I no longer use antidepressants.

[Ajaye]

25. Dangerous

This is a dangerous and patronizing idea, that somehow anti depressants are happy pills that maintain some sort of oblivious condition so that people just get cut off from reality so that they never have to face bad feelings.

As a person who has achieved stability after a lifelong battle with incapacitating depression through appropriate medical treatment, I resent the implication that I could have done it on my own, am trying to duck reality, or am the victim of big pharma. I take a generic so they ain't making all that much off my troubled brain chemistry.

I have a biochemical deficiency that I choose to deal with by taking medication and for quite some time going to therapy. Of course exercise and eating well and maintaining social relationships only help and are enough to maintain mental health for some people, but not enough for me. The nature of my illness is such that I do not merely get sad, I become totally consumed with self loathing and I suffer tremendously and lose all productivity.

I am not happy all the time. I have a melancholy and cynical disposition still. I have high levels of anxiety as do most sane people in tough economic and political times. I am still able to cry when appropriate. I simply don't cry all day long for no particular reason on meds. I see the world and its problems well enough with a clear eye. My parents and ancestors had no options and went to alcohol to self medicate. This is a genetic legacy and I was able to stop the pattern.

It is true that anti depressants can have side effects and are not appropriate for all people, especially those who are responding with appropriate sadness and grief to a particular loss.

Do not encourage mentally ill people to stop appropriate treatment.