Are we morally obligated to care for our mental health?

[PerfectTiming]

Some perhaps. But to make any absolute statement that decrees psychotropic medication is the definitive answer to all mental illnesses? Sorry. I’ve seen nothing that definitively supports this. There have been studies that show psychotropic medications will make a mental health situation worse and that could help aid the likelihood of suicide in “some” patients.

That statement in particular is less simple as it may seem. Many anti-depressant medications are associated with such problems, but it is due to the anti-depressants alleviating depressive symptoms - patients are often too depressed originally to get out of bed, let alone kill themselves. It is as the medications begin to help them that they are then in that state where the medication has not kicked into full effect but the patient is no longer so depressed they don’t do anything and that is when the risk of suicide is higher. It’s not a fault of the medication per se but an effect of the improvement to the patient’s symptoms.

 

[hansgeorg]

… it is due to the anti-depressants alleviating depressive symptoms - patients are often too depressed originally to get out of bed, let alone kill themselves. It is as the medications begin to help them that they are then in that state where the medication has not kicked into full effect but the patient is no longer so depressed they don’t do anything and that is when the risk of suicide is higher. It’s not a fault of the medication per se but an effect of the improvement to the patient’s symptoms.

Might have been better to get out of depression by hope than by medication, then. And, precisely, a diagnosis with its social multiple crippling consequences, is not very hope inspiring.