Scrounger

First topic message reminder :

5th May 2014

Some people say this is a typical scrounger.

This thread is for the benefit of our foreign posters who don't understand our English use of the word scrounger - it doesn't mean all people on benefits - read below to understand it better.

Partying in rowdy bars, downing shots and pints of beer and gleefully clutching a bottle of pink champagne ... these are the holiday snaps of White Dee, one of the stars of controversial TV show Benefits Street.

Dee, whose real name is Deirdre Kelly, claims to be too depressed to go to work and lives off benefits as a result.

Yet here she is living the life of a party girl on an all-expenses-paid, mid-week trip to Magaluf in Majorca.

The mother of two was invited on the four-day holiday by another of her agent’s clients, an American singer.

She was seen drinking a £500 bottle of Moet and lounging around at a private pool party before going on a bar crawl, where she downed copious amounts of alcohol.





Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2620144/Benefits-Street-star-White-Dee-state-handouts-depressed-knocks-shots-beer-day-party-holiday.html#ixzz30qNI3zHr

Escitalopram (not citalopram) is one of the better drugs to treat depression, along with lithium...

Escitalopram is much more expensive than other older drugs like Amitriptyline , but different drugs work for different people ..amd as someone says...some people are worse for taking medicines for depression.

Joy Division wrote:Escitalopram (not citalopram) is one of the better drugs to treat depression, along with lithium...

Escitalopram is much more expensive than other older drugs like Amitriptyline , but different drugs work for different people ..amd as someone says...some people are worse for taking medicines for depression.

Not to mention that if you take all the research the evidence shows that to get the full benefit of any antidepressant it needs to used for a shortish time (6 to 12 months max) and combined with other therapies especially talking ones.

What does not work is putting someone on repeat prescriptions and leaving them there because all that achieves is a person in limbo who OK might not be suicidal but are certainly not well either and have no life or hope.

sphinx wrote:

Joy Division wrote:Escitalopram (not citalopram) is one of the better drugs to treat depression, along with lithium...

Escitalopram is much more expensive than other older drugs like Amitriptyline , but different drugs work for different people ..amd as someone says...some people are worse for taking medicines for depression.

Not to mention that if you take all the research the evidence shows that to get the full benefit of any antidepressant it needs to used for a shortish time (6 to 12 months max) and combined with other therapies especially talking ones.

What does not work is putting someone on repeat prescriptions and leaving them there because all that achieves is a person in limbo who OK might not be suicidal but are certainly not well either and have no life or hope.

Often being on medication long term is better for some who are suicidal and worse without it,talking therapy just isn't for everyone Sphinx, some people are way too deep and would feel most uncomfortable opening up to someone, groups don't work for everyone either, maybe some , but definitely not for others.

Joy Division wrote:

sphinx wrote:

Not to mention that if you take all the research the evidence shows that to get the full benefit of any antidepressant it needs to used for a shortish time (6 to 12 months max) and combined with other therapies especially talking ones.

What does not work is putting someone on repeat prescriptions and leaving them there because all that achieves is a person in limbo who OK might not be suicidal but are certainly not well either and have no life or hope.

Often being on medication long term is better  for some who are suicidal and worse without it,talking therapy just isn't for everyone Sphinx, some people are way too deep and would feel most uncomfortable opening up to someone, groups don't work for everyone either, maybe some , but definitely not for others.

Being on anti depressants more than 12 months is better for someone so rarely as to make it exceptional and not the rule.

There is not one thing called talking therapy - there are a group of therapies that extend from Freudian analysis through to CBT and are as different from each other as the different medications are from each other.

If you look at the evidence it clearly shows that talking therapies (applied properly - 6 sessions which is all the NHS will fund if it funds any is not it applied properly) can and do either cure depression or provide such significant relief that normal life can be lived.

The way depression should be treated - the gold standard - would be as soon as a GP suspects it as a diagnosis the patient is written up for an initial dose of anti depressants with strong clear instructions about how to take them how long they will take to work, the necessity to keep on with them, and the possible side effects including suicidal feelings (isnt it interesting that all antidepressants can cause suicidal feelings as a side effect?) and a 24/7 number to phone if affected by suicidal feelings. Then within 6 weeks the patient would see a fully qualified psychiatrist for a proper 1 to 2 hour assessment during which the amount and frequency of their prescription will be sorted along with a likely time scale for stopping it. The psychiatrist will also decide what of various types of talking therapy would be best and set up the initial sessions - with the expectation that the sessions continue longer than the medication. The patient will then start sessions of a frequency at least once a week for the first few - and whoever is doing the sessions will be trained to monitor and assess the patients medication and to get it adjusted if necessary. As the therapy sessions drop in frequency monitoring of medication should pass back to the GP and see dosage reduced in a controlled manner until it is stopped completely within 12 months.

Now how often do we see that level of treatment applied to people diagnosed with depression?

Oh and at the initial stage of seeing the GP it is essential the GP knows the difference between mental illness and natural reactions to stressful one off events. I say this after having a very misguided CPN tell me there was no such thing as fibro and I had the most severe case of depression they had ever seen and they would be contacting my GP to see me prescribed lithium within 24 hours. This resulted in me arriving on my GPs doorstep in a flat panic (lithium is no lightweight prescription) and spend half an hour in floods of tears with him describing what was going on in my life and asking if I was depressed. Having listened he gently told me that while I was extremely emotional and overwrought such a condition was a natural response to what was going on - and that I was certainly not depressed and definitely did not need any anti depressant yet alone lithium.

Raggamuffin wrote:

Ben_Reilly wrote:

No, I think benefits should be there for those who need them, not to be abused.

What I don't understand is why so many of those who hate those on benefits also seem to loathe work so much.

You obviously don't have a job where you spend hours commuting, or one where you have to sit in a little cubicle all day being abused on the phone.   

For the idiot who keeps sticking her nose into my private life, I was not referring to myself when I posted that.

Raggamuffin wrote:

smelly_bandit wrote:Catman

What about him?   

He is the answer to the question in the title

smelly_bandit wrote:

Raggamuffin wrote:

What about him?   

He is the answer to the question in the title

Yes, that's true. He reckons people on here don't work, which is rich coming from him.