Depression is a condition that can cause a great deal of pain, not just for the person suffering from depression, but to the people close to the depressed person, including their friends, family, and coworkers.
When we see someone who is depressed, we often want to help them out, and for some of us, one of the thoughts that pops into our mind is to recommend that the person takes antidepressants or considers taking antidepressant medication.
However, suggesting to a depressed person that they take or consider antidepressants can be a highly damaging thing that can have a number of negative effects both on the person, and on your relationship with them.
This article explains why this is the case.
1.
You are not the person's doctor.
Antidepressants are prescription medications, meaning that they require the prescription of a doctor.
This requirement is due to the effect that they are not suitable for all people.
In some people, antidepressants can actually worsen depression or cause mental instability, increasing the risk of suicide, so this point is a matter of life and death.
If you are not a doctor who is specifically overseeing a depressed person as a patient, then it is not your place to make any recommendation about antidepressants.
Period.
2.
Bringing up medication can actually worsen a person's depression, by implying that there is something inherently wrong with them.
One of the fundamental defining features of depression is that a depressed person believes that they have something fundamentally wrong with them.
Depressed people often strongly doubt their own capabilities and abilities, especially their ability to overcome depression.
The suggestion that a person take medication can make a depressed person feel much worse because it sends them the message that there is something innately wrong with them and that they need medication to somehow correct it.
Not only is this message untrue, but it will harm them and fuel their depression, making them feel worse and making them less likely to recover.
3.
Medication is not suitable for all people.
There are a variety of well-documented factors that make people more or less likely to respond well to medication.
Again, if you are not the person's doctor, and you do not know both the individual person's complete history and the different factors that make people respond positively on negatively to various drugs, then you are not in a position to make any recommendations about any medication.
4.
Just because it worked for you does not mean it will work for someone else.
You may feel particularly moved to suggest antidepressants to someone struggling with depression because you yourself have had a positive experience with taking antidepressants.
Keep in mind, however, that each person is different, and the fact that you respond well to a particular drug, or to antidepressants in general, does not mean that someone else will.
5.
Antidepressants are a medium-term, not a long-term solution: There is some evidence that antidepressants can cause significant improvement in depression so long as a person continues taking them.
However, there is little to no evidence that there is any long-term benefit to a person once they discontinue using the drugs.
Although the use of antidepressants as a medium-term temporary boost can be helpful in some cases, while a person figures out other ways to overcome their depression, some people, including those who struggle with depression, are particularly long-term minded and are not interested in antidepressants because they want to work their problems out in deeper, more sustainable ways.
This is a personal choice and a legitimate one, and this type of determination will actually help a person overcome depression, so if you want to help someone you care about, you would do well to encourage, rather than argue with this sort of attitude 6.
People have legitimate concerns about the efficacy of antidepressants.
Although there is some evidence that antidepressants have some efficacy for treating depression, there has been growing evidence that their benefits have been grossly overstated in the medical literature.
This effect is largely due to publication bias, whereby studies showing positive effects are more likely to get published, but studies with neutral conclusions or showing no effects tend to get shelved and never reach publication.
Meta-analyses that have taken into account publication bias have failed to find strong evidence that antidepressants are particularly effective for treating depression.
While this does not mean that they do not help specific individuals, it rightly makes a large number of people skeptical.
With the internet, a growing number of people are well-educated about these issues, and if you recommend antidepressants to a depressed person who shares some of these concerns, you risk alienating them and undermining the person's trust in you, which can make it harder for you to help them in other ways.
7.
There are so many better ways to help.
There are countless ways to help someone who is struggling with depression, such as telling or showing them that you love and appreciate them, encouraging them to exercise and eat well, inviting them out to do activities they enjoy or be with people they like, or asking them questions that can help them to think in more positive ways.
These approaches can all help a person a great deal.
In summary: If you want to help a friend, coworker, or family member who is struggling with depression, do not recommend that they take or consider taking antidepressants.
It is not your place and you may be doing a lot more harm than good.
Instead, consider finding other ways to help them.
When we see someone who is depressed, we often want to help them out, and for some of us, one of the thoughts that pops into our mind is to recommend that the person takes antidepressants or considers taking antidepressant medication.
However, suggesting to a depressed person that they take or consider antidepressants can be a highly damaging thing that can have a number of negative effects both on the person, and on your relationship with them.
This article explains why this is the case.
1.
You are not the person's doctor.
Antidepressants are prescription medications, meaning that they require the prescription of a doctor.
This requirement is due to the effect that they are not suitable for all people.
In some people, antidepressants can actually worsen depression or cause mental instability, increasing the risk of suicide, so this point is a matter of life and death.
If you are not a doctor who is specifically overseeing a depressed person as a patient, then it is not your place to make any recommendation about antidepressants.
Period.
2.
Bringing up medication can actually worsen a person's depression, by implying that there is something inherently wrong with them.
One of the fundamental defining features of depression is that a depressed person believes that they have something fundamentally wrong with them.
Depressed people often strongly doubt their own capabilities and abilities, especially their ability to overcome depression.
The suggestion that a person take medication can make a depressed person feel much worse because it sends them the message that there is something innately wrong with them and that they need medication to somehow correct it.
Not only is this message untrue, but it will harm them and fuel their depression, making them feel worse and making them less likely to recover.
3.
Medication is not suitable for all people.
There are a variety of well-documented factors that make people more or less likely to respond well to medication.
Again, if you are not the person's doctor, and you do not know both the individual person's complete history and the different factors that make people respond positively on negatively to various drugs, then you are not in a position to make any recommendations about any medication.
4.
Just because it worked for you does not mean it will work for someone else.
You may feel particularly moved to suggest antidepressants to someone struggling with depression because you yourself have had a positive experience with taking antidepressants.
Keep in mind, however, that each person is different, and the fact that you respond well to a particular drug, or to antidepressants in general, does not mean that someone else will.
5.
Antidepressants are a medium-term, not a long-term solution: There is some evidence that antidepressants can cause significant improvement in depression so long as a person continues taking them.
However, there is little to no evidence that there is any long-term benefit to a person once they discontinue using the drugs.
Although the use of antidepressants as a medium-term temporary boost can be helpful in some cases, while a person figures out other ways to overcome their depression, some people, including those who struggle with depression, are particularly long-term minded and are not interested in antidepressants because they want to work their problems out in deeper, more sustainable ways.
This is a personal choice and a legitimate one, and this type of determination will actually help a person overcome depression, so if you want to help someone you care about, you would do well to encourage, rather than argue with this sort of attitude 6.
People have legitimate concerns about the efficacy of antidepressants.
Although there is some evidence that antidepressants have some efficacy for treating depression, there has been growing evidence that their benefits have been grossly overstated in the medical literature.
This effect is largely due to publication bias, whereby studies showing positive effects are more likely to get published, but studies with neutral conclusions or showing no effects tend to get shelved and never reach publication.
Meta-analyses that have taken into account publication bias have failed to find strong evidence that antidepressants are particularly effective for treating depression.
While this does not mean that they do not help specific individuals, it rightly makes a large number of people skeptical.
With the internet, a growing number of people are well-educated about these issues, and if you recommend antidepressants to a depressed person who shares some of these concerns, you risk alienating them and undermining the person's trust in you, which can make it harder for you to help them in other ways.
7.
There are so many better ways to help.
There are countless ways to help someone who is struggling with depression, such as telling or showing them that you love and appreciate them, encouraging them to exercise and eat well, inviting them out to do activities they enjoy or be with people they like, or asking them questions that can help them to think in more positive ways.
These approaches can all help a person a great deal.
In summary: If you want to help a friend, coworker, or family member who is struggling with depression, do not recommend that they take or consider taking antidepressants.
It is not your place and you may be doing a lot more harm than good.
Instead, consider finding other ways to help them.
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