[b1r6]

Flip that around: Why would you want to be continually reliant on a designer drug for the rest of your life just to feel normal?

To me, that defines a dystopian nightmare. I'd sooner go without than be shackled to the pharmaceutical industry.

[mikeash]

Whether or not you want to be, maybe you are. And if it helps you function better, why is that bad?

I’m continually reliant on prosthetics for the rest of my life just to see normally. Other people are forever reliant on wheelchairs or pacemakers or medication that stops their immune system from tearing up their organs. And that’s ok!

[subcosmos]

^ This guy gets it

After having spent a few years studying the neurology of aging, and having my life saved by SSRIs at age 33, I've concluded that SSRIs are very much in the same category as eyeglasses, especially since 1/6 of the population takes them.

The human brain is the most complex thing in the universe. Its not perfect. We can make it better, stronger!

[Asooka]

Because then you're not human, you're a chemical zombie.

[mikeash]

Do you say that about people taking daily heart medication, or people with cochlear implants?

[pureliquidhw]

Comments like this are horribly counter-productive to people struggling with mental illness.

Imagine saying to a diabetic, "Why would you want to be continually reliant on a designer drug for the rest of your life just to feel normal?" Or closer to target, to an anorexic/body image patient, "Just eat!"

For some people it truly is life or death with anti-depressants. Some people are in shitty situations with dysfunctional brains that are actively working against their best interests. Is it really that bad that literally taking a pill solves some people's issues. Perhaps anti-depressants are over-prescribed, but damn, a pill that aligns your brain to be able to rationally handle day to day issues seems pretty neat!

If you're successfully treated by a generic anti-depressant, please ignore the hyperbole of the above commenter. If you feel you no longer need the support of your medications, work with your psychiatrist to safely wean off them. There is no impending dystopian nightmare nor is there any shame is taking anything daily to manage your mental health.

[b1r6]

For those people, these drugs are fantastic! I should have conditioned my comment to exclude those people.

EDIT: I should add, if I got diabetes and had to take insulin, I would be pissed to the point that I'd make it my sole goal in life to find a way to live without having to take insulin.

To me, it is absolutely infuriating that I can be required to take a drug just to live. I fully understand this stuff works great for people - by all means use them! For me? I'd rather get sick and fail than live with it forever.

(Yes, I'm irrational, excessively autistically stubborn, and all the other negative things you're thinking about me. :)

[zdragnar]

I was like that. Managed to get off of antidepressants for probably 6 or 8 years, and thought that I had an introspective enough personality that I could be aware of, and condition myself to, not have a recurrence which required going back on them.

It came on so slowly that I didn't really notice, and most people around me who you would imagine should have noticed also did not. I finally hit a breaking point, and started therapy and medicine again. It has completely changed my life around, and possibly saved it.

Would I like to live without it? Well, I would like to not need it, but if it is a given that I do, then I most certainly will continue using it. I've experienced the alternative, and there is nothing preferable about it.

[SketchySeaBeast]

> I should add, if I got diabetes and had to take insulin, I would be pissed to the point that I'd make it my sole goal in life to find a way to live without having to take insulin.

I feel like you're ascribing it to some sort of moral failing then that someone would turn to medication for help. These things aren't always under people's control.

> I'd rather get sick and fail than live with it forever.

In the case of type 1 diabetes that could literally mean death. These hypotheticals are very easy to lay out, but much, much harder to live with.

[stordoff]

> it is absolutely infuriating that I can be required to take a drug just to live

It _is_.

> I'd rather get sick and fail than live with it forever.

It's easy to say that now. When you've not slept for three days, and that happens so often it's become routine, or you've not used the phone in _months_ due to the anxiety it causes, it's not so easy.

[animal531]

Agreed. There's the great saying that says that healthy people have many dreams, but a sick person only one.

[rsynnott]

Venlafaxine (Effexor) costs 20c a dose for generic versions. Inthe US, where drugs are expensive. Under 10c (euro cents) here. I doubt the industry is TOO excited about ‘shackling’ people to it.

[dillondoyle]

I get the cost/corporate thing. But I take a view that I am 100% ok with any substance any one person wants to take and believe that it's ok (and possible to be normal) with continued dependent use (especially if it has benefit, like living a happier or more productive live). And in fact with harder drugs it seems to me a lot of the problems would be solved if we give 100% reliable access with no impurities.

[b1r6]

Oh yeah, I firmly believe in "your body, take what you want". Just that I want to take what I want, not what I get hooked on from pharmaceutical solutions.

[fwip]

I'm already taking HRT every day for the rest of my life, might as well take an SSRI to help my brain work better too.

[stordoff]

Being a slave to my OCD vs. having some semblance of control over it is not even a question.