I'm an agnostic on the topic of pharmaceuticals.
Ian takes a very low dose of Vyvanse to help him concentrate at school. It's out of his system by 2:00. He doesn't take any over the weekend or holidays. Actually, I'm not entirely sure how much he actually gets in him, because I mix it in with a scoop of ice-cream in the morning. I should probably take him off of everything for a week to see what happens, but he's doing so well in school that I don't feel like messing with a winning formula.
I have friends who really need their anti-depression meds. I took 'em for six months when a series of terrible things happened, but I probably never needed them. I think they actually made me depressed.
The debate over anti-depression and concentration drugs is stirring up. I'll give you some links.
In the Boston Review, Sandra Tanenbaum says that Cymbalta saved her life.
The New York Times says that adderall is being overused by high school students.
In the Room for Debate, a young author complains that publishers and readers don't want to deal with sadness anymore.
It used to be O.K. to sit in this sadness. Great novels examined it. But today, in the era of pharmaceutical companies, the second we stop smiling we rush off to the doc for a happy-pill prescription. Some people genuinely need medication. Others are ducking perfectly healthy – even beneficial – bouts of melancholy.
Apt. 11d 
I should probably take him off of everything for a week to see what happens
This is actually something you’d want to be very careful about, and be careful drawing conclusions about. All of these things (including anti-depressants) are habit-forming, in that if you stop them, you get what are, essentially, withdrawal symptoms- people feel weird or terrible if they just stop. Then then tend to think, “wow, I really need that stuff! I felt awful when I stopped!” And maybe they do need it- it’s just that the odd and bad way you feel when you stop can’t tell you that, any more than having a headache tells you that you really do need coffee, or the problem a drunk has tells him that he really does need to drink. Changing them needs to be done carefully and slowly most times, especially if they have been used for some time.
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“…the second we stop smiling we rush off to the doc for a happy-pill prescription.”
That is so not true. I am addicted to advice columns and a Catholic family advice forum, and the depressed person who won’t accept medical help or do anything to change their miserable situation is to this day a very common character.
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The long-term unemployed guy or the mother of small children seem to be particularly susceptible to falling into deep depression. To this day, people have a lot of trouble budging depressed spouses who are not willing or able to accept medical help.
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Geeky Boy is on meds, and they’ve made a world of difference. We use them in conjunction with therapy. GB does not relish being on them, but even he says he feels a lot better with them.
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Yes, Amy P, I know people who need medication, but aren’t on it. In those cases, it is definitely a generational thing. I do think that some people’s wiring is just off and that medication is a miracle.
Despite my crappy genes, I am not a depressive personality. There have been a couple of times in life when I”ve gotten a fair share of crappy news, like anyone else. One time, I chose to go drug-free. The other time, I went with the drugs. The drugs helped me get through the crappy times quicker, but I think I should have gotten off them faster than I did. I didn’t need them for depression, but didn’t know it. But that’s just my story. Not sure if it’s applicable to anybody else.
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I’m with Matt. When I try to go off Zoloft (went on for PPD after E was born–and sheesh, I didn’t even know about the Asperger’s then), I get the zaps.
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I’m an optimistic personality sort, but clinical depression is something different, and it kind of pisses me off when people assume that taking antidepressants eliminates some essential quality life, or that it’s for weak suburban housewives who desire to numb themselves completely. I take a Welbutrin generic after a combo of some traumatic life experiences tied with a probably genetic tendency towards crippling clinical depression. Contrary to the image and also my own expectations before going on the drug, it actually doesn’t eliminate my ability to feel strong negative emotions. I’ve been through a divorce while on this drug and felt heartbroken, crying myself to sleep for nights. I have had that hollow pit in the stomach of unbearable sadness and the numb feeling of having cried everything out of oneself and still feeling awful. I still have PMS and get the urge to break down in the supermarket aisle or bite the head off of someone at a minor inconvenience. What I don’t have anymore is an overwhelming desire to kill myself, or the inability to get out of bed for days in a row. As my therapist told me before I started, I wouldn’t (and don’t) feel happy and chipper all the time, I would feel normal, a feeling which is easy to forget while depressed.
I think it’s like someone said in the happiness post on grief, which is that grief is supposed to be awful, but it’s also supposed to be a process you go through, where the feeling of unbearable loss gradually goes away over time (by 25 I’d lost 3 of the 4 people who raised me so I know grief), whereas depression is going around in circles obsessively (which is why OCD medication can work for some types of depression). Interestingly, one key sign that I was seriously depressed was being thrown back into a grieving process I’d exited almost two decades ago, reliving the initial unbearable moments of my father’s death. Now, I still tear up a bit when I talk about or see pictures of my dad, but I don’t find myself sobbing for days over it.
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“Interestingly, one key sign that I was seriously depressed was being thrown back into a grieving process I’d exited almost two decades ago, reliving the initial unbearable moments of my father’s death. Interestingly, one key sign that I was seriously depressed was being thrown back into a grieving process I’d exited almost two decades ago, reliving the initial unbearable moments of my father’s death.”
That’s very interesting and familiar. I had an similar experience of having successfully graduated a grieving process and then having a depressive flare-up after going on an unsuitable medication. There were superficial similarities, but I eventually figured out the difference. Grief was being sad about something real. Depression is just being sad, and it doesn’t really matter about what–it just oozes into whatever mental crevice is vulnerable.
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“Grief was being sad about something real. Depression is just being sad, and it doesn’t really matter about what–it just oozes into whatever mental crevice is vulnerable.”
Yeah, exactly. I think you said far more succinctly what I was trying to say.
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