Depression Sucks

Watch the episode here

• People throw around the word Depression
• Antidepressant’s popularity 
• 17% are on antidepressants
• 1 out of 11 men are on antidepressants
• Placing your Health as an Importance
• Start by being active
• Being busy V. active

What shakin’! Welcome back to ALL IN, I’m Rick Jordan, and today we are going ALL IN, things happen in life. And today we’re gonna talk about when you get sad, when you feel down, or when you even get to the point where you feel depressed. Okay? That’s a very interesting word because depression gets thrown around a lot, and I mean a lot in, today. I mean, especially over the last couple years with the pandemic and everything. But you know what? Screw all that because that’s done, that, that is really done at this point. I mean, hell, Joe Biden actually declared it done right? Just the other week, that’s a joke for you. But anyways, this word depression that everybody likes to throw around, you know, and it, it’s crazy because if you look at the stats around the, the most prescribed medications, right? 

Antidepressants are at the very top of that. And it’s insane. The percentages, I’m talking super crazy, the percentages that are actually written for these things as far as how many adults are on antidepressants, it’s insane to me because it seems like this is just a thing that’s just thrown at people by doctors, just to get you to a point to where you can feel okay, because they don’t know what else to do. And see, I have a story, a personal experience about something like this too, because when I was going through a very, very, very difficult time with health, and I’ve talked about what happened on my health journey a bit, right? This was after I dropped weight, after I started eating right, I had a gangrenous gallbladder. You can go back and look up that episode if you’d like. However, that’s not what I’m talking about today. 

What I’m talking about is the actual overuse or overprescribing of antidepressants. That is kind of a huge, huge issue right now, right? And if I’m looking up some stats for you, right, because it, I’m taking a look at, it’s like this is during 2015 to 2018. My health issues were from 2015 into the very part of 2016, because it came to a head in December of 2015 when I actually had my gallbladder removed. Ganger has almost killed me, all of that. But prior to that, a couple months prior to that, because they were doing MRIs in my brain, they were doing all of these things just because they couldn’t find out what was wrong with me for eight months. Turns out there was a dead organ that was eating me alive. Literally, there was something very, very wrong. But throughout the whole course of this, I heard so many times it’s like, well, maybe you, you’re just in a state of depression. 

How’s your life going? You know, maybe this is just anxiety. I remember the first time I went to the er, they pumped me full of at Avan. They’re like, We just wanna try it, right? Because your blood pressure is high at the moment. We just wanna try it because we think this is an, an anxiety attack. When I, I, I was gonna, I did pass out actually in, in the chair at the stylist when I was getting my haircuts right, They had to carry me and put me on the stretcher. It was horrible, Absolutely horrible. I remember going to the, the washroom when I first felt this wave hit me and I’m like, Excuse me, just for one minute, I need to just use the washroom. I go in there and I look in the mirror and I’m literally talking like, “Come on Rick, What the heck is wrong with you?”

What is this? It’s the first time I ever felt anything like that in my life. And then months later, after, they couldn’t find anything physically wrong with me because it was atypical. They said, You know what? We think it’s just depression and anxiety, so we want to give you some meds. And for several months I just said, No, I’m not taking them. It’s like I, my body’s not feeling the way that it is because I’m depressed. However, I could be depressed because of the way that my body is feeling. Did you catch that? And because of all of these individuals, just in essence not believing me that something was really, really bad, that something was wrong. Now, the cdc, here’s a stat for you, right? From 2015 to 2018, I started saying this a little bit ago. 13% of adults use antidepressants in the past 30 days during that three year period. 

That’s like one out of eight adults is on antidepressants. That’s crazy. And you know what? The usage is even higher among women. It’s 17%. That’s almost one out of every five women on antidepressants, whereas men are a little lower, they’re at 8%. So it’s like one out of every 11 men, one out of 11 men, and one out of every five women, five or six women are on antidepressants. That’s ridiculous. That’s actually insane. This is the most overprescribed drug that exists in my opinion. I mean, come on, is one out of five, I mean, and this is even before the pandemic. Everybody, when these stats where I bet you they’re even higher right now, I bet you they’re even higher and it gets even crazier when it comes to age groups. Look at this, right? 8% amongst adults aged 18 to 39. So that’s one out of every 11 or so, right? To 15% for those aged 40 to 59 and those 19%. So one out of every five of every adult, doesn’t matter if you may, male or female for those age 60 or over. Do people really get that depressed as they get older? Come on now. 

Sure, stuff can happen. Health can kick. I know I was there. That’s literally what I’m talking about. Literally what I’m talking about. But still, for people that are, that are getting going in life, that are, that are trying to crush it and go after your dreams, you’re saying that life is too hard. No, I think there’s an issue with these things being overprescribed. And you know what? I need to tell you this because it’s okay to feel the way that you’re feeling. It really is because bad shit happens. A lot of it, I talked about this, you can’t even control some things a lot. You can, right? But you can control your response to ’em. Bad shit happens. And it’s also okay to talk to your doctor about the bad shit. That’s why they’re there. Especially a counselor or a therapist or something like that. 

Go for it, please. A lot of times you just need that person and it could be friends or something else, but don’t let them shove this stuff on you. Now, there could be a very real need for a lot of people, but come on now. Women, one in every five. That’s insane. Men. One in every 11. That’s insane. So many people are taking these things. They’re over-prescribed. This message here is gonna be very controversial. It might piss a lot of you up, but I’m telling you, these drugs, these pharmaceuticals, these antidepressants have a place. They have a place in life for those that really, really need ’em. But I cannot believe that it’s that many. 

I know from my personal experience, that’s all they wanted to shove on me. And you know, I finally conceded at one point in pure transparency, I finally conceded and it got to where I took it for two days and I noticed this change in me in just two days. How I was thinking, right? Which is a side effect. It’s listed there. This is the craziest thing, right? These antidepressants have side effects listed as anger, right? Don’t you get angry when you get sad? Or man, it’s a very real emotion. Those two can be connected. Another side effect is suicidal thoughts and tendencies. The pill that you’re taking to help yourself feel better can make you want to kill yourself. 

This stuff is insane. I know there’s a form of use form. I know certain people should be on them, but to the extent that Americans are on them right now is absolutely mind blowing to me. So I’m gonna tell you some ways today how I dealt with it and how I think you can deal with it. So you don’t have to take these things. Because you know what, A lot of times when you’re sad, a lot of times when you’re feeling really, really down, it’s literally because you’re just letting the stuff come at you. And this happens. You ever want to crawl into a hole in the mornings? I know you do. I know there’s been moments where you lay in bed and you don’t want to get out and face your day. That’s very real. I feel you because I’ve been there. 

The best thing you do is something. Now, when I say that, just absolutely something, not necessarily getting on with your life, because sometimes that can be really, really difficult. But find some things to go after in these moments when you feel sad, when you feel at, at the depths of where you’re at, those are decision times. Those are times to get up and go after something. Remember those dreams that you wrote down, uh, 10 years ago, 20 years ago, whatever it was when you were in school, doodling one day when you’re, when you’re a kid. Those are the things and the times and the moments when you feel the worst is when you’re like, You know what? Maybe now’s the time, because in those times you can be active instead of being sad, that is the best thing to pull you out. This is the cure for depression for most depressions as being active. 

And there’s a difference. Remember I was just saying, I know you’ve had those moments where you’ve been in bed, where you’ve actually not wanted to get out, where you’ve felt like you’ve crawled into a hole and it’s just your safe place in that moment. Being active is very different from being busy. Being busy is the same thing as staying in bed when you’re feeling down. Same thing because you’re feeling your life is nonsense. It’s the same stuff, right? The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over, but expecting a different result. That’s often attributed to Albert Einstein, by the way, which I agree with. When you’re feeling your worst is the time to make a change. When you’re feeling your worst, when you’re feeling sad, when you’re feeling depressed and somebody might label you depression. If someone says, Here, try this pill. 

Pause at that moment and say, What can I do differently in my life tomorrow? What’s one little thing that I can do? I can’t see all the steps in front of me, but I can figure out one thing to do tomorrow. Something because progress brings you fulfillment. No joke. It’s way better than even the outcome because of the sustaining of being persistent, that progress, that journey. As you start to look at every single day and be like, You know what? I have no idea how I’m gonna do this. I have no idea how I’m gonna bring myself out of this, but I know that I can do this one small thing today. I know what I can do today. 

That’s being active, not being busy, cuz busy is filling up your time with stuff that doesn’t matter that you’ve been doing, right? Just to kind you ever, Oh, take your mind off of this. You know, go do this to take your mind off of it. Are you kidding me? I’ve been through a lot of death in my life too with my dad when I was 16 and there was a time period where I just got busy, right? Just went back to the same stuff that I was doing, but I dove in deeper. It didn’t change my state of mind. What changed my state of mind is when I started doing something new. When I started going after different roles. Now business I was naturally attracted to, so I’m like, You know what? I’m gonna do something different here. It was the year after my dad died that I got an early release from high school. 

I had all the credits that I needed to, I was gonna graduate. I’m like, You know what? It’s been a year. I need to do something different. I need to do something drastically different because that’s what’s gonna get me out of this. At the time, I ended up being the, the very youngest store manager in the history of Radio Shack, because I did something different. That’s what pulled me out of it. That’s what pulled me out of being sad and depressed in the moment when my dad died, was making a choice to go after something in my life and doing what I could today to accomplish that. The progress is what will fulfill you. This is different from being busy. 

If you get one thing out of this today, being active is different from being busy, being active, taking decisive choices towards something that you want. That’s what will pull you out of depression. Now, some still may need the pills that they prescribe, but you know what? Don’t be one out of five women or one out of 11 men just because that’s just what doctors do. No joke. That’s the reason I got, Oh, this is just what we do. When you’re feeling this way, we’re gonna, we’re gonna give you these pills. 

That to me, is a real epidemic. A real pandemic is the overuse of these medications when all you need to do is just look around. You get some support. Make a choice today to go after something and be active. That will pull you out of being depressed, and you go ALL IN.