Disorders and America

[SQ]

Kids get this idea that there's something wrong with them, they don't want anyone to know, they eventually stop taking the meds when they're older, and the problems go from there.
It's a theory I've been becoming more convinced by lately.

Lack of purpose is the clearer reason that I see.
Medications could be part of the cause though.

I don't know. (Or maybe I'm not understanding what you've said here).

I was dperessed for a few years, and I'd classify it as your basic emo. It was because I hated my parents because they generally didin't support me with what I wanted to do (AMVs), etc., etc.

Then, in highschool, in escalated into a monumentus event where I simply could not function. Being as every female in my entire famliy had been diagnosed with Depression, I was quickly diagnosed as well, and let me tell you that staring into space and not caring about anything, even how boring staring into space is, is not fun.

From my (d)evolution from emo to Depressed, I never, ever had serious thoughts about hurting myself or committing suicide for attention, or otherwise.
Now, there were suicide notes, but those were to myself to let out stress(having a blog or simply writing in a diary really does help relieve stress, I've found), NOT serious.

So, I get this medication so I can, you know, function, and stop failing school and having panic attacks where I can't stop crying about shit.
Well, two weeks pass, and I can function, but the depression itself is worse. I feel like crap, I suddenly have this realization that I don't care about anything and that's bad, and i start cutting. And I start threatening suicide and seriously contemplating it.

I hated every second I was on those meds, but at the same time, I knew I needed them, or else I'd go back to that vegetative mass that did nothing by cry all the time.

After roughly a year of switching through different meds and seeing counselors, psychiatrists, and psychologists that didn't seem to care about me(I honestly just had bad luck; my insurance changed multiple times so I had to abandon the one good psychologist I had) I had the worst breakdown in the history of all my Depression while I was on two different medications.

I wanted to go to an insane asylum. I wanted to get away from my parents(because of stress) and I was threatening all sorts of self-harm just to do that. My parents had my horrible psychiatrist asking him what the fuck they should do, and he said just keep me calm. I said I just wanted to go to a damn hospital and that was it. Was it really so hard to get me rehab??

Well, apparently it was. After that I got higher doses of my current meds, and when I had another breakdown, I switched meds. But I never took the new meds.

See, after my breakdowns I had realised that I was doing "fine" in the whole motivating myself area, to a certain extent, and the meds were holding me back with their worsening of the depression side effects.

My parents and my psychiatrist didn't believe I was strong enough to go off the meds. They all said I needed at least another year of meds. Now, I was 18 at this time, so I should've been able ot make my own decision. But apparently they wouldn't let me.

Long story short, I stopped taking the pills behind their backs, no crash and burn EVER occurred, and I'm doing WAY better now.

I have small crying fits, but the last for about 10 seconds. Far cry from the two hour long dehydrating spiels of high school.

Deduct want you want from that, it's just my overtly summarized story.

[SarahtheBoring]

Yes, "just a little down" is not depression. Anyone who is merely whiny and says they're "depressed" (or for that matter, "bipolar" when they're merely ordinary drama queens) is a fucking poseur. Some people do have real problems, and the fact that some idiots co-opt those names just to be attention whores doesn't change that fact.

[SQ]

The sad fact is the people who actually have the problems hardly ever say anything because they don't care they have a problem. Or at least was the case for me.

Hell, I was all up and down high river about how crappy my life was when I was "emo". But as soon as I hit un-medicated Depression mode, I just shut up and became a vegetable.

[Ch3aLs3A L!n@]

[Copycat_Revolver]

Maybe it's just me but it seems like this flooding of disorders is some sort of ironic full circle back to the ways of the dark ages.
Long long ago, if something was wrong with you, you'd go to the village doctor and no matter what was wrong, he'd say, "Demons have possessed you, young squire. That is why your head aches. Lo, it be the Devil!" Then they would strap you to the ceiling and bleed you or attach leeches to suck the demons out. That was the basis of medical practices back then for just about everything from cramps to dementia.
Now, of course, we're much more enlightened. We have technological advancements on our side. So now when you don't feel good for whatever reason, you go to the doctor's office and he tells you, "From what you've told me, you must have a disorder! That must be why you don't feel cheery and sh*t rainbows all day long." Then he prescribes you medication that causes your stomach to shrivel up, your skin to break into rashes, and blood to pour out your rectum faster than 5$ beer at a rock concert...but hey, your anxiety is gone.
The only difference here is that now it seems more self-inflicted. Our great advances in modern convenience has cultured a deep-rooted laziness that has gone so far that rather than except responsibility for our own actions, we use these disorders as an excuse for our behavior.
"I don't have to be nice to you. I'm a manic depressive."
"I don't have to act civilized in public. I'm bipolar. Now get me a donut or I'll bite off your face."

I don't doubt that these are actual conditions. They most certainly are. The problem lies in the lack of any real reliable standard for screening these problems.
If you walk into any mental health center or similar establish, you can get any diagnosis you want. They ask you every question you could ever think of and they take your word for it without blinking.
So if you want to have multiple personalities, just wait for the question: "Do you ever hear voices in your head that are not your own?"
Ta-da! You're on your way to a prescription.
In any case, the point is: There are too many people who think they have disorders, and doctors are far too willing, even eager, to fling drugs at any problem that would normally take hard work and dedication to cure.
And this whole cycle of doom is urged on by our constant thirst for some kind of witch hunt to keep us busy, so we wage war on disorders and drug them into submission.

So why is this so prevalent in America and not so much in other countries? Possibly because we are on the cusp of technological development and that technology has made us immobile. We've forgotton what a real struggle is so we have to create our own to keep away the urge to drive spikes through our heads.
For example, think back to when the washing machine was invented and became standardized. Suddenly everyone was ecstatic. "I don't have to wash my clothes by hand anymore." But pretty soon, the standard became to have a laundry machine and all of the other modern home conveniences. Then it wasn't long before everyone forgot how to wash by hand. If we can't figure out how to wash our clothes without a machine, or cook meals without a microwave, or take care of yourself without constant medical advice, then we become more and more useless, unable to fend for ourselves. We become slaves to whatever is fed to us.
Right now in this country we have more free time available to us than any group of people in history. And we've eliminated most of the obvious inconveniences in our daily lives. When we're not whining about political correctness, what the hell else are we supposed to do with our time but worry and make each other miserable?
When a doctor raises his hand and says, "Well, it could be that this constant dread you feel is caused by a chemical imbalence in your brain." Suddenly everyone realizes that there might be a reason for their stupid behavior and they all grab for disorders like life preservers after a shipwreck.

Jeez, what the hell was I talking about?

Anyway, that's just what I think. But maybe I'm overthinking this. Maybe there's something wrong with me...
[end of meandering rant. must sleep now.]

[godix]

Long story short, I stopped taking the pills behind their backs, no crash and burn EVER occurred, and I'm doing WAY better now.

Somehow I missed this post when it was current but still, I just want to say to anyone on medications for mental illness, do not do this. The first time I had to take my wife to the hospital was for something similar to this. She ended up as an involuntary patient in the mental ward of the hospital for several weeks and it took around half a year to get back to the point she was. Seriously. I still have her suicide note around here somewhere. If someone wants to get off the medicine then fine, I'm not stupid enough to claim the doctors know everything, but phase off that shit. If for no other reason just do it because it sucks being a spouse/parent/whatever and having to learn really really quickly the legal requirements of hospitalizing someone against their will. Different drugs require different types of phasing off of so look it up the specifics on the internet but regardless, do not just stop cold turkey.

[SQ]

I didn't stop cold turkey, I just decided that a long description about how I phased off wasn't needed.

Still, valuable information to have, Godix.

Then again, I only had Depression, not Schizophrenia or Manic Depressive Disorder or anything special like that.

Or maybe Manic Depressive is the same thing as regular diagnosed Depression, now. Who knows any more.

[Minion]

i recently stopped zoloft cold turkey (where the fuck did this term come from?).
i wasn't suicidal or anything though. just mildly depressed i guess

[Ch3aLs3A L!n@]

it wasn't bad after all using zoloft

and every one can be depress even me though last few week I'ma emo (in one side of my room) when I had a break up so I take zoloft now T_T though I know it wasn't needed for me but it doesn't mean Ima suicidal

[godix]

Or maybe Manic Depressive is the same thing as regular diagnosed Depression, now. Who knows any more.

They're different. Depressed is, well, depressed. Sad, unmotivated, etc. We all know what that is. Maniac depressive is properly called Bipolar now. Biopolar is extreme mood swings from very hyper to very depressed over a period of days. When I say hyper think 'drug addict in need of a fix' type hyper not 'chibi anime' type hyper. We're talking about swinging from moods where won't be able to sleep for three days, jitter all the time like they just downed a pot of coffee, and no one knows what the fuck they're talking about since they can't stick to a thought process for more than 5 seconds. Then a week later they're contemplating suicide. There's also something called fast bipolar which will go through those mood swings in a matter of hours instead of days.