Antidepressants phased out for under 18s

Former Member

Story

What does everyone reckon?

Former Member

Good idea, though should be more dependent on the individual. I develop quickly and had no probs with ADs at 16 save that they weren't all that helpful.

Former Member

Yes and no.

It sounds a good idea, get kids into 'talking treatment' rather than just using drugs. But the talking treatment isnt bloody there.

AD's can help some disturbed under 18's if used in conjuction with other treatments yet they are normally labeled as the cause of the problem.

Its a mixed picture, one which isnt portrayed in the media well at all.

I'm not sure this new measure will make any real difference because GP's know there isnt anywhere near the amount of therapists to go around.

Former Member

bongbudda wrote:

I'm not sure this new measure will make any real difference because GP's know there isnt anywhere near the amount of therapists to go around.

Exactly right. Plus the fact that there is little evidence for random therapy for a bit of depression. At least the doctor is seen to be doing something when he hands over a prescription.

Former Member

Kentish wrote:

Exactly right. Plus the fact that there is little evidence for random therapy for a bit of depression. At least the doctor is seen to be doing something when he hands over a prescription.

So he will hand out the script as before and the person will be put on a waiting list probably longer than their depression.

Former Member

I think it should be tightened WHO gets meds but i don't think it should be taken away, i think it could be potentially lethal, the councelling isn't very often readily avalable.

Former Member

Wow, three whole months of counselling with a counsellor that doesn't exist. Because that will work.

Former Member

Kermit wrote:

Wow, three whole months of counselling with a counsellor that doesn't exist. Because that will work.

Maybe they could just talk to themselves for three months.

Former Member

Doctors were yesterday told to stop giving antidepressants to children and people under 18, because of the risks that the pills will make them feel suicidal.

Well if they're on antidepressants they're probably already feeling suisidal anyway so there's not much diffrence is there???

I don't think they should be being prescribed to people who are depressed but not suisidal... I was sent for counselling and told medicine was not going to do anything but cover up my feelings and wasn't going to help prevent the problem just hide it...

My friend is on antidepressants because he's transgendered and the waiting list for appropriate counselling and treatment for that is appauling... He's been battling all year to get onto a waiting list to see a clinic and now he has over a year to wait now he's actually on it. :crazyeyes

So... I think if kids are going to be waiting around for this type of help they shouldn't just be left with nothing to keep them going before they get seen by someone.

Former Member

Kermit wrote:

Wow, three whole months of counselling with a counsellor that doesn't exist. Because that will work.

I was very lucky in my treatement of depression.I was given months and months of counselling until i was reffered back to my doctor and put on AD's.I was 14 at the time.
However i do get your point.It took near enough 6 months this year to get from me going to the doctor and saying "listen this isnt going away i need help that isnt drugs" to actually speaking to someone.
A total farce.
Luckily i can handle my depression in a controlled wayafter having dealt with it for years,but for youngsters who dont have any experience of dealing with it,leaving it 6 montsh can cause horrendous consequences.
If a person says they need help then it shouldnt be delayed in them recieving that. Admitting you have the problem is a very big step for most people.People shouldnt be made to feel as if their trip has been pointless and they have acheived nothing.That is the last thing people suffereing from depression/anxiety problems need.

Former Member

I was treated wonderfully for my depression, but the point is that after three years of intensive therapy I'm not "fixed". I'm not most people, I understand that, but three months of a talking therapy doesn't work for anything except dysphoria. And three months of talking therapy after waiting two years for it solves even less.

Former Member

What happens to those people for whom talking doesn't help? I tried talking, talking didn't help. At all. I went for three sessions and was told I wasn't priority, because I wasn't sh-ing as bad, or wasn't feeling suicidal. Made me feel great, that did. That was a year and a half ago and I've got so much worse since.

I'm currently on Fluoxetine (Prozac) 20mg. I've been on it two weeks and I've already calmed down a lot, and things that would have really upset me just...haven't. I see that as pretty good. I haven't felt suicidal, I haven't felt like sh-ing, I haven't been overly unhappy.

Although...they refused to give me Prozac like, two months before my 17th birthday because they said it causes suicidal thoughts more in kids. So I'm not sure how right that was from reading that article. Hm.

The waiting list for counselling for over 16's in the Braintree area is 6 months - a year. I went to the doctors because I felt shit and I wanted help with it asap. Being told that there's the possibility of maybe being able to get counselling in a year isn't about to make me feel any better.

Former Member

Kermit wrote:

Wow, three whole months of counselling with a counsellor that doesn't exist. Because that will work.

Coming from somebody who has been thrugh severe clinical depression and anxiety disorder (and in a unit for it)...

Well I'm torn. See as Kermit says, there aren't many councillors about and it seems that AD's are given out to people like sweeties. I'd been on them for four years and what helped me recover to be the woman I am today was the councilling and therapy I received, changing one's patterns of thoughts.

I was lucky, a year or two later the unit I went to (for young people with mental health problems, it was by the ocean and kinda felt like a hostel rather than being locked up) is no longer open to most of the public, but only to extermely severe cases or so I hear. But the thing is we need to catch people before they become severe.

Whether this means feel-good workshops for young people in schools, more investment in therapists for mental health problems or whatever, I think anything is better than giving young people drugs and forgetting about them. We seem to forget how destructing altering one's mind constantly can be, not to mention that some people can have difficulty coming off the medication if they're not ready.

Former Member

Well I've heard chemicals aren't good for a developing mind so I wouldn't agree with antidepressants...at the same time there aren't many alternatives...I really really hate the idea of giving pills to cure something...not right...I bet in 100 years they'll be laughing at the idea of filling someone's head full of chemicals to cure a mental problem..then again, it might be the way forward...ah I don't know anymore. :banghead:

Former Member

i don't agree with antidepressants, but in many situations something is needed. And for some people talking theraies don't work and that treatment never seems to be long enough. I had CBT for 6 weeks in 2001, and my depression got worse from that point.

if the depression is biological and not caused by mental reasons then antidepressants would work. there needs to be a test for finding out if it is mental or biological

(wriiten by luby cos i'm a spaz who forgot to change usernames again sorry)

Former Member

Ive had therapy for over a year, and ive managed to get out of a severe depression, but i dont feel it was the therapy that did it. I've learn what might have been a cause, but thats about it. Maybe it has helped and ive learned things that im unaware of. i dont know.
but that worries me for if i get worse again.

Anti-d's have helped me enormously to get through the really rough times and evened out the mood swings and anger/rage etc.

Former Member

I dont think there should be an age limit. I've been on antidepresents since I was 8. I was talking to my parents the other day and my sister, who is doing an exchange program in South Africa, and they told me the other day that her councler had said she had "illegal drugs" on her. It was her Paxil CR, shes 16 and I guess that made it wrong. They made her give them to her host family and they give her one weeks supply at a time. I really don't see the point of outlawing it. I know its not absolute, but I suffer depression, my sister does, my mother does, her mother does and her mother did. I firmly believe that it is genetic and its not something that talking to somebody will solve. I believe its straight up a chemical imbalance. I have no beef with life and I can pretty much guarantee that she doesn't either. I've been to therapy for nearly 10 years and not once has it made me feel any better. When I go off the meds I get depressed again whether I'm talking to somebody or not. I go in to see my therapist and I have nothing to say. Life is good, work is good, friends are good. Everything is just grand but I'm depressed feeling and I dont have a reaso why. In some cases meds are the way.

Former Member

To some extent I agree with that article, but only in relation to personal experience. I've been on and off ADs for pretty much the last year and stopped takin a few months ago. I just find the side effects too much for me I react alot to them. All 3 that I tried. But May I started counselling, I'm lucky enough that we had a local service which the wait list is just so short (its called AICH www.aich.org.uk if anyones interested). So yeh I started counselling, then June/July time when I finished my exams and had nothing to do I joined a gym. I went every single day for 6 weeks. Everytime I felt stressed I went and worked out. It gave me a routine and it was something good for myself. And it was nice because when i'd say to people oh im at the gym they'd praise me. I continued counselling every week for 3 months. Ok I'm not "better" persay but it's helped me a great deal. So yeh, I kind of agree.

Former Member

Im quite similar my_name in that things can be fine, go to the counseller and have nothing to talk about but just feel depressed.
Therapy may be able to root out a trigger and help you for the long term but when you feel so damned crap- do you give a toss what the reason is???? I sdnt, i just want something, anything to help me feel a little better.