Posted by europerep on May 13, 2015, at 13:46:41
In reply to Re: Qs about MAOIs for anybody who has taken them, posted by Smoo on May 6, 2015, at 22:05:10
> I had one final question: have you encountered any particular stigma when people learn you've tried MAOIs? Or mental illness in general? Would you mind giving me a brief example if it's not too uncomfortable?
Hey Smoo,
sorry for the late reply.
Generally I don't have a lot of experience with being stigmatized, but that is at least partly because I am very selective as to who I share that information with. And I think that we have come to a point where people no longer *openly* discriminate against people with mental illness. Kind of like noone *openly* says that women belong at home or in the kitchen, even if deep down there probably still are a good deal of people who think like that.
What I do experience or observe is a kind of stigmatization of people who take psychiatric drugs. This always comes from what I call the "lifestyle faction", i.e. people who argue that drugs only "mask symptoms" but don't do anything about the "real causes". Real causes for these people are generally the negative experiences that they have had in life and were able to overcome, but when other people go on an antidepressant it's because they are struggling with the same issues but taking the "easy way out". Kind of as if antidepressants were recreational drugs on prescription.
I am at a point where I like to debate with these people because their reasoning is so flawed, but I do worry about other people taking them for the experts that they pretend to be. Sure, drugs aren't perfect, but without them I wouldn't even be alive anymore, so I'm quite happy to "mask my symptoms" as they say ;-)...
I hope this helps. By the way, how long is your article going to be? And if you want, you can also post it here once it's done, I wouldn't mind reading it ;-)... but only if you want of course.
"See you"...
ER
poster:europerep
thread:1078650
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20150407/msgs/1078945.html