So, I’m still pretty sure I’m going to write about why I think western medicine’s tendency to prescribe antidepressants as a first option is harmful. Here’s some of my initial thoughts and ideas about the topic and how/where I’m gonna get some more info to work with. Let me know what you guys think – like if you think a point sounds great or if you think it’s weak, if you have an idea I haven’t thought of, a valid counterargument that came to mind….etc.
For a personal/anecdotal aspect to my paper, I’m including one of a few possible stories:
1) My Mom’s severely depressed and has been on antidepressants intermittently and is now strongly against them, as she feels she turns into a zombie while taking them and does not feel that they make her less depressed, they just make her not care that she is depressed. She’s also a Biochemist and has some other relevant input about what that kind of drug does to your brain.
2) My best friend through high school (and her entire family) has been on antidepressants for around 6 years (ever since her cousin committed suicide). They don’t go to regular therapy, they were simply prescribed antidepressants as a “treatment” over grieving for a lost family member. As a result of this, I’ve noticed that no one in the family has moved on from the cousin’s death, since they’ve never really faced it, just avoided it with pills. It’s really put a strain on all of them and they’re scared to get off of the pills because they don’t know how to cope with that kind of negative emotion after so long of relying on anti-depressants
3) I dated this guy who was on antidepressants and decided he wanted to stop taking them, but his psychiatrist put up a huge fuss and kept telling him he should stay on them (he’d been on them for a year or so), even though he was never a danger to himself or others. He tried to stop taking them cold turkey, but experienced a whole ton of terrible side effects, including scarily frequent brain zaps, which is essentially this thing where your mind goes totally blank for a second and you get disoriented. I’m more hesitant to use this story since I can’t really go back and talk to him because we ended things pretty recently and that would just be hella awkward.
4) I’m also definitely going to be talking to students here and CAPS people and stuff like that to get more opinions on the subject.
I think aside from the personal component, I’m going to talk a lot about the side-effects of anti-depressants, how they’re difficult to come off of, how they change your personality, etc., as well as discussing why it would be better to hold off on prescribing pills unless it’s shown that the case is an emergency or the patient doesn’t respond to any other form of treatment. (I don’t have enough research done here to include anything major, but that’s the general direction of what I was thinking)
I think that it is better if you take more personal aspect of this topic because it is a very personal topic to a lot of people. One thing that I do want to warn about, mostly because I always do it, you want to have passion for what you are writing but you don’t want your emotions to be the only thing that carries your essay. If you throw in a couple survey or book source every once and a while it’ll really help make your point concrete. I really like this essay idea! and I can’t wait to read about it!
I love this!! I think the more real stories you use as opposed to statistics and research evidence the better. Especially since you’re so close with these people (maybe minus the guy), you’ll write more passionately about them and with more emotion, which will definitely get us to feel more strongly how you’re feeling, which in the end will make us persuaded! So these are definitely good things to write about.
Also, the topic in general is interesting, even though I’m not generally interested in medicine or things of the sort. However, you definitely seem like you have good information and good primary sources to use, so I’m really looking forward to reading this!
I love the idea that your paper is revolved around more personal stories. Personally, I’m always drawn to a paper when people tell a relevant story. It makes the issue more real.
I think it would be good if you started with the story and the branched into facts and interviews with people who are experienced in the field. I really like your 3rd story because I think it’s a good example of how taking antidepressants when they’re unneeded can cause horrible effects, but any of the other ones would work just as well, I think. This way you could draw readers in with pathos or just general interest in the story you have to tell and slowly start to incorporate concrete facts.
Also side blurb: I totally agree with you that anti depressants are prescribed unnecessarily a lot of the time. One of my family members was severely depressed & the doctor put them on antidepressants and it legitimately made them 500 times worse. Doctors don’t seem to think about patients. It’s almost as if they can’t be bothered to actually get to the root of depression and actually treat a person’s real issues. It’s something that really bothers me too, a lot.
You could also discuss how this is a product of our “quick-fix” culture. Instead of getting into the root of the problem and talking it out or going to therapy and taking the longer, more difficult road people tend to just say “take a pill” because it’s easy – you don’t need to confront key issues and can just forget about it.