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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsOMG! 25 disturbing facts about psych drugs, soldiers, and military suicides..
Whisp
(24,096 posts)The creepiest, scariest movie I have ever seen. I stayed up at night over this one.
upaloopa
(11,417 posts)It sells to the antidepressants cause suicide
crowd.
green for victory
(591 posts)as a side effect.
why do you think the warning lists suicide and is mandated?
Maybe because it's a documented side effect?
OP: Here's a time mag article that tried to bring this problem to the attention of the public a few years ago:
America's Medicated Army
The increase in the use of medication among U.S. troops suggests the heavy mental and psychological price being paid by soldiers fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan. Pentagon surveys show that while all soldiers deployed to a war zone will feel stressed, 70% will manage to bounce back to normalcy. But about 20% will suffer from what the military calls "temporary stress injuries," and 10% will be afflicted with "stress illnesses." Such ailments, according to briefings commanders get before deploying, begin with mild anxiety and irritability, difficulty sleeping, and growing feelings of apathy and pessimism. As the condition worsens, the feelings last longer and can come to include panic, rage, uncontrolled shaking and temporary paralysis. The symptoms often continue back home, playing a key role in broken marriages, suicides and psychiatric breakdowns. The mental trauma has become so common that the Pentagon may expand the list of "qualifying wounds" for a Purple Heart historically limited to those physically injured on the battlefield to include posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Defense Secretary Robert Gates said on May 2 that it's "clearly something" that needs to be considered, and the Pentagon is weighing the change.
Using drugs to cope with battlefield traumas is not discussed much outside the Army, but inside the service it has been the subject of debate for years. "No magic pill can erase the image of a best friend's shattered body or assuage the guilt from having traded duty with him that day," says Combat Stress Injury, a 2006 medical book edited by Charles Figley and William Nash that details how troops can be helped by such drugs. "Medication can, however, alleviate some debilitating and nearly intolerable symptoms of combat and operational stress injuries" and "help restore personnel to full functioning capacity." >>More>
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1812055-1,00.html
upaloopa
(11,417 posts)suicide crowd tells it like the pills are poison. Millions of people like me can live half way decent lives because of the pills.
You do no one a service by making out that taking them will make you kill yourself.
No medication is perfectly safe for everyone. Your doctor and you work together to find out what is right for you.
And if you are talking about the Time article it had both sides of the debate not just the one you favor.
On edit
I take antidepressants and have been since 1994. Without them I probably would have killed my self by now.
I work for a county alcohol, drug and mental health services dept. I know what some folks lives are like without treatment.
Mental illness is the most misunderstood illness there is because people spread uninformed and anecdotal information around like it was gospel.
Gravitycollapse
(8,155 posts)It is not a chemical lobotomy.
The Straight Story
(48,121 posts)Tried it. Had terrible side effects after I got to over 150 mgs. Told her about it and she said it was just me, that after 50mg there are no increases in side effects and if I didn't have them at that dose I wasn't now.
She is no longer my Dr and I don't take it anymore.
Wilms
(26,795 posts)CoffeeCat
(24,411 posts)These brave, young people need a comfortable, beautiful and peaceful retreat where they can stay for prolonged periods and receive individual therapy, group therapy and round-the-clock treatment by caring professionals who specialize in healing trauma and PTSD.
Preferably, this facility would be in a beautiful place with lots of sunshine--maybe Arizona. They should be fed nutritious foods, have access to daily exercise and be surrounded by gorgeous nature, trails and lots of opportunity for hiking and walking in the sunshine.
I have PTSD. I know the hell. I have it due to childhood trauma, but PTSD is PTSD. Your brain adjusts to prolonged trauma and threat by walling off the pain. You set it aside, because it's just too overwhelming and horrifying to feel the intense emotions that are coming at you. So, that pain is set aside. When these soldiers return home, the brain signals that the threats and danger are gone. So--the walled-off pain begins to seep into the consciousness. All of that horror, all of the sadness and the terror, returns. It's the feelings that come first. At first, you feel as if you are going crazy--because the emotions are so overwhelming. You aren't. Your brain is just unloading a very heavy burden. You have nightmares and horrible flashbacks--which creates intense emotional pain above you, under you, and and all around you. You are engulfed.
To come down from pocketed trauma--a soldier needs time, relaxation and professional care. These men and women who have sacrificed their emotional well being--to serve this country--deserve that place in Arizona. Our government needs to invest in this. It's not extravagant. It's what is needed and it is what we owe these amazing people.
If I win the lottery, I'm building it for them!
Gravitycollapse
(8,155 posts)The bulk of therapy should be counseling and living assistance. But we cannot completely discount the possible benefits of using something like a mild benzodiazepine to help with sedation for sleep or for those who really truly are in need of additional help.
I'm not saying we should be dishing out drugs like candy. I absolutely abhor such a philosophy. But there is a place for medication in psychiatry.