[ShivTheShiv]

This particular drug is about post partum depression. Sleep deprived women, often functioning as milk machines, while experiencing major hormonal changes and possibly recovering from major abdominal surgery. These are not people “taking the easy route”. Save the bootstraps talk for other patients.

[zpeti]

Sorry, but no. I have two children. I as a father probably had mild PPD, and so did my wife after our second child.

You know why my wife had PPD? Because being a mother is hard, and she also had a lot of unresolved anger and issues towards her own mother, and she was reminding herself of her own mother and causing quite a bit of anxiety. We were also at an extremely difficult part of our relationship, we basically hated each other for a year.

What did we do? We both went to therapy, and asked the hard questions about why this was happening, and how to resolve them. My wife spent 6 months in therapy and resolved the issues with her mother, and now she is happy with her own performance as a mother. We went to couples therapy, which was extremely hard, but after over a year, we are basically in love again, and we are STARTING to understand what patterns are causing our issues, and how to deal with them.

We took no medication. But we were on the road to depression, but decided to actually look behind WHY this was happening.

Popping pills of course is much easier. You don't need to face your demons, or your parent's demons.

The trouble is it is at crucial times in life like childbirth when these demons emerge. Yet hardly anyone wants to face them anymore. This is not mentally healthy. And what's even worse, you are very likely to pass on many of these issues to your children if they remain unresolved.

I know this is counter to 70% of what americans believe in, but it's the hard truth, and I think many people deep down know this is the truth, but it's just much easier to take pills and bury the fact that EVERYONE has mental issues that need resolving, without taking medication.

I'm not talking about the extreme cases btw. I know in some instances medication is necessary. But it is WAY overused, to get out of making hard choices.

[amanaplanacanal]

The resources to send everybody to therapy simply don’t exist. There aren’t enough therapists, nor money to pay them, for what you are suggesting. People aren’t taking the easy way out, they are taking the only path available.

[haldujai]

As GP may be aware therapy is recommended first-line either in isolation or combination with pharmacotherapy for every type of depression.

To further illustrate the accessibility point when I lived in Canada therapy was not covered by the public health system and is entirely out of pocket.

In the US it obviously depends on the highly variable coinsurance/copay and assumes you can either take time off work or find a provider that works outside of business hours.

A 30-day supply of Lexapro is $4.50 and also has evidence that it works.

[zrail]

Different people have different experiences. Some people don't experience PPD or PPA at all. For many people PPD and/or PPA are significantly harder than what you experienced, and for a tragically high number it can be fatal for them and sometimes for others, including children and other family members.

You and your spouse have had your experiences which are completely valid and true. Your truth does not invalidate others' truth. This medicine is for them, not you.

[AndrewThrowaway]

You did the right thing no doubt.

However your experience seems to prevent you from seeing the bigger picture.

"Popping pills" is probably chosen not because people don't want to solve problems and change their lives. It is probably because it is only available solution at that time to actually function as a person and member of the society.

It is great that you had money and event time to go to therapy for 6 months as new parents. A lot of parents of newborns will simply not be able to afford it both financially and because of time constrains. Did you bring your new born to the therapy? How much did it cost? Would every single mother be able to afford 6 months of therapy? Some middle-lower class family? Some family in very rural area? Please try to see a bigger picture here and befriend more people from different paths of life.

People take pain medication for back pain not because they don't want to fix their backs. If anybody could fix their back today instead of taking pills they would do it.