If I were to take an anti-depressant hypothetical.

[pcgizzmo]

This is what I am talking about pcgizzmo you were diagnosed. It just makes it hard for people like you who are seriously ADD when everybody says "I have ADD" and they have never been diagnosed. People use it as an excuse!

Yes, I agree. I've seen that. I saw a show on TV (forgot what it was) where the mom was taking the kids ADD meds to get things done around the house. The work to some degree for everyone so I can see potential for abuse.

I have the meds and don't take them because my current job doesn't call for them and I do OK w/out them. I'm very medicine adverse unless I need it for sure.

[saltydog452]

I had a Nicotine addiction. The 'patch' helped me overcome the Nicotine addiction. It did nothing to erase the 50 year embeded notions of cigarette smoking. My attempts at quiting were only successful for weeks or maybe months. Its been several years now since Wellbutrin was added to the patch. Wellbutrin helped me overcome the addiction of 'smoking', the patch helped with the addiction of Nicotine.

I understand that it is useful in issues such as helping to control weight gain/loss, lowering anxiety, and blood pressure.

Like ED meds, it seems to be more prevelant than supposed.

Neither is gonna turn a person into a raving maniac. Holder or Janet Reno might have a different public oipinion.

salty

[johnson0317]

People now take anti-depressants for many different reasons. Cymbalta, a selective norepinephrine re-uptake inhibitor, was intially only given the label indication of being an antidepressant by the FDA. It is now also indicated for osteoarthritis, fibromyalgia, and chronic low back pain (my Cymbalta rep will love me for remembering all that!). Other anti-depressants are also used for headaches, insomnia, seizures, and more. In the field of pain management, an antidepressant is routinely used for insomnia. A provider in the pain management realm treats a triangle of symptoms...pain, sleep, and depression. Those three symptoms are what rule the patient's life that is experience chronic pain.

The fact that a person may take an anti-depressant is more indicative of their ability to deal with an issue than a sign of instability. I took Wellbutrin when I quit smoking. My wife asked me to stay on it because she had never seen me more calm and levelheaded before that, but I quit taking it after six months. I have often said that I wish the public water supply could be laced with a good selective serotonin re-uptake inhibitor. That class of medications are the ones that make you say, "Ahhhh!"

RJ