Reply to Warning: take the warnings about SSRI with teens seriously

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I know you mean well and I'm very sorry for what you've been through with your DD but I hate it when people like you post these anecdotal stories.  You don't know that it was the SSRI that worsened your DDs depression and led her to attempt suicide.  As you stated, your DD was on an SSRI for a reason and she already had a history of self-harming. Every person with anxiety/depression, especially one like your DD, is at increased risk for suicide and the risk increases if not treated.  All your 'warning' is doing is reinforcing the idea that SSRIs are too dangerous and make people less likely to accept that medication is an effective treatment for anxiety/depression.

Nothing is without risk including ibuprofen (heart attack/stroke), acetaminophen (liver damage/kidney disease/heart attack/stroke) and every other thing that enters the body. Whether your DD was on an SSRI or not, she was at increased risk of suicide and you should have been watching her.  While shocking, this should not have been a surprise.

I say this as someone whose father and two brothers killed themselves and they were not on SSRIs.  I also have 2 boys that have been on SSRIs since ES and my DH has taken them for 20 years.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3353604/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2799109/[/quote]

+1,000,000
My father, who suffered from depression all his life, committed suicide when he was 60.  He had never been treated for depression and was taking no medicine.  I started taking Prozac in my 20's, after recognizing depression in myself.  It literally has changed my life.  I will happily take it for the rest of my life, and only wish I had been diagnosed with depression as a teen so I could have taken it earlier.

Both of my children are now on Prozac - diagnosed with depression in their teens.  Depression is a real disease and can be successfully treated with SSRIs.  I only wish my dad had taken them.  His life might have been so different.[/quote]

DH had pretty severe depression in his teens and he’s not and never was on SSRI’s. He did talk therapy for years and it helped him.
Nowadays everyone pops a pill. Sure, people who did not improve should have the option of meds and maybe multiple meds but the immediate medication is not appropriate for everyone. 
There are actually life changing side effects on a lot of these drugs too. [/quote]

Yes, and there are actually life changing effects to waiting to start an SSRI while you experiment with "talk therapy." Many (most) people who are clinically depressed don't need to talk it out.  They have a serious serotonin imbalance that needs to be corrected.  When I was depressed, I didn't need to talk it over with someone.  I needed medication to correct my brain chemistry, and fast.  After three weeks of taking Prozac, I felt like a normal person again.  It probably saved my life.

So I would say to you that talk therapy is not appropriate for everyone.  Many clinically depressed people simply need to up their serotonin.  Just as a diabetic needs insulin, the depressed brain needs serotonin.  Talking about it does nothing to correct the imbalance within the brain.  I'll stick to my Prozac, thanks.[/quote]

You are wrong on the science of depression. It is not fully understood. Some depressed people actually have an excess of serotonin.

SSRIs work barely better than placebos. A sugar pill might have had the same effect that you think Prozac had on you.

Personally, I was on an SSRI for 10 years, starting at age 18. I, too, was convinced that it saved my life. Around year 8 or 9, the side effects became unbearable. It was then that I stated to look into SSRIs more deeply. They’re not the miracle drugs many people think. They’re actually a fairly ineffective treatment for depression. [/quote]

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