Robin Williams died from depression because he hadn’t been treated to the point of full remission.
One of the biggest shortcomings in the treatment of depression is that doctors and patients are encouraged to accept a partial cure. Part of this is because the tools psychiatrists have for treating refractory depression (which is the kind I have) are inadequate. I do not envy them. They are not at fault, and are usually doing the best they can with the tools available to them.
The therapies we have today to treat depression were mostly developed 35 years ago or earlier. When was the last time you heard about a depression therapy making it to market that wasn’t just another rejiggering of the standard reuptake inhibitors? Sometimes they work a little different, but the mechanism has been around since the late ’70’s at least.
Where are the drugs that target closer to the source?
There needs to be the kind of visibility and activism we have had for other diseases such as AIDS, breast cancer, heart disease, etc. Where are the TV commercials asking us to donate money for depression research? Seen any ballplayers wearing depression awareness ribbons? Even know what color a depression awareness ribbon is?
Activism is important on a personal level, and it starts with the patient’s relationship to their healthcare providers.
If you are reading this and being treated for depression and feel that you are not fully free of the disease do the following:
Next time the doctor asks you “are you feeling better?” or “are you doing okay?” Don’t just answer “yes” and take your prescription and walk out. “Better” and “okay” are not “well.” Look her or him in the eye and say “I am not suicidal, but I am also not in full remission.”
We have a right to seek full remission, which is when all symptoms of the disease are gone. You know the difference between being depressed but functional and not being depressed. Do not settle for the former. You have a right and a duty to seek the latter.
If anyone, be they professional or otherwise, tries to tell you otherwise, with some condescending crap about “nobody feels happy all the time,” or whatever, be firm, and say “I know that. Can you treat me to full remission?” If they ask you what you mean by that, say “to the point where I have no more symptoms.”
If they can’t cure you, at least make them cop to it. And then you have the option to seek treatment elsewhere.
Many healthcare plans restrict the medications their doctors are allowed to prescribe due to economically favorable deals the insurance provider has made with the pharmaceutical companies. Ask your doctor if there are any depression treatments that they are not able to prescribe. The answer may surprise you.
These suggestions are part of what is called “self advocacy” in healthcare. The quality of my care has improved greatly since I started practicing it.
Mental health is worth fighting for, for ourselves and for others. Robin Williams was a depression sufferer who had been treated to partial remission.
Here is a thought from someone who doesnt suffer from depression but has been closely effected by it. I had a very close friend of mine take his own life due to not taking his anti depression medication. He called me during the week he hung himself, and told me he had been “practising.” We talked about suicide for a very long time and I didn’t think that he would actually go through with it. He did. Unfortunately I will carry this with me, and the thought of what I could have done differently that might have helped him to realize how important he was. Not just to me. My point in writing this is that it’s so easy to ignore people and assume everyone is fine. Take care of the people close to you depression or not. Your friends really are a part of you in the end. Probably more than you know.