“Xanax Makes Me a Better Mom,” written by Shawn Bean, Executive Editor of Parenting Magazine, appears in the March 2013 issue. The article discusses the rising number of parents who currently take antidepressant and anti-anxiety medications.
This article reports the following statistics.
1-5 American adults take at least one type of medication to treat behavioral or psychological problems.
21% of fathers will experience one or more episodes of depression by their child’s 12th birthday.
28% of stay at home moms report feeling depressed compared to 17% of working moms.
There has been a 264% rise in psychiatric drug use among women ages 20-44 over the past ten years.
Bean writes, “A record number of moms and dads are taking antidepressants and anti-anxiety medications, but some experts believe we’re just dealing with the everyday roller coaster of parenthood with a small blue pill.”
Allen Horwitz, Professor of Sociology at Rutgers University and author of the book, The Loss of Sadness: How Psychiatry Transformed Normal Sadness Into Depressive Disorder, states, “The psychiatric community has reclassified normal human sadness as an abnormal experience.”
According to Horwitz, “We’ve become less tolerant of negative emotions.”
Horwitz uses the example of the colicky baby. When a baby is colicky the parents become fatigued. They usually don’t get a lot of sleep and feel irritable and overwhelmed. This usually goes on for over two weeks, which is the standard amount of time to measure depression.
So are we looking at a depressive disorder or just a fatigued parent? And if we are looking at a fatigued parent, should that parent be treated with psychiatric medication?
In this article, Carol Lieberman, MD., a psychiatrist and faculty member at UCLA’s Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior reports, “The medication is a band-aid to combat the symptoms while you work on the root problem.” She goes on to say, “You should not take psychiatric medication unless you are in psychotherapy.”
Katherine Nordal, Ph.D, The American Psychological Association’s Executive Director of Professional Practice states, “Compared with medication, psychotherapy has fewer side effects and lower instances of relapse.” Nordal reports that the APA is working to promote talk therapy, but she says that it is an uphill battle against seemly endless TV commercials promoting psychiatric medication.
Are we a society that is just looking for a quick fix in the form of a pill?
Are we less tolerant of negative emotions today or are we really more anxious and depressed?
Should people go on antidepressant and anti-anxiety medications without investing in psychotherapy and other treatments?
Can medication be a band-aid?
How do you feel about using medication to get through a temporary crisis?
I have my own thoughts on all of these questions, but this one is for you. I would love to hear from you.
Bean, Shawn. (2013, March) “Xanax Makes Me a Better Mom.” Parenting Magazine.
I have seen friends temporarily take antidepressants during a difficult time (e.g. divorce), and it worked well for them. I have seen friends take antidepressants long-term and have their dosage increased repeatedly with no consistent improvement. And I have seen friends with an overall sense of depression, who eat poorly, and I wonder if it could be improved by diet. I really don’t think there is one answer, but more and more medications for everyone surely isn’t the best one.
I don’t think there is one answer either. Thank you for your comments. Enjoy your weekend.
I’ve been wondering lately if we (in western culture) are losing our ability to deal with suffering?
We have become an instant society. We want instant relief.
Very intriguing question you present! In my humble opinion, we have become a pill-reliant society…What’s truly depressing (!), is observing these numb souls missing out on the true beauty and magic of life. They trudge about, eyes glazed, believing that in masking their “sadness” happiness will be theirs — but it doesn’t work that way…The drugs trap them in limbo, hopelessly hoping. 🙁
Thank you for your comments.
In most cases, antidepressants provide temporary relief, while the underlying problem continues to fester. Talk therapy can provide much better and more lasting results. Our society needs to accept that real solutions lie within us. Not inside a medicine cabinet. Great article. Thank you, Kristin!
You are so welcome!
Excellent post, Kristin! This is an issue that definitely needs to be discussed. While I believe there are times when medication is needed to get someone out of the trenches long enough to address the real problem, too many are avoiding the self-care necessary for permanent relief by relying upon the temporary fix of various medications. It’s not until we go within and do the work that must be done that we truly begin to heal Thanks for sharing your wisdom and insights on this very important topic.
Love & Light, S
You are so welcome, Sloan!
I’d like to see more moral support and coping tips for people who think they need these meds. Leave the pills alone if you can!
🙂
Prescribing medication is too easy in this society, the practice of which is creating too many addicts. Whatever happened to people talking to each other? Being responsible? Exercising or reflecting to get clarified thinking? Pills are too easy and getting over them way harder than anybody imagines in the beginning.
Thank you for your comments.
If we were not expected to be at work everyday of the year, if we were allowed to be sick whenever we would be ill, if we were allowed to be home with a sick child, if we had the freedom to go for 3 months to Trinidad when our child was bullied at school, and then find a new environment …
We are stuck in our 9 to 5 life, 365 days per year. And whenever we cannot be in that rat race, we need a pill. Our boss expects this from us. And if there were a pill for our children to hold their pencil the right way, doctors would prescribe it.
Thank you for contributing to this post!
I think the “pill-happy” life style is becoming a serious issue. I agree with Bert that the rat race many of us are in doesn’t allow time to recuperate from crises, and with Luggagelady that many people (and their doctors) choose the numb existence – no ups or downs allowed. While I think that pills can help overcome a temporary crisis, they are not the long-term solution. Issues need to be worked out with support and/or therapy as needed. Just my amateur twopence after observing life around me.
Thank you so much for your valuable twopence. 🙂
Profound post indeed.. I have been on both sides of this argument, I have watched family members crutch on medication and refuse to do the hard work of therapy and they never seem to improve. I took medication when I knew I had tried everything else to get happy beforehand. I was seeing a psychologist and psychiatrist regularly the whole time I was taking them and developed strategies to improve cognitive patterns, until I felt able to decrease my dose. I have been off regular medication for a number of years. However I still carry Diazepam for a ‘quick fix’ (used very rarely) because I still get some anxiety attacks. Truthfully because the instant relief is what I’m after when I am too wound up to meditate or get a grip of my thoughts. It does save my kids any damage from how insensitive to others I get when I have anxiety. Sigh*
People who are lacking in self discipline, self-awareness and the motivation to pursue change and happiness will never be happy, except maybe when ‘High’ on medication…I find this is a false happiness and does more damage than good. I also agree that we have become a society that does everything possible to avoid suffering, which sadly goes directly against everything Christ came to show us. (Another Sigh*)
. I love your site Blessings to you!
I love reading your comments. Thank you so much for sharing some of your experiences and insights with us. Also thank you for all of the kind words. xoxo
Thanks for writing on this! I am a single mom with a history of depression. I haven’t used meds in 15 years or more. I have only just recently realized how flat my daily existence has become despite working hard at a great job, keeping fit, staying connected to friends, and having a great relationships with my kid.
It’s not the ups and downs of parenting that signaled my need to address the depression so much as the LACK of feeling. Back in counseling now, back at the pharmacy too . . . It’s not laziness or surrender; quite the contrary. It is recognizing that some poor neurological pathways are laid down far too early for us to do anything differently, and our thinking can fall into that groove when we are under stress despite all of our good choices. Medication is not a crutch so much as a ladder. I still have to place it, climb it, and navigate the new terrain once I’m out of the trench.
Thank you so much for sharing with us your insight and experience. So well said! Not a crutch, but a ladder. I love “I still have to place it, climb it, and navigate the new terrain once I’m out of the trench.” I will also have to check out the book you mentioned. Sounds like you are doing so many of the right things. I hope that you feel better soon or maybe I should say that I hope you feel soon. xoxo
Another angle on this is that many of the kids who grew up with the rise of Ritalin, Prozak, Zoloft, etc. are now becoming parents themselves. I think we’ll be seeing further shifts in our cultural relationship with psychopharmacology. I’m right in the middle of a great read on the “medication generation”: It’s called “Dosed” by Kaitlin Bell Barnett.
Oh I hate to read this. I can understand about stay-at-home versus working moms, which is why I spend many days out in the quiet of nature and the garden. But drugs? I wish my brother could find a better way through his depression than medication. So many nasty physical side effects, and it doesn’t reach the root of the cause.