Chloe McAfee
Antidepressants: Why They Aren't the Miracle Worker People Believe They
Are
Just like a person
who doesn't exercise their physical muscles often enough, people who don't deal with their emotions in a healthy way grow weak from the inside out. In the article "You're Not Moody,
You're Normal!" the MD Julie Holland speaks of reducing emotion
medications, "I do believe that too many [people] are being told to
medicate away their essential, authentic selves." The basic depression medication, a Selective Serotonin Reuptake
Inhibitor or SSRI for short, is allowing people to pay away their emotions
without getting the positive effects from emotions either. After a bit of
personal research the conclusion can be made that antidepressants should not be
used nearly as much as they are today. Some points to consider are the basic
reasons for not using antidepressants, why people use them so often, why our
emotions are vital to our well-being, the benefits and losses from using
antidepressants, and the types of people who should not use antidepressants.
To kick things off, we need to understand that antidepressants work, but
what they do in the body over long periods of time causes more harm than
benefit. As previously mentioned in the introduction, SSRIs are the common
antidepressant. In a simple explanation, doctors believe SSRIs block the
neurotransmitter serotonin that is blamed for creating sadness. Blocking this
transmitter boosts the brain’s activity and boosts the receiver of the SSRIs’ mood
(Mayo Clinic). As a person who has experienced chronic depression, I can
understand the main reason people use antidepressants. They are used to quell
the negative emotions you feel when you are feeling depressed, such as lack of
motivation, extreme sadness, and depending on the person, panic. The block on
serotonin is revealed through numbing people’s pain, and allows them to think
clearly. Inside your body, blocking off serotonin allows your body to
stay calm and react to things with less emotions, an idea highly sought after
since ancient times through meditation. The advancements in technology have
allowed us as a race to replicate this effect and allow people to get it
through an SSRI which is not only faster, but requires less patience. Because
of this, SSRIs are still the best solution for quick relief of depression
symptoms. Not only is it a quick relief it is relief you can return to, so
people are prescribed with antidepressants as an in-between step until the
person can find a solution for their depression. Others stay on antidepressants
for years. Antidepressants have kept many people from suicide. It is a positive
for the pharmaceutical industry, and people who are fighting depression.
Antidepressants do work, they take away the sadness and improve your mood.
However, there are some very big benefits from not taking
antidepressants. The cost of antidepressants can range anywhere from, on
average, $21 to a high of $1000 per month (Consumer Reports). There is also the
matter of side effects. Ranging anywhere from dry mouth to death, starting and
continuing to take antidepressants is like Russian roulette. You never know if
or when any of the symptoms will show up. From some information I found on
Consumer Reports, the inference can be drawn that few people are only paying
$21 a month, since the rest of the article talks about how to save money on
your antidepressants, which when combined with the side effects makes taking
antidepressants a risky choice that should be thought on for a long time before
being made.
People still risk their financial funds and their health for these drugs
if they work. Unfortunately, people do not know exactly how high the
cost for taking these drugs is, to their physical and mental health. In an
interview with Beth Levine in Oprah Magazine, the MD Julie Holland
states, "Many people don't recognize that their feelings can be an
important feedback system... Depression may mean something in your life needs
to change"(72). When your body tells you that you are hungry,
you eat. When we are depressed, we should start searching for solutions to our
depression, and keep trying until one works. Otherwise depression will keep
coming back, in ways such as sadness from not getting enough exercise,
loneliness from the loss of a person close to you, or any negative emotion from
something that does not improve how you feel physically or mentally.
Antidepressants lower the amount of depression we feel, but it doesn’t solve
the unhealthy parts of our lives, and emotions are the key to figuring out
where this problem started.
In a guide for knowing whether or not you should be taking
antidepressants, researchers address a few of the more common reasons for
people taking antidepressants. “It is normal to feel ‘down’ or ‘blue’ in the
wake of a stressful life event, such as the death of someone close, a divorce,
or a job loss. If you are still able to function and have no history of
depression, your symptoms will usually ease on their own within a few months…
without the use of an antidepressant” (Consumer Reports). Some people are using
their money for a drug they don’t necessarily need. Life hurts sometimes, but
sometimes you need to grieve and feel sad in order to move on from these
events. Many people who are depressed also shouldn’t take antidepressants for
longer than a few months, since the antidepressants are meant to calm down the
depression enough for you to deal with it, not to be a permanent solution.
Julie Holland said “If you’re only taking meds without also seeing a therapist,
you’re not learning any new skills, so when you stop taking the drugs, you’re
not really any better off.” To answer the counterargument that you could just
stay on antidepressants, she answered earlier in her interview that “… Nearly
all anti-anxiety meds [such as antidepressants] are sedating… Not only may you
be more likely to experience apathy, you may also feel less empathy” (Oprah).
If your goal is to get better and live without depression, antidepressants
should not be a long term solution.
A startlingly high number of people are depressed in our country alone.
In her article on the Huffington Post website, the author Lindsay Holmes
showed, “30% [of] college students reported feeling depressed, which disrupted
their ability to function in school.” A lot of people who are depressed take
antidepressants, but let’s ask ourselves a few questions. How many of these
people ever find a solution? How many of them take depression medication just
to be able to function in society? Did all of these people understand the
negative side of taking antidepressants? The solution of antidepressants is one
used by more people than need it. There are other, less dangerous ways to deal
with depression, multiple of which relate back to listening to our emotions.
Emotions warn us of bad things in our lives and the need to get rid of these
obstacles in order to enjoy life more. These warnings allow us to grow and move
past our problems such as the death of a loved one or even depression itself.
From these two statements we can conclude that emotions are necessary to move
past bad things in our life. Keeping this in mind, we also need to understand
that since antidepressants sedate their patients and numb people to their
emotions, antidepressants lower your ability to move past the bad things in our
lives. If you choose not to move past these problems then they reproduce,
causing you to buy even more depression medication without getting the desired
effect. That alone makes antidepressants and unhelpful solution for many people
in today’s world.
Works Cited
"Best
Antidepressant Treatments." Consumer Reports. Consumer Reports,
Sept. 2013. Web. 30 Nov. 2015
Levine, Beth.
"You're Not Moody, You're Normal!"Oprah Magazine April 2015:
71-75. Print.
Mayo Clinic Staff.
"Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors (SSRIs)." Mayo Clinic.
Mayo Clinic, (n.d.). Web. 30 Nov. 2015
Holmes, Lindsay.
"11 Statistics That Will Change The Way You Think About Depression" The
Huffington Post. Huffington Post, 20 Jan. 2015. Web. 19 Nov. 2015
