I’ve spent a good deal of the day writing advocacy for postpartum depression. I’ve been in communication with the wonderful and passionate Katherine Stone, author of the blog “Postpartum Progress” and postpartum depression advocate. It’s been a …
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All I can say, is the road to hell is paved with good intentions. When you start legislating health care diagnoses and interventions, there is always someone behind the scenes who is looking to benefit from it, irregardless if it truly benefits the public.
If you think I am wrong, go back and review every time politics started trumping health care provider choices. I am sure there will be exceptions, but it will not number a majority of the time. And this legislation oozes pharma agenda if anyone with half a brain is paying attention!
When will people learn that outrageous examples of extreme presentations of a problem do not indict the people with general features? Every woman is not Andrea Yates if they are depressed after childbirth! I am sorry to say it this way, but maybe it will get some realistic attention at the end of the day: to people who demand quick fixes or labels to problems, GET A F–CKING LIFE and let people who have the training and expertise do their job, and with time will make a difference!!!
Exasperation is an understatement after reading this issue at Furious Seasons and now here!
“Get A F-CKING LIFE” doesn’t really move the conversation forward in a useful way. Whenever I hear something like that it makes me think that people don’t believe depression is that serious. Get a life. Pull yourself up by your bootstraps. Wait around and hope someone who knows what they’re doing will help you — despite the fact that, outside of major cities, tens of millions of people in our country have very little to NO psychiatric services. Perhaps you are fortunate enough to live in an area where there is someone with the right training and expertise in perinatal mood and anxiety disorders. If so, you are one lucky soul indeed.
Let me just follow up with this comment and I am done here on this issue: If this legislation passes, who is going to determine which women are legitimately depressed versus just experiencing the brief “baby blues” that a lot of women show, especially after their first child? OBGYNs, Pediatricians, and PCPs in that order. You as a woman planning or hoping to get pregnant in the next couple of years, let me warn you now if you put your faith in the people supporting this legislation: they will reinforce quick diagnoses and solutions to “potential” problems or just phase of life issues that require more than a label and pill, perhaps instead just simple reassurance and support. God forbid providers think this way now. Every person who walks in a health care provider’s office has to have a diagnosis and intervention. And that is wrong as a generalization or expectation by the provider.
Maybe my comment was on the mark since you responded to it, Ms Stone. And I get the feedback from most patients that my training and expertise follows the adages I embraced since finishing medical school: first do no harm, and go from least to most invasive.
Putting people on psychiatric meds is a hell of a lot more invasive than talking first!!!
See if this f–cking legislation supports that as a first line intervention. And that is why I write it this way, because it is outrageous and offensive to promote it in the first place. Road to hell, folks, remember this!!!
therapyfirst, board cert psych MD
This is the second time I wrote a response to see it deleted after I did all required. What gives, Dr Grohol?
To Ms Stone and other supporters/defenders of this b.s. legislation: you tell the women who are planning or hoping to get pregnant in the next few years that they will be diagnosed by OBGYNs, Pediatricians, and PCPs with psychiatric labels the way this is being planned. And if you don’t believe me, just wait! You think all the women, (and it will be a lot because do non-psychiatrists have the time and training to discern between legitimate depression versus more common “baby blues” that especially first time moms experience) will go see psychiatrists or other mental health professionals with the recommendation/threat to be put on psychotropics?
We live in a quick diagnosis and treatment intervention world these days, folks, and like I said before, the road to hell is paved with good intentions. Don’t believe me, I just see this crap day in and out having to pick up the messes well intended PCPs and OBs are doing now. We don’t need legislation, we need better education and diminishing the myths and misperceptions that are instead more likely fostered by political interventions.
I’m done with this issue. Good luck to those who will be impacted if it passes!!!
therapyfirst, board cert psych MD
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ummm. Maybe I am optimistic, but I SINCERELY hope that an OB/GYN or other primary care physician can distinguish between “Baby blues” and Postpartum Depression. For one thing, “baby blues” typically only last a few days after birth whereas PPD last months or longer if untreated. I think that this legislation will help in that regard because it funds more research and education and screening initiatives. Also, no one is forcing women to take the antidepressants or for doctors to prescribe them. It’s just recognizing that PPD is a major problem.
Also, as someone who has suffered and nearly died from depression, I find your comments extremely offensive.