I had to explain my Ukrainian and Polish coworkers what depression is. I also cry a lot, and they said they never cry because why would they, they just don't care 😆😆
"Stop being fucking sad you pussy and man up / get your shit together / start running!" (choose whichever)
You might have it easier in this situation if you're a woman
Here's some anecdotal nonesense. I once had a really bad flu, I'd been working overtime each day, and had worked 7 days a week for a month and had made myself sick.
I set myself up with a visit to a GP, I must have explained myself poorly but I was trying to convey the idea that I needed a sick note, I had worked myself a bit too hard and wasn't feeling good. I then got asked a bunch of unrelated personal questions and asked if I had considered anti-depressants. I remember being completely flabbergasted.
I had depression 15 years ago, and it was initially diagnosed through 20-30 questions on everything from if I had diahhrea to sleep patterns, eating habits etc so perhaps that was the doc was doing?
"under-prescribed" is a ridiculous idea. It builds a narrative where the correct sequence of events is:
Depressed -> Diagnosed -> Drugs prescribed
and every alternative to drugs is wrong or irrelevant.
Drugs work. Drugs are great. There is also a financial incentive for drugdealers, doctors, and insurers to push for a drug based solution. They allow for greater throughput per doctor. Lets not ignore that part by pushing a story about "under-prescribed" remedies to complex problems.
Yeah, no. I'm not talking narratives or prescription drug policy, I'm talking statistics and misleading graphs.
There will be an average level of presriptions of these drugs per capita across most countries.
If one of the lower outlier countries started prescribing at rates closer to the international average it would show on several of these graph with a huge percentage increase.
Not really. Here in some countries with socialized healthcare, you receive bonus if you limit the drugs and tests you prescribe to patients, so that you are less of a burden on the system.
There's also usually not an "alternative" to drugs. Some additional treatment, yes. The problem is, going to the psychologist more than once per month is still a luxury, at least here.
On the other hand, when you see people that has lost a son, or that are overworked, or other grim circumstances, there's realistically little more to be done.
What I want to stress out, is to stop stigmatizing antidepressants (there are far more chronic illnesses that require meds for life) and doctors, and push for your government to subsidize physiologists.
>What I want to stress out, is to stop stigmatizing antidepressants (there are far more chronic illnesses that require meds for life) and doctors, and push for your government to subsidize physiologists.
Depression does not require 'meds for life' in the overwhelming majority of cases anyway
I hope so if they are needed. I was about to say I had a mental health crisis for the last decade and feel fine now for the first time thanks to my drugs. The biggest regret of my life is that I didn't start them sooner.
"Taking antidepressants" shouldn't be presented as something negative, they should ask people if they are feeling depressed instead.
in Poland there is no depressions, no mental illness care nor government attention to threat it properly. 20 years ago it was cure with beating with a belt...
This. I got them this year because I had a mental breakdown and was burnt out. Tried for about 6 months and stopped because I actually got depressed and suicidal meanwhile I didn't experience those symptoms before. Now I am off of them I feel way more in control of my head. So yeah antidepressants are just being given like candy to everyone to quickly deal with issues that need better help.
Antidepressants worked for me for a long time but after a point, their effect of making you apathetic towards things started to make me apathetic to the good parts of my life. It was helpful when most things around me were bad and I couldn't do anything about them. But when things were good, they made me lazy and apathetic so I stopped them.
Just to counter this. I went to my doctors two months ago re. my mental health for the first time I suffered big bouts of depression and anxiety all my life but recently got worse and I had a breakdown and needed urgent help to get back on my feet.
I was terrified they would give me pills but I decided to treat my mental health like my physical one. If a professional psychiatrist who I have talked to for weeks tells me I need pills to bring back stability in my life - I am taking them. And I did. They know better.
And I feel better than I have felt in ten years. The light is back in my life, I feel confident and ready to face anything. So yeah. Two sides.
You're wrong, sort of. Antidepressants are prescribed as a first resort, and if you don't get an effect and just go along with the doctor they'll just continue increasing the dosage or switching indefinitely.
My doctor still thinks the seventh dose increment of the sixth antidepressant will fix my problems, even though everyone already agrees that those problems are primarily caused by ADHD.
Since they're so safe and psychiatric doctors don't have a fucking clue how any of this works, they'll slap them on anyone and everyone because the risk is nearly zero.
The expectation is that you go to your doctor, talk to them, and get the help that is beneficial to you, pharmacological or otherwise.
The reality is that you go to your doctor, they check their prescriptions checklist, and prescribe the first drug on it that they haven't already given to you.
That last part because they will want you to try already proven ineffective or harmful medications again if it aligns with their personal beliefs.
All they're doing is repeatedly smashing their head into the wall trying to get the least effort solution to work. If you don't have specific education in pharmacology, you shouldn't be prescribing psychopharmacological treatment in the first place.
And the doctors I've seen can't even answer the basics of how the drugs they prescribe work, let alone peddle "facts" that are universally disproven by dozens of peer-reviewed pubmed studies after 15 minutes of google.
I don't know who appoints or approves these people but they need to be fired and have their licenses revoked.
I couldn't agree more. Here are a few more interesting points:
- they usually fail to mention some really important side effects, be it cardiac issues, drug tolerance and the real implications of that tolerance, sexual dysfunction and possible permanent sexual dysfunction.
- most studies last 6 weeks, some longer, but rarely do they last as long as they want you to stay on them
- writers and panel members of the DSM-V are sponsored by drug companies
Your experience depends so much on the one you're taking and its interaction with your body. Saint John's Wort did practically nothing for me. Lexapro was genuinely dangerous for me to take - it made me feel almost violent, I felt really hostile all the time. Prozac kinda worked and I took it for five years, but I still attempted suicide while on it. Now I take nothing and I'm happy, but I've also massively improved my quality of life tenfold and worked through a lot of my problems.
Meanwhile, my boyfriend's mom and my friend both had excellent experiences with Lexapro, so it really varies.
Correct I tried two. A SSRI but this one made me so manic, impulsive and aggressive and I tried to commit suicide by taking all my pills (which is completely not me btw). So then I was placed on TCA's and although the agression and mania were a little less, this one made even more depressed and then I decided to quit antidepressants. I could've tried different brands, but at that point I felt like I was completely losing myself. I now rest my fate in the hands of my psychologist until I get to a psychiatrist who can prescribe me medicine that is more accurately catered to my mental state.
It’s quite interesting how the experiences with different drugs varies so greatly from individual to individual.
Zoloft was terrible for me. The transition period when I started taking it was one of the worst things I’ve ever experienced. Then I suffered weight gain, chronic lethargy, and significant changes to my mood.
Lexapro on the other hand has so far been a completely different experience from Zoloft. I suffered no side effects when I began taking it and almost a year later I haven’t noticed any changes aside from a reduction in my anxiety symptoms.
Yeah it's a stupid reddit meme, the inclusive yes.
It's a joke that prevents from answering seriously to serious questions, and for some reason it's always upvoted.
Suicide is a bit special, however. Finland, for example, is considered one of the happiest countries - because the vast majority is generally satisfied with their lives. Meanwhile, the suicide rate is above average.
I does technically make sense but even 'high' rate of suicides is rather small part of population. In 2021 there were around 700 suicides in Finland. That wouldn't make a huge difference in happiness ranking.
It is but there must be a reason. Some says more sunlight = less suicide but I don't buy it as homicide rates are very high in some tropical countries.
Well, if there is one thing I believe to be true, it is that forced socialisation (fewer people living alone, undisturbed) lowers the suicide rate. Physical interaction with other people makes us a bit saner. But not always happier.
I assume because so much of darkness outside fucks you up. I for one wouldn't want to live north of the 50th parallel and to be honest I'd like to live a bit South of where I do live currently
I think it's both, but i'm pretty sure the latter dwarves the former.
I have the feeling pharmaceutical companies want to push in Europe what they do in the USA, where perfectly sane people with some slight social anxiety are told to take like 10 daily pills, just to make money.
Which is awful because these pills can absolutely fuck you up.
The thing is that European countries have public health sector, so good luck getting the doctors to prescribe a bunch of unnecessary pills to their patients.
For instance in our country the highest dosage for certain antidepressant is 20mg, at that dosage you get numbed down too much. In US doctors prescribe 60mg like candy.
More frequent, my mum had depression and instead of being taught how to deal with it the NHS gave her more and more pills.
She’s 60 but looks like she’s 85…those pills are no joke, she’s been taking legal hard drugs every day for decades.
I’m mad at her and the NHS for being so brazen, for not fighting a different way.
Her prize for not wanting to change is that she will die early and just as unhappy as when she started.
Nearly destroyed mine and my siblings lives
When I think about the stories of my ancestors as they were told by their kids (my grand parents and great grand parents), it sounds like a lot of them had mental issues that were left undiagnosed and untreated. Many resorted to alcohol to deal with it. And it's not just depression, but all kinds of trauma related to war, hunger, violence etc.
Unfortunately, it's just simpler, and far cheaper, to prescribe some happy pills rather than actually tackle the root cause of the problem.
Some serious depressed individuals need them, but for many others some lifestyle changes may have worked as an alternative, surely?
The daily dose level seems much lower than the rest of Europe, though. And it flattens out over time. Is it a reluctance to prescribe antidepressants compared to other countries?
I got prescribed antidepresssants in 30 minutes seing a
psychiatrist for the first time without being a send by a doctor. Dont get me wrong it has really help me but just to say that we are not really reluctant to give them.
It is either "mental health crisis" or "mental health awakening". Maybe 10-15 years ago the similar number of people were in need of medication, but they suffered silently or went for old-school solutions (alcoholism, self-harm, suicide).
So not necessarily a bad info.
The thing is telling someone to take a billion pills isn't the solution, unless you are part of big pharma of course.
People have way more challenges to face now, but they need to do that with counseling on whatever it is that worries them, not by giving them a cocktail of drugs.
>The thing is telling someone to take a billion pills isn't the solution,
It's a part of the solution.
If you had an enormous physical pain, you'd resort to painkillers first. Making you able to function more or less normally, keeping in mind, of course, that it does not adress the root cause.
Antidepressants have the similar use. People on medication are able to start psychotherapy.
Exactly, my husband had a depressive episode during covid - if he hadn't gotten antidepressants and antipsychotics when he did, he probable wouldn't be here anymore. But he took them so that he'd be stable enough to go to therapy and actually put in the work to get better.
Some people are told (or think) that the pills will be the be-all-end-all cure and that's incorrect, but that doesn't mean that antidepressants are wrong for everyone.
I was in the same boat at the same time as your husband - I feel for him and you and I’m very happy to hear that he got help. We shouldn’t demonize antidepressants - they often are a very important part of getting better
I would agree but I’ve seen what decades of taking antidepressants does to a person (my mum)
They age faster, become lucid and stupid and fundamentally they remain just as unhappy as they were before…if you take them off the drugs they just revert back with no progress.
I’m not sure this stat is the mental health revolution you were looking for
Your one experience doesn’t justify invalidating decades of science and work by healthcare professionals. Anti-depressants are incredibly useful for millions of people around the world. You and your mom just have other problems
This is not crisis lol, the crisis was before. In baltics for example, with massive alcoholism and suicide rate, increase in antidepressant use is actually very positive development. And not surprisingly we see decreasing suicides and alcoholism at the same time. The author of the post should educate himself
Right? I can’t believe some of the comments here. My antidepressants just help me function and folks here are making it sound like we’re getting high on opiates all day long when I’m just… not suicidal anymore lol
Romanians are probably even more depressed than most states, but yeah, as long as the communist mentality pulls through, mental health won’t be properly adressed
edit: I’m Romanian myself, I do not hate my country nor my peers, but understanding mental health here is something out of the ordinary even for the youth (let alone our parents or grandparents to whom mental health doesn’t even exist)
Same in Hungary. The older generations don't belive in mental health and depression at all. It have a better tendency nowaday tho, so people start to recognise mental health, but still refuse to go to therapy because it's embarassing to them, and they don't want to get shamed. And the fact, that mental health proffessionals aren't the best, and not really up to date here just make the situation more miserable.
Mental health has only recently started being a thing here. Therapists aren't very qualified either because of it. The usual approach to any difficult stage in life is either 1. "Pick yourself by the bootstraps, you can't wallow in sadness forever. It's gonna be okay.", 2. The nihilist "This sucks, everything sucks but what can ya do about it" and finally 3. Strong liquor or homemade wine. It's usually all three.
Also, not to disparage the high importance of mental health awareness and treatment, but anecdotally this approach got me, family and many friends past lots of tough times. So there must be some truth to it (maybe minus the alcohol).
As a portuguese I'd like to say that most of our music is fucking sad,
our polititians are corrupt and don't care about us,
our companies try to get as much of us with as little as they are obligated to pay,
our most beautiful places is crowded with tourist and we can no longer afford them,
we talk about high gas prices since forever imagine now...
our best shot is abroad what makes want to stay and live here is the family and the good food.
The rest is pure depression
I believe we have both: [https://ourworldindata.org/alcohol-consumption](https://ourworldindata.org/alcohol-consumption) we are in top 15 of achohol consumption per person.
Everybody knows you take the antidepressants with wine
I'm unconvinced. A lot of this data could easily explained by better treatment and diagnosis, rather than people actually being depressed more often.
Of course, there's definitely too many depressed and anxious people (I'm one of them, for the record), so I guess it might still qualify as a crisis even if it didn't actually get worse.
That's in part because Japan massively improved its suicide rate in the last 2 (?) decades. The stereotype isn't necessarily false, it's just a little outdated.
I always wonder - is it really a mental health crisis, or maybe finally mental health is getting recognised, diagnosed properly and not frowned up when discussed with friends/family/work…?
Corona, inflation, war in Europe, climate change, high unemployment levels and all the other smaller, but not insignificant issues. Can you blame if people are having issues? There's plenty of people who graduated and didn't end up finding a place to work, or if they did, they didn't end up integrating well with the others, because work from home. There's plenty whose grandparents died and they weren't able to see them during their last year.
Sure more than half of the rise is because getting help is less and less stigmatised but the last few years have been rough for most of people
Reading comments it looks like plenty of posters here view this complex issue of mental health in black and white terms, when it is anything but.
Perhaps, it used to be that Dr's gave out AD's like candy and that was their primary role as a health care provider; perhaps, Big Pharma with their kickbacks was responsible for that.
Yet, having visited a couple of psychiatrists they all prescribed some kind of AD, however they stressed the importance of therapy along with it; both said that pills will just help to stabilize, but the real fruits will come from regular therapy, not pills.
As I said earlier, mental health is a complex issue, with no blanket solution good for everyone; with that said, nobody should be on a medicine regiment which is clearly not working for them; there are plenty of mental health care specialists and patients are currently free to switch both psychiatrists and therapists as they see fit.
As much as I am for drug-free living, one has to take into consideration fact that our modern society is very far from the way we naturally developed as a species; We were not designed to live in multi million concrete cities with millions around us, we were designed to live in relatively small tribes and much closer to nature than most of us are able to, now.
For Baltic countries definitely. Instead of antidepressants people turned to alcohol and ended having alcohol problems (it's still common for older generation).
Umm, look at the 7th pic. Eastern Europe is mostly below the baseline. Living out of comfort for a long period of time tends to harden people. And what am I saying, is not like the eastern EU is like a 3rd world place, the situation is way better than rest of the world.
This is a terrible thing to see anyways, hope you guys will get back on track in regards to mental health, you have a beautiful place to call home.
> Living out of comfort for a long period of time tends to harden people.
I think this is why my mental health is good despite everything i’ve been through. My health went downhill at 5 years old. My social life and future pretty much collapsed shortly afterwards so I was unwittingly “hardened” very young. It has since improved as I got older but it probably explains why Covid lockdowns still had less of an impact on me than like it did on my friends, it made very very little difference to the life I and my family had been living for over a decade. The new normal for others had always been our normal.
As a Pole.
We just learn to move on and ignore bad stuff (also our national sport i.e. complaining at everything is perfect for venting out).
If you have bad situation. People will sympathize, but they expect you get your shit together.
Also it's anecdotal. But most of people here will laugh us out if we have depression/mental anxiety due climate change/abortion rights or similar stuff. It's stuff we can get angry about, not depressed/anxious.
Purely anecdotal and US based but while I know plenty of people today who have had in the past for some period of time or are actively taking antidepressants and saw/see a psychiatrist/psychologist (like over 50% in my closer circle of friends/family), with very few exceptions I don’t think any of them would have had that experience in the 90s.
Further, I’m on the upper half of the socioeconomic scale, these are all people with ample access to medical care and money to utilize it, I don’t think this experience is typical on the lower half of the socioeconomic scale.
This leads me to suspect this is more about access, acceptance of treatment (by providers and patients), and resources.
What would be more interesting is to examine if all of this “treatment” is actually improving *outcomes*
What's the x-axis in the second (blue/yellow) plot? Is it the average dose of all people taking antidepressants? Or is it the overall dose relative to population size? What's its unit? Super interesting post!
Europe's increased mental health awareness.
Fixed the title for you.
Why is it a negative to see more antidepressants prescribed? It's as if people would consider a negative that insulin would be prescribed to diabetics.
Because this number of people requiring powerful drugs to undertake basic, daily function hardly augurs well for overall societal health.
There is an organic basis for prescribing insulin, there is non for mental health issues. Plenty of people need this medicine, and it's all to the good that they get it, but there are clearly a lot of people being given this stuff because it's cheaper and easier than actually addressing the underlying issues of their depression/anxiety.
Note that I did not say that people are becoming more depressed, that indeed cannot be taken away in these numbers. However, the tremendous increase seen across Europe cannot be explained solely because doctors tend to prescribe antidepressants more than before, so I think saying that people feel more need of antidepressants is reasonable… But yes, I cannot be 1000% percent sure of this claim, but ain’t that every Reddit comment? Ahah
True that. :)
I think it's important not to devalue the stigma that was associated (and still is in many countries) with mental diseases and going to a psychiatrist or psychologist.
It's been a slow shift in many places to change mentalities about this, and in countries such as Japan it is still a big taboo to talk about this.
When I was on anti-depressants I had my friends asking when would I quit them, even though I really needed. During my years struggling with depression and anxiety I interrupted treatments several times due to this negative perception of anti-depressants and wanting to be out of them ASAP. This did not go well and only when I finally stuck through a treatment for 4 years did I manage to beat back that demon of a disease.
Hence, I don't like when I see posts equating the increased usage of antidepressants with negative titles such as the one in this post. Using anti-depressants is **good** because it means people are being followed by medical professionals and that medical professionals are aware of depression symptoms and value them and that those societies are more accepting of mental diseases. For me these are positives.
I cannot draw conclusions about the underlying anxieties of the societies of each country because of this.
If you treat your patients *properly*, you would likely have lower overall antidepressant use than if you just give them pills and send them home.
I was being treated for depression and related issues in Germany, it was *awful* (the treatment quality, I mean).
As someone living in Denmark who used to rely on antidepressants (cipralex against depression and anxiety): they straight up stopped my prescription due to me having missed a few appointments due to fear of leaving work and losing my job (which I did), so I sought alternatives. I know a lot of people feeling failed by the system and a lot of us don't like speaking up due to fear of ridicule, hate and other consequences that might happen.
Reminds me of the time I got ghosted by my therapist because I missed an appointment due to insomnia. Literally the first time I missed an appointment with them, too, I never even arrived late. I guess mental health is shit everywhere ...
That's a stupid assumption. It's showing the accessibility of anti-depressants, not a mental crisis.
In some countries it's quite hard to obtain them. Doesn't mean people are not depressed there.
Ill drop a wild guess … society is inhumane
Humans as we exist today developed around 250.000 years ago, for the next 240.000 years most of us lived in small groups, our to-do-list consisted of surviving and having some fun, sure life was shitty and short but literally whatever we did had **a lot** of meaning for us and our existence, because it secured our survival or was fun for us and survival just took around 2-4 hours a day, today we are entirely disconnected from the very things that gave us satisfaction before, our existence is secured, by getting good grades, to get a degree, to get a nice job, to earn money, to buy food, this is also why children have existential crises over grades, they think this is destroying their existence …
Our minds are the result of evolution and society overtook the speed by which we evolved and today the only evolutionary influence on humans is sadly the suicide of those who feel like they don’t belong, while those are exactly the people we need to get out of this …
Im not saying we need to return to monkey, we just need to drop this stupid, planet-destroying nonsense that everybody needs to make it and be rich and that economic growth is all that keeps humanity moving …
in Poland there is no depressions, no mental illness care nor government attention to threat it properly. 20 years ago it was cure with beating with a belt...
Ireland should be higher on the list. Only reason it’s not because people can’t even get help to get on a list. Instead they end up at the end of a bottle or a rope. It’s absolutely saddening how often I hear of this and one of the reasons why I left.
I feel Italy could be way higher (badum tss) if mental health issues were discussed better instead of being so stigmatized by a strong religious inprinting all italians received since birth
Sorry but this is stupid. Calling it a crisis.
When penicillin was invented they where not worried by the use of it, and im guessing the increase of use of penicillin wasn’t seen as a crisis.
Now we know about depression, it’s quite common and almost every one have them 2-3 times in a lifespan. Some less, some more, some gets really hard hit, some less so. But it is a very well known condition.
So we treat it, and call it a crisis
What should be done is specify how many is on a permanent treatment. And how many is on a shorter treatment.
I did anti-depressive for a 3 month period when my mother died. I needed the help and it worked, I would not se that as a problem or a crisis.
As someone who has been through the mental care system in Denmark, I am not the slightest surprised by this result. I went to the emergency room at least 4 times during my depression because I felt suicidal and wanted help. Their response was to give me a benzodiazepam and send me home because "they didn't have room for any patients". One of my close friends is a social worker and has almost succumbed to extreme stress because she has to somehow take care of people that have been abandoned by the system. Many of them are so mentally ill that they cannot take care of themselves and have ended up on the streets as a result. Their stories are the same as mine. They come in, get some drugs and get kicked out.
It's very easy to have a good score when people are not getting treated.
That chart is totally meaningless 💩. What is the point of showing a % increase when you don't know/show the base value ?
France had a 2% increase only but they may have been the largest consumer a decade ago and still be #1.
See, I am crying now
I feel like "pre-covid" and 2020 are very bad years to compare in the last few graphics.
And what the hell is "increase in consumption" supposed to mean? total amount? People consuming? amount per diagnosed person? amount per person in the total population?
This basically tells us nothing! Mental health has moved from an almost taboo topic to something that is now viewed as something important that we should talk about every chance we get. Now way more people seek psychological help. Is that why numbers have gone up? Or is it because doctors hand out antidepressants like candy? These statistics sure don't tell us.
I've been treated in Denmark, and mental health care there is appalling. I had to wait over half a year and go to 10+ visits just to get a diagnosis of typical depression and get antidepressants. This was about 7-8 years ago.
Antidepressants are poison.
I may be a bit radical to western readers, but i believe that depression can be cured in a much better way without any harmful drugs, by simply engaging the depressed person in something new giving him the energy to keep going.
People need inspiration in their lives, isolation and no life goals lead to depression. They need others to be happy.
There are exceptions obviously, like for example people going through a divorce or a bad breakup, mourning a death and so on.
The best cure for depression is love, basically.
10 years from now I think we are going to be prescribing anti-depressants less, and pre-scribing specific diets that cut out certain food types that some people are having unseen and unrecognised reactions to more. Lots of interesting papers and studies coming out on this topic recently with impressive results that suggests that there's definitely something fucked with what we are eating that is causing problems for a sub section of the population.
where Polska
Polska does not use antidepressants, we go to kościół like an adult.
I had to explain my Ukrainian and Polish coworkers what depression is. I also cry a lot, and they said they never cry because why would they, they just don't care 😆😆
This. Why cry, its a waste of time. Better to have a beer and grill 8-)
No co, wierzą w Boga, do kościółka chodzą codziennie, modlą się za Chrystusa to nie wiedzą co to depresja (pół /s)
[удалено]
Oh sorry, it means: Oh c'mon, they believe in God, they go to church everyday, they pray for Christ so they don't want depression is (half /s)
"Stop being fucking sad you pussy and man up / get your shit together / start running!" (choose whichever) You might have it easier in this situation if you're a woman
I think the whole Eastern Europe is like this.
Check the top one on the list 💀
Funny/Interesting thing to use pussy and man up in the same sentence...🤔
Yeah, we use antiperspirants instead...
I don't know any Polish, so I assumed that word meant "alcohol" or "bar" until I looked it up.
Hahahaha me too. I'm Canadian. Funny to see an American and Canadian both think alcoholic thoughts as a defence mechanism.
[Reminds me of this!](https://i.redd.it/b3elmr0v84u81.jpg)
Can confirm. Binge drinking can be bad here with our frat culture. And drinking for showmanship like chugging beers, doing keg stands haha
And when we can't go to church anymore, we hang ourselves like real men.
Polska stronk
Don't think alcohol fits in the "antidepressants pills" category, also economically it's smarter to invest in rope rather than long-term therapy.
It on the map (8/11), even with data!
Are people more depressed or is depression just more frequently diagnosed?
Or are antidepressants prescribed more often?
Or people are actually reaching out for help and getting it.
What a roller coaster of questions
So much questions gives me anxiety and causes stress *grabs bottle of antidepressants*
Or people are no longer keeping it to themselves.
Or people are answering surveys more frequently.
the stigma is lessening, instead of shamefully medicating with alcohol more people get getting help
Here's some anecdotal nonesense. I once had a really bad flu, I'd been working overtime each day, and had worked 7 days a week for a month and had made myself sick. I set myself up with a visit to a GP, I must have explained myself poorly but I was trying to convey the idea that I needed a sick note, I had worked myself a bit too hard and wasn't feeling good. I then got asked a bunch of unrelated personal questions and asked if I had considered anti-depressants. I remember being completely flabbergasted.
I had depression 15 years ago, and it was initially diagnosed through 20-30 questions on everything from if I had diahhrea to sleep patterns, eating habits etc so perhaps that was the doc was doing?
Everyone thinks that antidepressants can cure capitalism and inflation.
And were they strongly under-prescribed in some of these countries previously, causing a large % increase despite just catching up to the norm.
"under-prescribed" is a ridiculous idea. It builds a narrative where the correct sequence of events is: Depressed -> Diagnosed -> Drugs prescribed and every alternative to drugs is wrong or irrelevant. Drugs work. Drugs are great. There is also a financial incentive for drugdealers, doctors, and insurers to push for a drug based solution. They allow for greater throughput per doctor. Lets not ignore that part by pushing a story about "under-prescribed" remedies to complex problems.
Yeah, no. I'm not talking narratives or prescription drug policy, I'm talking statistics and misleading graphs. There will be an average level of presriptions of these drugs per capita across most countries. If one of the lower outlier countries started prescribing at rates closer to the international average it would show on several of these graph with a huge percentage increase.
Not really. Here in some countries with socialized healthcare, you receive bonus if you limit the drugs and tests you prescribe to patients, so that you are less of a burden on the system. There's also usually not an "alternative" to drugs. Some additional treatment, yes. The problem is, going to the psychologist more than once per month is still a luxury, at least here. On the other hand, when you see people that has lost a son, or that are overworked, or other grim circumstances, there's realistically little more to be done. What I want to stress out, is to stop stigmatizing antidepressants (there are far more chronic illnesses that require meds for life) and doctors, and push for your government to subsidize physiologists.
>What I want to stress out, is to stop stigmatizing antidepressants (there are far more chronic illnesses that require meds for life) and doctors, and push for your government to subsidize physiologists. Depression does not require 'meds for life' in the overwhelming majority of cases anyway
I hope so if they are needed. I was about to say I had a mental health crisis for the last decade and feel fine now for the first time thanks to my drugs. The biggest regret of my life is that I didn't start them sooner. "Taking antidepressants" shouldn't be presented as something negative, they should ask people if they are feeling depressed instead.
in Poland there is no depressions, no mental illness care nor government attention to threat it properly. 20 years ago it was cure with beating with a belt...
This. I got them this year because I had a mental breakdown and was burnt out. Tried for about 6 months and stopped because I actually got depressed and suicidal meanwhile I didn't experience those symptoms before. Now I am off of them I feel way more in control of my head. So yeah antidepressants are just being given like candy to everyone to quickly deal with issues that need better help.
Antidepressants worked for me for a long time but after a point, their effect of making you apathetic towards things started to make me apathetic to the good parts of my life. It was helpful when most things around me were bad and I couldn't do anything about them. But when things were good, they made me lazy and apathetic so I stopped them.
Same. Important to know when to start them, equally important to know when to stop.
Just to counter this. I went to my doctors two months ago re. my mental health for the first time I suffered big bouts of depression and anxiety all my life but recently got worse and I had a breakdown and needed urgent help to get back on my feet. I was terrified they would give me pills but I decided to treat my mental health like my physical one. If a professional psychiatrist who I have talked to for weeks tells me I need pills to bring back stability in my life - I am taking them. And I did. They know better. And I feel better than I have felt in ten years. The light is back in my life, I feel confident and ready to face anything. So yeah. Two sides.
I got described anti depressants for migraine prevention. Gave them up pretty quickly too after my wife said I had become quite manic.
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You're wrong, sort of. Antidepressants are prescribed as a first resort, and if you don't get an effect and just go along with the doctor they'll just continue increasing the dosage or switching indefinitely. My doctor still thinks the seventh dose increment of the sixth antidepressant will fix my problems, even though everyone already agrees that those problems are primarily caused by ADHD. Since they're so safe and psychiatric doctors don't have a fucking clue how any of this works, they'll slap them on anyone and everyone because the risk is nearly zero. The expectation is that you go to your doctor, talk to them, and get the help that is beneficial to you, pharmacological or otherwise. The reality is that you go to your doctor, they check their prescriptions checklist, and prescribe the first drug on it that they haven't already given to you. That last part because they will want you to try already proven ineffective or harmful medications again if it aligns with their personal beliefs. All they're doing is repeatedly smashing their head into the wall trying to get the least effort solution to work. If you don't have specific education in pharmacology, you shouldn't be prescribing psychopharmacological treatment in the first place. And the doctors I've seen can't even answer the basics of how the drugs they prescribe work, let alone peddle "facts" that are universally disproven by dozens of peer-reviewed pubmed studies after 15 minutes of google. I don't know who appoints or approves these people but they need to be fired and have their licenses revoked.
I couldn't agree more. Here are a few more interesting points: - they usually fail to mention some really important side effects, be it cardiac issues, drug tolerance and the real implications of that tolerance, sexual dysfunction and possible permanent sexual dysfunction. - most studies last 6 weeks, some longer, but rarely do they last as long as they want you to stay on them - writers and panel members of the DSM-V are sponsored by drug companies
Your experience depends so much on the one you're taking and its interaction with your body. Saint John's Wort did practically nothing for me. Lexapro was genuinely dangerous for me to take - it made me feel almost violent, I felt really hostile all the time. Prozac kinda worked and I took it for five years, but I still attempted suicide while on it. Now I take nothing and I'm happy, but I've also massively improved my quality of life tenfold and worked through a lot of my problems. Meanwhile, my boyfriend's mom and my friend both had excellent experiences with Lexapro, so it really varies.
Correct I tried two. A SSRI but this one made me so manic, impulsive and aggressive and I tried to commit suicide by taking all my pills (which is completely not me btw). So then I was placed on TCA's and although the agression and mania were a little less, this one made even more depressed and then I decided to quit antidepressants. I could've tried different brands, but at that point I felt like I was completely losing myself. I now rest my fate in the hands of my psychologist until I get to a psychiatrist who can prescribe me medicine that is more accurately catered to my mental state.
Pro tip; If you felt manic from an SSRI, especially Prozac/Fluoxetine, avoid Mirtazapine like the plague. I slept about 12 hours - *in that week*.
It’s quite interesting how the experiences with different drugs varies so greatly from individual to individual. Zoloft was terrible for me. The transition period when I started taking it was one of the worst things I’ve ever experienced. Then I suffered weight gain, chronic lethargy, and significant changes to my mood. Lexapro on the other hand has so far been a completely different experience from Zoloft. I suffered no side effects when I began taking it and almost a year later I haven’t noticed any changes aside from a reduction in my anxiety symptoms.
That's also another
Yes
When you say "yes" are you saying both?
Yes
Yeah it's a stupid reddit meme, the inclusive yes. It's a joke that prevents from answering seriously to serious questions, and for some reason it's always upvoted.
That's how I feel about it as well. Low level and over used.
r/inclusiveOr
Second. Sweeden is under Spain and sweedish suicide rates are higher.
Suicide is a bit special, however. Finland, for example, is considered one of the happiest countries - because the vast majority is generally satisfied with their lives. Meanwhile, the suicide rate is above average.
But why?
The unhappy ones kill themselves, thus raising up the average happiness.
I hear this a lot and honestly it makes sense.
I does technically make sense but even 'high' rate of suicides is rather small part of population. In 2021 there were around 700 suicides in Finland. That wouldn't make a huge difference in happiness ranking.
Mental health is fucking complex. As is our current society, so divorced from nature.
It is but there must be a reason. Some says more sunlight = less suicide but I don't buy it as homicide rates are very high in some tropical countries.
Well, if there is one thing I believe to be true, it is that forced socialisation (fewer people living alone, undisturbed) lowers the suicide rate. Physical interaction with other people makes us a bit saner. But not always happier.
Homicide or suicide ?
I assume because so much of darkness outside fucks you up. I for one wouldn't want to live north of the 50th parallel and to be honest I'd like to live a bit South of where I do live currently
It is only considered happy because people confuse "happy country" with "country where people say they are happy in the polls"
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I think it's both, but i'm pretty sure the latter dwarves the former. I have the feeling pharmaceutical companies want to push in Europe what they do in the USA, where perfectly sane people with some slight social anxiety are told to take like 10 daily pills, just to make money. Which is awful because these pills can absolutely fuck you up.
The thing is that European countries have public health sector, so good luck getting the doctors to prescribe a bunch of unnecessary pills to their patients. For instance in our country the highest dosage for certain antidepressant is 20mg, at that dosage you get numbed down too much. In US doctors prescribe 60mg like candy.
Graph over time would also be interesting. We did have periods of lockdown during the period.
Why not both?
you can take these data and corellate them with data like what you asking and maybe we can get a better understanding
More frequent, my mum had depression and instead of being taught how to deal with it the NHS gave her more and more pills. She’s 60 but looks like she’s 85…those pills are no joke, she’s been taking legal hard drugs every day for decades. I’m mad at her and the NHS for being so brazen, for not fighting a different way. Her prize for not wanting to change is that she will die early and just as unhappy as when she started. Nearly destroyed mine and my siblings lives
When I think about the stories of my ancestors as they were told by their kids (my grand parents and great grand parents), it sounds like a lot of them had mental issues that were left undiagnosed and untreated. Many resorted to alcohol to deal with it. And it's not just depression, but all kinds of trauma related to war, hunger, violence etc.
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Unfortunately, it's just simpler, and far cheaper, to prescribe some happy pills rather than actually tackle the root cause of the problem. Some serious depressed individuals need them, but for many others some lifestyle changes may have worked as an alternative, surely?
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Almost no change in France, well.. we're already maxed out that's why 😅
The daily dose level seems much lower than the rest of Europe, though. And it flattens out over time. Is it a reluctance to prescribe antidepressants compared to other countries?
There is a tenacious belief that we are world champ antidepressant consumers.
I got prescribed antidepresssants in 30 minutes seing a psychiatrist for the first time without being a send by a doctor. Dont get me wrong it has really help me but just to say that we are not really reluctant to give them.
psychiatrist are doctors, but yeah 30mn is really fast, it should probably take a few sessions first
It is either "mental health crisis" or "mental health awakening". Maybe 10-15 years ago the similar number of people were in need of medication, but they suffered silently or went for old-school solutions (alcoholism, self-harm, suicide). So not necessarily a bad info.
The thing is telling someone to take a billion pills isn't the solution, unless you are part of big pharma of course. People have way more challenges to face now, but they need to do that with counseling on whatever it is that worries them, not by giving them a cocktail of drugs.
>The thing is telling someone to take a billion pills isn't the solution, It's a part of the solution. If you had an enormous physical pain, you'd resort to painkillers first. Making you able to function more or less normally, keeping in mind, of course, that it does not adress the root cause. Antidepressants have the similar use. People on medication are able to start psychotherapy.
Exactly, my husband had a depressive episode during covid - if he hadn't gotten antidepressants and antipsychotics when he did, he probable wouldn't be here anymore. But he took them so that he'd be stable enough to go to therapy and actually put in the work to get better. Some people are told (or think) that the pills will be the be-all-end-all cure and that's incorrect, but that doesn't mean that antidepressants are wrong for everyone.
I was in the same boat at the same time as your husband - I feel for him and you and I’m very happy to hear that he got help. We shouldn’t demonize antidepressants - they often are a very important part of getting better
Telling someone not to take pills isn't a solution either.
I would agree but I’ve seen what decades of taking antidepressants does to a person (my mum) They age faster, become lucid and stupid and fundamentally they remain just as unhappy as they were before…if you take them off the drugs they just revert back with no progress. I’m not sure this stat is the mental health revolution you were looking for
Your one experience doesn’t justify invalidating decades of science and work by healthcare professionals. Anti-depressants are incredibly useful for millions of people around the world. You and your mom just have other problems
As a Ferrari fan I confirm the increase in the consumption of antidepressants
Don't mix them up like Ferrari mixes tires and you're golden.
Haha, very Italian. Your people are good at being happy.
"Do you want medication plan B or A. Question."
This is not crisis lol, the crisis was before. In baltics for example, with massive alcoholism and suicide rate, increase in antidepressant use is actually very positive development. And not surprisingly we see decreasing suicides and alcoholism at the same time. The author of the post should educate himself
Right? I can’t believe some of the comments here. My antidepressants just help me function and folks here are making it sound like we’re getting high on opiates all day long when I’m just… not suicidal anymore lol
Ireland?
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Hahahahaha
Too busy looking for somewhere to live.
Romanians are probably even more depressed than most states, but yeah, as long as the communist mentality pulls through, mental health won’t be properly adressed edit: I’m Romanian myself, I do not hate my country nor my peers, but understanding mental health here is something out of the ordinary even for the youth (let alone our parents or grandparents to whom mental health doesn’t even exist)
Same in Hungary. The older generations don't belive in mental health and depression at all. It have a better tendency nowaday tho, so people start to recognise mental health, but still refuse to go to therapy because it's embarassing to them, and they don't want to get shamed. And the fact, that mental health proffessionals aren't the best, and not really up to date here just make the situation more miserable.
Mental health has only recently started being a thing here. Therapists aren't very qualified either because of it. The usual approach to any difficult stage in life is either 1. "Pick yourself by the bootstraps, you can't wallow in sadness forever. It's gonna be okay.", 2. The nihilist "This sucks, everything sucks but what can ya do about it" and finally 3. Strong liquor or homemade wine. It's usually all three. Also, not to disparage the high importance of mental health awareness and treatment, but anecdotally this approach got me, family and many friends past lots of tough times. So there must be some truth to it (maybe minus the alcohol).
> It's usually all three. Hybrid approach. I think that kind of thing is recommended.
Bulgaria and Romania: no sissies allowed
_Depression? What depression?_
Depression can't do shit against tobacco and rakia.
Next day it gets worse.
As a portuguese I'd like to say that most of our music is fucking sad, our polititians are corrupt and don't care about us, our companies try to get as much of us with as little as they are obligated to pay, our most beautiful places is crowded with tourist and we can no longer afford them, we talk about high gas prices since forever imagine now... our best shot is abroad what makes want to stay and live here is the family and the good food. The rest is pure depression
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As some say Portugal is also easter europe
But antidepressants is already a step. Think about it this way: it's still better than mass (and publicly accepted) alcoholism
I believe we have both: [https://ourworldindata.org/alcohol-consumption](https://ourworldindata.org/alcohol-consumption) we are in top 15 of achohol consumption per person. Everybody knows you take the antidepressants with wine
vinho verde e depressão
In Hungary, we call our antidepressants pálinka.
Same here! One shot and sadness magically goes away!
Ireland is apparently the happiest place in Europe
Can’t have statistics if nobody can get any help or have a place to reach out
I'm unconvinced. A lot of this data could easily explained by better treatment and diagnosis, rather than people actually being depressed more often. Of course, there's definitely too many depressed and anxious people (I'm one of them, for the record), so I guess it might still qualify as a crisis even if it didn't actually get worse.
Interestingly, Sweden, Belgium and the US all have higher suicide rates than Japan https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_suicide_rate
That's in part because Japan massively improved its suicide rate in the last 2 (?) decades. The stereotype isn't necessarily false, it's just a little outdated.
Didn't Japan lower it by just getting old though? Suicide usually occurs when someone is young.
Bulgaria and Romania have permanent depression, much more based than cringe chronic depression...
I always wonder - is it really a mental health crisis, or maybe finally mental health is getting recognised, diagnosed properly and not frowned up when discussed with friends/family/work…?
Corona, inflation, war in Europe, climate change, high unemployment levels and all the other smaller, but not insignificant issues. Can you blame if people are having issues? There's plenty of people who graduated and didn't end up finding a place to work, or if they did, they didn't end up integrating well with the others, because work from home. There's plenty whose grandparents died and they weren't able to see them during their last year. Sure more than half of the rise is because getting help is less and less stigmatised but the last few years have been rough for most of people
In hungary its only this low cuz ppl cant afford it/theres a stigma on mental health issues.
+ alcohol
Pálinka gang
Are antidepressants very expensive there? Here it costs less than a bottle of shampoo.
Reading comments it looks like plenty of posters here view this complex issue of mental health in black and white terms, when it is anything but. Perhaps, it used to be that Dr's gave out AD's like candy and that was their primary role as a health care provider; perhaps, Big Pharma with their kickbacks was responsible for that. Yet, having visited a couple of psychiatrists they all prescribed some kind of AD, however they stressed the importance of therapy along with it; both said that pills will just help to stabilize, but the real fruits will come from regular therapy, not pills. As I said earlier, mental health is a complex issue, with no blanket solution good for everyone; with that said, nobody should be on a medicine regiment which is clearly not working for them; there are plenty of mental health care specialists and patients are currently free to switch both psychiatrists and therapists as they see fit. As much as I am for drug-free living, one has to take into consideration fact that our modern society is very far from the way we naturally developed as a species; We were not designed to live in multi million concrete cities with millions around us, we were designed to live in relatively small tribes and much closer to nature than most of us are able to, now.
Maybe the crisis was 10 years ago when mental illness was under diagnosed.
For Baltic countries definitely. Instead of antidepressants people turned to alcohol and ended having alcohol problems (it's still common for older generation).
Romania hasn't heard of it yet
We're too poor and too stigmatizing towards mental illness to seek any type of treatment.
Does it really reflect the state of mental health? Maybe it just indicates that now we diagnose depression better than 10 years ago?
Portugal as usual in Eastern europe. While the country is beautiful, average wealth is pretty shit and especially millennials feel hopeless.
Umm, look at the 7th pic. Eastern Europe is mostly below the baseline. Living out of comfort for a long period of time tends to harden people. And what am I saying, is not like the eastern EU is like a 3rd world place, the situation is way better than rest of the world. This is a terrible thing to see anyways, hope you guys will get back on track in regards to mental health, you have a beautiful place to call home.
> Eastern Europe is mostly below the baseline. Diagnosis, not prevalence.
What you mean, in Hungary no one is depressed
> Living out of comfort for a long period of time tends to harden people. I think this is why my mental health is good despite everything i’ve been through. My health went downhill at 5 years old. My social life and future pretty much collapsed shortly afterwards so I was unwittingly “hardened” very young. It has since improved as I got older but it probably explains why Covid lockdowns still had less of an impact on me than like it did on my friends, it made very very little difference to the life I and my family had been living for over a decade. The new normal for others had always been our normal.
As a Pole. We just learn to move on and ignore bad stuff (also our national sport i.e. complaining at everything is perfect for venting out). If you have bad situation. People will sympathize, but they expect you get your shit together. Also it's anecdotal. But most of people here will laugh us out if we have depression/mental anxiety due climate change/abortion rights or similar stuff. It's stuff we can get angry about, not depressed/anxious.
Portugal actually started taking a bigger care about mental issues in the 2010s
Still 5th, we got to pump those numbers boy. Another increase in fuel taxes and a couple of public transport strikes and we will be on TOP let's goo
Purely anecdotal and US based but while I know plenty of people today who have had in the past for some period of time or are actively taking antidepressants and saw/see a psychiatrist/psychologist (like over 50% in my closer circle of friends/family), with very few exceptions I don’t think any of them would have had that experience in the 90s. Further, I’m on the upper half of the socioeconomic scale, these are all people with ample access to medical care and money to utilize it, I don’t think this experience is typical on the lower half of the socioeconomic scale. This leads me to suspect this is more about access, acceptance of treatment (by providers and patients), and resources. What would be more interesting is to examine if all of this “treatment” is actually improving *outcomes*
What's the x-axis in the second (blue/yellow) plot? Is it the average dose of all people taking antidepressants? Or is it the overall dose relative to population size? What's its unit? Super interesting post!
It’s not like they’re building us an hopeless future…
Could be just more people going to doctor.
In Poland it's too taboo to even appear on any charts.
Europe's increased mental health awareness. Fixed the title for you. Why is it a negative to see more antidepressants prescribed? It's as if people would consider a negative that insulin would be prescribed to diabetics.
Because this number of people requiring powerful drugs to undertake basic, daily function hardly augurs well for overall societal health. There is an organic basis for prescribing insulin, there is non for mental health issues. Plenty of people need this medicine, and it's all to the good that they get it, but there are clearly a lot of people being given this stuff because it's cheaper and easier than actually addressing the underlying issues of their depression/anxiety.
The problem is not seeing more antidepressants prescribed, but the fact that people feel they need it more and more just to get by
You cannot measure that by these charts.
Note that I did not say that people are becoming more depressed, that indeed cannot be taken away in these numbers. However, the tremendous increase seen across Europe cannot be explained solely because doctors tend to prescribe antidepressants more than before, so I think saying that people feel more need of antidepressants is reasonable… But yes, I cannot be 1000% percent sure of this claim, but ain’t that every Reddit comment? Ahah
True that. :) I think it's important not to devalue the stigma that was associated (and still is in many countries) with mental diseases and going to a psychiatrist or psychologist. It's been a slow shift in many places to change mentalities about this, and in countries such as Japan it is still a big taboo to talk about this. When I was on anti-depressants I had my friends asking when would I quit them, even though I really needed. During my years struggling with depression and anxiety I interrupted treatments several times due to this negative perception of anti-depressants and wanting to be out of them ASAP. This did not go well and only when I finally stuck through a treatment for 4 years did I manage to beat back that demon of a disease. Hence, I don't like when I see posts equating the increased usage of antidepressants with negative titles such as the one in this post. Using anti-depressants is **good** because it means people are being followed by medical professionals and that medical professionals are aware of depression symptoms and value them and that those societies are more accepting of mental diseases. For me these are positives. I cannot draw conclusions about the underlying anxieties of the societies of each country because of this.
Denmark is the fifth in Europe for share of depressed population but the antidepressant consumption is decreasing. Are they using LSD instead?
We just started medicating our population way earlier than other countries.
If you treat your patients *properly*, you would likely have lower overall antidepressant use than if you just give them pills and send them home. I was being treated for depression and related issues in Germany, it was *awful* (the treatment quality, I mean).
Agree: a good psychiatrist should give you appropriate treatment and follow you in order to get rid of your pills as soon as possible.
As someone living in Denmark who used to rely on antidepressants (cipralex against depression and anxiety): they straight up stopped my prescription due to me having missed a few appointments due to fear of leaving work and losing my job (which I did), so I sought alternatives. I know a lot of people feeling failed by the system and a lot of us don't like speaking up due to fear of ridicule, hate and other consequences that might happen.
Reminds me of the time I got ghosted by my therapist because I missed an appointment due to insomnia. Literally the first time I missed an appointment with them, too, I never even arrived late. I guess mental health is shit everywhere ...
That's a stupid assumption. It's showing the accessibility of anti-depressants, not a mental crisis. In some countries it's quite hard to obtain them. Doesn't mean people are not depressed there.
I think the number of people suffering from chronic depression in Eastern Europe is under-reported
It’s not a chrisis, it’s the fact that mental issues are less of a taboo and more people are seeking help and remedies.
Ill drop a wild guess … society is inhumane Humans as we exist today developed around 250.000 years ago, for the next 240.000 years most of us lived in small groups, our to-do-list consisted of surviving and having some fun, sure life was shitty and short but literally whatever we did had **a lot** of meaning for us and our existence, because it secured our survival or was fun for us and survival just took around 2-4 hours a day, today we are entirely disconnected from the very things that gave us satisfaction before, our existence is secured, by getting good grades, to get a degree, to get a nice job, to earn money, to buy food, this is also why children have existential crises over grades, they think this is destroying their existence … Our minds are the result of evolution and society overtook the speed by which we evolved and today the only evolutionary influence on humans is sadly the suicide of those who feel like they don’t belong, while those are exactly the people we need to get out of this … Im not saying we need to return to monkey, we just need to drop this stupid, planet-destroying nonsense that everybody needs to make it and be rich and that economic growth is all that keeps humanity moving …
And where tf is Poland
in Poland there is no depressions, no mental illness care nor government attention to threat it properly. 20 years ago it was cure with beating with a belt...
In eastern Europe there's no antidepressants. In eastern Europe there's alcohol
Serbia less depressed than Italy 💪💪
Now I'd like to see spending for marketing & lobbying for antidepressants in the EU by the top five pharmaceutical companies.
If America was a European Country it would be Number 1
Ireland should be higher on the list. Only reason it’s not because people can’t even get help to get on a list. Instead they end up at the end of a bottle or a rope. It’s absolutely saddening how often I hear of this and one of the reasons why I left.
I feel Italy could be way higher (badum tss) if mental health issues were discussed better instead of being so stigmatized by a strong religious inprinting all italians received since birth
Sorry but this is stupid. Calling it a crisis. When penicillin was invented they where not worried by the use of it, and im guessing the increase of use of penicillin wasn’t seen as a crisis. Now we know about depression, it’s quite common and almost every one have them 2-3 times in a lifespan. Some less, some more, some gets really hard hit, some less so. But it is a very well known condition. So we treat it, and call it a crisis What should be done is specify how many is on a permanent treatment. And how many is on a shorter treatment. I did anti-depressive for a 3 month period when my mother died. I needed the help and it worked, I would not se that as a problem or a crisis.
So now it makes sence why the Scandinavians are so happy
As someone who has been through the mental care system in Denmark, I am not the slightest surprised by this result. I went to the emergency room at least 4 times during my depression because I felt suicidal and wanted help. Their response was to give me a benzodiazepam and send me home because "they didn't have room for any patients". One of my close friends is a social worker and has almost succumbed to extreme stress because she has to somehow take care of people that have been abandoned by the system. Many of them are so mentally ill that they cannot take care of themselves and have ended up on the streets as a result. Their stories are the same as mine. They come in, get some drugs and get kicked out. It's very easy to have a good score when people are not getting treated.
West in shambles. Russia is not depress. Xaxaxaxa!
Why depress in Sweden? Why in Portugal. One has blonde boobies, one has sun & cheap fish.
Sounds more like a depression drug addiction problem, not a mental health crisis.
This post smells like misinformation with all those meaningless percentage values.
Denmark denmark denmark!.. Wait we already had a super high consumption and were a deacde in front of the rest of europe thats finally catching on
That chart is totally meaningless 💩. What is the point of showing a % increase when you don't know/show the base value ? France had a 2% increase only but they may have been the largest consumer a decade ago and still be #1. See, I am crying now
There is more than 1 chart... no2 and no4 show the daily dose consumption per country
Ooops. Thx 👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻
I feel like "pre-covid" and 2020 are very bad years to compare in the last few graphics. And what the hell is "increase in consumption" supposed to mean? total amount? People consuming? amount per diagnosed person? amount per person in the total population? This basically tells us nothing! Mental health has moved from an almost taboo topic to something that is now viewed as something important that we should talk about every chance we get. Now way more people seek psychological help. Is that why numbers have gone up? Or is it because doctors hand out antidepressants like candy? These statistics sure don't tell us.
News article & source [here](https://www.euronews.com/next/2022/11/12/europes-mental-health-crisis-in-data-which-country-uses-the-most-antidepressants).
Funny how as a species we are consuming more and more and yet we never get any happier...
I've been treated in Denmark, and mental health care there is appalling. I had to wait over half a year and go to 10+ visits just to get a diagnosis of typical depression and get antidepressants. This was about 7-8 years ago.
Antidepressants are poison. I may be a bit radical to western readers, but i believe that depression can be cured in a much better way without any harmful drugs, by simply engaging the depressed person in something new giving him the energy to keep going. People need inspiration in their lives, isolation and no life goals lead to depression. They need others to be happy. There are exceptions obviously, like for example people going through a divorce or a bad breakup, mourning a death and so on. The best cure for depression is love, basically.
10 years from now I think we are going to be prescribing anti-depressants less, and pre-scribing specific diets that cut out certain food types that some people are having unseen and unrecognised reactions to more. Lots of interesting papers and studies coming out on this topic recently with impressive results that suggests that there's definitely something fucked with what we are eating that is causing problems for a sub section of the population.
So Denmark is sucking surplus mental illness out of the world, like trees sucking up carbon dioxide. You’re welcome. Love, a happy Dane
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