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Are taking meds just a band-aid?

  • Yes

    Votes: 3 37.5%
  • No

    Votes: 5 62.5%

Are meds a band-aid?

2K views 38 replies 23 participants last post by  deepelemblues 
#1 ·
Hi guys,

I recently made an account on eHarmony out of boredom, I am not actually looking to date anyone, but I saw some guy answer a question saying that medication for mental illness is a band-aid.

I initially thought to myself 'No, because some people have chemical imbalances or have genetic predispositions', perhaps if we put aside personality disorders and purely focus on illnesses such as depression and anxiety, is taking medication just a band-aid?

I started thinking about my own issues and wondered if maybe I do have some more deeply seeded issues that I'm not capable of addressing. It's hard to know. Anxiety does run throughout my family history and that, perhaps, has always given me an excuse, 'Oh well, it is just genetic, give me the meds'.

I really don't know what my thoughts are on this matter, that is why I'm asking others.

Is taking medication for illnesses such as depression/anxiety just a band-aid?
 
#24 ·
I think medications work well for certain medical conditions –including a collection of mental illnesses – but they do not work for everything and, in some cases, only make the situation worse.

Over the past two years, my life has fallen apart and I’ve consented to trying anti-depressant and anti-anxiety meds. I don’t, and never have, suffered from anxiety but my psychiatrist wants to "save" me and has run out of ideas. So far, I’ve seen no benefit but plenty of negatives, including the previously mentioned constant suicidal thoughts. I feel worse, but I’m struggling to eliminate either med because both are highly addictive and the side effects of stopping are terrible.

I know what’s wrong with me. I don’t have anxiety issues. I’m depressed, but it has nothing to do with chemical imbalances and everything to do with the inability to secure and keep a full-time job. It’s hard not to feel worried when I have no idea how I’m going to pay my rent – I’d say it’s a normal reaction to the situation. My problem is intense self-loathing and no medication is going to cure that. Nothing will.

Medications can't fix everything. Sometimes they''re nothing more than a band-aid for the prescribing doctor who wants to feel s/he is helping.
 
#29 ·
As others have stated medications aren't the cure for everything but they have their place in the management of mental health disorders. Mental health is a pretty broad topic, certain medications work for some problems, not for others, you have the individual variants between people where someone might respond really well to one drug while the next suffers from the side effects.

However a band aid is probably a good analogy for what medications should be doing. Going past the colloquial use of band aid fix to mean something short term etc, a band aid is used to help protect a cut from dirt, bacteria, further damage etc while the body undergoes its healing process. Medications should be used in the same way in that they help manage the symptoms, get people into the right state of mind so they can undergo therapy to try and fix the underlying problem.
 
#7 ·
The only problem is that I've now tried, like, 5 different types of medication and none of them have done anything (apart from one which made me really aggressive). I'm now starting to worry that I might have cyclothymic disorder and that is why they haven't been working. :shrug

So, if they're not actually doing any good, should I give up and try to address my issues?
 
#13 · (Edited)
Anything can be abused, and meds are very easy to do just that.

They also don't fix everything. If you want to get over a depression, half the battle comes from YOU! The medication shouldn't be your only way of dealing with it. The objective should be for the problem to be overcame, not just stifled.

This is where I have my issue. Are there cases in which people need meds? Yeah. However, I feel people are to quick to jump on them, especially in children's cases. When I was in Kindergarten we never had any noisy kids "Taking meds", we had kids that were told to shut up and behave like they ought, and it worked damned well after they got the message. I feel like these days it's "OH, HE CAN'T CONCENTRATE! GIVE HIM PILLS!" and so kids get hooked on them because they BELIEVE they need them.

Again, NOT saying the need for pills doesn't exist with people, but they're definately pushed for more than when I was growing up.

EDIT: @Oui Monsieur-hehe , your body is your own. No one "Pill" can moderate it. Not completely. I told you this before. YOU CAN DO IT! You got the touch, etc...YOU have to believe you can do things or they won't happen. That said, please PM me if you have anything you wanna talk about. I help a lot of people with your problem and i'm told I make them feel better, so please don't be shy :)
 
#14 ·
Anything can be abused, and meds are very easy to do just that.

They also don't fix everything. If you want to get over a depression, half the battle comes from YOU! The medication shouldn't be your only way of dealing with it. The objective should be for the problem to be overcame, not just stifled.

This is where I have my issue. Are there cases in which people need meds? Yeah. However, I feel people are to quick to jump on them, especially in children's cases. When I was in Kindergarten we never had any noisy kids "Taking meds", we had kids that were told to shut up and behave like they ought, and it worked damned well after they got the message. I feel like these days it's "OH, HE CAN'T CONCENTRATE! GIVE HIM PILLS!" and so kids get hooked on them because they BELIEVE they need them.

Again, NOT saying the need for pills doesn'y exist with people, but they're definately pushed for more than when I was growing up.
I agree with you in regards to everyone hopping on the pill bandwagon.

I have been getting cognitive therapy but that has only helped me a little. I only have three more sessions left because it is through public health care.

I feel like there is a rush to fix myself and it is all very confusing. My mum would probably pay for me to have more sessions if I felt I needed them. I just don't know where to begin. :shrug
 
#19 ·
Jesus.

Here's the thing. You're asking serious health and mental illness questions on a forum about pretend fighting.

You're either going to get smart ass answers or people who may have a tiny bit of part of some knowledge on some aspects of the issue. They mean well but don't have all the skills or abilities to give you a SAFE answer.

If everyone said 'go off the pills, they are bad' would you do it?

Go talk to someone who actually had some training in the area.

You don't ask your accountant to fix the electronics in your BMW.
 
#39 ·
Mom eating 2 valium with her 2 glasses of wine after dinner because she's having a mid-life crisis is probably a band aid.

Someone who is so depressed they can't get themselves to go outside or they have frequent panic attacks probably would not be using meds for a band-aid if/when they get them.
 
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#2 · (Edited)
Well you would have to look up clinical trials for medicine for disorders like major depressive disorders and anxiety disorders. For other disorders with a not so great prognosis like bipolar disorder and schizophrenia medication is necessary to stop prevent psychotic breaks and erratic behavior. It doesn't cure the disorder and going off the medication can lead to relapsing. So I guess you could consider it like a band-aid. I think it might depend on the disorder though.

The practice of psychology likes to work mostly through talking and behavior manipulation (CBT and DBT mostly) so we (as in my future profession) aren't direct advocates of medication. But for some disorders you need medication.
 
#15 ·
Depends on the problem.

For example I have a cousin that's a schizo, and when he's not on his meds he's pretty messed up. There is just no way you can "fix" him without meds because you can barely even reason with him.

Then there's stuff like OCD(which is what I have) which is something that meds can be used for as a "band aid" to help you get through it, but in most cases it CAN be beaten and overcome just with therapy and with understanding of the disorder.
 
#21 ·
Can you go into a bit of detail about how he's messed up when not on pills? Not tryna be nosey but I'm interested in this kind of stuff. I think I'm pretty messed up too and I need something to compare myself to.


As far as OP goes I've been researching mental illnesses alot lately, as far as if meds help or not I guess it would depend on the person, the illness, and the severity. I've delt with severe depression and anxiety before with panic attacks and as much as they suck I would still probably outright refuse the pills, I don't believe in that type of stuff. I've always been a "do it the natural way" type of person. From what I've gathered from others the drugs just numb you to your illness instead of helping outright. But again I can't speak from experience. Maybe they do help some people. Probably do nothing for most. Big Pharma would swear by it tho.
 
#23 ·
OP, Medications can only do so much, they can help take the edge off while you work through things. Ultimately, you have to do some of the leg work yourself. I learned this after being medically discharged from the Army (found out I was allergic to bee stings during a training exercise) and fell into a funk. For a short time, I saw a counselor and did take for a time an anti-depressant. Then, I started exercising and finding ways to keep me busy and eventually I felt better about myself. Eventually, I weaned myself off the medicine and now take an OTC capsule I buy from a local health store.

Don't know how fitting an analogy this is, but it's like someone who is diabetic that takes insulin or other medication for their blood sugar. It doesn't do you a lot of good if that person goes to the buffet six times, downs a 12-pack of Coke or Mountain Dew daily, and their idea of exercise is reaching for the remote.
 
#25 ·
OP, Medications can only do so much, they can help take the edge off while you work through things. Ultimately, you have to do some of the leg work yourself. I learned this after being medically discharged from the Army (found out I was allergic to bee stings during a training exercise) and fell into a funk. For a short time, I saw a counselor and did take for a time an anti-depressant. Then, I started exercising and finding ways to keep me busy and eventually I felt better about myself. Eventually, I weaned myself off the medicine and now take an OTC capsule I buy from a local health store.

Don't know how fitting an analogy this is, but it's like someone who is diabetic that takes insulin or other medication for their blood sugar. It doesn't do you a lot of good if that person goes to the buffet six times, downs a 12-pack of Coke or Mountain Dew daily, and their idea of exercise is reaching for the remote.
Its that easy? Now I know what to say when there's a draft if there ever is one.
 
#27 ·
There are definitely people who legitimately need them for sure and those people should definitely get them. The real problem is a lot of doctors write prescriptions for SSRI's/antidepressants like candy for many different issues. Had one doc try to give me Zoloft for stress headaches saying it would remove the stress which is causing them...I felt like a zombie taking it for a few days...didn't want to get out of bed...didn't want to work out....nothing and immediately stopped.

I once had a doctor try to prescribe me blood pressure meds because I have white coat anxiety without analyzing how my blood pressure was outside of his office.

I took the blood pressure meds thinking I had a serious issue and immediately the next day I began to get very lightheaded and dizzy. He immediately had me stop taking them and I was fine. I bought a home use blood pressure/heart rate monitor and my BP is perfectly fine each and every time when I'm not in a doctors office (I get really worked up even visiting people in the hospital). Actually my resting heart rate is between 52-55 bpm which is in the athlete zone since I work out regularly.

Basically bad things would have happened if I continued to take the blood pressure meds unnecessarily.
 
#30 ·
Every med is different and has different efficacy rates. No one claims that all psychiatrics meds work equally on all people at the same doses and you can't claim that none work at all ever.

Psychiatric diagnosis on the other hand is a terribly inexact science at this point unlike physical diagnosis because at least there the symptoms can be verified through actual tests --- whereas pretty much no real tests exist at all for mental conditions and it's a terribly subjective science.

My recommendation is to get a good shrink even if it takes 5-10 tries and then take it from there. I went through 3 psychs before the 4th really narrowed down my problems and gave me medication that helped. That said, my bipolar isn't cured, but it is manageable.

In conclusion just want to re-iterate that no one should go into any kind of mental disorder treatment believing that there are magical cures. There are techniques that help and some medications that make life better and people more functional --- but there isn't perfection to be found in that field primarily because of the subjective nature of diagnosis.
 
#33 ·
No, not "just a band-aid" (do Australians say that or are you avoiding saying "plaster" for all the Murkans here?) - something that can save lives isn't just a band aid even if it's suppressing rather than curing.

When it comes to depression, it's a psychological disorder which means just that - your mind is not functioning properly. Seeing as your mind is the tool you would have to use to actually 'cure' your depression, medication allows the mind to return--even if temporarily--to an orderly state of function which then allows the possibility of 'fixing' the root problem.

As the scare quotes suggest, it's not something that you banish from your life completely - you're still vulnerable and predisposed to depression even if it's been absent for years.



This was my experience. I reached a point where I couldn't conceivably continue - I couldn't fix my broken mind with the tool that was my broken mind; I didn't realise just how far from orderly mental clarity I was until I found medication that worked (second meds tried, Venlafaxine/Effexor: certainly not without it's horror stories of withdrawal) and was able to help myself in this non disorderly state.

When you're at the lower depths of depression, the idea that the future will be different, that suffering is temporary - these aren't believable concepts. Without the 'adreneline shot' of medications, I didn't stand a chance of improving my life because it seemed futile.
 
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