I thought I needed to update this blog to mention that Tuesday, when I had a really good day, and I wrote about how I should just take the stupid pills if they help me feel okay, well that Tuesday, I found out on Wednesday, I had forgotten to take the "stupid" pills. And I had a good day anyway. Go figure.
No, actually, I know what it is. These pills are cummulative. Seldom will one day of not taking them cause a bad day. It's after two weeks or so that things get bad. Which makes it harder to figure out whether or not, and how much, the pills are helping. The law of averages, or human nature, or something, dictate that in any given two week period, there are bound to be some days which are not as good as other days. And while it is nice to blame the differences of the weather, or the human condition, or the boss, or your spouse or kids. it is very nearly impossible to determine exactly why one day is better and one day is worse. You really have to go by averages in this type of situation.
In other words, to see if the pills work, you have to judge how the average of every day for two weeks is ON the pills, and OFF the pills. And unfortunately, it is impossible to redo the previous two weeks with then without pills, in order to see whick is better.
There are some studies which show that taking a placebo is just as effective as taking an antidepressant. My worry about these studies is that perhaps only x number of people are helped by an antidepressant. And perhaps x number of people are helped by a placebo. Who knows if it is the SAME people. x might be 20% or 80% or whatever. Here an example. Say we want to improve people's view of a sporting event which is very crowded. We select 200 people at random, and give half of the a step stool so that they can stand a foot taller to see. The other half get binoculars. Now if these people are truly random, there will be some short people in each group and some tall people. The binoculars will help the tall people see the sporting event better, but will not help the short people, because they will not be able to see over the crowds.
The step stools will help some of the shorter people see better, but will not help the tallerst people, because they can already see above others heads. And of course, the really short folks will not be helped by either accessory. But in each case, perhaps 25% of the participants will report that the item they got helped them to see the event better.
However, we should not conclude that stepstools are just as effective as binoculars, and encourage people to purchase inexpensive step stools in lieu of the more expensive binoculars. That would be foolish.
Each item solves a different problem, even though it was expressed as "I can't see the game very well because of the crowds."
I think depression is really a very complex or perhaps several problems, and that no one solution will work in every case. AND, I worry that people will take pills because they are sad. "My dog died, I lost my job, my rent is due and I don't have the money, and my doctor just diagnosed me with mono, wow, am I depressed" is entirely different from "I have a job I love, I am married to my best friend, I am going to spend the weekend emersed in a craft I love, and I can hardly get out of bed, wow, I am depressed."
Enough for now.
PS Have you ever typed on the wrong keys, so that "enough for now" comes out "rmpihj gpt mpe". I just thought it looked funny.
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