Malicious compliance time. Bedpan in the house chamber.

It is possible for addiction and physical dependence to have overlap (and for many drugs this is common) but they are mutually exclusive - one does not necessarily imply the other and the presence of one does not mean there is the presence of the other.

Interesting. I’d always used the terms interchangeably, because I did not realize that there was a difference. I’ll look into it, and won’t repeat the mistake. Thanks for taking the time to respond.

Yes, antidepressants are not considered addictive by the same big pharma companies who told us that Oxycodone was not totally fine.

Honestly asking, because I don’t know. What is the difference between a physical dependence and addiction? Because there is certainly a physical dependence with SSRIs, whatever word you want to use.

If they aren’t addictive, but cause the same withdrawal symptoms which result from addiction, in some cases severely, then what should we call them? Again, I’m not trying to be snarky. If I am using the word “addiction” incorrectly I’m willing to be educated. I’m just speaking from my own experience.

If you read this and saw me defending RFK, you misinterpreted me. I specifically said I’m not a fan.

This is what I am saying. Antidepressants are highly addictive and it doesn’t get talked about. The commenter I replied to said that this article deeply misunderstands addiction, which I interpreted to mean that the commenter doesn’t know how addictive SSRIs are. That’s not surprising, a lot of people don’t know how addictive they are. There are many valid reasons to stop taking an antidepressant, and it’s very difficult. We should do something to help those people besides force them to check into a psych ward. That’s what I said, and I meant it.

It’s very common to be misdiagnosed with depression and put on an SSRI when it’s not going to help. (SSRIs will generally not help a mood disorder like bipolar, for instance). SSRIs are highly addictive in that discontinuing them often comes with pretty severe withdrawal. So it’s not just a matter of “you can think your way out of depression” because a lot of people quit SSRIs for very good reasons - moving to a more appropriate treatment being one of them, and often it requires hospitalization because of how awful the withdrawal is, even with tapering the dose down.

I am not a fan of RFK Jr. Politically I’m a good distance to the left of liberal. But honestly, if implemented correctly this could help a whole bunch of people who are trapped on SSRIs prescribed by a doctor who didn’t really know how to diagnose them, and could also help a lot of nonviolent offenders who just need help beating their addiction. I understand that ‘if implemented correctly’ is a big ask with this administration, but let’s maybe not throw the baby out with the bathwater.

While I’m not a fan of RFK Jr., this seems to be a misinterpretation of what he’s saying. Regarding antidepressants, he said, “other psychiatric drugs, if they want to, to get off of SSRIs, to get off of benzos, to get off of Adderall, and to spend time as much time as they need…” (emphasis mine)

It seems like, in addition to drug related offenses (which is its own rather thorny issue) he intends for this to be for people who want to stop taking SSRIs, benzos, and other psych meds and need support doing it. I’m not seeing any indication that this would be involuntary, and I’m certain that if he said anything like that the quote would be present, but it’s not.

Having seen how devastating the withdrawal can be for some psych meds, even with tapering, I can’t say that this seems like a bad idea on its face. So many people try to quit psych meds and end up hospitalized; I’ve believed for a long time that there should be some sort of recovery program for people coming off of these medications, because they will 100% mess you up when you start taking less.

Now, adderall I don’t really understand its inclusion here, because it isn’t known for withdrawal.