More people taking prescription drugs for mental illness than ever...but is it necessary?

[Seymore]

Granted, we've come a long way from the time where institutions would lobotomize and lock up someone due to mental illness, but does anyone wonder how many cases it's really necessary to prescribe drugs?

I was listening to a Lily Allen song the other day that said "So your daughter's depressed, well get her straight on the Prozac". I know Lily Allen's not exactly the philosopher of today, but it made me think. I'm left to wonder how many of these "mental illnesses" are nothing more than people experiencing the trials of everyday life and either being too irresponsible or lazy to deal with it. They make a case for themselves, have the name of some disorder stamped on their forehead and get pills.

Maybe it's not that there's simply an increase of access to mental health care, but a decrease in people toughening up, growing up and coping with the same things others have to cope with. I know you still need to get through a doctor to get this medication, but I wonder if they're even examining all of the possibilities before writing a prescription.

I'm fully aware that there are those who seriously DO have a mental illness, and this is not directed towards those people. It's directed at the ones who sit in apathy looking for any solution other than facing their issues. I'm beginning to have this dystopian image of 50 years from now, where a kid gets sad because someone laughed at him once and the parents put him on antidepressants.


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Some quotes from the article:

"They said 73 percent more adults and 50 percent more children are using drugs to treat mental illness than in 1996.

Among adults over 65, use of so-called psychotropic drugs -- which include antidepressants, antipsychotics and Alzheimer's medicines -- doubled between 1996 and 2006.

"What we generally find is there has been an increase in access to care for all populations," said Sherry Glied of Columbia University in New York, whose study appears in the journal Health Affairs.

"Mental health has become much more a part of mainstream medical care," Glied said in a telephone interview."

[Miss Firecracker]

I don't try to judge other people since I have severe mental illness in my family. I believe each family has to make that difficult decision for themselves. I thank God we have the right to decide what we need medically now.

If you'd like to come visit my house and decide if we need medication, you are welcome any time.

[Mutley]

Yes, I agree....."until you walk in some one elses shoes..."

[Victoria66]

For some it is an absolute necessity. My father's family has severe genetic mental illness, him and all his siblings are affected to varying degrees. It is a chemical disturbance. My husband and my son have another chemical imbalance. It is hard to watch the people you love the most struggle and suffer and watch their lives sometimes explode taking yours with it. You struggle with and FOR them. Cry for their suffering and yours. Such heartless diseases.Thank God there is help for it.

[Seymore]

Originally Posted by Miss Firecracker

I don't try to judge other people since I have severe mental illness in my family. I believe each family has to make that difficult decision for themselves. I thank God we have the right to decide what we need medically now.

If you'd like to come visit my house and decide if we need medication, you are welcome any time.

That's not what I said at all, and I don't think you even read my post. I even stated that I am aware that there are people who truly need it and am not judging them. But in a society where a kid solves a bully problem with a gun or where you can't say things that you could for the last 50 years because one nationality suddenly finds it offensive - don't you even wonder if some people simply can cope on their own, but declaring a mental illness is their easy way out?

Originally Posted by Victoria66

It is hard to watch the people you love the most struggle and suffer and watch their lives sometimes explode taking yours with it.

I understand this. My ex was (supposedly) bipolar, and leaving her was very hard, as I struggled with her for 15 months. Since there was no diagnosis, I wondered if it was simply immaturity or in fact a disorder? People here had told me that she needed to grow up and was acting immature, she said she thought she was bipolar. I'm saying where is the line drawn? Are doctors too quick to put people on meds that can cope fine and maybe just need a figuative kick in the butt to motivate them?

Again, there ARE people on meds or who seriously do NEED to be on meds. I understand life is hard for those people and the ones that love them. I'm not talking about those people.

[alli]

It is possible that psychotropic medications are overprescribed, but psychological disorders can be tricky. You can't see them on an X-ray like a broken leg. They don't show up in blood tests. To become a psychologist, there is some pretty rigorous schooling involved, and the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of mental disorders is pretty clear on the diagnostic criteria for specific disorders. With proper training, I like to think that we have a decent amount of accuracy in diagnosing individuals.

I think one problem is that any regular 'old MD can prescribe antidepressants. Once my mom thought I was depressed & made a Dr appointment for me. The Dr asked me how depressed I thought I was, & I was like "I don't think I'm depressed at all!" But had I said I was, I'm sure I could've gotten a precription for Prozac right there.

I do think that dispensing psychotropic medications should be more streamlined. Also, people that receive both medications AND counseling in combination tend to fair the best.

That said, I think your comment that people are "too lazy or irresponsible to deal with life's problems" is quite ignorant. Until you walk in their shoes, experience their life, their problems, and their capacity to handle something that might even be too heavy for YOUR shoulders, who are we to judge?

The average person does not understand the mechanics of psychological counseling and treatment. People aren't expected to know what is wrong with them or how to treat it when one of their organs is malfunctioning, or when they have a brain injury or any other physiological problem that does not involve psychiatry. So why should they be expected to know when they do or do not have a psychological problem or need medication to treat it.

[Miss Firecracker]

I don't think there is a parent on this earth that would choose a mental illness for their child. That's pretty much a mother's worst nightmare.

And yes, I certainly did read your post.

[Victoria66]

Originally Posted by Seymore

That's not what I said at all, and I don't think you even read my post. I even stated that I am aware that there are people who truly need it and am not judging them. But in a society where a kid solves a bully problem with a gun or where you can't say things that you could for the last 50 years because one nationality suddenly finds it offensive - don't you even wonder if some people simply can cope on their own, but declaring a mental illness is their easy way out?

People can claim things, however you need an actual MD for a diagnosis and sometimes even beyond your reg MD. What you are talking about is "situational" depression or the like. That is caused by events. It does not make it less real however. We have to take into account too emotional stability is very individual. Statistics too can be skewed to look whatever way we want them too.

[Seymore]

Originally Posted by Miss Firecracker

I don't think there is a parent on this earth that would choose a mental illness for their child. That's pretty much a mother's worst nightmare.

I agree. I don't think anyone chooses a mental illness for their family. But when a parent spends no time with their child then claims the kid has a disorder when he/she acts out, you don't think that they ought to look at their own parenting skills before putting their kid on meds?

[Victoria66]

Originally Posted by Seymore

I agree. I don't think anyone chooses a mental illness for their family. But when a parent spends no time with their child then claims the kid has a disorder when he/she acts out, you don't think that they ought to look at their own parenting skills before putting their kid on meds?

Spending no time with a child can cause significant mental and emotional damage that MAY require more than just a kick in the backside. The parent can examine their own parental skills to hell and back but once the damage is done it is there and you have to deal with it. Once a child is a teenager in fact by age 8 your personality is pretty much cemented, so to hope that to suddenly become an outstanding parent to a teenager is somehow going to make a "dramatic" difference I think is a bit drastic. Better parenting takes a lot of work and forgiveness on both sides and can sometimes take years.