If you are depressed and you have a reason to be, how can antidepressants help?!
Question: Not trying to be funny or putting down anyone who is depressed. But if clinical depression is caused by an imbalance of chemicals in the brain. how can antidepressants help if you are depressed because your partner died or some other major life trauma. Surely you would need other sort of help to get through that and deal with it as you must.
Answers: Not trying to be funny or putting down anyone who is depressed. But if clinical depression is caused by an imbalance of chemicals in the brain. how can antidepressants help if you are depressed because your partner died or some other major life trauma. Surely you would need other sort of help to get through that and deal with it as you must.
You have a good point.
It's often difficult to distinguish between the two though, because "natural" depression can have an effect on the chemicals in the brain, while few types of depression are caused solely by chemical imbalances.
That's why lots of people with depression have counselling, etc. and why it helps some of them and not others.
When I first suffered from depression I refused antidepressants because I thought it was a fake way of improving things, and that it was better to be depressed for a reason than happy for none. Later I started on a course of antidepresseants anyway for several months and they did nothing.
I've improved now, simply by a change in lifestyle and coming to terms with certain things. But I agree that everyone has different reasons for their depression and as such need different sorts of help.
they are suuposed to be a temporary lift, until you find a time when you can manage on your own....
My ex died and I was given these. They basically made me very fidgety and I had to keep getting up and going for walks, it was really strange as I am not like that normally.
I was still depressed though, I can't say if they helped surpress it a bit. I was in a state for years about it. I can't remember alot of what went on.
You are right...insofar that it is easy to separate out those who suffer clinically and those who suffer reactively.
In general, clinical depression benefits from medicinal and interventionist treatment, while reactive depression is successfully treated with therapies such as counselling.
You are exactly right here! The truth is that antidepressants are merely a 'crutch' to help you along while you come to terms with the causes of the depression and I believe that they can help so at least stabilise things until you can benefit from counselling, therapy or simply time out of work stresses etc. And the simple act of taking medication like this is that we recognise that someone is trying to help in some way ... I read that patients on placebos did equally as well, recovery wise, so perhaps the very thought of wanting to get better by taking pills may be beneficial.
Any trauma needs to be identified and discussed ..... open discussion can be so beneficial for such things and as they say 'a problem shared etc .........'. It's when traumas lies deep inside you that the trouble starts .....
If you have a reason for your depression it is called reactive depression. The event has caused an imbalance in the chemicals in your brain, usually through shock. Therefore the anti-depressants work in the same way. I have had reactive depression on more than one occasion and the medication has worked for me.
depression is caused by lack of serotonin and dopermine in the brain, or your hormone levels should be higher. anti-depressants make ur brain produce more of these hormones so u feel better. They work best if u are getting counselling or some kind of therapy along with it
i use to be very very depressed so much i thought of death everyday but now i don't since i take lexapro it helps me with my severe depression and panic disorder and post traumatic stress disorder and social anxiety but i did have to go thur 3 other meds to find this one and lexapro was my4th
1st zoloft didn't work at all and i start to gain weight
2nd paxil didn't last all day and still gaining weight
3rd paxil cr and cr stands for control relase and didn't last all day and still gaing weight
i'm 5'1 and i was 163lbs and wearing xxxl and now i wear a xl or l
If you're depressed because of a chemical imbalance, you need medication.
If you're depressed because of life circumstances, you need therapy.
Most people who have depression are a bit of both.
With depression, medicine can help to treat the symptoms, but if the circumstances causing the depression are not changed, then when you go off the meds, the depression will surely reoccur. The medicine should help you to find the strength to change your situation for the better, then you come off them as quickly as you can once things have improved.
If you can cope with things without medication, that is best, if you can't, there is no shame in visiting your GP. Just beware of relying on drugs for too long.
You're absoultely right. Clinical Depression ISN'T caused by an event.
That's why I get upset when someone says "Oh, I'm depressed, I didn't do my homework / Oh, my dog died / Oh, my mom forgot to buy peanut butter from the grocery store"
I feel like just shouting and telling them that they'll get over it, and they should be happy that they're not actually depressed. It's not funny at all. It's horrible.
And, it's nice to see somebody who understands that depression IS caused from an imbalance in the brain, and THAT'S the reason why medication helps.
Maybe you are confusing depression with grieving. Clinical depression, like many have answered, is not due to a life trauma, but due to things that scientist do not fully understand. It is not caused by a chemical imbalance, but can be helped in many cases by adjusting that imbalance. Support groups and counseling can help with the trauma.