Democratic presidential candidate and self-help author Marianne Williamson said Friday that she is worried antidepressants are overprescribed by doctors for what she calls “normal human despair.”
“The twenties can be very hard. They’re not a mental illness. Divorce can be very difficult, losing a loved one, someone that you know died, someone left in a relationship and you’re heartbroken — that’s very painful, but it’s not a mental illness,” Williamson said on BuzzFeed News’ AM to DM. “You had a professional failure, you lost your job, you went bankrupt. Those things are very difficult, but they’re not a mental illness.”
Williamson has written several tweets before displaying skepticism about the helpful effects of antidepressants in cases of depression, for which she has been criticized.
After fashion designer Kate Spade killed herself in 2018, Williamson indicated that celebrity suicides could be connected to antidepressants and Big Pharma.
“How many public personalities on antidepressants have to hang themselves before the FDA does something, Big Pharma cops to what it knows, and the average person stops falling for this? The tragedies keep compounding. The awakening should begin,” Williamson tweeted last year.
How many public personalities on antidepressants have to hang themselves before the FDA does something, Big Pharma cops to what it knows, and the average person stops falling for this? The tragedies keep compounding. The awakening should begin.
— Marianne Williamson (@marwilliamson) June 5, 2018
She also stated that there was no stigma surrounding depression until it became “medicalized” and expressed concerns that many antidepressants are prescribed by doctors who are not mental health professionals.
“Most antidepressants are being prescribed by Dr.s who aren’t even mental health professionals, & many times when people are simply SAD,” Williamson tweeted. “The answer to depression is more scientific research only if you think of it simply in biomedical terms. The medicalization of depression is a creation of the medical industry. For millennia depression was seen as a spiritual disease, and for many of us it still is.”
There was no stigma to depression until it was medicalized. If you yourself were helped, that’s wonderful – but it doesn’t change the fact that most antidepressants are being prescribed by Dr.s who aren’t even mental health professionals, & many times when people are simply SAD.
— Marianne Williamson (@marwilliamson) June 5, 2018
The answer to depression is more scientific research only if you think of it simply in biomedical terms. The medicalization of depression is a creation of the medical industry. For millennia depression was seen as a spiritual disease, and for many of us it still is.
— Marianne Williamson (@marwilliamson) June 6, 2018
According to Yahoo, Williamson told comedian Russell Brand in a 2018 interview that she was diagnosed with clinical depression but “didn’t buy it” because there is no test to diagnose depression. She therefore concluded that she should not be treated with medication.
“Even that’s such a scam,” Williamson said during the interview. “All that means is somebody in a clinic said it. There is no blood test, right. But if you’ve been there you know it.”
Williamson does not have a medical degree or professional license in mental health. When asked on AM to DM if it was appropriate for her to make such claims about antidepressants, she said her area of expertise remains situational human despair.
“I don’t think it’s wrong at all, I very much stay in my lane. I would say when doctors are coming in to talk about situational despair, that they’re getting in my lane. I’ve never weighed in on issues like bipolar, schizophrenia, anything like that,” Williamson said. “That’s not my lane, I’ve never weighed in, and clearly there are medical conditions for which psychotherapeutic drugs have been and continue to be very helpful in people’s lives, and I think that’s true with clinical depression as well.”
