I would say we passed the tipping point quite some time ago, where they were seen as a cheap salve for numerous problems, rather than actually tackling the growth in reasons for people needing them. “My life is getting me down Doctor”/“Here, take some of these”.
Can't speak for everyone but anecdotally I have seen a very similar thing in India too. Often, it turned out to be something else (commonly it was undiagnosed ADHD which apparently can be in 5-10% of the population.)
They’re ADHD, anxiety, and depression are all comorbid as well. Adderall is the best anti-anxiety med I’ve ever been on because it makes me focus on the present and not potential future negatives. Ive also benefitted from SSRIs though, they helped me in a different way.
Moreover, it seems to me there are far more people skeptical and ideologically opposed to antidepressants than those supporting it.
SSRI's changed my life for the better and it's a real shame I listened to the naysayers for so long. There's no shame in seeking help and treatment. Something like 8% of American men take an ssri, and based on my own social group's struggles it should probably be well over 50% (I'm exaggerating only slightly).
The problem is that they are a bandage for the real problem. While some people may have a temperament that predisposes them to having depressive episodes or symptoms, or constitutional defects that may result in such problems, the general rise in depression, anxiety, and mental illness thus characterized points toward a cultural crisis.
For example, the sexual revolution and the hedonistic false promise of "safe sex" and "free love" has wrecked families and communities, poisoned relations between the sexes (as this worldview is fundamentally selfish and exploitative), devalued human life; produced friendlessness, porn-addicted incels, sexual abuse, demographic decline; and produced an inability to relate to other human beings in healthy ways. That this should produce loneliness and isolation is not surprising, and this alone could produce the observed misery as human beings are profoundly social animals who grow and thrive by giving and receiving care in the various relations they enter into.
Note also the ideologies of big-c Capitalism (not to be confused with free markets) and Socialism, both of which ultimately celebrate selfishness; self-centered people are not the exemplars of happiness, to say the least. Both ideologies are rooted in the false anthropology served up by liberalism (as in Locke, not as in liberal institutions), one that misconstrues freedom as being able to do whatever you want--a concern for only exterior constraint--versus being able to do what you ought, to live according to human nature, to acquire the virtues--in a word, self-mastery. The liberal view of freedom naturally leads to debauched and increasingly depraved indulgence of the base passions, ever greater rebellion against and distortion of reason, something the wisest of the ancients already recognized was a recipe for misery, not happiness. "[A] good man, though a slave, is free; but a wicked man, though a king, is a slave. For he serves, not one man alone, but what is worse, as many masters as he has vices." Thus wrote Augustine. Living immorally, living by vice, produces misery by definition. Evil actions destroy the evildoer from the inside.
And do not forget repressed and unresolved guilt, something sexual misbehavior easily and justifiably produces and multiplies. We have abolished the notion once called "sin" from our culture as some archaic superstition. If we're just atoms in the void, who cares? Ah, but it is not so. Guilt isn't just something you can erase. It lodges itself in the mind like a splinter, a poison, a worm. It calls for justice. It gnaws at us. Repressed, it exacts revenge through strangely expressed symptoms, like what we once called neurosis, which is to say anxiety, despair, and depression; behaviors like projection of the burden of guilt onto scapegoats. How often do these not become construed in medical terms, understood as maladies to be treated like a physical disease. By obfuscating the true cause, we've robbed ourselves of he explanation and the way to freedom. The truth will set your free, but this will not be easy. Taking stock of one's moral past terrifies the prideful man. It threatens his addictions. The light of truth sears his conscience, makes him see the arrows piecing his soul. How to remove them? There is a way. But even then, the wounds need time to heal.
The tendency to transform our moral deficits into medical problems is escapism, and it will not last. It will ruin us totally.
Can you quantify this "many"? What were your data points for identifying them? What social media platform(s)? Where can I read more about your research into these "women who have bought into this"?
Again, quantify this "majority of women" for me. This sounds like the most sexist shite I have ever read on this website and like complete confirmation bias, if not fabricated nonsense.
You can't do this here, regardless of how wrong or annoying someone else's comments are or you feel they are. We ban accounts that do it, so please don't do it again.
I mean it’s not a huge reach what OP is saying. Women are generally more open about their feelings publicly and about their mental health - so it would be expected so see a higher prevalence of women talking about antidepressants on social media.
And a quick google says that women are twice as likely to be prescribed antidepressants.
It's a reach, because his research almost certainly didn't happen and it doesn't take into consideration algorithmic echo chambers, his own social circle, confirmation bias, and that's without even getting into this being complete and utter sexist shite.
Most women I know don't post about their problems on social media, and it's likely a combination of demographic and risk, that and high availability of counseling and therapy. This is without even getting into a lot of men I know posting about it, including me. It probably skews about even.
In 2024, there's been an exodus of certain demographics from social media. Does his research take that into consideration? It's just a stupid and sexist comment on HN that deserved to be called out for being a stupid and sexist comment, nothing more.
I get where you’re coming from but I think you are overreacting a bit. I would suggest taking the most generous interpretation of OP’s comment.
There’s nothing inherently wrong with noticing that women post more about this stuff - anecdotal as it may be.
Even you yourself say it ‘probably skews about even’, you too have no evidence.
No need to accuse the commenter of sexism. It can also be an innocuous observation of their social media feed.
SSRI's are known to have side effects on your sex drive, libido and anorgasmia in some cases.
The bar for informing patients on potential side effects is so low. The silver bullet attitude many doctors carry with ssri prescriptions is quite misleading.
Sexual dysfunction is literally the most well-known and most-discussed side effect of SSRIs. Every doctor I've spoken to has mentioned it, and so does the information sheet that accompanies the prescription bottle. And of course any google search will bring it up immediately. It's not exactly a dirty secret.
Lol, I got prescribed SSRIs as a teen with no discussion of side effects. Doctors just prescribe these things like they give out candy. Most people just do what their doctors tell them to do, they don't nerd out and look up the details of every, or any, medicine they take.
Reductive perspectives like this perpetuate myths that are not only wrong, they’re harmful.
How’s somebody who works 60h a week in a shit house in a shit town earning shit money supposed to take time out to enjoy the iconic flora and fauna meters from their doorstep?
People who don’t use social media have depression too my guy.
The article mentioned it’s mostly young people dealing with this. As a young person myself I see everyone from teenagers to people in their 30s glued to their phones any time I’m outside.
Constantly engrossing yourself in that misery mill doesn’t help. We already know social media is harmful. The article also mentions illicit drugs and other things. Idk much about those but that is also not good but probably less prevalent than social media use.
Most people I know around my age 20s and 30s that do not engage much with social media are happier than my friends who live mostly online and are always depressed. I get it they want to get away from life but life is all we have.
Sorry just rambling now. I’m pretty sure I’m not wrong when I say that putting down social media and going outside would do wonders for other young people.
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[ 3.2 ms ] story [ 112 ms ] threadToo out of date to be funny. This hasn’t been anywhere near true for at least a couple of decades.
Moreover, it seems to me there are far more people skeptical and ideologically opposed to antidepressants than those supporting it.
SSRI's changed my life for the better and it's a real shame I listened to the naysayers for so long. There's no shame in seeking help and treatment. Something like 8% of American men take an ssri, and based on my own social group's struggles it should probably be well over 50% (I'm exaggerating only slightly).
For example, the sexual revolution and the hedonistic false promise of "safe sex" and "free love" has wrecked families and communities, poisoned relations between the sexes (as this worldview is fundamentally selfish and exploitative), devalued human life; produced friendlessness, porn-addicted incels, sexual abuse, demographic decline; and produced an inability to relate to other human beings in healthy ways. That this should produce loneliness and isolation is not surprising, and this alone could produce the observed misery as human beings are profoundly social animals who grow and thrive by giving and receiving care in the various relations they enter into.
Note also the ideologies of big-c Capitalism (not to be confused with free markets) and Socialism, both of which ultimately celebrate selfishness; self-centered people are not the exemplars of happiness, to say the least. Both ideologies are rooted in the false anthropology served up by liberalism (as in Locke, not as in liberal institutions), one that misconstrues freedom as being able to do whatever you want--a concern for only exterior constraint--versus being able to do what you ought, to live according to human nature, to acquire the virtues--in a word, self-mastery. The liberal view of freedom naturally leads to debauched and increasingly depraved indulgence of the base passions, ever greater rebellion against and distortion of reason, something the wisest of the ancients already recognized was a recipe for misery, not happiness. "[A] good man, though a slave, is free; but a wicked man, though a king, is a slave. For he serves, not one man alone, but what is worse, as many masters as he has vices." Thus wrote Augustine. Living immorally, living by vice, produces misery by definition. Evil actions destroy the evildoer from the inside.
And do not forget repressed and unresolved guilt, something sexual misbehavior easily and justifiably produces and multiplies. We have abolished the notion once called "sin" from our culture as some archaic superstition. If we're just atoms in the void, who cares? Ah, but it is not so. Guilt isn't just something you can erase. It lodges itself in the mind like a splinter, a poison, a worm. It calls for justice. It gnaws at us. Repressed, it exacts revenge through strangely expressed symptoms, like what we once called neurosis, which is to say anxiety, despair, and depression; behaviors like projection of the burden of guilt onto scapegoats. How often do these not become construed in medical terms, understood as maladies to be treated like a physical disease. By obfuscating the true cause, we've robbed ourselves of he explanation and the way to freedom. The truth will set your free, but this will not be easy. Taking stock of one's moral past terrifies the prideful man. It threatens his addictions. The light of truth sears his conscience, makes him see the arrows piecing his soul. How to remove them? There is a way. But even then, the wounds need time to heal.
The tendency to transform our moral deficits into medical problems is escapism, and it will not last. It will ruin us totally.
This is me, and that's why I needed medication (bandaids).
I'm extremely skeptical of your vague claim.
https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
If you'd please review https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html and stick to the rules when posting here, we'd appreciate it.
Edit: we've had to warn you about this more than once before (e.g. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19395191).
Most women I know don't post about their problems on social media, and it's likely a combination of demographic and risk, that and high availability of counseling and therapy. This is without even getting into a lot of men I know posting about it, including me. It probably skews about even.
In 2024, there's been an exodus of certain demographics from social media. Does his research take that into consideration? It's just a stupid and sexist comment on HN that deserved to be called out for being a stupid and sexist comment, nothing more.
Absence of proof is not proof of absence.
Even you yourself say it ‘probably skews about even’, you too have no evidence.
No need to accuse the commenter of sexism. It can also be an innocuous observation of their social media feed.
The bar for informing patients on potential side effects is so low. The silver bullet attitude many doctors carry with ssri prescriptions is quite misleading.
[0]https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/9934946/#:~:text=Among%20the....
Depression has a perfect cure!
Reductive perspectives like this perpetuate myths that are not only wrong, they’re harmful.
How’s somebody who works 60h a week in a shit house in a shit town earning shit money supposed to take time out to enjoy the iconic flora and fauna meters from their doorstep?
People who don’t use social media have depression too my guy.
Constantly engrossing yourself in that misery mill doesn’t help. We already know social media is harmful. The article also mentions illicit drugs and other things. Idk much about those but that is also not good but probably less prevalent than social media use.
Most people I know around my age 20s and 30s that do not engage much with social media are happier than my friends who live mostly online and are always depressed. I get it they want to get away from life but life is all we have.
Sorry just rambling now. I’m pretty sure I’m not wrong when I say that putting down social media and going outside would do wonders for other young people.
- Jiddu Krishnamurti
Then meditation.
Antidepressants do work but depression is your body telling you something is wrong so figuring that out is helpful.
Britain has Shiite life syndrome as well. It probably exists here in the USA but we don’t see it so much b/c of inequal access to health care.