I read a statistic today that startled me. According to the Center for Disease Control,doctors wrote 250 million prescriptions for antidepressants in the last few years. My guess is the number continues to go up. Antidepressants are given for everything from anxiety and depression, to sexual dysfunction and pain issues. That is a lot of drugs to buy, take, and for metabolites to end up in our water supply. But I also have to wonder why so many now. Are we a more depressed and anxious culture than we used to be? Or do we just recognize the illness now more than we used to?
I do think it may be a combination. Depression can be a serious and life-threatening illness. At the same time, I would say at least 50% of my patients are dealing with some form of anxiety or depression. The majority of people are dealing with one or the other, at least in this part of the country and in my practice.
As a society, we don’t engage anymore. We sit home on a Friday night and stare at Facebook instead of going out, sitting at a bar or
restaurant, and engaging with others around us. When was the last time you got on a bus and spoke to the person sitting next to you? Many women think they can do it all alone, the superwoman complex as I call it, and end up disconnected from dear friends, unable to ask for help or share recent hardships. Yet we all need help sometimes. Whether it’s someone to call in the case of an emergency to drop your kids, or someone to help you move a sofa. We all need help at times, and yet as a society we don’t encourage this. And we all work too much.
There are medical causes as well. For women, hormones can play a huge part. For instance:
-Progesterone can make us feel more anxious if it is low
-Cortisol, if low, can make us feel more sluggish and down
-Neurotransmitters are of course vital and can leave us feeling up or down
-Stress can make us run through our biochemical reserves faster, making the body less able to compensate
Before you reach for the antidepressant prescription, consider testing your hormones and neurotransmitters. Personalized treatment, along with counseling can make a difference in your mental well-being and are tools to help you feel more like yourself again. It becomes absolutely vital to reduce your stress (as much as is possible these days) and build community in the long run. What will you do today to support your health and mood?