Answer:
Biofeedback isn't the only form of therapy. If you're concerned about taking the medication perhaps you should seek other forms of therapy first if your symptoms aren't interfering with your life too badly. However, if your problems have to do with "PMS" then they're probably mainly chemical in nature. You could still attempt to regulate your reactions to the issues with therapy of some sort but the underlying issues would probably remain. I know that when I was in a worse place in my life and needed the medications I took a higher dosage the week before and during my period...if I didn't I acted exactly like I wasn't medicated for those two weeks. Your hormones play havoc with your system. It isn't fun at all. Now I'm more stable overall so the craziness during those two weeks is more like normal PMS instead of "omg she's gone psycho hide the sharp pointy things and back away slowly" PMS. And remember if you ever disagree or doubt a doctors opinion...you can always get another one.
Yes, they do. They get more money overall if they hand them out. The best thing to do is to get therapy for awhile (from a psychologist, not psychiatrist) and THEN, if that doesn't help, go for the drugs.
And, I have seen too many people who DIDN'T actually need the antidepressants have very negative side effects, including bursts of anger and (gasp) severe depression.
I would listen to your biofeedback counselor. Primary care physicians tend to be overly influenced by drug companies, and therefore in my opinion do hand out drugs too often. There are studies done that reflect that, showing that doctors on average spend less than 3 minutes before they pull out a prescription pad for an antidepressant. Prozac used to be advertised as something to "make your personality better". If you're interested in further researching this, I'd recommend reading the book Blaming the Brain, it's filled with studies about this sort of thing.
Best of luck.
i figure that depression is like any other disease, like high blood pressure or diabetes. those disease are imbalances and require meds. maybe permanently maybe temporarily. depression is an imbalance. why would you live your life unhappy when a medication that has very few side effects could help you through a difficult time? i have been on many meds through my life and now i have reduced them down to one occasional med to help with anxiety. i am not above taking something if i need it. i want to be happy. find a good doc and work with them.
There is a common misconception about SSRI antidepressants (Paxil, Prozac, Zoloft etc.) First of all, these antidepressants are not at all reserved for "hardcore depressed people". What people don't commonly know is that SSRIs can be used to fix a vast variety of psychiatric illnesses (such as anxiety) and are even prescribed to treat other non-psychiatric conditions such as migraines.
In having said that, I do still believe that doctors over-prescribe antidepressants in a sense. Since SSRIs are generally safe and non-addictive, I don't see there being any problem with doctors' common practice of trying these medications before moving onto other, possibly more harmful and less effective ones--the problem I have is that doctors too readily prescribe them for people (such as troubled teenagers) whose problems may be caused by something other than a mere chemical imbalance.
In your case, however (and this is not medical advice--I want to be clear), I think it would be wise to try the Prozac as per the doctor's instructions. There is little chance for side-effects, and then you will at least be able to see whether the cause of what you are going through is indeed a chemical imbalance that can be corrected by the use of an SSRI.
If your PMS is bad enough that it is seriously interfering with your life (Terrible aches and pains, blowing up/verbally abusing others) then prozac is definitely appropriate. That's the standard of using that pill-is your depression more than a temporary thing, and is it interfering with your daily life.
Prozac is used for a lot of things. Someone gave a detailed answer on here about that, she is right. Where docs screw up is handing out the pills when someone has been depressed for a few days. That's not depression, that is a bad situation you are adjusting to. In your case, it's biochemical, and the pills are used for that.