I’ve noticed in recent years that for some reason many have come under the assumption that there is something inherently bad about the use of antidepressants. There is also a number of misconceptions about the medication that I have found to be prevalent in the minds of those who may be in need of it, but are hesitant to take it.

There is one thing I would like to make abundantly clear before I begin debunking some of these myths. Unlike some of the critics of antidepressants, I have significant first-hand experience with the medication. I have been on it since I was sixteen-years-old and it has effectively saved my life.

If I were not medicated, there is no doubt in my mind that I would have succumbed to my depression and committed suicide by this point in my life.

While antidepressants are certainly not to be taken by just anyone and everyone, I highly suggest that those with a clinical diagnosis of depression or similar mental illnesses speak with their doctor about the possibility of being medicated.

Now, let’s start debunking some of the myths and misconceptions I’ve heard regarding antidepressants. First off, they do not make you feel like a zombie. They aren’t sedatives, the idea is not to keep you numb and in a pacified state. You absolutely feel within your right mind as well. You don’t feel high, you don’t feel drugged up, you don’t feel as if you are in a la la land, and you absolutely do not feel like anything other than your normal self, minus the suicidal thoughts and desires.

The analogy I like to make is that it’s like taking vitamins. You don’t feel like Superman after you take a daily vitamin. You don’t start feeling like you are in an altered state of mind because you took some vitamin D. You feel just like your normal self; all it does is help keep the chemicals in your body balanced that your body may not be naturally able to produce enough of. If you do start feeling anything like these common misconceptions, then something is seriously wrong with your balance of medication and you should contact your doctor immediately.

Another common myth is that antidepressants make you happy all the time. That is 100 percent false. It isn’t soma from “Brave New World” even though some critics would have you believe so. I still have the ability to be sad, to cry, to feel emotional pain, and to feel everything I could before while on my medication. Medication has not changed the fact that I’m a pessimist, it has not given me a delusional view of the world that everything is always sunshine and rainbows. It does not make me irrationally happy at any given moment. All it does is give me the ability to be happy.

Before I was medicated, I couldn’t find joy in anything. Nothing seemed to make me happy, I felt nothing for the most part other than negative feelings. I could have simultaneously won the lottery and single-handedly created world peace, and I still wouldn’t have seen any point to it all or have found any pleasure in it whatsoever. My medication simply gives me the ability to have normal human emotions rather than just feel depressed all the time. I by no means am happy and gleeful all the time, nor am I incapable of being saddened.

The last misconception I’d like to tackle is one that particularly pisses me off. There are those in society, some that have even said it to my face, that claim that those on antidepressants are no better than heroin addicts or meth addicts because they are “dependent” on antidepressants just as others are on these drugs. I’d just like to point out that by this logic, all diabetics might as well be heroin addicts because they are dependent on insulin and everyone that takes vitamin supplements because they have a deficiency are essentially meth heads.

The comparison between a hardcore drug addict and someone taking medication as a treatment for a mental disorder is just ridiculous.

As I have pointed out already, the medication does not give you a high nor does it put you in an altered state of mind. I do not crave my medication or take it for pleasure, I take it because I have to. Now part of the argument that people have proposed to me is that I will go through withdrawal if I stop taking my medicine altogether.

While that is true when it comes to the use of SSRIs (selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors), which is a type of medication that the most commonly prescribed antidepressants are classified as, it is also true with mundane things such as caffeine. Drink three or four cups of coffee a day? Trying going a day or two without any and you are likely to experience a caffeine headache, a symptom of caffeine withdrawal.

Besides, even if I give my opponents that point and allow them to chalk that up to a similarity with hardcore recreational drug use, the similarities stop there.

The attack on antidepressants is just another way that society has continued to stigmatize mental health issues. There is nothing wrong with taking a medication that improves your overall health, and to be quite honest, being criticized for it or classified as a drugged up, happy all the time addict isn’t just ignorant, it’s plain absurd.

I encourage anyone with questions regarding antidepressants to seek answers from those who have actual first hand experience with them. I know I wouldn’t mind answering any questions on it myself; I’d rather take the time to talk about it than allow people to continue to speculate and perpetuate this stigma.