Yep, I'm a pharmacist, and these are technical terms. Basically, I have chronic pain. I take at least 2 doses of Lortab every day. If I don't take it, I suffer. I am dependent. i take it as directed, but I'll have to taper off over time to be able to stop taking it without feeling like butt. If I start taking more than I am prescribed, mixing it with other things to get high, that's addiction. It's also abuse. But people who are dependent are not considered addicts unless they break the rules and start acting all funny. You could say that people are dependent on antidepressants, and they are also dependent on insulin if they are diabetics. BUT, we are using these things more than we should, we really don't have a lot of knowledge about how the brain works, it's all theory. Because once you open one up to look under the hood, it stops working. We have to cycle and try different things because we really have no idea what we are doing. It makes me mad that we don't know more. Bipolar folks really get the short end of the stick here. And yes, everyone should start with therapy when they get their pills. If they get stable and comfortable, just continue the pills if the reason for the depression is continuing. And when you have a bad spot, go back to therapy on as add needed basis.
And what do we do when none of it works? Would you believe shock therapy? Ewwwww. I don't like the idea of loss of memory.
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Basically, I have chronic pain. I take at least 2 doses of Lortab every day. If I don't take it, I suffer. I am dependent. i take it as directed, but I'll have to taper off over time to be able to stop taking it without feeling like butt.
If I start taking more than I am prescribed, mixing it with other things to get high, that's addiction. It's also abuse. But people who are dependent are not considered addicts unless they break the rules and start acting all funny.
You could say that people are dependent on antidepressants, and they are also dependent on insulin if they are diabetics.
BUT, we are using these things more than we should, we really don't have a lot of knowledge about how the brain works, it's all theory. Because once you open one up to look under the hood, it stops working. We have to cycle and try different things because we really have no idea what we are doing. It makes me mad that we don't know more. Bipolar folks really get the short end of the stick here.
And yes, everyone should start with therapy when they get their pills. If they get stable and comfortable, just continue the pills if the reason for the depression is continuing. And when you have a bad spot, go back to therapy on as add needed basis.
And what do we do when none of it works? Would you believe shock therapy? Ewwwww. I don't like the idea of loss of memory.