Posted by Chaston on March 31, 2001, at 12:49:51
In reply to Re: No More anti-depressants for me » Dr. Bob, posted by dreamer on March 31, 2001, at 3:40:10
Dr. Bob's thread on SSRI's and apathy was very interesting. (Thank you Dr. Bob for hosting this whole amazing site!).
It reminds us that depression is not like a simple bacterial disease, in which an invading organism causes the patient to become ill, and can then be specially diagnosed and treated with an antibiotic, after which the patient is disease-free. The medications that doctors have at their disposal have improved enormously over the past 50 years, but they are still imprecise, sometimes even blunt, instruments, that can take good things away from some patients even as they confer critical benefits to others.
Moreover, anxiety, depression, and even other mental disorders can become an important part of an individual's personality, especially over a number of years. For some driven or creative people, these parts can be essential to what they most value about themselves.
Lauren Slater's Prozac Diary is especially interesting in this regard, and is an extremely well written. It recounts her personal struggle to accept the dramatic changes that accompany her use of Prozac, even though they might appear to an outside observer to be almost entirely beneficial (and for her, ultimately worth the costs).
When I was much younger, I saw my "moodiness" in a positive light--although I was not particularly artistic, the changes and sensitivities brought on by a bipolar mood disorder can sometimes encourage fresh insights and approaches. Looking back at 30 years of psychological wreckage, though, I can honestly say that the benefits were not worth the cost--for *me*. For someone else, with different talents, in different circumstances ... one solution is not right for everybody.
Although people in a truly major depression are in so much psychological pain that I believe few would not prefer relief, the appropriate treatment in many cases is not simply a matter of degree. Medication *can* change a patient's personality, in some ways, and its long-term use should ideally be based on a careful decision that involves the patient's personality, history, family, as well as his/her current symptoms, and the experienced judgement of the doctor (or *doctors*). That may sound like something out of an APA pamphlet, but it is not. It's based on my own 20 years of experience with taking medication, some of which helped me lead a productive, sometimes happy life, and some of which actually made problems worse. There is probably a lot of cosmetic pharmacology going on (why not, there's cosmetic surgery?), but having a long-term mood disorder often involves some serious choices, and requires us to stay well-informed. Which is why this website is so vital!
poster:Chaston
thread:58166
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20010327/msgs/58219.html