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February 3, 2012  David Murray   3 comments

Eight GetReligion comments after eight years
I’ve been enjoying this blog’s commentary on how the media covers religious issues.  Here’s a summary of their experience over the last eight years.

The one on the other side of the screen
Charitable and challenging counsel.

11 brilliant writing commandments from Henry Miller
The ones I need to obey more are numbers 1-11.

How bad is the job market for PhD’s [infographic]
Try this for starters: New doctoral degrees = 100,000; new professorships = 16,000

New drugs for depression
I don’t suggest you go out and try these, but the research is fascinating.

Ligonier’s Theological Stewardship and Ministry Momentum
I so enjoyed this! Very exciting.

Ligonier’s Theological Stewardship and Ministry Momentum from Ligonier on Vimeo.

  • anon

    I have severe recurrent major depression and I’m now desperate enough to sigh up for a clinical trial looking at ketamine. I can’t stand going on like this unable to work and feeling ashamed for that.

  • James S

    The thing about drugs for depression is that so many of them end up changing people’s personality so drastically that they are no longer the person you knew. Also I see people’s creativity disappear.
    And doctors are so quick to prescribe things without thoroughly going over all other possibilities and the medicine’s side effects.

    And whatever you do, if they prescribe you any benzodiazepines, don’t ever run out of them because you can have a seizure and die.

    I am blessed that I can deal with life’s constant misery without prescriptions.
    If someone is sad because their life is real hard or they dont have enough money to eat and to live on ever (like me), then drugs are not an answer.

    Obviously if someone is sad and their life isnt miserable and they Do have enough money to eat regulary and live on, then I can see trying a drug to fix that.

    But consider all the effects and that some drugs like benzos are highly addictive and you cant just stop taking them without very serious health effects. I know people who had seizures because they didnt taper off of them with a program.

    I read that only stopping 2 things can kill you – alcohol and benzos. All other addictive drugs will make you feel lousy coming off them, but only benzos will kill.
    And the problem is that many doctors dont tell the patients this, or some even stop prescribing them without even tapering the patients off them.

    • http://headhearthand.org/blog/ David Murray

      James, I appreciate your concern, but bzd’s are hardly the frontline in treating depression. None of the people I know that have benefited from the common anti-depressants (not the drugs you are talking about) have had any personality change. Certainly their mood has changed – for the better. Here’s what the Royal College of Psychiatrists say about addiction:

      Are antidepressants addictive?

      Antidepressant drugs don’t cause the addictions that you get with tranquillisers, alcohol or nicotine, in the sense that:

      you don’t need to keep increasing the dose to get the same effect;
      you won’t find yourself craving them if you stop taking them.

      Read more here: http://www.rcpsych.ac.uk/mentalhealthinfoforall/problems/depression/antidepressants.aspx