Thanks to the many who wrote for the private notes, and for more insight
into this issue.  I was under the impression that SSRIs only worked if you
felt bad because of screwed-up brain chemistry, not if you felt bad because
something awful was going on in your life.

I have had a number of notes from people who have had personal experience,
and about one-third say that SSRIs help even when the triggering event is a
life crisis, and about one-third say that SSRIs don't help at all under
those circumstances, and the final third says that SSRIs can help people a
little bit under those circumstances, but that little bit may be all they
need, or that little bit may allow them to function enough to where they can
at least get out of bed in the morning, or that little bit may allow them to
function enough to get to therapy, etc.

And as I said in my original post with respect to my grad student with
breast cancer, if it helped her to take the drugs, GREAT, but that what I
didn't like was her oncologist's attitude that she was crying FOR NO REASON.
As though she wasn't entitled to feel bad about having cancer or going
through treatment, as though only someone who was mentally ill would feel
bad about what was happening to her.  I thought that was ridiculous.

Kathy Dettwyler

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