Ok here is an issue that I have grappled with for many years.
In my opinion drinking and taking "psychiatrist" depression drugs are essentially the same thing. Granted- I do see the merit and use for some depression drugs to fight chemical imbalances or severe temperament issues involving brain injury etc. However, I think they are one in the same because in the case of either you are looking for a "quick fix" to a spiritual problem.
Mind you this is coming from a person that was diagnosed with severe clinical depression 3 years ago. My depression was so bad that I literally could not get out of bed in the morning, didnt go to work, didnt go to school, and slept 12-18 hours per day. The only times I wouldnt sleep is when I was doing coke and drinking. My body and mind were so backwards, upside down, etc that I seriously tried killing myself at least 4 times. I swear I was on the absolute brink of being certifiably insane.
Anyway- I sit here today a person that has run marathons from that other person, and I did it without the help of psychiatric drugs. A lot of my issue with them comes from the fact that a- They are a symptom of the pharmaceutical industrial complex b- Many of the side effects are unknown to physicians on a short term level, let alone the understanding of what the long term effects can be. To me these drugs are more dangerous and are going to pose a far bigger problem than any type of substance (including booze) in the next 20 years or so. This is not meant to downplay how terrible of a problem alchohol is cause as they say "2 wrongs never make a right".
Case and point-
A good friend of mine was diagnosed with severe clinical depression and was placed on numerous drugs from numerous doctors and the pills tended to make him a bigger nutcase. Especially when he drinks (to bad they dont have a pill that makes you quit drinking, although many people operate under this delusion when they use anti depressents to help calm their sober nerves) So finally after trial and error he found that a high dosage of prozak did wonders for his psych. He cut down BIG TIME on the partying, his relationship with his fiancee was going great (on a mental level), and all in all he was improving. That is until...... one of the "side effects" decided to kick in and as a result he put on nearly 100 lbs in 6 months. He worked out the entire time (as it was part of his recovery plan he made with his shrink) yet the weight kept piling on and on. As a result his relationship with his fiancee was destroyed (it is hard to marry someone that you have no physical attraction to) and guess what? He fell even further down the ladder than he ever was to begin with. It ended up destroying him in the end. To quote cory taylor (a musician) He is a "skeletal wreck of a man" nowadays.
He held on to false hopes that a little pill was going to solve all his problems, and to me that is just as bad as using a bottle for comfort because you are not being true to yourself, nor are you putting your mind through the proper grieving and rehabilitation process by chemically altering it because you had a conversation with someone. (they rarely do actual medical testing when prescribing these type of drugs) They say substance abuse is a spiritual problem, and I 100 pct fully agree. I do not see how numbing your mind to the world around you is doing anything to address the internal struggles you are going through. If anything you are just creating a new chemical dependancy to replace the old one instead of just going through hell and back and coming back a stronger person.
I would also like to make it abundantly clear that I DO think that there are some people out there that really can gain a benefit from some of these drugs. I just think they are over prescribed and a lot of people are just looking for a quick fix as opposed to getting their elbows dirty and tackling their problems.
This is why I am a 100 percent proponent of Psychologists. They help you sort through your problems and if you find one you like (much like an aa meeting) your benefits can be endless. Self actualization can actually be achieved through gaining a better scope of yourself, who you are, why you do it, why you feel certain ways about certain things, and how you react to things out of your control. Prozak and its buddies seem to make people forget about this stuff and make people what is reffered to in the AA community, a dry drunk.
I hope this post wasn't construed as medical advice nor offended anyone. I urge anyone to do whatever they feel is necessary for THEIR OWN personal health. This is just how I view the subject matter in general.