I’m writing in regards to the article published about antidepressants on November 9 (www.rotoruadailypost.co.nz).
Firstly, antidepressants aren’t only prescribed for depression, they’re prescribed for a variety of conditions. We shouldn’t assume all people on antidepressants have depression.
Secondly, I’m concerned people are stigmatising psych meds and to a lesser extent stigmatising mental illness.
Psych meds are no different from other meds and while mental illness is bad, it’s no different from other medical conditions. Mental illness is prevalent but so are other medical conditions.
And specifically on the issue of depression, there are several types of depression with many causes affecting many different kinds of people so we should be very careful about the opinions we form about people with depression because quite often those opinions are wrong.
The decision of best treatment is best made between a person and their doctor. If a person’s been on a treatment for a few months at least and it’s not working then they should consider a different treatment. If their doctor isn’t receptive then they should consider a different doctor.
Personally I’d encourage a holistic approach covering multiple issues and including multiple treatment pathways rather than focusing on one form of treatment to the exclusion of others.
