MIDN Development Center is the place I was thinking about. It used to be located in the basement of Luce Hall. If they follow the same rules as they used to, they follow slightly stricter rules than the regular Navy when it came to confidentiality.
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Dealing with suspected Depression at USNA
- Thread starter MidsGirl
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MIDN Development Center is the place I was thinking about. It used to be located in the basement of Luce Hall. If they follow the same rules as they used to, they follow slightly stricter rules than the regular Navy when it came to confidentiality.
Pills vs counselling
This is lost on many people who think a pill will help them deal with stress or whatever is causing them to seek a remedy. As others have mentioned, certain medication can disqualify you or certainly delay or down you from flying status, if not commissioning.
Regardless, the counselling is the critical piece that many ignore in quest for the magic cure-all pill. I've seen too many people not address their issues thinking the pill will do all the work. Just like weight control, the key is tackling the part between your ears. Granted a doctor may prescribe something, but no pill does it all and, as noted, withdrawl from many pills routinely prescribed for stress or attention deficiency disorders is not a pretty nor easy thing to deal with at all.
This is lost on many people who think a pill will help them deal with stress or whatever is causing them to seek a remedy. As others have mentioned, certain medication can disqualify you or certainly delay or down you from flying status, if not commissioning.
Regardless, the counselling is the critical piece that many ignore in quest for the magic cure-all pill. I've seen too many people not address their issues thinking the pill will do all the work. Just like weight control, the key is tackling the part between your ears. Granted a doctor may prescribe something, but no pill does it all and, as noted, withdrawl from many pills routinely prescribed for stress or attention deficiency disorders is not a pretty nor easy thing to deal with at all.
IMHO you wouldn't want to jump right into meds, but he might really need to talk it all out with someone. Remember, that chimp that tore that lady's face off was on Xanax too. Yeah I know xanax is a muscle relaxer. It's just not always good to numb your emotions when you're trying to work through something.
Actually, Xanax is a psychoactive medication. It can treat anxiety or insomnia.
Mood disorders, anxiety, and PTSD often involve a distorted view of reality. The goal of medication therapy should be to allow the patient to control their reactions and electrochemical imbalances well enough to think clearly and restructure their cognitive processes. Brain chemistry affects thought processes, and thought processes produce changes in brain chemistry. Both medication and therapy can produce positive treatment outcomes. However, I believe that therapy is a better first option and allows the patient to make a more informed choice about medication therapy.
Mood disorders, anxiety, and PTSD often involve a distorted view of reality. The goal of medication therapy should be to allow the patient to control their reactions and electrochemical imbalances well enough to think clearly and restructure their cognitive processes. Brain chemistry affects thought processes, and thought processes produce changes in brain chemistry. Both medication and therapy can produce positive treatment outcomes. However, I believe that therapy is a better first option and allows the patient to make a more informed choice about medication therapy.
IMHO the important thing should be getting his life in order, whether he needs the pills or not. Obviously the pills and severity of the depression could have an effect on his career at some point, but I would personally rather be alive and happy then teetering on the verge of suicide in a job I can't handle (if I were him). It's just simply not a lifestyle that everyone is cut out for.....even at such a lowly level as us ENS's. Nothing wrong with that.......make sure he knows this and seeks the proper help rather than worrying about what-if's.
MasterBates
Well-Known Member
Pills should be a LAST resort.
They change people. Sometimes irreversibly, and usually not in a good way.
And my chest is a testament to how scary people can be when they come down off of them. Very few people will see me with a shirt off. Ever. Because of someone who lost their shit when they went off the pills.
They change people. Sometimes irreversibly, and usually not in a good way.
And my chest is a testament to how scary people can be when they come down off of them. Very few people will see me with a shirt off. Ever. Because of someone who lost their shit when they went off the pills.
Good point, pills = bad unless absolutely needed....I was just meaning that the guy should be concerned with getting the proper level of treatment vice being worried about what it will do to his career at this early stage. If it were me, I'd rather know sooner rather than later whether or not the problem was going to be too much for this line of work.
That's why if you go off pills you do it under the close supervision of a psychiatrist. I know I got whacked out when I went off them in high school, but I was definitely regulated when that happened. Going on antidepressants and going off them is not something to be taken lightly, and if he truly needs them in order to function then so be it, but counseling is definitely the way to go first.
And yes they are disqualifying. I lost my appointment to USNA, was on medical LOA my first semester of ROTC until I could get the waiver straightened out, and had to get a bunch of psychological testing to get a waiver to get into aviation. Again, don't take antidepressants as an easy out, but if it comes down to it his mental health and well being is more important than a career.
And yes they are disqualifying. I lost my appointment to USNA, was on medical LOA my first semester of ROTC until I could get the waiver straightened out, and had to get a bunch of psychological testing to get a waiver to get into aviation. Again, don't take antidepressants as an easy out, but if it comes down to it his mental health and well being is more important than a career.
MasterBates
Well-Known Member
Note to self.. Never fly with Commodore Mid.
I read an article recently that nearly a quarter of college students go through depression at some point. I would think if any school should be understanding of this it would be the academy.
Huggy Bear is correct, college students also have by far the highest suicide rate. If he needs help, he needs to get it now.
The reason depression rates are so high is because the number of times a quarter or semester the student is faced with a pass or fail situation. I'm in college right now and usually i have about 20 exams per quarter-if i do poorly on just one of them it throws me into a funk for a while.
The reason depression rates are so high is because the number of times a quarter or semester the student is faced with a pass or fail situation. I'm in college right now and usually i have about 20 exams per quarter-if i do poorly on just one of them it throws me into a funk for a while.
That's not clinical depression, that's being upset about a crappy situation. If you are unhappy for more than 6 weeks despite what is going on, along with a myriad of other symptoms, then you are truly depressed. Everyone feels sad every now and then, but if it doesn't go away, that's when you run into problems.
MasterBates
Well-Known Member
OHMIGOD!!! 20 "PASS FAIL" evolutions per month!!!
How can you stand it!!! The stress! The HORROR!
Until you can change that to "LIVE/DIE" and be OK with it, you may not be looking into the right career.
How do you get thru college nowadays without PTSD!!?!
How can you stand it!!! The stress! The HORROR!
Until you can change that to "LIVE/DIE" and be OK with it, you may not be looking into the right career.
How do you get thru college nowadays without PTSD!!?!
I took a great psych course in college, and we discussed psych drugs and how the vast majority of people who take them don't need them at all, and in some cases were less effective than a placebo. The professor who taught the course was doing research on alternative treatments for mild depression than pharmaceutical drugs. It was all really simple stuff: exercise, light box therapy, taking fish oil (omega 3 fatty acid), and traditional talk therapy to help set up self-reinforcing techniques.
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