please recommend a self help book, therapy, drug...

[Elspode]

I'd like to throw in a hearty for anti-depressant therapy. I've been taking Lexapro (a relatively low dose, actually) for a few years now, and it makes an *enormous* difference in my attitude, my self-loathing, etc.

I think you'd be surprised at the number of people who use antidepressants, Stacey...and you'd never know it. No one else would know that *you* were taking them either.

[Troubleshooter]

What I don't understand is the need for so many people to be taking anti-depressants. Life just can't be that hard for that many people.

[Beestie]

Originally Posted by Troubleshooter

What I don't understand is the need for so many people to be taking anti-depressants.

Because they are available and because they work. You could have said the same thing about aspirin.

Originally Posted by Troubleshooter

Life just can't be that hard for that many people.

Alternatively, you could walk around in someone else's moccasins for a while and see if your perspective changes.

[Troubleshooter]

[quote=Beestie]Because they are available and because they work. You could have said the same thing about aspirin.[quote=Beestie]

The only problem is that there are so many people who don't have the chemical imbalance that Zoloft is supposed to fix, but yet they are miraculously fixed. It is tremendously over-prescribed.

[quote=Beestie]Alternatively, you could walk around in someone else's moccasins for a while and see if your perspective changes.[quote=Beestie]

My perspective is fine. My life has not been a bed of roses. I've also spent some time caring for people with serious problems at a state psychiatric facility.

Also, from the SADHART study:
With regard to the effectiveness of sertraline (Zoloft ®), the patients reporting the greatest mood improvement were those with more severe or recurrent depression. For patients with at least one prior episode of depression, 72% responded to active treatment compared to only 51% of those on placebo (p=0.03). Similarly, for patients reporting more severe symptoms of depression, 78% of sertraline (Zoloft ®) patients responded versus 45% of placebo patients (p=0.001). The overall sample also included patients with mild and short-term depression and failed to demonstrate a significant difference between sertraline (Zoloft ®) and placebo. This result may be partially explained however, by the high response rate to placebo for patients with mild or reactive depression. Their symptoms may have resolved spontaneously as a result of the care, attention and support they received from both a cardiologist and psychiatrist as a consequence of their study participation.