Always if you needed help maybe you shouldn’t have “called” for assistance but rather made an appointment to actually meet with a professional face to face to make an informed decision as to what was actually going on with you and what was the best treatment to seek. It seems like either you don’t trust your OB/GYN, you don’t actually have a relationship, or you tell her what you want and she just complies. If you don’t have the time or inclination to actually go for an evaluation what do you expect? If you wanted an easy out that is what you get. If you want real answers and real treatment then you make the effort to seek it out. And that includes getting involved in your own treatment. And I am not saying that to criticize or put you down. I am saying that because most of us do that. We just don’t take the proper care of ourselves or make time to take care of ourselves like we do to take care of the rest of the family.
The first line of defense is to find out why we are feeling the way we are, the second is working on the issue and the third is taking medication to help out. If you want a quick fix or you don’t make the time to work on your issues with appropriate professionals you might not get the desired outcome.
You had a bad experience, you are not happy and you want to warn everyone not to do what you did. OK, we hear that. But yours is NOT the normal experience. I don’t know where you live and if what happened to you is normal for your area. But is NOT the normal practice for either anxiety, depression or post-partum problems. Psychiatrists don’t just hand out medication In addition, most people don’t even go as far as seeing psychiatrists. There are so many people who are in therapy for those reasons and more who never, ever get to the level of seeing a psychiatrist or having the need to go on medication. Those who do, do so in conjunction with working with a therapist, social worker, psychologist, etc.
Honestly, I don’t know why you are being so defensive. If you went straight to medication without therapy it was your place as the patient to question it. If you felt the psychiatrist jumped to give you medication you should have questioned her or questioned your OB. YOU were the Patient and you had a right to ask questions. If you were NOT happy with your psychiatrist you could have gone back to the OB and asked for a different referral. As the patient you were still the person in charge and in control of your own care. YOU were the one in charge of your own choices as you proved by researching the medication and choosing to go off. Why am I the villain or a 15 year old because I point this out to you?
There are pros and cons with every medication. As much as it can be harmful to some it is a lifeline to others. If it were harmful to all it would be removed from the market. Salt is a killer to some but you can’t remove it from everyone’s diet. As with sugar, as with spice, as with calcium, potassium, zinc, or any other food or mineral that some people might be allergic to or have a sensitivity to. Aspirin is a lifesaver if you are having a heart attack, but for those who have stomach issues, it is very harmful. If you have clotting problems don’t take it. If you understand that people with heart conditions should take an aspirin a day, it still wouldn’t be right of you to say “Aspirin is a miracle medication and everyone should take it every day”. That would be a false statement. And for you to “WARN” everyone about Zoloft because you had a bad experience is also wrong because many people have a very good experience on that medication and it has been very helpful to many people.
In addition warning people that medical professionals just hand out pills because they get kickbacks from the suppliers is counter productive to those who really need their medications to function. Statements like that are akin to yelling “fire” in a theater. It can cause unwarranted panic and havoc and you just don’t have the right to do that.
You do have the right however, to tell your story and let people know what your experience was with that particular medication and that not everyone has a good experience with it.