Well, the BBC is running an article on the increased use of anti-depressants, in particular Sertraline that i've been on previously.
I have run an article about this before (https://www.mentalinnit.com/post-jddd1/meds-n-all-that) and as I said there, it is a balance between everything but I do wish that everyone would understand that it is a bit of a knee jerk reaction to start shouting and screaming about it, I really do understand and don't blame anyone for doing it.
As I said in the other piece I wrote, it is difficult in my own case because i'm on so much other shit and it really isn't a GP's job to experiment on you when there are probably a million different variables in my case. You feel down and there are really only a few paths they can guide you on; take Sertraline, refer you to mental health and in the meantime tell you to make sure you're eating better, excersising and trying not to get yourself into stressful situations.
I've been down all of these paths and ultimately there is only so much they can do as they can't help you unless you are willing to help yourself. They can't reduce the stress that job, family and financial pressures that are increasingly being placed upon everyone. It would be mental in itself to say that reducing any of these would relieve the levels of depression that are occuring within society today.
If i'm a GP and you come to me saying that you just can't handle the pressures of life and you don't have an illness, family member with one or any number of obvious reasons to be in this state there's only so much I can do. If I simply tell you to downsize your house, get your kids out of private school or trade in your two Mercs for a used Ford Focus and a bus pass i'm soon going to be the subject or a significant complaint or article on the BBC am I not?
I bloody loath cliches but at the end of the day "they can't help you if you're not willing to help yourself".
If it's any consolation (as you'll see in my other posts), one of my main problems is that I don't help myself either. And it it's any further consolation, I don't even have a Ford Focus and even if I did have one, epilepsy means that I couldn't drive one anyway!