As a counterpoint to my last post, I had a good friend at Uni who had Tourettes, OCD and ADHD. Totally couldn’t tell apart from he’d be pretty harsh (in a funny way) at times, occasionally getting him into sticky situations- he explained the reason behind this as being because there were little or no checkpoints between what he thought and what he said. Its lucky that he was one of the sharpest, funniest people I’ve ever met (with one of the sickest senses of humour I’ve ever come across- watching the ‘Pride of Britain’ awards with him was one of the wrongest, funniest experiences of my life).

Anyway, he had to take Prozac daily for the rest of his life- not because of some kind of depression but to balance the chemicals in his brain/ keep certain ones in check- if he didn’t the effect could be fatal.

DrAwkward wrote:I have never heard a positive tale about the effects of effexor. A younger friend of mine was put on it in her teens and she has gaps in her memory because of it. FUCK EFFEXOR. Effexor is CRAP CRAP CRAP.

This is irrelevant to the debate, but does anyone else here have problems reading this guy's posts and not being able to avoid imagining them being spoken aloud by Egon Spengler? (because of the avatar)

Hi, I'm Egon, I collect molds and fungus and antidepressants.

****

I'm probably breaking forum rules here, so mods please feel free to delete this bit, however:

If anyone reading this in the US/overseas is currently being prescribed Sertraline (Brand name: Zoloft/Lustral, etc...) and is having to pay for it (ie, you're not getting it paid for on your insurance or however it works), I have a few spare packs from a couple of years back. PM me and I might be able to pop them in the post for no charge. Not saying I will, because that would be against the law, but you never know, I just might. Anyone who just wants to get high, rest assured that you won't on these pills - try escitalopram (Lexapro, Cipralex) instead. Please only people that have genuinely been prescribed them.

happyandbored wrote:This is irrelevant to the debate, but does anyone else here have problems reading this guy's posts and not being able to avoid imagining them being spoken aloud by Egon Spengler? (because of the avatar)

I have that exact problem. No offence, Dr Awkward - you seem to be a great guy and a cool forum contributor - I just have the voice of Harold Ramis ringin in my ears whenever I read your posts.

Rick Reuben wrote:To carry that a step further: if you lay around on the sofa all day and you're all flabby and you watch too much television and you can't name your congressman and you have no girlfriend *and* you're depressed, well, that's an appropriate result of bad life choices, and you should feel depressed. The last thing a person in that quicksand needs is a chemical self-esteem boost. A person like that doesn't need a lifejacket, he needs pain. Pain pain PAIN!

The doped-up generations make lousy revolutionaries, and that's comforting news for the overlords. The Trap is great. It's Adam Curtis, so of course it's great, as is Century of the Self.

You're talking utter bollocks.

One of the worst things about depression, is that in spite of your best efforts to actually get off of the couch, you just can't. You can't concentrate, your head becomes clouded with random thoughts, you feel anxious all the time, when you're not feeling out-and-out miserable you just feel empty, everything is pointless, etc... Absolutely nothing you try and do will stop it. In fact, stopping altogether and doing nothing is often the best way of coping with it. It's the process of trying to carry on and finding that your brain just isn't working the way it used to, which is one of the most painful parts of going through depression.

The last thing a person in quicksand needs is a kick in the face from an arrogant tosser whose entire sense of self-esteem is based on putting the rest of the world down. Most depressed people are very good at administering their own doses of 'Pain pain PAIN', thank you very much. However, judging by some of the crap that comes out of your mouth, I'm relatively confident that one day you will have a better understanding.

The Adam Curtis documentaries were all excellent. However, his over-simplification of mental health issues was a big flaw in an otherwise very interesting series. I totally understood the points he was making and even agreed to a point. However, the idea that mental illness is merely a symptom of sociey's ills at large or an invention of the pharmaceutical industry just doesn't ring true, both with my own experiences with anxiety and depression and those of a couple of relatives, one with clinical depression and the other schizophrenia.

simmo wrote:

happyandbored wrote:This is irrelevant to the debate, but does anyone else here have problems reading this guy's posts and not being able to avoid imagining them being spoken aloud by Egon Spengler? (because of the avatar)

I have that exact problem. No offence, Dr Awkward - you seem to be a great guy and a cool forum contributor - I just have the voice of Harold Ramis ringin in my ears whenever I read your posts.

I'm trying to figure out how this is a bad thing. Oh, you have accused me of sounding like a man who could have boffed Annie Potts in Ghostbusters! Woe! Carry on, gents.

I have gone through periods of crippling depression. Bad stuff.

Drugs don't work for me (pot or perscription).

What works for me? Me. You have to fucking fight, fight, fight your way through it. You have to get up and force yourself to go out, even when your mind and your body tell you NOT to get out of bed.

This can be a tall order...and it is NOT for everyone...but it works for me (eventually). I've been on seemingly everything...and a ton of those drugs eventually were found to actually cause suicidal tendencies. I've been on seemingly everything, guys. I was on so many drugs that I can't even remember what some of them were or what they did. At the time, it felt like they did jack shit.

That being said, pot was still the most effective means for removing the whiniest, douchiest elements of my personality way back when. Pot got me off of anti-depressants and whatnot once and for all. Maybe someday I'll need them, but I'm becoming a stronger person all the time. The more shit I triumph over, the easier it gets to tell the world to fuck the fuck off (and/or deal with it...depending on the situation).

DrAwkward wrote:

simmo wrote:

happyandbored wrote:This is irrelevant to the debate, but does anyone else here have problems reading this guy's posts and not being able to avoid imagining them being spoken aloud by Egon Spengler? (because of the avatar)

I have that exact problem. No offence, Dr Awkward - you seem to be a great guy and a cool forum contributor - I just have the voice of Harold Ramis ringin in my ears whenever I read your posts.

I'm trying to figure out how this is a bad thing. Oh, you have accused me of sounding like a man who could have boffed Annie Potts in Ghostbusters! Woe! Carry on, gents.

I just think of my dad when he was younger. It's very close and very odd indeed!

N1ck wrote:I've been on 20mg of Prozac for 2 1/2 years and I can confidently say that my loads have never suffered.

In fact, I would go out on a limb and say that some of the most memorable, yeasty loads I've ever produced have been Prozac loads.

I must say, damn Nick for your 13th post that is a doozy...

Rick Reuben wrote:

happyandbored wrote:

Rick Reuben wrote:To carry that a step further: if you lay around on the sofa all day and you're all flabby and you watch too much television and you can't name your congressman and you have no girlfriend *and* you're depressed, well, that's an appropriate result of bad life choices, and you should feel depressed. The last thing a person in that quicksand needs is a chemical self-esteem boost. A person like that doesn't need a lifejacket, he needs pain. Pain pain PAIN!

You're talking utter bollocks.

You missed the point of my post. I'm saying that low self-esteem or lethargy or 'being a loser' is not depression. All those things may make you depressed, but it doesn't mean you have a chemical imbalance in your brain- it means you are depressed because you have let your life go to hell, and if you had the goddamned initiative to fix some of that shit, your depression would go away, and you wouldn't need drugs. I am NOT saying that people can willpower their way out of real, chemical imbalance depression. I was just agreeing with Earwicker: sometimes, you feel bad about the world or about your own life for valid reasons, and trying to compensate for that with drugs is the wrong course of action.

No fit and fully-functioning individual willingly let's their life go to hell. The point at which depression becomes a serious illness, is exactly that moment when people lose that 'goddamned iniative' to drag themselves out from their mess. Whether their depression was the result of bad life choices or some prior chemical imbalance is wholly irrelevant. You can bet they have a chemical imbalance now, unless of course, you think that emotions are some kind of metaphysical experience that somehow transcends whatever chemicals are floating about in our brains.

This imaginary split you are creating betwen those with 'good' depression (those you claim have a chemical imbalance) and 'bad' depression (those who allegedly brought it on themselves), is nothing more than a convenient way of letting you judge those you see as being lesser than you, while simultaneously attempting to appease those who find your outlook offensive and arrogant.

If you're on about people who aren't depressed taking anti-depressants then I share that concern, but bear in mind that someone who you sensitively describe as 'flabby' and 'lays around all day' is unlikely to be in that state for a laugh. If you're worried about drugs being too readily handed out and the wider contributing causes being ignored, then I also share your concern, but that was not what offended me about your post.

Unless you have training as a psychiatrist, councillor, or psychologist, you have absolutely no right passing judgement on who should and should not take anti-depressants.

Minotaur029 wrote:What works for me? Me. You have to fucking fight, fight, fight your way through it. You have to get up and force yourself to go out, even when your mind and your body tell you NOT to get out of bed.

If you can summon that strength from somewhere then great. I found that the process of trying to force myself to do stuff that actually I was in no fit state to be doing, actually made my depression worse. It wasn't until I resigned myself to doing nothing for a few months, taking the pills, and then slowly working my way back up to full steam, that I started to improve.