I would disagree with that also.

However, due to the side effects and "discontinuation syndrome", that doesn't really prove the meds were helpful in the long-run.

From an article by Bruce Levine, PhD

Anti-Authoritarians and Schizophrenia: Do Rebels Who Defy Treatment Do Better?
Of course this is just one of many POV's, and everybody always seems to be poking holes in everybody else's theory all the time If you want facts, we may all agree that the information that is most commonly provided to the public is biased toward corporations. Information that could support negative outcomes is generally avoided because people don't want to discourage someone from getting "treatment" or take away hope of a positive outcome.

For example, it's popular for the media or activist groups to state that "people aren't talking about their mental health issues or getting help because of "stigma"; however, these groups fail to mention how the efficacy of medication has been proved to be not as high as once claimed, or about how clinical trial data has been altered to get drugs approved [1]. Due to the nature of mental health issues, the opinions of patients are often dismissed, and if they disagree with their doctors they're deemed "non-compliant". If a patient becomes worse after medication, it's said that they're condition has worsened and their meds are sometimes just increased.

In effect, by avoiding talking about *all* the reasons patients don't want to seek treatment, the problem can't be resolved; people who are suffering are very aware (either from first-hand experiences or second-hand information) that the mental health system is broken, and aware that they will be treated with far less respect and dignity than patients of other diseases or illnesses. While things continue that way, people not seeking help is going to continue to be an ongoing problem that sees very little progress.

This is a pretty good press release from the United Nations Human Rights Commission. (World needs “revolution” in mental health care – UN rights expert)

Thank you, Andy Alt.

Another good source of info from the perspective of people with <1 experiences also has an article about suicide prevention:

https://www.madinamerica.com/2013/09...ystem-instead/

@rob.rice, it takes courage to post these things. I hope that people are listening.

I have been booked in for a mental health assessment/therapy next week as a result of recent events. Will let you know how it all goes.

Please do. Good luck, Lysander666.

Best wishes Bro.

Stay safe and let us know how it goes, Lysander666. Wishing you only the best.

Andy.Alt, I apologize for jumping in before reading the entire discussion; that was lazy and rude on my part and I would like to believe that I am a better person than that and only behaving badly online because of my own personal problems.

LQ deserves better.

I didn't notice any problem with your post. I interpreted it as you were thanking me for my comments and adding some related content.

While I've had depression myself before, and was on "meds" (according to the government I still am on meds for it, even though I'm not anymore ) for it, they didn't really help me as far as I can tell. While it's a long story and it's difficult to explain it properly in a forum post; for me, it was long chain of personal events that started with a lot of abuse as a child, as well as other problems that go right back to when I was in primary school (and maybe before that too). But needless to say it wasn't pleasant, and involves a lot of bad memories that could be considered quite painful. But without digressing about the particular details concerned, the only way I could even begin to "free myself" from it, was by first understanding it the best I could, and dealing with the actual issues concerned.

I think mental health from what I know now years later is like security, and in many ways relates to it, in that; security is a process, not a result. In other words: it involves monitoring and constant evaluation, which must include in this case being aware of what triggers any distress, and how to deal with it when one feels distress. I didn't vote in the poll, because of what I said in terms of it being a process, so I can't really say "it's over", so to speak.

I've found for me, it involves trying to find purpose, and basically "keeping one's mind occupied", to prevent distress from creeping in. Because if you are not aware of it to begin with, it's like an ambush, which is much harder to escape - like the "traditional ambush" where people literally surround you in an armed conflict situation. So like in that case being aware of your surroundings. I just take each day as it comes, and try not to think about things too much that are likely to depress me to begin with. But if you don't have what I said above, you can take all the medication you like, that by itself isn't going to help much is what I've found.

I came to terms with myself, the fact I've made mistakes and to own them, not everything that happens is within my power to control, to accept it and most importantly learned to let it all go.

That's probably one of the hardest things; to let it all go, and to accept that sometimes there is just nothing you can do other than to "ride it out" and hope for the best...

I know exactly what you mean.

I actually had past events in mind by there being things outside a persons power to control. That's what makes it so tragic that people who have had bad things happen to them as children let it continue to torture them throughout their lives. That's the type of thing you have to accept you had no power over at the time and learn to let it go.


It took a long time to figure it out and was a conscious decision for me but letting go of all that baggage I had been carrying around felt like the weight of the world was lifted from my shoulders.


I know I can't control everything that happens in day to day life and deal with things as they come best I know how. Not dwelling on bad things that might happen to the point of fixation and managing my time well like you talked about is when that comes into play for me.

jsbjsb001, without maybe even realizing it, you've described "mindfulness", which has been integrated into traditional forms of therapy more and more in recent years.

I saw something today about some protein with a four letter acronym that holds promise more than mere serotonin control and is possibly the tip of the iceberg for far more effctive medical help for depression. Man! things are changing fast!

I think I know what you mean, but I didn't know there was actually a term for it tho. I don't know about it being integrated into therapy, cuz I haven't been to therapy for a while now.

I mentioned a protein found to be involved in depression and I found this one (https://www.uofmhealth.org/news/arch...ery-could-lead) but it is not the same acronym so it is even possible that a number of them, perhaps a family of them, is going to be found if not responsible for depression tightly involved in it. It is so good to see such rapid advancement occurring in medicine s technology grows so quickly now with the aid of computers.