The depiction we get from the media makes it appear as if the government only tackles the issues that are currently flavour of the month. With the refugee crisis, Brexit and US presidential elections having dominated the news stories so far this year, it makes it easy to assume nothing is being done for many of the other pressing matters at hand – because they aren’t getting any news coverage. Of course for the most part, the government is investing time and money to tackle the matters closer to home including education, pensions and benefits.
For the most part...
In March I wrote a post titled Mental Healthcare: Are We doing Enough? And today I want to answer that question with a resounding NO.
I feel the urge to revisit the subject, triggered by a trending video on YouTube. Now I’m not particularly familiar with the user interface of social media nowadays, a lot has changed in a short amount of time. I’d come to terms with my disassociation with all things ‘viral’. But somehow I navigated myself to a list of trending videos, including one from Anna Akana called ‘My experience with antidepressants’.
This video is a follow up to the reception she received for her controversial ‘I’m going on antidepressants’ video – where she discusses her view on the usage of antidepressants before starting a course of the medication.
She states that she exercises regularly, eats vegan food six days a week, drinks plenty of water, gets a good amount of sleep, meditates, takes vitamin supplements and mood probiotics, and sees a therapist biweekly. Her “depression still recurs and gets in the way of [her] personal & professional life”. She “doesn’t expect antidepressants to be a cure, but rather a potential option that helps manage [her] depression.”
Of course, anti-depressant usage can’t be standardised. No two people’s experiences are the same and that’s what I think is so compelling about Anna’s statement. She doesn’t generalise, she challenges stigma around anti-depressants and is open about her anti-depressant usage as a means to ‘manage’ not ‘cure’. In a large proportion of depression cases, anti-depressants are used to complement behavioural therapy regimes. Prescriptions aren’t expected to outright cure mental health illnesses, because mental illnesses often stem from a combination of environmental and psychological factors, which need to be addressed separately from other biological factors.
Between me beginning this piece and finishing it another very popular YouTuber caught my attention – charlieissocoollike. I’d actually heard of Charlie before, he’s occasionally mentioned in the national news as one of the UK’s top YouTube personalities. Charlie had just released a video on ‘Anxiety, Depression and Being a Downer’ where he too discusses his own experiences.
He describes how he was brushed off by his first attempt to consult a doctor and it was only when he sought a second referral that he was officially diagnosed with anxiety and depression. Charlie’s experiences seem to echo a number of forum threads and articles I’ve read. Charlie believes that he couldn’t get by if he was just taking medication; he also sees a therapist and indulges in activities that contribute to a healthy mental attitude.
Charlie doesn’t mention which antidepressant he uses, but Anna says that she takes Lexapro, a brand term for Escitalopram. This medication is primarily used as a treatment for anxiety disorder by tackling chemical imbalance in the brain. In the UK we’re lucky enough that anti-depressants and anxiety medications like Esitalopram, Propranolol and Fluoxetine can be prescribed through the NHS and delivered right to our local pharmacy thanks to some pretty incredible healthcare logistics.
But the fact of the matter is, using the poignant stat from my last piece - one in four people who took their own lives between 2003 and 2012 had consulted with mental healthcare services in the last twelve months before committing suicide. We have the medicines available to us in the UK, the failure doesn’t rest on healthcare distribution, nor does it rest wholly on the NHS. It’s systematic.
Funding is insufficient, stigma dictates public opinion and reduces the likelihood of affected individuals reaching out and seeking help. Screening is wholly inadequate and I won’t even get started on our ill attempts to reach out to sufferers after the duration of their initial prescription or course of therapy. In a large number of cases it is the therapy alongside a course of antidepressants that makes the difference.
That’s where our failure lies. We desperately need national reform on healthcare, now more than ever.
For the most part...
In March I wrote a post titled Mental Healthcare: Are We doing Enough? And today I want to answer that question with a resounding NO.
I feel the urge to revisit the subject, triggered by a trending video on YouTube. Now I’m not particularly familiar with the user interface of social media nowadays, a lot has changed in a short amount of time. I’d come to terms with my disassociation with all things ‘viral’. But somehow I navigated myself to a list of trending videos, including one from Anna Akana called ‘My experience with antidepressants’.
This video is a follow up to the reception she received for her controversial ‘I’m going on antidepressants’ video – where she discusses her view on the usage of antidepressants before starting a course of the medication.
She states that she exercises regularly, eats vegan food six days a week, drinks plenty of water, gets a good amount of sleep, meditates, takes vitamin supplements and mood probiotics, and sees a therapist biweekly. Her “depression still recurs and gets in the way of [her] personal & professional life”. She “doesn’t expect antidepressants to be a cure, but rather a potential option that helps manage [her] depression.”
Of course, anti-depressant usage can’t be standardised. No two people’s experiences are the same and that’s what I think is so compelling about Anna’s statement. She doesn’t generalise, she challenges stigma around anti-depressants and is open about her anti-depressant usage as a means to ‘manage’ not ‘cure’. In a large proportion of depression cases, anti-depressants are used to complement behavioural therapy regimes. Prescriptions aren’t expected to outright cure mental health illnesses, because mental illnesses often stem from a combination of environmental and psychological factors, which need to be addressed separately from other biological factors.
Between me beginning this piece and finishing it another very popular YouTuber caught my attention – charlieissocoollike. I’d actually heard of Charlie before, he’s occasionally mentioned in the national news as one of the UK’s top YouTube personalities. Charlie had just released a video on ‘Anxiety, Depression and Being a Downer’ where he too discusses his own experiences.
He describes how he was brushed off by his first attempt to consult a doctor and it was only when he sought a second referral that he was officially diagnosed with anxiety and depression. Charlie’s experiences seem to echo a number of forum threads and articles I’ve read. Charlie believes that he couldn’t get by if he was just taking medication; he also sees a therapist and indulges in activities that contribute to a healthy mental attitude.
Charlie doesn’t mention which antidepressant he uses, but Anna says that she takes Lexapro, a brand term for Escitalopram. This medication is primarily used as a treatment for anxiety disorder by tackling chemical imbalance in the brain. In the UK we’re lucky enough that anti-depressants and anxiety medications like Esitalopram, Propranolol and Fluoxetine can be prescribed through the NHS and delivered right to our local pharmacy thanks to some pretty incredible healthcare logistics.
But the fact of the matter is, using the poignant stat from my last piece - one in four people who took their own lives between 2003 and 2012 had consulted with mental healthcare services in the last twelve months before committing suicide. We have the medicines available to us in the UK, the failure doesn’t rest on healthcare distribution, nor does it rest wholly on the NHS. It’s systematic.
Funding is insufficient, stigma dictates public opinion and reduces the likelihood of affected individuals reaching out and seeking help. Screening is wholly inadequate and I won’t even get started on our ill attempts to reach out to sufferers after the duration of their initial prescription or course of therapy. In a large number of cases it is the therapy alongside a course of antidepressants that makes the difference.
That’s where our failure lies. We desperately need national reform on healthcare, now more than ever.
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