In reply to the numerous responses re. SSRIs...
I have received many more private messages from futurework subscribers who
are taking SSRIs and feel as if their lives have been given back to them.
I am not a proponent of any particular pharmeceutical agent, nor am I a
lacky for the medical establishment.
I am simply a sociologist who, before returning to school, practicing
nursing for almost 20 years and observed, first hand, the devastating
effects of mental illness.
I do not doubt that SSRIs are over-prescribed, as are antibiotics, allergy
remedies, and, most recently, Viagra.
This does not, however, negate their effectiveness for folks who suffer
from major clinical depression.
I believe I am in a somewhat unique position: Unlike most of you, I have
seen, first hand, in the raw, the horrendous misery of depression, as it
presented to me in the many ERs in which I worked over almost 2 decades.
It is a sad commentary on society's view of mental illness that the many
who suffer from depression and responded to me re. SSRIs had to do so via
a "back-channel", rather that on the listserver.
Best,
Judi
