Finger on the Pulse: Max Pemberton

So you know I posted about the new Time to Change Campaign? Well they advertised this article on their facebook page yesterday -
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/8438220/Finger-on-the-Pulse-Max-Pemberton.html

Very interesting to me, and I had quite a debate about it on facebook. See the full debate on
http://www.facebook.com/home.php#!/mindforbettermentalhealth/posts/123604151049424?cmntid=123609304382242
Below are some of my contributions to the debate which highlight my thoughts on the topic:

It is a good thing if more people are getting treated and their illness is being recognised. However, medication cannot treat depression on its own and if doctors are reaching to it as a quick and easy solution, this is not going to work. Y...ou can cure depression without any medication, just using therapy, but you cannot cure depression just using medication and not having therapy. This does not mean I agree with the reluctance to using medication as treatment because it is seen as cheating, in some cases it is completely necessary. But I think it is a skill to be able to identify these cases and many just jump to the conclusion it is needed, this is not always true as it is an addictive pill and dependency on it can be dangerous. Therapy is completely necessary to work alongside the medication. If you become complacent and believe the medication will do the work for you, I'm afraid this is simply not true. It will address the chemical imbalance. But psychologically, it cannot change your thought processes that lead to your emotions. (If that makes sense?) 

As it quite rightly says at the bottom of the article, 

medication won't get you a new job or pay off your debts. It will give you more strength to sort this out, but it is through therapy that you identify the problems that are causing you to be depressed such as debt, and find solutions to these problems.
I am not denying the good that antidepressants can do, not for a minute. But they should be last resort when everything else has been tried. If nothing else is working on its own without antidepressents then it is likely the person has clin...ical depression, which is different to just having a spell of depression, which should never be treated with medication. Clinical depression involves an inbalance of chemicals in the brain and often something happens to trigger it and that becomes a serious illness, could be genetic but not always. Anyone can have something happen that causes a spell of depression, this is just as bad and serious but CAN be treated without any medication at all and lasts anywhere from 2 weeks to a year. Clinical depression is a part of you. If that makes sense. I am no psychologist or doctor and I don't know it all but I am speaking from a lot of experience and through study at a levels. I am not saying what I say is fact but I think it's more than just opinion as I'm basing it on real experiences.
 I will argue that it is different for every person and that depression affects different people in different ways so different treatments have to be ...tried and tested and adapted. So I guess the hardest thing about treating mental health illnesses is that there can't be a blanket treatment used for everyone and that doctors need to be fully trained in the many different ways people are affected by the illness and how they can be treated. I was put on medication straight away and it didnt start working until after 5 years of therapy and after trying 6 different anti depressants. I truly believe that this was because I relied on the medication to do the work so didn't let the therapy work fully for me. I also believe that if they had put me into therapy first and had given it a chance, I may have had the illness for 2 years instead of 5 years. But mine is definitely clinical and there was a strong history of it in the family so it was embedded in my genes, so when I was showing signs at the mere age of 13 they panicked and turned straight to medication. After 6 months of medication and hardly any therapy I ended up in hospital. So there are definitely different experiences and our experiences influence our views in a debate like this.
Someone then replied to me: 

'Exactly my point Anna. Making general statements based on personal experience is never a useful contribution to a debate, as the knowledge base isn't wide enough. A personal interpretation of personal experience lacks the objectivity that i...s needed to arrive at criteria that may benefit more than one individual. For example, whilst your personal experience can not be questioned, your interpretation of it could be. An example would be your understanding of 'genes', 'clinical depression', environmental factors and what therapy actually deals with'

To which I replied:

I see that's a dig at my contribution and one that's slightly unfair. As mentioned above, I'm not basing my comments just on personal experience, I have studied this in depth and actually, having a qualification doesn't mean your the best p...erson twith the most knowlege (and I'm not saying you said that, I'm just sensing a tone). Personal experience is just as valuable and it's not just my experience, but the experience of many friends and family members. What's important is what you take out of personal experience. My personal experience helped me gain my health and social a level qualification so whilst I understand that it's not fact so can't stand alone in a debate (although maybe I didn't make it clear that some of the points I have put forward today are actually what I learnt and studied and that I'm actually using my personal experiences to support my arguments in this debate), it should not for one minute be dismissed as a constructive argument to be put forward. I don't know that I'm right all the time nor do I believe I am, I simply know that I have a lot of experiences that have helped my understanding and allowed me to be part of debates such as these.

Oh and to possibly back up my view that medication is not always necessarily in treating depression, it is clinically proven that a good diet, healthy lifestyle and regular exercise can cure depression alone, another reason why I suffered for so long as I did the opposite of all of these.
Someone contributed this to the debate:

there is a place for drug treatment to help in symptoms. Healthy lifestyle and talking therapies are crucial too. It does not appear to be an exact science when it comes to depression and other things and it's cause -bit chicken egg. I am s...ceptical of the drug and anti-D industry. They are in the business of trying to "sell more" and some would say keep folk in a dependency relationship with their drug. Any resaearch that comes from that quarter needs to be viewed with some caution. I certainly recognice the role "society" plays in producing depression. In our "dog eat dog" environment - the pressure and presence of "mutilated dogs" to carry on the analogy further has impact on depression. I feel that the emphasis on the "individual" in our society keeps focus away from the social. That is a huge mistake. We are only as "individual" as society allows. Be wary of reductionism.

To which I replied:

Stu I think we are right to be sceptical and should not see medication as a quick fix or sole solution and from my experience, doctors and patients have done this. We do live in a stressful world where we face many challenges that can lead to people feeling depressed, but I stress that every person has times in life when they feel depressed, but there are some where it becomes a day to day reality over a long period of time and something that a bit of chocolate or a spa break just doesnt fix. It is then that you are looking to treat someone. And identifying coping mechanisms (which is a type of therapy) should be the first step, whether this is having someone to talk to or being able to prevent the depressed feelings (eg. CBT) and medication should not be referred to before things like this have been tried, in my opinion. Or you become dependant on something you may not have needed. However, it may come to a stage where it is evident that medication is needed to bring the symptoms under some control to enable the person to start to tackle them, it is then that I fully support the use of medication. (Sorry if I'm being repetitive). And just to pick up on what Pippa said, I didn't mean that this is the only cure for depression (exercise etc.) everyone suffers differently, it was just to emphasise my opinion that medication isn't always needed. And I stress again, I am not completely dismissing the usefulness of medication, I am speaking as someone who relies on them daily.
But also as someone who has seen people go into periods of depression, refuse medication, stick at the therapy and come out the other side in 6 months. And one of these girls it was almost certain it was clinical as certainly genetic, but she came through it without medication. And even though it took time I also back therapy all the way from my own experience. I know so much more than I did. Not to mention it has helped me understand my illness, identify early signs of going down hill and know how to help myself.

The debate got quite heated. I guess the hardest thing about this debate is we can have it again and again and again, I have had it many times and there is no definite right answer.