Caution in use of antidepressants

In thinking about this article, I saw an interesting link which I thought I would share with you.

Dr Gutafson has always posited that there is an internal and an external world which is controlled by various phenomenon. A balance between the two worlds being the key to protect the inner child from the “harsh world” (Self Delight in a Harsh World, Gustafson).

In the modern megalomanic world where the laws of increased pack drive us, human beings become mere part of a machinery. The machinery of culture, the machinery of capitalism, the machinery of religion. Every thing is a machine in our current state of existing collective consciousness (Jung collective consciousness).

With that being the state, in the external world exist representations of our inner feelings. Language is mated with the non verbal (Balint The Basic Fault). Expressions from inside are morphed in to what influences us from outside and vice versa. Hence the definition of happiness or depression is very easily influenced by current trends. The current trend being the machine state that we talked about us, similarly defines the definition of happiness and depression. A person who is not productive enough to survive the machine state of things tends to drop out and hence is depressed (Basic dynamics of Psychiatry, Gustafson).

It is true, that depression also comes in many shapes and sizes depending on innumerable factors. In certain cases the sense of negative introspection prevails and one wonders about thanatos. In other cases the role of depression as an adaptive trait is very protective, though maybe anguished.

The change in a system should only come after great deliberation as is often pointed out. There is a lot of energy conversion that goes in to changing the static to the dynamic. Changing depression which is static to something dynamic is desirable in many cases but can be fatal in some. A classic example of lethality is what so many manic people inflict on themselves and others.

Do drugs switch people's moods. There is a debate about that in the scientific world with arguments on both sides. Can an SSRI be given safely to every person. Experience with general population though, would indicate otherwise. There are places where an antidepressant is helpful, there are places in which it is not helpful. There are studies which indicate adverse effects in some people. Activation or switching being one of the side effects. Every case of switching is unique and tends to express itself uniquely. It is sometimes really difficult to catch these cases until and unless they become really severe and consequences are “more” disastorous. In children parents usually notice earlier and take them off the medications. In adults though, things can become complicated, if social support structures are not there.

So is an SSRI the best thing out there for depression? Yes, it might be, to be able to give the boon of “functioning as a cog in the machinery”. And sometimes that is the answer that a psychiatrist should give. But sometimes it is not and it is equally useful to use a host of other treatments, that mental health professionals should be trained in.