Will the tsunami of misinformation coming from the Telegraph ever stop? No, depression is not 'ordinary unhappiness', & stigmatising prescribing or taking anti-depressants isn't helpful. I've been on ADs for 9 yrs & my only regret in is not taking them sooner. 🧵
I, for years, despite being a medic, and having prescribed ADs to patients and seeing them getting loads better didn't take them myself, because I felt I should be able to control it somehow and get myself better. I lost entire decades of my life to it.
I shouldn't have. I did psychotherapy as well, which was incredibly useful, but ADs alongside made a huge difference to my life. Please don't suggest depression is just normal sadness due to 'life'. It isn't. It's hard to imagine depression if you haven't experienced it.
It can hugely impact your functioning, your perception of yourself, your relationships, & it causes much suffering. It may have multi-faceted origins that are different for each person, but treating it with ADs doesn't deny its complexity & the role played by external factors.
The thing is it can and does improve with treatment for many people. Why would anyone think taking treatment for this is 'medicalising unhappiness'. It's not. Depression is a disease, that steals your life, inflicts untold pain and suffering on people & their loved ones.
We need to deal with the stigma around taking ADs rather than shaming people for prescribing or taking them. You're not helping anyone. And it's not a dichotomy between therapy or AD- both of them can be very effective together, or separately.
And taking ADs isn't a sign of weakness - i.e. because you couldn't cope with 'usual unhappiness'. It's a necessary and helpful step which saves and improves many people's lives. I've seen this in myself, but also in so many of my patients whose lives have been transformed.
I didn't want to link to it, but here's a snapshot of the article: 
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