Antidepressants can dramatically improve your mood. The challenge is in making an educated decision about when to take them.
By
Ellen McGrath, published on April 01, 2002 - last reviewed on May 21, 2007
The need for antidepressant medication is widely misunderstood, not
only by depressed people but by many around them. As a result, patients
often fail to comply with the very regimen of drug treatment prescribed
to relieve their suffering.
One reason for this very peculiar state of affairs is that taking
medication for depression means defying centuries of cultural
conditioning. Although depression appears to be a disorder of nerve
signal transmission in the brain, the symptoms of the disorder are such
that they have long been misread as a weakness of will.
Slipping on a straitjacket of simplistic logic, we come to believe
that the disorder must, or at the very least should, be overcome by an
application of willpower. To do otherwise is to acknowledge that you are
defective.
In addition, we all harbor the core fantasy that we can handle
things by ourselves. That includes even mastering mental illness. The
sooner you can give up that fantasy around depression, the sooner a cure
can occur.
In order to reap the benefits of drug treatment, patients have to
do a major cognitive reframe—that is, they have to shift their own
perspective. And that requires more knowledge of brain chemistry than
most people have been exposed to. Here's what you need to do.
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Update yourself.
Update your data bank on what the antidepressant medications can
and should do. Recognize why it is so hard to look neutrally at these
drugs—they fly in the face of cultural conditioning.
If you understand what antidepressant medications do, you would
understand the need to take them as prescribed. What the drugs
essentially do is replenish brain chemicals depleted by stress or by
genes, so that you have enough mood energy to take action.
-
Know the score.
Recognize when medication is appropriate. There are good general
guidelines for considering the use of antidepressant drugs.
If you are undergoing psychotherapy, you should see significant
improvement in your ability to function in about eight to 12 weeks. If
you don't feel much improved in that time, consider a medical
consultation to explore the possibility of adding drug treatment.
Consider medication immediately if you are unable to function in
some area of living; for example, if you are unable to work or to sleep.
Also consider medication immediately if you are thinking or talking about
suicide, or if you are engaging in self-destructive behavior, like
cutting yourself.
Antidepressant medication is also indicated if you have experienced
a truly traumatic event and after one month you are not able to move
along. Similarly, if you are in long-term counseling for any reason and
after six months you still feel significantly burdened—even if the
therapy is progressing—the therapy will go much faster if your psychic
energy is supported with antidepressant agents.
And lastly, medication may be needed if you have had some major
physical procedure like surgery, and especially open-heart surgery. It is
a kind of severe physical trauma, and it has an impact on the brain.
Depression is a common consequence of cardiac procedures.
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Take charge.
Become the CEO of your own healthcare. After all, you know your
body better than anyone. Being active in taking core responsibility for
yourself is an important thrust towards recovery in depression.
You need to become a true participant in your medical care. You
have to enter into a strategic partnership with your healthcare
provider.
If you start having questions about drug side effects or dosage,
don't hesitate to call your doctor. And don't stop until you reach the
doctor.
You also need to handle your medications like a CEO. Among other
things, that means evaluating them in terms of costs and benefits. You
definitely need to educate yourself about the product(s)
prescribed.
On the cost side, figure in the actual dollar cost of medication,
the psychological stress of admitting vulnerability, the drug side
effects, the cognitive challenge of taking the drug, and the memory task
to remember to take it. On the plus side are improvements in mood,
increased efficiency in work, improved ability to sleep, better control
of appetite, and the dispelling of despair.
One aspect of being in charge of your own healthcare is to make
sure that your doctors talk to one another. Check to see that the
psychiatrist talks to the family doctor and to the
psychotherapist.
-
Get the right help.
Forge a partnership with a physician who trained in
psychotherapeutic approaches. Don't just rely on a psychiatrist to talk
unless he or she has been extensively trained in psychotherapy. Fixing
depression long-term is a two-part strategy of medication and
therapy.
-
Monitor your progress.
Be aware that the medication used to treat depression can lose
effectiveness over time. Your doctor can't predict how or why burnout
occurs.
If suddenly you are finding that it is more difficult to get things
done, or you are questioning yourself and your life, or despair creeps
back, drug effects may be fading. In that case you need to go back into
the system for a consultation.
Tags:
antidepressant,
brain chemicals,
brain chemistry,
centuries,
depression,
depression treatment,
logic,
medication,
medication for depression,
nerve signal,
peculiar state,
reframe,
regimen,
signal transmission,
ssri,
state of affairs,
straitjacket,
treatment patients
