As I said, tranquillizers, including Benzodiazepines like Diazepam, are very different animals to Antidepressants.. And although Anxiety and Depression often go hand in hand, they don't always. I do not consider myself to be depressed at present, but I am unbelievably anxious about certain things. I don't understand it myself. Suffice to say that as with depression, anxiety as a 'condition' represents an extreme or abnormal response to routine and normal challenges.
I'd agree that over use of Diazepam is both self defeating and somewhat soporific. That's not how I use it.
I am fully aware of the dangers of addiction with Diazepam. I have used it very intermittently and in minimal doses for years, on and off. I've discussed it with Doc's, quite openly. Despite my current issues, in the last couple of months I have taken precisely 2. 5 Mg of Diazepam, in two doses of 1.25 mg (approx
) separated by weeks of time and achieved by breaking a single 5mg tablet into four quarters. It's all I use and then only when things are way beyond anything I can control with my own thought processes.
After I had been through all sorts of therapy etc., some 20 years ago, I was pretty much OK. I had no Diazepam available.
All was well until one day and completely out of the blue, as I walked into a meeting at the (then) NALGO HQ in Euston Road, I was hit with the mother of all panic attacks.
At this point, for those who have never experienced it, it might be worth my giving some description of how a panic/anxiety attack feels.. at least to me.
You are (usually quite suddenly) hit with a feeling of intense dread, or fear. All sorts of physical things like sweating, shaking, pallor, even a sudden and dramatic loosening of the bowels can go with it. The worst thing in the world is about to happen, but you don't know what it is, there is sometimes a focus, as with my worries about my daughter last night, but often it is just a 'nameless' fear. The mechanism seems to be pretty well understood. For some reason you get an excess of Adrenalin, which, if not used up in a classic 'flight or fight' response, apparently creates the symptoms.
So, logically, all you ought to need is a good run, or a good scrap and you'll be OK. Sadly it doesn't seem to work like that, at least in the short term, though I'd acknowledge that longer term, exercise and 'conscious' relaxation help a lot. Also of course, in modern society, you can't always excuse yourself from a meeting etc., while you go off for a therapeutic jog.
How I got through the meeting is beyond me, I can't remember anything about it. Mid afternoon the meeting ended and I headed back to Euston Station and got my train back to Wigan. A woman sitting opposite insisted on chatting all the way home, which was tiresome at first but I realised that she was at least distracting me from the worst of the horrors. Once home I had no option but to drive myself to the local A&E Dept., which was mercifully empty. The receptionist asked what I wanted and I could literally only stutter out the word 'panic'.
She was superb and ushered me quickly into a side room and told me to try to relax and that I wouldn't be alone for more than a minute or so. True enough, a Doc appeared within a minute or so and asked me what I thought was happening. At this point I fell completely apart and sobbed my way through some sort of explanation. This in itself was a sort of relief and the worst of the panic began to subside. Doc asked me what I wanted him to do for me and I told him I wanted him to help me to feel better.
After further discussion we agreed that the then current and somewhat hysterical backlash against tranquillizer use was being taken too far. He got me a couple of tabs of Diazepam and pretty much instructed me to go to my Doc next morning and demand more. Which I did.
That was all over 20 years ago and I've been pretty much fine since until recently.
I'm in broad agreement with that, but I do firmly believe that the some chemical support can be helpful if properly and intelligently used, especially early in the treatment.
I've read enough of the article to get the jist of the argument. It's pretty closely argued and I really don't have a view eitherway. I choose not to use antidepressants myself.
Not sure what you mean by 'supposed mental health profesionals'. Psychiatrists train as Doctors of Medicine before specialising. Clinical Psychologists start with a degree approved by the BPS before embarking on lengthy training and experience before qualifying. there are admittedly a lot of other therapists about, but it seems to me that the bulk of NHS therapy provision (As opposed to chemical thrapies) is rooted in what is proven to work.
Bit of a crux comment there in bold. There is a world of difference between being 'unhappy', and being either depressed, anxious, or both. As an example, being robbed of my income and employment by politicians with zero understanding of what I did made me unhappy. It didn't make me anxious or depressed.
I have to say that I sense in your posts a continuing reluctance to just accept that conditions such as depression and anxiety states really exist beyond what might be considered 'normal' reactions to life's challenges.
Finally, I think that lumping anxiety and depression automatically under the heading of 'Mental Illness' isn't especially helpful either. When I first joined a CBT therapy group 20+ years ago one of the first things the therapist said was: 'None of you is mentaly ill. You all simply have problems which are not yet able to overcome.' He went on to say that in his view, real mental illness was things like Schizophrenia, Personality Disorders etc.
Mull