S50: Depression is an ethereal, ever-changing condition, its effects change from person to

person. Because of this, no one method of treatment will be effective for all sufferers.

 

Thusly, this opens up the issue of the ‘medicalisation of unhappiness’. Antidepressants are the most common form of treatment for depression, it is seen as a quick solution to a hugely common problem, but it is often used in place of treatment that would be more effective in the long run; therapy of some sort.

Medication could be used in conjunction with therapy to create a more beneficial treatment, rather than replacing it, but long waiting lists and reduced time with patients mean that antidepressants become the easiest and seemingly the most time efficient option.

 

It might be quite easy to condemn antidepressants, citing their often unpleasant side effects and the sometimes complicated process of finding one that is suitable, but for all those that they don’t work for, there are many that are helped, even saved by them.

For this reason, this project doesn’t intend to demonise antidepressants, it aims to highlight the lack of therapy available, and its importance, and by doing so, tackle the perceived stigma involved with actively seeking and receiving therapy.