Depression Hurts, Cymbalta Can Help

Sounds great, right? Until you read the side effects including nassau and fatigue and many more equally crappy feelings. "Severe liver problems, sometimes fatal, have been reported. If you experience dizziness or fainting upon standing due to a sudden drop in blood pressure. This may happen especially

when first starting Cymbalta, when increasing the dose, or when used in combination with certain other drugs." and wait, that's not the least of your trouble. Scroll down to the last page where it reads: "WARNING-- In clinical studies, antidepressants increased the risk of suicidal thinking...."

And this is JUST for cymbalta, and quoted directly from the cymbalta website (with lots of happy smiling people playing with children placed through out their add-- oh wait, yes, I said add, because they are SELLING you a product. This isn't a doctor in a white coat here recommending you check it out, this is a drug company's attempt at selling you happiness in a pill)

Now, what do the drug manufacturers forget to mention in their adds? Withdrawal. What about withdrawal from this medication? For many reasons, you don't just stop taking antidepressants cold turkey. It can be dangerous (and depending on the medication, life threatening), and at the very least, can make you feel terrible for not just days and weeks, but sometimes MONTHS after discontinuing the medication. Extreme fatigue, nausea, headaches, dizzy spells, change in appetite, insomnia, brain zaps, loss of concentration, irritability, oh the list goes on.

So here we are, happy (or not so happy in this case) American consumers looking for the next best thing since sliced bread to make us Fell Better and Be Happy and to Feel Good Again. And we sign up for this? Pretty much all the symptoms of depression are side effects of this medication. So why do I want to take this medication if it's going to make me feel like the suicidal piece of shit worthless use of space that I already feel like? I thought this was supposed to make me feel better.

But recent studies have shown that the amount in prescriptions in psychiatric medication has doubled in a decade, yet the amount of people being treated with psychotherapy along with medication is decreasing dramatically, and about 80% of patients getting treatment through medication were not even being treated by a psychiatrist. Why? Direct drug to consumer advertising rose from 33 million to 122 million, leading more patients to talk to their general practitioners about medications which they've seen advertised. Which here in lies the next obstacle. Often, insurance companies won't allow permission for GP's to refer patients to psychiatrists, so patients are left no choice but to see their GP to manage their psychiatric medication. And psychotherapy? Insurance is a pain about covering that, too. Mental health is on the back burner even though it causes more disability than any other medical condition. And no, that wasn't a typo, I did say "medical condition", NOT mental illness.

So the quest to happiness begins again.