Antidepressants Called "The American Burka"

Psychiatrists prescribe only 1/3 of all antidepressant medications, which means that 2/3 of the people writing prescriptions of antidepressant medication are other types of practitioners not specifically trained to evaluate for depression. In 15 minutes or less, how do you distinguish between women who are in need of support due to the very real overwhelms of motherhood, women who are exhausted, or women whose hormones are out of balance or need nutritional replenishment?

There is the issue of physiological exhaustion to consider: No other process in the body drains more vital nutrients than that of pregnancy and childbirth. A new mother who has just been through hard labor, lost blood, spent only 48 hours in the hospital and now goes home with her new infant to a husband who works and two toddlers can be most susceptible to exhaustion. The long term nutrient depletion from donating all the nutrients to form her baby’s body can mimic the symptoms of depression and continue for decades if not diagnosed and treated correctly.

The question becomes how many mothers are being medicated for exhaustion and nutrient depletion as though it were depression? How is the general practitioner in a short office visit distinguishing between the two? And what offerings might either psychiatry or the general practitioner put forth instead of antidepressants? Is medicine examining the potential of meditation, hormone testing, nutritional therapy, psychotherapy, diet and exercise as alternatives to antidepressants?

And then there is the question of our own expectations about life. Do we expect that there should not be difficult or stressful times? Do we expect that as the commercial tells us: “Life hurts and you shouldn’t have to?” Are women really so unable to cope with the struggles of life that they need to be drugged? Are we buying into pharmaceutical company profiteering in which aggressive advertising campaigns directed to doctors and patients trump real science?

Women need to start questioning the easy dispensing of these drugs. Moreover we need to start questioning our ability to cope. Life has never been fair. Things change and create anxiety. We all experience loss and grief. No one escapes the harsh hand that life can deal. To be human is to have both joy and pain…often simultaneously.

We need to fiercely question the medical status quo about antidepressant medication. Could it possibly be that the reason some depression is “treatment resistant” is because we are treating something that isn’t depression in the first place? Unless one is suicidal or homicidal, trying natural therapies first is paramount. If your doctor cannot or will not recommend these alternatives, then consider finding a new doctor. A footnote: there is a time and place for such medication. But just like the overuse of antibiotics in the 80’s and 90’s which created super bugs that would no longer respond, antidepressant medication has become over used and abused; and for many new mothers and many women, antidepressant drugs have become a chemical burka.

I think the most important sentence here is: Do we expect that there should not be difficult or stressful times?

The second most important is: In 15 minutes or less, how do you [here, addressed to those prescribing anti-depressants, who, in more than 60% of all cases are not psychiatrists.] distinguish between women who are in need of support due the very real overwhelms of motherhood, women who are exhausted, or women whose hormones are out of balance or need nutritional replenishment?

should just call them the american security blanket

war on drugs, what hypocrisy

I can not agree more. We make drugs glamorous through commercials . . . ask your doctor about this or that pill. . . accompanied by footage of smiling people going about fun activities and sharing with friends and family members. America believes in the silver bullet, the deadly short cut.

There are whole generations of women have been brought up to "be happy" and feel as though everything will come easily to them.

I blame the "feel-good" philosophy in the schools and in their parenting history. Parents gave everything to these kids and protected them from all challenges. They have little resilience. They get their happiness thru shopping and thru possessions. How you look is more important than how you are.

I have two daughters, age 42 and 35. I see this in tbeir friends and in themselves. It makes me sad.

these ads are a truly American phenomenon. They cannot be used in Canadian radio/tv/newspaper/magazines. They were banned when I was in my teens.

I now find it odd to see the ads suggesting people self-diagnose and go to their doctors with prescription recommendations.

we DO have some comedic geniuses in the US - even if the majority of us are on drugs -this one is even funnier:

You hit the nail right on the head . . . people can not self-diagnose! Of course, if you feel your doctor may not be giving your ailment the attention you feel it deserves and you persist in your request for treatment, you may be right . . .but . . . to counter all those years of training that doctors undergo at the suggestion of a commercial is another thing entirely.

I' m glad that Canadians have taken action against ads promoting dubious cures and just as dubious conditions.

Aidan . . . While there are plenty of cranks on youtube, it is also the best source for great humor.

Between the music and humor - it's like a virtual anti-depressant for me. Seriously - I just laughed for ten minutes watching those - now I'll go take a walk.

We even have Doggy Prozac which is identical to people Prozac except that its beef flavored.

Jesusfrikkenchrist, you guys are pretty harsh.

I assure you that anti-depressants don't make you walk around clicking your heels with a bluebird on your shoulder. It's really insulting that the authors of this article blame women for being spoiled little princess' who just can't "cope".

Sometimes coping means recongizing that you have a problem and getting help.

I was making fun of the ads - not the problem. There are people in my family who suffer from depression and take medication. So the problem is not funny - but the ads for the medications are ridiculous.

This stuff is apparently so prevalent that the FAA is now leaning backwards to allow pilots to munch Valiums (or whatever) when flying:

http://www.cnn.com/2010/TRAVEL/04/02/pilots.depression/index.html?eref=igoogle_cnn

They are funny . . . I try to refrain from reading the negative comments. My feeling is if you don't like the artist, just move on and don't criticize the artist and the person who posted the film because he likes the artist. Jeez.

First of all, anti-depressants ARE over proscribed. My son and the school he attended thought he needed help and he saw anti-depressants as a silver bullet. He was diagnosed with bi-polar disorder and given medication . . . the medications were changed over the years until he ended up, at 19, overweight but with what the doctor called "dangerous" anemia. Working with his social worker and psychiatrist, he spent 18 months getting off prescription drugs.

Second, the writers are sympathetic to women! How can you read otherwise? They say that these women need rest and extra nutrition after the depleting experience of pregnancy. The doctors who prescribe anti-depressants are the one's lacking sympathy for women . . . which is the criticism this article makes.

That's serious because supposedly someone who has taken drugs for attention deficit disorder can not be licensed as a commercial pilot.

anything can't be done in canbada isn't unique to the US, you can adver=tise drugs in australia also