Posted by Exquilter on April 6, 2007, at 1:00:00
In reply to And what about all the people these meds work for?, posted by Racer on April 5, 2007, at 15:32:57
Thank you for a much needed, thoughtful, balanced post. My experiences have been similar to yours both with meds and this site.
Exquilter
> Seriously -- all anti-depressants are effective for some patients. If one anti-depressant, or even a class of anti-depressants, hasn't been effective for you, that does not mean that the drugs themselves are worthless. It only means that they haven't worked FOR YOU.
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> What's more, there are a lot of reasons a medication might not work for someone, many having nothing to do with the effectiveness of the drug itself. Sometimes there are adverse effects that interfere with taking the medication -- I've experienced that a lot, with hypotension being the number one reason I've had to stop meds. Another problem might be an allergic reaction to fillers or binders in the formulation. I just experienced an allergic reaction to a generic fluoxetine, and would have moved to another drug if I hadn't taken Prozac successfully in the past. Sometimes it's sedation, or sexual side effects, or weight gain -- but none of those are really about whether or not the drug is effective.
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> But there's something that I really want to say about all this, because I think it's important for Babble as a community to keep in mind: There is hope, there are effective treatments, and these drugs do work effectively for many people who take them.
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> I suffer from depression. I have taken a laundry list of medications, many of which did not work, some of which made my symptoms worse, many caused adverse effects. But that's MY chemistry, it doesn't extrapolate to anyone else. SSRIs, while they obviously do not work for everyone, are a great step forward from the medications available before they came along. They're not more effective -- but they are safer, they have fewer side effects, they make treatment accessible to many people who would never have received treatment back when I started on medications. Back then, you had to be in pretty bad shape for anyone to bring up medications, because the side effects were so serious. That alone is a boon to mankind -- people for whom SSRIs work are getting effective treatment. We should be happy for them. And there are more studies being done about augmentation strategies, and algorithms for TRD, and all sorts of things. So they're not perfect yet? OK, they're working on it.
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> I get worried when I see this board turning towards an overwhelmingly negative view of medications. I think about when I first came here, how frightened I was by the drug I'd been prescribed, and how much I needed reassurance. If I came to the board as it is today, Thursday 5 April 2007, I don't think I would have taken that drug at all. And I don't think I'd be alive today, either. The support and encouragement I got here nearly ten years ago literally saved my life. I would hate to think of other people, in a similar condition, making a different choice based on reading some negative generalizations about medications on an internet bulletin board.
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> I'm not asking anyone to turn on the Pollyanna routine. I'm only asking that everyone think about balance, and remember that mileage varies. One of the things I think SLS brought to this board, aside from his gentle and caring nature, was a sense of balance. Many drugs did not work for him, and yet he was always beyond fair in his comments about them, and very encouraging to many people here. I don't expect that anyone can fill his posting shoes, because I think Scott is a very special person, but I do think that he would be a good role model for us all to keep in mind.
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> OK, I'm done now.
poster:Exquilter
thread:746993
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20070402/msgs/747413.html