I have two longstanding offline friends in their mid-60s who were both diagnosed with clinical depression a few years ago.
Since then, one of them has had ECT — the 21st century version of the lobotomy — and the other has been on various sleeping pills or antidepressants which have left her groggy or physically ill.
It does beg the question, since Big Pharma has been spending its money carefully over the past two decades on new drugs and associated R&D, whether their desire to aggressively market drugs is an attempt to quickly recoup their losses on research and development.
Thankfully, we do not receive these in the UK, but almost every American channel relies on Big Pharma for advertising. Even after a week in the US, my ears ring with the nasal ‘Ask your doctor!’
When I was growing up in the second half of the 20th century, it was a big deal for people to get prescriptions. Around the 1970s, this began to change. By the 1980s, it seemed, people of all ages were ‘on something’ for heart, cancer or mental conditions. In the 1990s, behavioural medication for youngsters became the rage. Some schools would not accept pupils or students unless they were medicated (e.g. Ritalin), based on physicians’ reports on their mental health.
Excitable? Take a pill. Depressed? Take a pill. ADHD? Take a pill.
As my friends are pleasantly reserved individuals with a good network of friends (family is dying off), I don’t know what their issues are. One is an atheist, the other a Protestant clergyperson. It could be that the answers to life which they thought they had are no longer as valid as they once were. Perhaps the intimation of mortality is creeping up on both, neither of whom knows each other. Sadly, one has lost some of her memory from the ECT and the other is having serious physical health problems which I privately attribute to her medication.
Both had a relative who was clinically depressed. This seems to be the only common denominator. I find this automatic, almost mediaeval, association from the medical world to them somewhat off-putting: ‘Because your ancestor was depressed, you will be, too’. That sounds so superstitious. Everyone’s life is different. They are certainly not living out their parents’ lives. Yet, one of my neighbours also has had some ‘depression’, for which she sought medication: ‘It runs in my family. They told me I would get it, too. Our son is similarly affected’. Sadly, the young man is also taking some sort of pill.
What a load of rubbish. I’m not discounting that depression runs in families, although I would be very sceptical if anyone pulled that line on me then pushed a prescription under my nose. (Depression does not run in my family, by the way.) We’re all a combination of two different families with different genes, backgrounds and experiences.
I wrote in a comment on this blog a few weeks ago that no one fully knows what each of us has been through in life. Anyone reading this right now could have been molested or abused as a child, suicidal or clinically depressed (properly diagnosed). With God’s grace, many can pull through. I pray that they do.
Others have moved from one continent to another — half a world away — when they were youngsters. That, too, can be traumatic. Different mores, cultures, attire and habits can require some acclimation.
I lived and travelled through most of the US because of my father’s job transfers within the same company. I’ve known others who did the same internationally because their fathers were in the military. Whilst a whole world opens up to children like us — as we were at the time — it can also cause reactions which people who live within a 15-mile radius of where they grew up don’t have and will never understand. We sometimes lack the coping mechanisms to deal with certain situations, although, with His grace, we learn to acquire them gradually, even as adults.
A large part of dealing with rejection and isolation as a youngster — e.g. ‘the new kid in class’ — involves these coping mechanisms. I couldn’t expect my parents, both of whom had grown up in the same city and knew many of the same families, to help me with that. They would not have known how. It would be a lie to say that I was never lonely or that I never dreaded the first day in a new school where everyone else already knew each other. There are times even today when I really have to talk myself up for certain situations involving strangers, especially if they have lived in my neighbourhood for many years. Do we — will we — understand each other after several months or a year, even if it’s only working together on a committee? For me, it is a gamble. Always. Normally, it has a 50-50 result. Maybe everyone else has the same result. I don’t know. I’ve never dared ask.
So it makes me think that as parents, extended family, teachers and mentors — wherever we find ourselves — it would be a good thing to help the younger generation find their feet and give some solid advice. Sometimes people who lack coping mechanisms get defensive — I’m finding this with the aforementioned friends. Maybe someone in close proximity to them might want to say, ‘Hey, this person is really concerned about you. You don’t need to reveal everything, but check in a bit more often and let them know how you’re really doing. They can handle it. You might feel better, too.’
It’s a bit like the way someone could have said in my childhood, ‘Just relax a bit. Yes, it’s intimidating being the new kid on the block, but you’ll get through it. You always do.’ Happily, our generation wasn’t so pill-crazy in those days. Situations resolved themselves, eventually.
It just seems to me that our common sense is failing us in the West. Perhaps we are looking for quick results. Perhaps we should be seeking patience and prayer. We look for solace in a pill or another type of brain rewiring instead (e.g. ECT). In the worst cases, it’s suicide, sadly. I cannot help but feel that our search for answers in psychiatry and pharmacology, barring everything else, isn’t doing us much good as a society. This isn’t to say that certain people really need medication; some do, but many probably do not. Cognitive behavioural therapy or even encouraging oneself to adapt to life changes would suffice; yes, they take time. There is no easy fix. For the Christian, faith, prayer and solid Bible study (no revisionism!) can help a lot.
I’ll have more on this in the next few days. First, however, to pharmacology.
As we go on, you’ll see the links with these mass murders, many of which are related to behavioural disorders and psychotropic medication which could have been nipped in the bud in childhood with proper adult support and grounding in faith.
9 comments
January 29, 2013 at 12:34 pm
RichStine
That Big Pharma (BP) and affiliated corporate ‘persons’ have sat in the helm of the greed & control machine of Mental Health for so long, especially in America, is noteworthy, even if old news.
Are we all bonkers?
Perhaps, since we (as a country–meaning, the USA) simultaneously cry out for better, quality care for those who are mentally ill, have brain diseases or injuries, and at the same time, ignore them.
Insanity has been described as doing the same things over and over, and expecting different results. Indeed.
Across the country, NAMI centers are closing due to lack of funding, and those without insurance have inconsistent or no real care or treatment.
Correctional institutions have become the rehab centers.
Never mind the billions of dollars raked-in every fiscal quarter by private & publicly funded Pharma giants.
Are some folks duped into believing they or their loved ones have something wrong with their brains? Sure. Oldest trick in the book…selling cures for ails that people did not know they had until the snake-oil salesman came into town, barking the salvation in salve and elixir that only he can sell you!
But for those who really are suffering from mental problems, these are left in the darkness.
What are the faithful, healthy to do? What would Jesus do? Would he take a handful, give it to the masses following him, and have them likewise pass along the life-saving sustenance (or, in this case, care and treatment), to those in most need?
Big Pharma’s keenest interest in mental health issues are at best, big bucks.
Wanting a profit for one’s efforts isn’t evil within itself. But when that profit is made at the expense of everyone else, the last thing we need to do, as citizens with a conscience–believers or followers of Christ, aside–is to not sit idly by, and do or say nothing.
I anxiously await the next installment of your blog. Good stuff.
RS
January 29, 2013 at 1:15 pm
churchmouse
Thanks, Rich — much appreciated!
Jesus drove demons out of people. Opinion is divided on what exactly this meant; personally (not that I’m a Bible scholar) I think that some — some — of those people had mental, not demonic, disturbances.
Today, we should starve the beast when we can. We look for instant solutions, yet I often think of Abraham Lincoln’s saying, ‘This, too, shall pass’. Time is a great healer.
Granted, some will always need psychotropic medication. Just to make it clear, I’m not talking about them. That said, mass closure of mental hospitals was a mistake. Sure, many needed reform, but the concept was not in itself bad.
People who are undergoing changes in life would do well to equip themselves with constructive behavioural or routine changes — coping mechanisms. You’ve written about people who’ve done this (e.g. your New Year’s post on drink). Parents need to teach (and enforce) norms of polite behaviour to their children. Teens need to learn how to think a few jumps ahead in terms of consequences of impulsive actions. Adults need to be aware when someone’s pushing their buttons, so to speak, and resist reacting. Etc., the list goes on.
For some reason, the image of Tom Cruise — ADHD-diagnosed when he was a child — jumping on Oprah’s sofa keeps going through my mind right now, even if that happened several years ago …
January 29, 2013 at 4:05 pm
churchmouse
An afterthought — even OTC products can be problematic, so people should be on the lookout for unusual reactions.
The next post explores this in more detail from a woman who works in clinical trials:
http://churchmousec.wordpress.com/2013/01/28/on-clinical-trials-for-prescription-drugs/
She describes how she found one over-the-counter allergy drug was affecting her children and threw it in the bin.
There are simple actions we can take as consumers. We can also make our friends and family more aware of side effects.
January 30, 2013 at 7:48 pm
Pascal's Bookie
You’re forgetting another unfortunate consequence of untreated depression – suicide.
Often people are so low or their thoughts are so disordered that therapy sometimes isn’t even an option. Modern medicine has a real potential to help pull these people out of a very dark and despairing condition. It can save lives, it can change lives.
Anti-depressants are far from “happy pills”, they do not work at all in a similar manner to say Ecstasy or Alcohol which would make any person happy. They only act on specific disordered conditions in the brain, if these conditions don’t exist, they won’t do anything. They will make many people who are genuinely feeling depressed better but they won’t make an average person happy to the point of being manic.
If all your thoughts, feelings and desires originate from your brain, is it that far fetched to say depression is a neurological problem? We know it has quite an extensive basis in biology. People with certain medical conditions (like hypothyroidism) become depressed, this isnt any function of their mind or surroundings, its a function of their biology. Likewise, some medications and other research chemicals have the potential to make people depressed as a side-effect. Again, the biological basis is clear. There is only a limited number of ways the body can do something, its not all that far fetched to suggest these kinds of depression work in a similar mechanism to the kind that is commonly talked about.
It’s also rather well known at this stage that stress as a child can actually alter a persons brain and expression of stress hormones (such as cortisol) in a way that can actually alter brain function and can later cause depression. Likewise, i realise many people don’t need pills. If you are sad because you are lonely and have no friends or if you are sad because you hate your job, that’s normal, anti-depressants wont at all help you with that. That’s a problem with improper prescribing on the part of the doctor though. Those two above conditions, loneliness and work stress do have the potential to stress a person so much out that they can also alter brain function. In many cases of depression, it’s typically preceded by a very stressful life event, most people get better after bad times, some people just stay stuck.
Many cases of depression are just as real of a biological condition as diabetes or high-blood pressure but you wouldn’t tell the diabetic to stop babying himself with all this insulin garbage and he can think himself out of it, would you?
Modern medicine, Psychiatry and especially Pharmacology have made great strides to improve the human condition and eliminate suffering.
January 30, 2013 at 11:02 pm
churchmouse
Thank you for your comment and visit.
I did mention suicide and a few other severe traumas in the post:
‘Anyone reading this right now could have been molested or abused as a child, suicidal or clinically depressed (properly diagnosed).’
The key is ‘properly diagnosed’. Too many people, in my (humble) opinion, are walking away with prescriptions for conditions they have been diagnosed with and, quite possibly, do not actually have.
I take on board your points and appreciate them. I’m merely trying to present a side of the argument that relies on self-reliance as a first port of call.
There is also a question about rising rates of obesity which might well be because of certain statins and antidepressants which cause either semi-permanent or permanent weight gain, most of it water. I would advise people to exercise caution with prescriptions.
On the other hand, if my post did not make it clear that certain people really do need antidepressants and SSRIs, then I apologise. I thought I gave enough clarification. The post is not about those who are suffering but those who have been made to think that they are.
January 31, 2013 at 12:41 am
Pascal's Bookie
You’re absolutely right. Pharmacology is what i’m training in and this is a problem, in my country i wouldn’t say it’s a big problem but maybe in somewhere like the USA it is.
Every drug (even things you normally wouldn’t consider a drug like caffeine) always has some kind of side-effect for certain people. We only want people taking medicine they actually need for this reason.
I’m not sure where you live (Britain?) but if it’s similar to hear the government pays most of the cost, there’s certainly an economic side to it as well (here at least again, costs are skyrocketing).
That said, i’d rather a patient overweight than hanging themselves. It’s about risk vs reward and quality of life. Chemotherapy has the potential to cause cancer later down the track but it’s obviously a very good idea to take it right now if you have cancer.
I can’t speak for everyone but i agree just as much as you people should be on medicine they dont need to be on (especially, as explained above, they’re not happy pills, if you dont have a problem, they wont fix anything, you won’t be perked up).
The side-effects are being worked on, same with the effectiveness in general, might even be a little research project in it for me next year. That said, i still think people shouldn’t be taking medicine they don’t need. During the course of researching something i came across a woman who decided to anti-depressants because her husband broke up with her and she just thought thats what people did when they were upset. Obviously, she was just going through a rough patch, a horribly incompetent doctor there. If anything we should be putting the blame on the people handing them out (same with those who dole out antibiotics willy nilly).
You might like a read of this http://bjp.rcpsych.org/content/188/4/301.full.pdf+html .
January 31, 2013 at 12:57 am
churchmouse
Thank you — we are on the same page (and perhaps in the same country, Great Britain).
As you say, and this is a point I hope many will take on board: ‘they’re not happy pills, if you dont have a problem, they wont fix anything, you won’t be perked up’.
Yes, the types of people I am addressing here are the ones in the research you cite: ‘During the course of researching something I came across a woman who decided to anti-depressants because her husband broke up with her and she just thought that’s what people did when they were upset. Obviously, she was just going through a rough patch, a horribly incompetent doctor there. If anything we should be putting the blame on the people handing them out (same with those who dole out antibiotics willy nilly).’
People are worried they will not celebrate their 50th wedding anniversary because no one else in their family has (true story I received personally from someone I know). Well, even today, how many people reach that golden milestone? It’s not as if everyone has. Life is what it is and if God has other plans, well, we must pray — or, for secularists, find another way to deal with this issue without psychotropic medicine.
However, the obesity and hanging oneself can both be caused by the same drug(s). I do think there could well be a correlation, which was what I was driving at.
I wish you all the best in your career. Please feel free to continue the conversation. I do hope that you will be able to find some surprising links to benefit all of us without limiting your future in pharmacology.
Unfortunately, I was only able to read only the brief abstract of the paper you cited. However, it is something worth bearing in mind. I’ve emphasised all of it as a means to get everyone to think a little bit before taking a script to the local chemist (pharmacist, for my overseas readers):
‘The pharmaceutical industry has popularised the idea that many problems are caused by imbalances in brain chemicals. This message helps to further the aims of neoliberal economic and social policies by breeding feelings of inadequacy and anxiety. These feelings in turn drive increasing consumption, encourage people to accept more pressured working conditions and inhibit social and political responses.’
If anything, some of these drugs can rewire our brains. At some point, I shall cite Aldous Huxley’s quotes proposing that the population be on drugs so that they can be more docile (hence, controlled or confused).
February 10, 2013 at 5:49 pm
RichStine
I agree that Big Pharma, social apathy, family dynamic demise, upbringing, environment, education and physical health, all play a vital role in our mental and emotional constitution.
Even if one is not taking meds, it’s in the water…literally.
Strategies for ongoing, improved ways of purifying water that we recycle are teeming with elements belonging to psychotropic drugs, etc.
New, improved products…from medicines to foodstuffs, impact the environment. It is inevitable.
In the 1970′s, the motto in many a school cafeteria was: “You are what you eat.” Indeed. Think about it.
We’ve become, in many ways, those unpronounceable additives we’ve consumed over so much of our lives. And not foody-things, only.
Health and beauty products, fuels, cleaning compounds, synthetic everything. Conveniences we can no longer live without.
While no doubt there’s a serious deficit in regulating what is or is not defined as mental disease, mental illness, or how, when, with what, and who is treated (much depends on income, sometimes even status)…it is mind-boggling, even maddening, to think about how very wrong it all is…and to the detriment of society as a whole.
I really appreciate this series, Churchmouse. It is good to have a dialogue about these very real issues. Keep up the good work!
Best,
RS
February 10, 2013 at 10:14 pm
churchmouse
Thanks so much, Rich — and thank you for your insight! It was good to discuss this topic without rancour!
All the best. Have a good week.