If happiness is an attitude, then why do people need to take pills for depression?

Question

I see life kinda like a saiboat. This sailboat is in the middle of the sea. It faces adversities like wind, rain, whirlpools...but, somehow it has the strength and determination to keep moving toward tows a better place.

I think that Yahoo Answers! is awesome. There are a lot of wise people out there, and they help you through troubled times with their advice.

Answer 1

I think your sailboat analogy is right on and I tend to approach the "happiness" question from that angle in my own life. When I was a therapist I often found that some of my clients harbored the fantasy that happiness should be a constant state. Too often these individuals could not tolerate emotional discomfort and went into a tail spin if they experienced anxiety or disappointment of any kind. They tended to catastrophize small levels of discomfort and anticipation of a complete meltdown of their emotional world. Rather than sitting with their feeling for a while, thinking about them and examining how legitimate were the conclusions they were coming to, they sought immediate relief through drugs or alcohol. Of course, my job as a therapist was to alter this pattern. While I think medication can have a benefit and sometimes is immediately advisable, I do believe it is overly relied upon.

Answer 2

People don't need to take pills for sadness or minor bouts of depression, at least I don't believe that- especially if you have a belief in something greater than yourself, sometimes you can just choose to be happy... BUT I've also recovered from a time when I've had a serious clinical depression and that's completely different! In that state you really do need help to get better because you lose your motivation and a lot of your normal brain function. You want to sleep all the time, not because you're sad but because you're brain isn't working. It might be brought on by emotions but it's a chemical imbalance and it is treatable. Pills may not be a great answer for the long term but they can help a person get their life back.

Answer 3

Happiness isn't a way of life, but a state of mind. That means we FEEL happy from time to time, but not all the time. The happy feeling happens when we experience elation from having our needs and wants fulfilled. Like the day you got a bigger than normal check from the IRS, your application was accepted and a close friend did something special for you. Happy happy happy.

Or maybe you get a flat in rush hour traffic. Or your pet is poisoned by a neighbor and dies. NOT happy.

But this assumes you have a normal brain and the neurotransmitter chemicals are balanced correctly. Because if they aren't you might feel elated in inappropriate circumstances, or you might feel depressed when all the good things are happening to you. If you have chronic depression, the right meds can restore the balance so you can feel happy again.

Does this help?

Answer 4

Yes, happiness is an attitude, but depression is an illness. In this illness the levels of natural seratonin in the brain have suffered and decreased and the people are sad all the time. This is caused by things so tramatic that the person just cannot deal, so pills are prescribed.***pills for depression are usually a short term fix, counseling is generally also needed to sort out feelings that are causing the the depression

Answer 5

Depression is often related to a neurobiological deficiency. For example, many depressed people lack sufficient levels of serotonin or dopamine, which is greatly helped by medicine becuase the medication helps correct the chemical imbalance. A change in attitude cannot alter the biochemistry of depression, even though it may prevent one's depression from spiraling further down. Positive thinking can help some aspects of depression, but this in and of itself is not a cure.

Answer 6

the pill companys can get paid on your stupidity! why not!
doctors can also get money insurance companies can get money!
it's hard to believe that but it's true!
the world is greedy any way someone can work with a team of people to gain money then they will do it!

I thought i was depressed once the pills did nothing but make me feel worse i also did a minor study of people i know who where on the pills and how they acted it was like a mental controling drug! it was the fakest happiness i seen!
well the pills can work help change your attitude to accept and look at the good instead of the bad but save your money you can do it by yourself!

change don't happen over night and the laws of attraction take a large roll in this!
if you go about your day saying everything sucks your life in return will suck too!
if you go about saying your day is the best ever and your always happy! you will attract more happiness!
yes happy people get mad get down but they don't let that control their life they let it go and move on!

Best wishes

Answer 7

It can also be a chemical inbalance in the brain, that even seemingly very happy and people with positive attitudes can experience. Also, sometimes happy pills can act as a placebo for people who are in a mild/ temporary slump.

Answer 8

happiness is a state of mind and also there are certain chemicals in the brain t6hat flows to make you feel happy but when the amount of those ones decline in your brain you will feel depressed that is why you need antidepressant to make you feel better until your body can do it on its own

Answer 9

Yeah, have everything taken away from you and see how happy go lucky you are. See how happy your attitude is.

Answer 10

If three people close to you died the same month and you got divorced from your husband. Now, you don't have happiness attitude? arent' you?