Always, For the most part post-partum depression is a short term, temporary issue. If that was your diagnosis and that is what the Zoloft was prescribed for then the Doctor would have weaned you off when she felt you were ready. No medication should be stopped cold turkey. Sometimes a medication is switched but usually a patient does not stop these types of drugs cold turkey. Doctors are well aware of the risks and side effects of doing so.
On the other hand, clinical depression is a long term battle and a patient who suffers from that diagnosis might have to stay on medications long term or even for life in order to function at full capacity. So any form of withdrawal or side effects from withdrawal is not an issue for them.
The fact that your friend who works within the community knowing what “everyone” is taking is pretty shocking. She really should not have knowledge of such personal information and if she does that certainly is NOT something she should be discussing. When someone shares that, it is “PRIVATE” and confidential. So either she does not know as much as she claims to know or she is exaggerating what she does know. People are not likely to go around speaking about it, nor do professionals go around discussing their clients. In addition there are various medications similar to Zoloft, and patients try many different medications until they find the one that works for them. It is not a one size fits all situation. So while Zoloft works for one, another med works better for someone else in a similar situation. Or one doctor prescribes Zoloft while another doctor had better results with a similar drug from another company. S/he might have experienced less side effects with their patients or less drug interaction, or whatever. In addition, different patients take different dosages depended on their need, age, weight and other variables. Some are taking it in conjunction with other psychotropic drugs and some just need the one. Every patient and every situation is different.
And yes I am the person behind my comments as are you. You assume that I was placing fault on you. This has nothing to do with “fault” it has everything to do with responsibility. To me the reader, it sounded like YOU were placing fault on your psychiatrist or any psychiatrist for prescribing medication for you or anyone else. To me that was very irresponsible. And yes it is the responsibility of the patient to choose their health care professional carefully and to agree to the treatment. There are many patients who either research the medication on their own or have a friend or family member do it before they agree to take it. In addition, the patient has to feel comfortable both with the health care provider and their method of treatment.
There are many people who NEVER take any medication and rely fully on holistic and organic healing. To each their own.
You are entitled to your opinion that medication is being overprescribed but that is only an opinion if you don’t have the facts and the stats to support it. There are many, many more people suffering in silence who never even see a health professional to help them with their mental health issues. And those that do have waited many years and waited till their issues were truly unmanageable until they gave in and went to see someone. So I would say that in the first place mental health is not something that patients address as soon as they should. And in the second place, by the time they get to a therapist whether they are an MD or not, they need immediate care.