. It is also a good tactic for diversion, as it enables the depressed individual to hold the negative emotions in abeyance.

One of the long-standing theories regarding the root of depression is that its cause lies in a chemical imbalance in the brain; and regular walking has been attributed to the increased production of “feel-good” hormones. Another mental disorder that walking can treat and potentially prevent is anxiety disorder, which also has strong links to depression.

Osteoporosis

Osteoporosis, wherein bones are rendered thin and prone to injuries because of decreased calcium content, is one of the common disorders that plague aging people, most notably women. The exact causes that lead to osteoporosis remain elusive, but its management and possible prevention is fortunately known and that is, through physical activity, such as walking.

Inactive individuals are reportedly more at risk to develop the said disorder. As such, doctors highly encourage patients to regularly participate in resistance exercise and weight-bearing exercise, to which walking belongs. These routines enable the muscles and bones to fight gravity in order to successfully support or aid the body. As a result, bones and muscles are strengthened, which largely prevent the loss of strength and weakness linked to osteoporosis.

Dementia

Dementia-related statistics are confounding, with around 24 million individuals that suffer from dementia on a worldwide scale. Reportedly, the number of those who suffer from age-related dementia can even skyrocket to 84 million by 2040, given the absence of a landmark breakthrough treatment. Fortunately, walking provides a source of hope.

According to a study on Honolulu-Asian Aging, men who walked for two miles on a daily basis, and whose age range falls from 71 to 93, have effectively reduced their risk of dementia compared to those who walked a smaller distance. Furthermore, researchers from Italy studied patients that harboured impaired memory. Those who were most physically active reduced their risk of acquiring dementia by a substantial 27 percent.

Heart Disease

One of the crucial health benefits of walking is related to heart health. Around 50 percent of fatalities in the U.S are reportedly caused by heart disease. Fortunately, the staggering and depressing numbers can be significantly reduced if people start walking.

Various scientific ventures and evidence showed that regularly participating in physical activity, including walking, potently reduces an individual’s risk of developing heart disease. It can also aid a patient’s recovery period after an episode of heart attack and surgical procedure, while simultaneously reducing the patient’s risk of experiencing a second episode.

Stroke

In relation to maintaining and improving one’s cardiovascular health, studies also show that the risk of experiencing the dreaded and debilitating stroke can be reduced through brisk walking. Based on a study led by researchers from the renowned Harvard School of Public Health, a risk reduction of 30 percent was enjoyed by women who walked for at least two hours in a week. Physical activity, even through walking, is crucial to enhancing a person’s cardiovascular health.

Furthermore, researchers from the University of South Carolina also discovered that, regardless of gender, participants that brisk-walked for 30 minutes in 5 days a week reduced stroke risk by an astounding 40 percent, as compared to those whose physical activity levels were lower.

Cancer

Current walking lovers, and those who regularly lead an active lifestyle, also enjoy a reduced risk of developing another fatal health condition and silent killer.

According to a study that hailed from Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, moderate exercise, such as walking, lowered the incidences of inflammatory markers that indicate cancer risk. The study involved an investigation on 114 postmenopausal, sedentary, and overweight women.

A research team from Vanderbilt University Medical Center and the Shanghai Cancer Institute discovered that the risk of developing endometrial cancer was reduced by 30 percent, merely by walking for just an hour. According to the leader, the team is happy with the fact that even moderate physical activity can effectively lower the risk of a fatal and debilitating condition.

Diabetes

This simple act can also significantly reduce chances of developing diabetes, particularly the non-insulin-dependent type II. Obesity and diabetes have strong and positive links, so engaging in physical activity and weight management that lower obesity risk simultaneously lower diabetes risk.

Physical activities, such as walking, increases insulin sensitivity by enhancing the ability of the muscles to respond to insulin and to process glucose. Apart from risk reduction, walking can also aid currently-diabetic people in their efforts to manage the said disease, and to prevent it from further leading into more complications.

Clearly, fighting a good battle in order to ward off several health conditions does not necessarily have to become expensive and extremely laborious because one can effectively walk out of the various risks simply by walking – literally. Lives can be saved with just a little motivation, a little use of the feet and legs, and a little sweat.

To read on please click here

Antidepressants are a complete waste of time and money. Doctors are not trained at all in depression and cures, big pharma are in it for the big bucks. DO NOT take antidepressants as they are the medical professions answer to something. But, they don’t know what. I have heard that antidepressants have been used in rat extermination. DO YOU WANT THIS IN YOUR BODY? The only answer to depression is through psychotherapy.

Do AntiDepressants Work?

A Sober Look at the Happy Pills

Talk about it:
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Your trusty LiveReal Agents
asking the tough questions
and searching out the tough answers . . .

With so many people in our pill-crazed culture taking antidepressants . . . we just have to ask:

Are they actually working?

Have we solved the problem of human suffering? Are we any happier? Is this the best solution we have?

So we went looking for answers,
and so far have found . . .

This excerpt from
The Wall Street Journal, June 12th, 2002:

First there was Prozac. Then came Zoloft, Paxil, Effexor and Celexa. Now the FDA is poised to approve what could be the next blockbuster in the enormous antidepressant market . . .

The arrival of Lexapro, made by Forest Laboratories Inc., is expected as early as this month, and many patients and doctors are eagerly waiting. “Everyone’s going to want to try it on some patient,” says Philip Muskin, a Columbia University psychiatrist. He explains: “You keep hoping that the next one is going to solve all of the problems.”

But both science and past experience suggest that many people are bound to be disappointed . . .

Though demand for antidepressants is huge and growing – they are now the second-most prescribed drugs after anti-infectives, such as antibiotics - the frustrating reality for many patients and physicians is that they either don’t work very well or have intolerable side effects.

Few patients realize that half of the people who go on antidepressants stop taking them after three months. Add that to the fact that Lexapro is, in part, amarketing maneuver. It is nearly identical in its chemical make-up to Celexa, which Forest also makes. And Celexa works very similarly to the other top-selling antidepressants. But doctors and analysts expect demand for the new drug to be huge, partly because so many patients cycle through antidepressants . . .

Sibyl Shalo, 32 years old, ran through four different antidepressants between 1994 and 2000. They either didn’t work well or lost their benefits over time. Now she’s on Celexa, which improves her depression but also causes constipation, diarrhea and fatigue. “If this is the best I’m going to get, that’s not such a good thing,” says Ms. Shalo. So she’s awaiting Lexapro. “Now there’s something else for me to try,” she says.

Even the most popular antidepressants on the market work on only about half of the people who try them. Though the medicines have been life saviors for some patients, as many as 30% of those who are clinically depressed aren’t helped by any existing drug, according to Datamonitor PLC, a London market-analysis company. Moreover, all antidepressants can cause troubling side effects – for example, 37% of patients on antidepressants experience sexual dysfunction, according to a recent study by Anita Clayton, a University of Virginia psychiatry professor.

The National Institute of Mental Health estimates about 19 million Americans – 1 in 10 adults – suffer from depression at some point each year. About half of them, eight million people used antidepressants last year, according to Datamonitor. If you count those who used the drugs to treat anxiety, such as panic disorder, as many as 10 million Americans may have taken the medications in 2001.”

John Williams, a Honda salesman living in Seattle, enrolled in a Lexapro Trial after finding he couldn’t tolerate the loss of sexual appetite he suffered taking Paxil. On Lexapro, the sexual side effects almost entirely disappeared and he felt he could handle the others – ringing in his ears and a spacey feeling in the morning.

When the clinical trial ended in April, he had to go off Lexapro, but began taking the closest thing on the market, Celexa. “They seem to be identical,” he says. But while the drugs diminish his depression and anxiety, his symptoms aren’t gone.

And so Mr. Williams is already wondering what new treatment is coming. His doctor just told him about a trial for yet another antidepressant starting soon, and he says he’s thinking about enrolling.”

- excerpt from The Wall Street Journal,
“Approval Is Near On a New Drug for Depression,” June 12th, 2002

. . . and this excerpt from WebMD:

The latest scientific study to weigh in on the subject finds that theantidepressants worked only marginally better than placebos in a group of studies submitted to the FDA. Study participants taking the dummy pills had approximately 80% of the response seen in patients taking one of the six most widely prescribed antidepressants.

Lead researcher Irving Kirsch, PhD, tells WebMD that in many of the studies, while the difference between drug and placebo was significant from a statistical standpoint, it did not represent a significant difference for patients. His study appears July 15 in the American Psychological Association’s electronic publication, Prevention and Treatment.

“We are not saying that people don’t respond to these medications,” says Kirsch, who is a psychology professor at the University of Connecticut. “On the contrary, the response is very large, and that is why there has been this so-called revolution in the treatment of depression. The catch is that the response to placebo is almost as large” . . .

“People may be better off exploring other treatment options such aspsychotherapy or exercise, which has been shown to reduce depression. And the side effect of physical exercise is better health. That is much better than the loss of sexual function, tremors, agitation, diarrhea, and nausea that are side effects of SSRIs.”

Psychologist Roger P. Greenberg, PhD, says it is understandable that the SSRIs have become so popular in such a short time, despite the lack of data showing them to be effective. Both patients and their physicians, he adds, have adopted a“fast-mood mentality,” where the quick fix is expected for the treatment of depression. Greenberg heads the psychology division at SUNY Upstate Medical University and has written two books on the limits of treating depression with drugs.

“The notion that depression is caused by a biochemical imbalance that is easily treated with drugs has taken hold in recent years because it provides this easy solution,” he tells WebMD. “Biochemical imbalance is a handy catch phrase, but there is not a lot of evidence that there is such a thing.”

- excerpts from “Are Antidepressants Effective?
They’re Just Slightly More Effective
Than Dummy Pills,
Research Shows”
by Salynn Boyles, WebMD

. . . and this excerpt from USAToday, January 22nd, 2004:

(LiveReal Editor’s Summary of the Article:
Could antidepressants – those very things that have so often been hailed as the cure for depression . . . cause suicide?
“We don’t know,” experts say. “Maybe.”)

Could antidepressants prescribed for more than 1 million U.S. children and teenagers cause some of them to attempt suicide?

The Food and Drug Administration’s first public hearing on this question Feb. 2 is expected to draw polarized and emotional testimony. But the evidence needed for an answer won’t be in for several months, says Russell Katz, director of the FDA’s neuropharmacological division.

The FDA is re-examining 20 studies of eight antidepressants used in children. The studies didn’t document a single drug-related suicide. But preliminary findings suggested that suicidal thoughts and attempts, though rare, were more common in kids taking the drugs than those on sugar pills. . .

. . . The FDA has asked drug companies for more information . . .

(Editor’s Note:
Is there something wrong with this scenario?
Is the best way to gather real “information”
really to ask the folks whose very livelhood depend on the answers?)

. . . in December, Britain’s equivalent of the FDA advised giving none of the SSRIs to children except for Prozac, saying it’s the only one whose benefits outweigh risks . . .

. . . There’s relatively little controlled research on SSRIs in school-age children “and zippo on kids under 5,” says John March, chief of child and adolescent psychiatry at Duke University Medical Center in Durham, N.C. . .

. . . “The lack of supporting data, considering their widespread use, is surprising and disturbing,” says Lawrence Diller, a behavioral pediatrician in Walnut Creek, Calif., and author of Should I Medicate My Child? . . .

. . . However, prescribing patterns and medical economics work against the eagle-eye monitoring needed, some say. General practitioners and pediatricians, often not experts in the field, write the majority of SSRI prescriptions for kids. Also, HMOs may restrict access to busy specialists and pay for pills but not therapy . . . says David Fassler, a child psychiatrist in Burlington, VT . . .

. . . Mark Miller, 54, of Overland Park, Kan., believes antidepressants cost the life of his 13-year-old son, Matthew. He’ll testify at the FDA hearing.

After a family move in 1996, Matthew had trouble adjusting at his new school. On the advice of school counselors, the Millers took him to a psychiatrist the next summer, though he seemed happier.

The doctor gave Mark antidepressants, and he began to act fidgety, Miller says. The morning after Mark took his seventh pill, Mark’s mom found him hanging by a belt from a laundry hook in his closet.

“We have no family history of depression and didn’t even have a package insert because he gave us samples,” Miller says. An autopsy showed his son’s body had SSRI levels suitable for a 250-pound body, though the boy weighed less than 100 pounds, he says.

But other parents will tell the FDA that SSRIs saved their kids’ lives.

Sherri Walton, 45, of Paradise Valley, Ariz., says major depression runs in her family. Walton’s daughters, Jordan, 14, and Katie, 12, started Prozac in the past 18 months after episodes of severe depression.

“They didn’t even want to dance anymore, even though they’re avid dancers; they didn’t want to live, and now they’re normal kids,” Walton says. “I’m going to tell the FDA, ‘Don’t take away what gave my kids their lives back.’ ”

The agency expects to have enough evidence to answer the questions on suicide risk by summer, the FDA’s Katz says. Another hearing is likely then, and at that time the FDA might issue a new recommendation on SSRIs and children.

Parents who want their kids off the antidepressants now should consult doctors on how to do it gradually because stopping abruptly can be harmful, he adds.

For undecided parents, new interim guidance might come Feb. 2, Katz says. “All we can say right now is, use with caution.”

- excerpt from USA TODAY, January 22nd, 2004
“Antidepressants and Suicide”
by Marilyn Elias

To read on please click here

The Myth of depression by Robert Heard

Why do so many people get depressed or what they think is depression? The medical community uses the DSM IV to guide them through diagnosis that has absolutely no basis in terms of research evidence. We use terms like Bipolar,Manic Depression. These are simply myths and relate to ones emotional state and as far as we know there is no chemical cure. And, chemical cures do not work at all, such is the case with anti-depressants. Latest studies in the U.K. strongly indicate that anti-depressants are of no use to anyone as they do not work. They cause side effects such as suicidal thoughts, sexual dysfunction and are highly addictive.

So what is the answer to life’s down side in terms of how we may feel if something goes wrong in our life such as trauma, loss, abuse, domestic violence. Psychotherapy has prevailed as the only option to help people with so-called depression. It is a lot if work, but has shown many excellent results in a relatively short time. This is done with out medication or chemicals of any sort.

The pressures of big pharma are enormous as well as the medical profession. If you feel like you may be depressed and your Doctors gives you a prescription for anti-depressants you know this will not help you and get someone to refer you to a good therapist, something that doctors know nothing about.

‘It’s all in your head” isn’t something a chronically depressed person likes to hear. In the age of Prozac, when adjusting your serotonin level is as normal as checking the oil in your car, it seems unhelpful to suggest that someone might think their way into – or out of – a disease of the mind.

And yet depression is all in our heads. Where else would it be? The real question, still hotly debated in the scientific community, is whether its cause is chemical and ultimately curable (good news for Big Pharma) or something far more complex (good news for poets and pot-smoking students of existential philosophy).

There is no doubt that depression exists. Inexplicable sadness – or “melancholia,” as it was historically known – has been with us since Hippocrates conceived his famous oath. But a groundbreaking new study has found that not only is depression affected by the way we think about it, so too is its cure.

Last week Irving Kirsch, a professor at the University of Hull in the U.K., presented a study that found Prozac and its ilk are no more effective than placebos in treating depression. In his view, there is no substantial link between serotonin – the brain chemical that antidepressants are supposed to regulate – and chronic depression.

It’s a controversial study – one that many members of the psychiatric community reject out of hand – but it also raises a nagging question about depression: How did it come to be recognized as a disease in the first place?

Like Hirsch, psychologist and writer Gary Greenberg is part of a growing number of psychiatric professionals who have begun to publicly question the underpinnings of popular thinking on depression.

His recent book, Manufacturing Depression, debunks the prevailing notion that depression is a disease and anti-depressants the long-awaited cure.

In his view, the game is rigged. As he told me in a phone interview, “the disease was invented to justify the cure.”

Greenberg sums up the history of modern depression like this: In the 1950s, doctors researching drugs for unrelated illnesses discovered that certain substances made people feel high. They didn’t know why or how, just that they’d struck oil. These psychoactive drugs were marketed as mood enhancers and by the 1960s minor tranquilizers like Valium and Librium were routinely prescribed to people who these days would likely be classified as clinically depressed. Once the market was established, the race was on to develop the perfect mood-elevating pill. At the same time, pharmaceutical companies began to search for a way to increase the market share. An executive at the U.S. drug company Merck had a brilliant idea – why not broaden the diagnostic criteria for depression in order to sell more people the drugs? They recruited a doctor to write a book entitled Recognizing the Depressed Patient, which was then distributed to some 50,000 doctors around the country. The strategy was a resounding success and stands as an early triumph of viral marketing. And the script in that book is the same criteria doctors today use to determine whether a patient qualifies for anti-depressants and is, by extension, “chemically imbalanced.”

In his own book, Greenberg participates in a clinical trial himself, signing up first as a minor depressive (for which he believes himself qualified) and later getting upgraded to major depressive simply by answering the questions honestly.

As a clinician he takes issue with the methodology used to determine depression. He points out that answering “yes” to questions like “Have you been feeling depressed lately?” and “Do you ever wonder if life is worth living?” may be evidence that you are a Prozac candidate or simply a natural response to watching the latest news on the BP oil spill.

“With clinical depression, the symptoms justify the disease,” he says. “There’s an infinite regress and no bottom. Don’t forget they used to be able to scientifically ‘diagnose’ homosexuality the same way.”

As a practising psychologist, Greenberg knows the dirty truth about anti-depressants – that the theory on which their effectiveness is based is just that: a theory. The notion of chemical imbalance has never been proven and remains highly controversial. It is, according to Greenberg, “a myth, which, like all great myths, gathers together the central beliefs and ethos of a society.” In this case, it’s the belief in magic-bullet medicine combined with the prevalence of materialism (i.e. the belief that psychological truths can be located in the physical brain).

And of course, it’s all very convenient for Big Pharma, which makes billions curing people of a disease that may not exist. Last year in Canada alone, almost 35-million prescriptions were filled for anti-depressants, at a total cost of over $1.5-billion.

This is not to say that Greenberg agrees with Kirsch. “His interpretation of the effects of consciousness-altering drugs doesn’t really add up. Frankly I don’t think he’s taken many of them.”

While Greenberg believes depression is over-diagnosed and anti-depressants are over-prescribed, he sees nothing wrong with experimenting with pharmaceuticals in order to alleviate sadness or mental suffering, which are of course as old as human consciousness itself. He just wishes we would understand that that’s what we’re doing, rather than convincing ourselves we’re suffering from a mental illness and in need of a cure. Such behaviour brings to mind my temperance worker grandmother who used to allow herself a thimble of whisky every night on the grounds that her doctor had prescribed it as “medicine.”

“When we call a form of suffering an illness, we are saying it deserves recognition and resources. In this case, unfortunately, the kind of resources it commands are money for drugs. What if we could use those resources for other things – say, to figure out ways to make our society less isolating, less individualistic?”

There’s no question where Greenberg lands on the scale between Big Pharma and the poets.

As for me, I’d rather get on with life. And by that I mean staring at the wall and contemplating whether it’s actually worth living.

To read on please click here