Anti Depressants?...

[Maria Gilmore]

While I will grant that my ears were burning for a while after Carrol 
cyber-boxed 'em for me, and I beat a hasty retreat
...I have hung in, albeit in lurker mode.  I learn a ton from reading this 
list, and I find it entertaining too. <G>
To Carrol, I must finally say, I honestly didn't mean to be obnoxious or 
attack anybody at all.  As I remember, I made a rather naive suggestion 
that people patronize Amazon.com as a political statement or something 
foolish like that.  I'm better informed now.
And while I can do without some of his invective, I think Carrol (and Doug) 
are right to call Reese on comments that were at best innocently 
insensitive and based on ignorance.   "People who stay active don't get 
depressed."   With all due respect, horse hockey.  There are tons of case 
histories of people who were living very active lives when their mood 
disorder manifested itself.   Carrol's sensitive to how those who suffer 
mental illness are treated in this culture, understandably.  I wish he 
wouldn't be so harsh when he fights back, but more than that I wish there 
were more people like him, who will call someone on their thoughtless 
ignorance about these illnesses in no uncertain terms.
He's right about antidepressants, too.   And concerning doctors re Joanna's 
comments...I don't know about Europe, but the vast majority of head med 
prescriptions written here in the US are by general practitioners, 
internists, primary docs...*not* psychiatric specialists.  THAT'S where the 
psychoactive pill flood is coming from.   A general rule might be, beware 
of your family doc bearing Prozac to help you cope with the pain of life's 
losses.