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Mental Illness Reduces Lifespan As Much as Smoking
That smoking is bad for your health is a commonplace; cancer, lung disease, and other possible consequences can all shorten smokers' lifespans. A new meta study from researchers at Oxford concludes that mental illness is just as big a factor in shortening lives, and not only because depression is a contributing factor to suicide.
From the story at NPR: "We know that smoking boosts the risk of cancer and heart disease, says Dr. Seena Fazel, a psychiatrist at Oxford University who led the study. But aside from the obvious fact that people with mental illnesses are more likely to commit suicide, it's not clear how mental disorders could be causing early deaths. The researchers looked at data on 1.7 million patients, drawing from 20 recent scientific reviews and studies from mostly wealthy countries. Comparing the effects of mental illness and smoking helps put the stats in context, Fazel tells Shots. 'It was useful to benchmark against something that has a very high mortality rate.'" [Press release from Oxford.]
In addition to the poor choices associated with irrationality ... remember that these are diseases of the brain. Complex syndromes that have effects beyond behavior and thinking. For example, depression is associated with pain.
Some interesting reading: Peter Kramer's Against Depression.
The rhetoric of "choice" and "responsibility" is quasi-religious anyway, with no basis in science.
The human mind is very far from rational, and what little neurological evidence we have suggests we may make decisions before we have even become consciously aware of them - it's just really good at tricking itself into thinking it is a magically rational computer.
Rather than an artificial, binary divide between the capable and the incapable, it would be much better if we thought on a sliding scale in terms of some people being programmed to manage certain affairs better than others, and recognised that there is no fault beyond birth.
Listen to me please: your writing indicates a typical depressed thought pattern, trust me, I've been there - I've been worse than that. I've talked with people with depression and noticed the same things/patterns.
Guess what? Anti-depressants aren't intended to treat the _cause_ of depression. They aren't meant to be a "lucky pill" (a common meme) - they don't make one happy and aren't intended to. What they do is enabling the brain to work more as it is intended to and enable one to do other things to improve ones situation. However they need to be taken long term in order to do anything so taking them for a month and then quitting because "they don't do anything" that some people do isn't so smart.
If one is very depressed and want a quicker acting help I'd recommend ECT - Electroconvulsive Therapy. I've had it in several rounds and talked with people that also had it periodically, some for many years (chronic depression). It is extremely quick acting compared to pills, some people claim to feel better already after waking up from the (for civilized nations) mandatory sedation.
Is it risk free? No, _no_ treatment is risk free. People have died from complications when treating ingrown nails. ECT isn't good if one have very high blood pressure for instance as the pressures increase sharply, there are a number of other contraindications too. But ECT is the treatment with the most FUD around. It doesn't change one's personality, one doesn't suffer total memory loss, one doesn't get severe brain damages.
Memory loss is a common side-effect though but it is mostly short term and is compensated by the practitioner adjusting placement of electrodes and the parameters for the next treatment. Another is muscle ache however that is compensated for using a mild muscle relaxant in conjunction with the sedation.
About anti-depressants destroying the brain I'll not comment on directly however do you realize that depression _does_ destroy the brain? That is one reason for the faulty thought patterns and is easily verifiable by MRI on deeply depressed people. Anti-depressants and ECT have been shown to regrow lost brain matter.
These are verified findings from 3rd party BTW so not some company PR.
For your own sake I hope you do seek treatment, it can improve your quality of life drastically. I'm not talking about everything getting perfect over night, it will most likely take long time and well, is there anybody with a perfect life? ;) But it can be much better.
PS if you have problem discussing your problems (AFAIK pretty common for depressed people) I recommend writing them down on a paper when seeking treatment and giving it to the psychologist. In this way he/she can then easier ask relevant questions.