Earlier this year, a Canadian journalist posted on X, formerly known as Twitter, that “You shouldn’t be allowed SSRIs until you’ve tried going to the gym twice a week.” The journalist in question is hardly a household name in mainstream circles, but does have more than 538,000 followers on X and her tweet has been read by almost a million people. It’s a quite extraordinarily irresponsible and cruel thing to say. While selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors may well be over-prescribed and shouldn’t be used unless acutely necessary, they have transformed the way in which psychiatry is practised as well as the lives of people dealing with depression, anxiety and stress. Around 10% of North Americans use them, and that number once included me. Twenty years ago, I’d never faced any major health issues and considered myself indestructible. Suddenly, something different happened. I began to feel constant nausea. Not for a few hours, but almost all of the time. I tried every remedy that was suggested, but nothing seemed to help. Then I felt occasional sensations down my arms. Not pain, but something I can best describe as a ripple. After this came a tightening of the throat. I had dizzy spells and couldn’t eat or sleep. One night, it was all so bad that I went to the local emergency department, which is something that I never thought I would do. They assumed that I was having a heart attack, but it seemed ridiculous that a fit young man with no family history of early heart disease would be having a coronary. The doctors were excellent; they examined me with machines which I’d not seen before, took lots of blood and reassured me that all was okay. But it wasn’t. I increased my life insurance and was certain that I was dying. I’d long been a regular in the gym several days a week but had to stop because the nausea and dizziness became even worse when I worked out. I’d never felt anything like it before. I had further tests on my stomach, an MRI and a scan. Nothing was found that was irregular. It was all I could do to go to work and to function. I was existing rather than living. Eventually, our GP – a man of great wisdom who knows me well – said, “Do you think it could be stress?” I was insulted. That’s for middle-class moaners. I’m a working-class hero, we don’t get stress, the Second World War, soccer violence, work for a living, are you kidding and similar BS. My wife was in the waiting room. The doctor called her in to speak to her privately. He then asked me to join them. “You’re doing three or four jobs, often getting just a few hours of sleep a night, sometimes hosting a morning radio show after an evening television gig, writing constantly, travelling all over Canada to give talks, returning on the red-eye so as to work first thing in the morning, and keeping an entire family together on your own efforts. Your mum and dad died, and you had to sell some of your possessions to be able to afford to take the time off and pay for flights, and you never have a day off. And you think stress can’t get to you!” Even then, I was reluctant to agree. He prescribed an SSRI and within two days I simply felt normal. Not high, not euphoric, just ordinary. It was, forgive the hyperbole, miraculous. The sensations had gone and have never returned. I came off of the drug a year later and did it very gradually. It wasn’t easy but I managed. In all honesty, I’ve no idea what would have happened if an experienced and caring doctor hadn’t come to my rescue with a medication that, while not perfect and not for everybody, repaired me and even saved me. It’s so easy to make crass generalizations and to shame people, but it’s so reckless and uncaring. People aren’t fools – they understand the need for diet and exercise, but mental health is far too important to be left to sound bites and sensationalism. Mental health challenges don’t discriminate. They hurt people irrespective of race, class, religion and background. Nor is age an issue, with people in their teens as much as in their 80s hit hard by depression and anxiety. All of these people should be treated with care and love, and compassion and kindness. God forgive those who think otherwise. Opinion with Michael Coren CSANews | SPRING 2024 | 13
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