Depression Options

[*disco infiltrator*]

A couple of days ago on Channel One, there was a segment on growing cases of depression in teens. They showed many examples of teens who had been diagnosed as "clinically depressed", "depressed", or "mildly depressed", and went through the symptoms of depression and behaviors commonly linked with depression. The segment poured a can of gasoline on the part of my brain that controls anger and the teens presented in the segment all contributed to lighting the spark.

Depression is not a disease. More often than not, it is brought on by a traumatic or life-changing experience that the person is unable to cope with. Even if nothing terribly awful has happened to a person, they can still be upset about something, or just be changing their views and opinions on life. Being a teenager is a tough time for anyone. Some have issues with even existing.

Some of the symptoms they discussed on the segment were irritability, antisocial behavior, a lack of motivation, a change in grades, and an unwillingness to participate in activities one once enjoyed. These are all absolutely normal occurrences in a teenager's life. I know that I, myself, have been exhibiting a large amount of antisocial behavior lately, simply because I am becoming more and more critical of human nature and do not enjoy spending time with many people. That does not correlate to depression. The bounds of normality seem to be rapidly imploding in our world and the desperation for everything to be happy and good is getting tiresome.

When one thinks of diagnosing people with mental disorders such as depression or bipolar disorder, one must think of prime examples of the destruction that such a thing can cause. Brave New World is a wonderful literary example of this and it was written 40 or so years ago (maybe even 50, I'm not clear on the date of publication). People are supposed to feel sadness and anger, fatigue and doubt. Feeling these emotions and overcoming the effect they have is a large sign of maturity. It's OK to feel sad; the problem comes when one cannot move on from the sadness. But, even if the person is having trouble, there is no call to put the person on medication to make them feel better. They need to cope with sadness, loss, and disappointment in order to grow.

Everyone needs to stop diagnosing and treating.

[*Monochrome.*]

I went into a psychiatrist's office several years ago. It was recommended that I go by several individuals, including co-workers and family. So I did.

First thing that lady said, before even asking me what was wrong or why I was there was, "How do you feel about medications?"

To me, that was such indication on a personal level that treatment and diagnosis for something as simple as feeling miserable had reached all time lows. I have little to no respect for most psychological professions.

All I needed was an ear. I didn't need to be categorized or sedated.

What makes me angry is that my kid, who does have a cognitive disorder, is already getting pigeonholed. He's FINE. He's more mellow and more attentive than most kids I know. That doesn't necessarily relate to "depression," but something that did involve a so-called professional still puts me off.

I was told that I needed to put him on Adderall, which is a common medication for children with ADD. Now, he doesn't have ADD, but he wasn't "focusing." Mmmk. Then, to make things even more interesting, I was told that I needed to give him something to help him sleep at night. SO, I was needing to give him something to sedate him and night AND mellow him out during the day.

Essentially, what I did is I obliged them... for a while. I cut his dosage in half. He was only on it for a few weeks and then I took him off. They didn't NOTICE A THING. All this crap, wanting to sedate a damn five year old, because society deems it necessary to suppress children with any behaviors that exist outside the norm and it didn't mean a damn thing.

I fear for those who are feeling down and visit counselors and psychiatrists. The over diagnosis and unnecessary prescriptions are stripping people of raw emotions that are natural.

Sorry for the soap box and as a disclaimer, these are obviously my opinions, nothing more.

I do believe that riddilin [sp?] and adderol[sp?] are unnecessary drugs given to children just because the teacher or caregiver or even sometimes their own parents cant handle them. The reality is that children aren't always gonna be focused on things-they are kids! Still even at the age of 5 is a child still exploring the world around them I honestly think they give children these drugs so they can get rid of the kids who stand out "the class clown" has to be thrown in BD because he's too dysfunctional and there must be wrong with him."The daydreamer" MUST be thrown on adderol so he can focus more."The average perky kid "MUST be thrown on riddlin because he's just to much for his own parents and teachers cant handle his energy so there msut be something wrong with him. I believe if you child "stands out" they find fault in that and they try to drug them up. My neighbors son was so active, so happy and just really energetic but his mum couldn't handle him so she had him put on riddlin.He ended up being normal after all but that lazy bitch of a mother still wanted him on the drugs.NOW HE NEEDS THEM FOR THE REST OF HIS BLOODY LIFE.

I don't have any children of my own yet. But it still hits me hard in the gut to see what doctors and people do to their beautiful children because they cant handle them. They are too busy to deal with them and would rather press the easy button and drug em up cause' they will mellow out and think that its so God damn easy to just take them off the meds.People need to understand that these drugs do more than mellow your kids out. They take a part of their beautiful innocence that children are supposed to have away from them. Not everything is like an Office Max easy button-you cant just press it and all of your problems are solved.you just are creating more.Thank God there are some people like Rebecca and I who can see right through this bullshit . And that Rebecca took her son off of that shit.