It is a well-known fact that prescriptions for antidepressants have double over the past ten years.

I’ve been reading a short article in the Daily Mail (June 30, 2017).

Various reasons have been put forward to explain this, and there’s probably truth in many of them: many women, for example, are struggling with the pressures of trying to raise a family, hold down a job, and look after ageing relatives.

Another factor may be that mental health conditions are more frequently recognised these days, and there is less of a stigma attached to seeking help.

Norman Lamb, health spokesman for the Lib Dems, says that GPs are over-prescribing because of the long waiting lists for mental health services.  He has long campaigned for more invested in mental health.  The argument here is that if more counselling and psychotherapy were available, there would be less need for medication.

I’m reminded of the old story of someone standing on the bank of a fast-running river, frantically pulling out half-drowned bodies, while lacking either the time or the intelligence to go and find out precisely why people are falling, or being thrown, into the river in the first place.

So it was refreshing to read these words from Marjorie Wallace, of mental health charity SANE:-

At the present time, certainty is often regarded as a cardinal sin, while doubt is elevated to the level of a virtue.

Perhaps it’s not as simple as that, after all.  Maybe there are at least some things in life what uncertainty is bad for your health.