Why Women Aren’t Taking Their Antidepressants

Interview: Dr. Colleen Cira, Psy.D. on the issues surrounding women and antidepressants.

Dr. Colleen Cira is a Licensed Clinical Psychologist who specializes in Women and Trauma, so I’ve worked with hundreds of people struggling with depression and the medications that sometimes go along with it. Sometimes women have reservations about antidepressants and this prevents them from taking them regularly and as prescribed by their doctors. There are a few reasons for this:

1) There is still an enormous stigma when it comes to mental health. So someone who has taken the time to find a psychiatrist, make the appointment, go in for the intake and fill their prescription is doing a great job and is ahead of the curve!! AND they are still not immune from feeling that stigma that so many of us do when we acknowledge that we’re struggling with our mental health. So actually taking that pill might make a person, especially a woman, feel “crazy” which might get in the way of taking the medication.

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