Debate psychotropic drugs with me!!!

Depression is not a Chemical Imbalance in Your Brain - Here's Proof

All right- everyone here is intelligent and has opinions they can back up. What do you think about psychotropic drugs? Are they medicating something not real? Can you treat bipolar when you cannot see it?? The video is short.....

I found the video to be correct, & from my own experience, true to fact.

I went to a psychiatrist in my 20's, under pressure from family dynamics, & I'd talked for all of 30 seconds before he said, "Talking won't help; I'm putting you on a drug." I was stunned!

Went along with it, took the drug, & started feeling suicidal. I'd call him saying so, & he'd say, "Can't this wait till our appointment on Monday?" Unbelievable!

People told me that my personality was far more robotic, as well.

Of course, negative experiences on psychotropics have happened to so many people, so I am firmly in agreement with the video.

This video annoys me. I'm only half way through and I'm legitimately angry. I have ADHD and I guarantee you, ADHD does not just mean you cannot pay attention to some things. I have sat down and cried because I haven't been able to clean my own bedroom thanks to ADHD. I have to have things in lists and have an order in which those things have to be done. I can't just be thrown into a, say, messy bedroom and be told to clean it. There are too many things I could do and I think about all of them at the same time and then I get confused and really upset because I can't do it. There's an unbelievable how pathetic you feel about yourself when you can't clean up your own bedroom because you don't know what do to.

Last year, in my Psychology class, I did my final project on ADHD because it was something I already knew about, as a point in the project, I didn't take my ritalin (I only ever do when I have to get something done). It took me EIGHT HOURS to write a 2.5 page paper. It was supposed to be 3 pages. I ended up getting full credit because I did that.

I get so stressed and there are huge chunks of my day that I have no recollection of because I zoned out. I am going to try a friend's Adderall because my ritalin has started giving me a headache when it wears off and then I get tired. That's my only issue with it. I get things done when I take it. I feel better because I can go "Hey. I cleaned my entire apartment in 2 hours. This would have taken me days to do otherwise."

And diagnosis for ADHD is usually being questioned about your life and how you deal with things and then a TOVA test. A TOVA is this like 20 minute test where you listen to two different tones, one high and one low. Every time you hear either the high one or the low one (depending on which they tell you), you press a little clicker. I had taken this when I was younger, so I knew about it when I finally convinced my mother to let me get retested a couple years ago. The guy told me I would be taking one and I basically begged him not to make me do that. I hate it. He told me later after figuring everything out that he figured I had it when I said that. Normal people thing it's annoying to sit for 20 minutes pressing a clicker at sounds. If you have ADHD, it's torture.

There are side effects with every form of medication. Everyone is different and will react differently. This video seems very propagandistic.

I would have found a different psychiatrist.

Northern, your experience is not (or shouldn't be) normal. Sorry it happened in the first place - my instinct would have been "uh, no thankyou, drug happy doctor!" Sadly people go along regardless, because they're doctors and should know best - makes me sad.
I will be interested in reading the article when I get home - I studied psychology and still have a strong interest in it.
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Propagandist video. Wonder what he's selling?

I do believe that we're over medicated as a whole, especially our children. However, psychotropic drugs do help in the right circumstances.

Tell me, do you think PMS is real? Why? You can't SEE it, so it must not exist, right? That's the exact same argument this doctor is proposing for depression and mental illness, and it just simply doesn't hold water.

That video also isn't factual, since there have been studies done that do show chemical changes to the brain during depression/mental illness.

I think too many people have bought into the 'better living through chemistry' ideal, but it's not all hogwash like this person is claiming.

According to the beliefs of this video, imagination and a mind's eye are also nonexistent. You can't see it, so it's not there.

And even if a psychiatrist says you have xyz condition, they can't prescribe you medicine. You have to go to a medical doctor for that, where you will sit down and discuss options with them (or you should) and they will try to figure out which will work with you and your body. If the first one doesn't work, then they try a different. Same with every other medication.

I would like to add that Ritalin is the second ADHD medication I have been on because the first one I was on DID have terrible side effects on me. The first one was Strattera, which is a long-term ADHD medication. You take it everyday and it will work 24/7. However, on me, it made me normal, then a zombie for an hour, then for another hour, my heart rate would jump from like 70 (sitting in class) to 150 for no reason. I was told not to take it anymore by my doctor, but I had to take my ACT later that week. I took one of the last ones I had for that test and was fine with it. The next day, I didn't think to go "Oh, hey this is still in my system." so I went swimming. I ended up pulling myself out the pool while hyperventilating and being the dizziest I've ever been. My heart rate was over 200 and stayed that high for about a half hour, then dropped down in 10 beat increments over a couple hours until it stopped at 150 and wouldn't go lower. I had to go to the ER because my chest started hurting.

I have a crappy heart, thanks to genetics and that particular medication didn't work for me. Ritalin doesn't do that to me and is a short-term medicine and works the same as Tylenol: One pill = one dose. When it wears off, it's out of your system. Much more convenient for me.

First off, I would never believe or follow a pharmaceutical company's advertisements or videos. Depression is caused by chemical imbalances. I advise to only follow the actual studies that have been done by the medical journals. PHysicians have to earn the title to be able to post in those journals, and they are re-read multiple times before ever being published by the public, so they are the articles to follow-not a Mercola.com webpage.

Second medications do successfully mask or reduce the symptoms caused by depression. Unfortunately non to date can actually cure depression which is the route of the problem.

Scientific Articles:
Monoamine oxidase A inhibitor occupancy during tre... [J Psychiatry Neurosci. 2011] - PubMed result

The serotonin transporter is an exclusive client o... [J Biol Chem. 2011] - PubMed result

[Diagnostic characteristics epidemiology and patho... [Psychiatr Hung. 2010] - PubMed result

Actually Po, a registered psychiatrist can prescribe medication, since they're also an MD. Psychologists can't, however.

My bad. I mixed them up.

I have a friend who has ADHD. It took her 6 years to graduate collage because of it. She hates taking her adderall because it makes her depressed, she can't eat or sleep while taking it.

But if she doesn't take it I can always tell. I'm afraid to have her drive with me in the car because she's doing 20 things at one time...on the phone, eating, changing the radio; as I sit there fearing for my life.

I also have an aunt who was diagnosed with something called Erotic Mania. I don't know too much about it, but she was admitted to a hospital. Where she was forced to take medication, she did really well with it.

Then we she came home she thought she didn't need the medication and didnt take it. Now, she is not doing well at all. She's crazy, for lack of a better word.

I also rode with a girl who is bipolar...she she was great for months...we rode all summer together and the horse she rode was doing really well also.

Then in the fall she stopped taking her medication and got sever anxiety...she wasn't herself. She didn't even look the same. She had to stop riding, because she was making the horse get too skittish and was ruining all her hard work she had made with during the summer.

So I think medications do work, but like any medication it is going to have side effects.