Quote: (05-30-2012 11:21 AM)Nonpareil Wrote:
9.8% REALLY?
In my own experience, hearing what I've heard, seeing what I've seen...push that number up to 30.
I don't think I know a single man on antidepressants because men do it like men; you depressed? Get drunk, hit some bongs, do a few lines, go fuck some chicks. Fact is nothing, for either sex, is as good as releasing the endorphins as a good screw.
One of the main reasons that women take "meds" more often than men is that men are ashamed to admit they need help, and can be judged for it.
I think you should go out and meet more people, or perhaps read about realities different from your own.
Lots of people take anti depressants that shouldn't. There are several reasons for this - including overprescribing by family doctors without necessary experience, marketing efforts by the Pharm companies, and the refusal of insurance companies to pay for talk therapy.
However, none of this means that the right medication doesn't offer significant benefits for those with moderate to severe persistent clinical depression.
I resisted treatment for years because I had an incomplete understanding of depression, and was driven by a lot of the fear and ignorance about medication that is commonplace.
The result were 4 separate and increasingly severe episodes of clinical depression.
Eventually I paid to see a highly qualified doctor who does hour long visits with his patients, was on my same level intellectually, and was able to carefully find the right medication and the right dose, and I have little to no side effects. I doubt I would be alive right now without it.
And before someone suggests alternative therapies or pussy, know that during that decade of depression, I did everything you could think of from drug use/abuse to intense exercise to travel to different work, etc.
Also, when someone (like me) is really depressed, you become essentially unable to experience pleasure.
This is one way I would explain it: the idea of banging Brazilian twins on a beautiful beach after you had a bottle of white wine and a dozen oysters will seem uninteresting because the world is a dark place and nothing makes any difference anyway and pleasure is fleeting and we are born to die (followed by repetitive thoughts ad nauseum).