Blue Notes

I am truly amazed at how many people are on some kind of anti-depressant. Of the counselling appointments that I have (maybe 4-6 a month) those to do with anything other than financial counselling almost always involve people taking anti-depressants.

I grew up "old school" about mental disease. My grandma was sent to the padded room for a while when my dad was a kid. We always talked about it in a joking way. "You know your grandma is crazy as a loon" my grandma would joke when something funny happened to her. And no one could ever have a mental disorder. "By golly, you should be able to handle this on your own without the help of anyone. Stand up and be strong, you can do it." The whole Christianity thing didn't help matters either when it became part of my family when I was a kid and my parents got involved in a word church. Their sort of twisted form of spirituality kind of took some of the truth, but left out a lot of it. "You can do all things through Christ who strengthens you" became my mantra whenever I couldn't do something.

Physical illness was different. You get a cold, you take cough syrup. It gets worse, you get a shot. Heart problems, take 5 pills and have surgery. But mental problems, never dealt with the same way. Not sure I ever could figure out why we deal with things differently.

Anyway, point being... Guess I don't have one.

Check for yourself (link) if you should be eating Prozac or whatever the latest drug is.