[tsoukase]

Depression is for many people the animal in the room, for some a fox and for others an elephant. You cannot avoid, ignore or hack a chemical imbalance in your brain with societal or personal measures. If you find yourself hopeless and helpless, irrespective if you have attended any form of psychotherapy, take an antidepressant. Don't hesitate and if you are in trouble, contact me, seriously. The author takes Fluoxetine which is the less potent A-D drug among all. If he is really in a heavy depression, he should be on Escitalopram.

[kmoser]

Can you provide some insight into a) how you know somebody else should take a given drug, without having examined that person yourself, and b) whether you're qualified to prescribe that drug?

[astrange]

Their bio does say they are, but they certainly forgot some things.

(Some people presenting with depression should not be on antidepressants because they actually have bipolar disorder.)

[tsoukase]

This 'some' refers to many subcategories of cases, not only unipolar vs bipolar.

[tsoukase]

Disclaimer: I am neurologist in a psy department.

I used the second person and a direct advice deliberately to overcome the taboo and suspicion against antidepressives, which cost quality of life. Obviously, one has to reach a doctor for a proper diagnosis and therapy. Anyway, in most countries you cannot buy such drugs OTC. The end goal is to persuade to actively discuss about it with the doctor and/or in case he suggests a drug, follow it.

We definitely need the medical analog to TINLA (This is not legal advice) but TINMA is not accurate.

As for the post author, he seems to still suffer, although under a drug, and he might benefit from a change, which is a frequent situation.

[ball_of_lint]

Wow, I'm surprised you can write a prescription from just a blog post.