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Depression as the lastest trendy accessory
Former Member
Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-1278510/Depression-Its-just-new-trendy-illness.html
There's been quite a bit in the media about this so I thought I'd start a thread on here. Basically Janet Street Porter has written in her column that Depression is trendy.
There's been quite a bit in the media about this so I thought I'd start a thread on here. Basically Janet Street Porter has written in her column that Depression is trendy.
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http://www.alastaircampbell.org/blog.php
Janet Street Porter as seen yesterday.
Just the latest fail from this ghastly woman, it seems. Not to mention there's a certain amount of hypocrisy from the Daily Mail (which printed this bollocks) on this issue. Recently, Allison Pearson - one of their columnists - claimed she was no longer going to be writing for the Mail as she was suffering from depression. Though Pearson's depression obviously isn't going to last long, as she's off to write her weekly shite in the Telegraph, it turns out.
Had Pearson been anyone else, the Mail and its columnists would have been the first to say "depression? What has this woman got to complain about?".
No wonder I read the blogs so much more than I do the newspapers - the quality of writing is usually more well-informed than this nonsense. I wonder how much she gets paid to scribble this sheer cockwaffle?
There you go with making a post that belittles people with your air of moral superiority.
Generally doctors have some form of qualification to know what they are on about, though I guess you know better.
Might elaborate on it tomorrow, when I'm not about to fall asleep on my laptop keyboard. Toodle-pip for now...
Im not, but think how a comment like yours could be innocently construed, as one poster has allready said, its comments like that which stop them getting help.
'Nowadays, women who've never been in a war zone or experienced an act of terrorism are claiming they are suffering from stress, when all they do is run a home and get the bus to work.'
'This tidal wave of analysis about why 'having it all' isn't what it was cracked up to be. Why daily life is a series of disappointments. Why sufferers feel empty and suicidal. Get a grip, girls!'
'This level of widespread stress didn't exist as a medical condition before the Sixties.' - what so because it didn't have a name it didn't happen then?
'Every day, loads of women get divorced, lose a loved one, give birth and find out they have a terminal disease. But, miraculously, 90 per cent of us, don't get depressed about it, don't take special medication and don't whinge about 'black holes'. That's life in the real world.' yes thats why it's a FUCKING DISEASE
I have not been this angry in really quite a long time. Literally shaking. I didn't even know depression was a thing until I was diagnosed. I've spent most of the time since hiding it, not flaunting it like a new fucking handbag. I would never wish harm on anyone, but if, gun to my head, I had to choose one person in the whole world to have depression/anxiety it would be whatever arsehole decided it would be fun to start belittling the disease that nearly killed me.
tune in to JSP's article next week: why Muscular Dystrophy sufferers should just get off their lazy arses and walk
pah
Very good point.:thumb:
Just reading a couple of other forums and comments on the issue. Seems as if no ones happy with her at the moment. I haven't seen anyone yet who wasn't at least disgusted by the article.
Elaborating on what I started to write last night, I was referring mostly to the time limits on GPs. They only have a certain number of minutes to deal with each patient, so if someone says "I've got depression", there isn't much time available to make a fuller analysis of the situation. Also, there are issues in many areas with how much support is actually available for people with depression. A sort of postcode lottery, if you will.
Though I think it's perfectly valid to ask about whether depression is being exaggerated. Are there really that many more people depressed now than there were 40 years ago, or is it simply that more people are coming forward? Alternatively, is the world really a more rubbish place to live in than it was 40 years ago? Things are never simple in this area...
Well... I think there is a big difference in being argumentative, provoking a good debate... compared to just really being insulting and offensive.
Sometimes I read the Mail if I want to get a bit angry, but this is a topic I just don't want to read about in there.
I might be thinking of something else here, but I'm pretty sure that depression is most prevalent in people in their late teens to early twenties, but obviously it can happen at any age. As for it being middle-aged middle-classed women, in my experience that's been completely untrue. Of the people I know that have depression, many of them have had awful things happen to them, have almost nothing of their own and live in sheltered housing. Wouldn't exactly say that was people that had it all and complaining that it wasn't what it was cracked up to be.
I don't know. I guess I shouldn't be surprised, when I told people that I had depression, their first response was 'Well, what do you have to be depressed about?' You don't always need a trigger, it's a chemical imbalance and can happen without any real cause you can point to.
Exactly.
I agree. Some people (not on here) have said things like "it was unheard of 40 years ago" - maybe it was; but there was no name for it. (or it was mistaken for something else) I remember my dad telling me that people with epliepsy 40 years ago, were put into mental institutions because it was seen as something different back then. (mental illness?)
No doubt a helpful corporation will offer some chemical(s) to redress that diagnosed imbalance.
So why did you go the doctors then?
Treatment being the operative word.
:yes: :yes: :yes:
Essentially... depression can kill. And so I think it is so wrong to say that it is a phase, or a "trendy accessory".
It frustrates me so much because I think that if the stigma around mental health was reduced, more people would be willing to seek help, more people would then get help, leading to them hopefully living happier lives. Unfortunately, its articles like this, and people's narrowminded opinions that play a part in it not being that easy.
It just sickens me to think that someone could hold that opinion of people who are genuinely ill. These people shouldn't have to face hatred, criticism or prejudice. They need (and deserve!) compassion, help and support.
There is nothing fucking 'trendy' about lying in bed attacking your body just so that you can feel something. There is nothing trendy about wondering how many fucking pills it would take or when would be the best time to take them. Fuck her. Eugh.
I think she is confusing the gradual easing of stigma over saying you have had a mental illness (thus more people admiting it) with an increase in cases.
Yes, because we're all in the grip of the pharma industry and no-one has ever tried to treat depression in any other way.
Business is business
I think I've probably been embarrassed about it and tried to keep it from people, more than trying to wear it as a badge of honour. Those I have told (closest friends) I've always qualified it with; "but, it's not that bad."
I have a friend who works for the pharma industry and specifically works with developing AD drugs, and he and the company he works for admits that other treatments work just as effectively if not more effectively than pharmaceuticals. However, having the drugs there gives the doctor another 'tool in their inventory' as it were.
If doctors are too lazy / incompetent (forgive me but I'm not too fond of doctors) to prescribe exercise, routine, counselling, support sessions and just give everyone prozac and say "come back if you try to kill yourself" then that's down to the doctors, not the drug industry.
When you are paid on patients / hour rather than the quality of the treatment, of course doctors are going to adopt a culture of giving quick-fixes. I don't think this means over-diagnosing depression btw, if anything I think it will mean under-diagnosing these illnesses and misdiagnosing people (especially with men who may find it more difficult to a) go to the doctor b) be persistent with the doctor about needing help and not shaking it off).
It also took 3 different doctors to take me seriously - and even then I was only diagnosed with anxiety. Other doctors just turned round and said I was too old and not serious enough for the childrens services and not old enough for the adult services. And that because I wasn't slashing my wrists and threatening to kill myself that I should just go home and 'chill out'.
Pah - rant over!