Pharmaceutical Drugs and Depression: Are They Worth the Risk?
Pharmaceutical drugs and depression have engaged in an uncomfortable relationship due to the over-prescription of certain classes of psychoactive drugs, medication formulated to stabilize the mind. Abuse these drugs, the benzodiazapines and other sedatives, and we risk delivering society into a hell where happiness is only valid when popping a pill, and sleep only comes when a drug is swallowed. The irony of the situation hasn’t escaped the medical community. These drugs are manufactured to ease depression and mental illnesses, but they possess the capacity to cripple the mind by aggravating the same conditions. The blame for this lays partially in over-prescription, taking the drugs for everything from restless leg syndrome to insomnia, but it also lays squarely on our attitude to medication.
Pharmaceutical drugs and depression are inextricably linked, but the aforementioned attitude we express in habitually popping pills for the least issue is something that has to be dealt with. A loved one will take a pill for a headache without ever considering the need to exercise and stretch tight muscles. A weary head of the family will take a prescribed sedative, never considering the benefits of meditation. Non-medical usage of these drugs has also increased proportionally with medical consumption, a predictable outcome due to the popularity of the pharmaceuticals and the subsequent ease in getting hold of any number of clinical medications.
By all means consult a physician or a mental health expert, and consider psychoactive medication if a mental illness exists, but beware of the relationship between pharmaceutical drugs and depression. Don’t fall into the pharmaceutical trap, using prescribed medications for recreational purposes, and don’t ignore side-effects that may indicate the first insidious stages of depression, not when suicide is linked to extreme mood swings (www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov).Work with a mental health professional to get the dosage of the medication right, and support the treatment with a fitness regime, harnessing natural endorphin’s to fight depression.