Okay, so if you even bothered to look at the about me section, you noticed that I said I was recently medicated. Who actually admits this? I do. I was stressed out beyond belief. I couldn’t say four words about how I was feeling without breaking down into tears. I was at one of my routine doctor’s appointments to treat my vicious migraines and they kept asking me what else was going on. I couldn’t even talk at this point. It was November and it may have been the combination of the approaching holidays, the long hours at work, or the weather. Any of these and then some that got me to this point-but my doctors left the office only to return with a psych test. I was furious. They played it off as if it were a routine activity for all patients. They asked me to fill out both sides of the questionnaire and they’d be back in fifteen minutes to check on me.

As I read the questions, I found myself getting amused by the questions. It almost seemed that no matter how you answered, they were going to tell you that you are depressed and we are going to have to start medication. I continued my task and, well got prescribed an antidepressant. Wonderful. I mean, who doesn’t want to tell their new husband “Honey, I know you thought I was crazy before, but the doctors seemed to have confirmed it”. I couldn’t deny that I needed the help though. I was definitely not in control of my feelings or emotions. I could tell you I was angry or sad or even happy, but all would bring me to tears. So I welcomed a new medication.

I filled my prescription and laughed when I paid for it. For a full month of antidepressant my total cost was $2.44 with insurance. That is about a four of my contraceptives. I started thinking that this is a bit strange. I mean, how come this type of medication is so affordable? I had to look into it.

I started telling the people around me “I was put on antidepressants” to see how they would react. I expected a few different reactions, but I got the same one every time. “OH, really? What one?” It was a huge topic starter. People had been on multiple types. I would hear things like “this worked best for me”, “this one didn’t” , or “you’ll like that one”. I mean why have we become so accepting of this. When I walked out of the doctor’s office that day I was embarrassed about my situation.

I took it a step further and did a GOOGLE search:
 I found that 1 in 6 Americans is said to be diagnosed with depression.
 More than twice as many women are depressed than men.
 Lower levels of education tend to equal higher diagnosis of depression.
 21% of people polled believe they are depressed but not diagnosed.
 1 in 10 women are taking antidepressants
 Nearly half of all Americans are on at least one prescription

The above is crazy to me. What happened to people before we had medication? Or before we determined depression was something to treat? Did they all commit suicide?
I looked into suicide rates. You would think that medicating the depressed would lower the suicide rate since the overall rate was 10.9 suicide deaths per 100,000 people, but it has actually been increasing.

What is the deal? How do we get over this? Stress is always gonna be here, how do you deal with it?