How to get medicine for anxiety or depression
By: Callum Denault
Published on: April 12th, 2024
Mental health is as important for your wellbeing as your physical health, and even though it can be isolating to suffer from an invisible disability such as anxiety or depression, you are not alone. In 2013, three million Canadians over the age of 18 said they had a mood and/or anxiety disorder, and these conditions have been more common ever since the early COVID-19 pandemic.
Medicine can be an effective treatment for mental health problems, although it may not work immediately or for everyone. This article will go over how you can safely and securely look into getting medicine for mental health issues.
Getting a family doctor
Family doctors, also known as general practitioners, are doctors who see their patients on a regular basis in order to check on the health of their entire body and mind. General practitioners often serve as a person’s first point of contact for getting medical help, given they are trained to recognize and treat a variety of problems, as well as refer patients to specialists who can give more intense care for more serious problems.
Several drugs in Canada—including those used to treat depression and anxiety—are prescription drugs, meaning you can only legally get them when a medical professional hands you a prescription telling the pharmacist what type of drug you are allowed to get and in what dose. Medical doctors, dentists, and veterinarians are among the people allowed to write you a prescription, and while these controlled drugs are given to hospital patients free of charge, the laws for prescription medicine access outside of hospitals is different in each province. Here is a list of public programs to help people access prescription drugs in each province.
The Canadian government has advice on how to find a family doctor, which includes asking people you know or contacting a settlement services provider for help.
A settlement services provider is meant to help newcomers adapt to life in Canada, such as by helping newcomers find work, a school for kids, language classes, and other useful services. Using this link, you can enter your address, postal code, or city to find a settlement services provider near you. Quebec has its own immigration department in charge of helping newcomers, which includes helping them find a family doctor. Newcomers hoping to find help settling before they physically arrive in Canada can apply for pre-arrival services.
How antidepressants work and how to take them
There are several chemicals in the brain which keep people regular and happy, these include serotonin, norepinephrine, and dopamine. These chemicals—called neurotransmitters—need to be in a certain amount for your brain to be healthy, and if they are unbalanced it can lead to several mental health issues including depression. Antidepressants can fix this imbalance, but only if used properly.
If you are suffering from symptoms like sadness, despair, suicidal thoughts or thoughts of self-harm, lack of energy, lack of motivation, and/or trouble concentrating for two weeks or more, you might want to consider getting medicine. Antidepressants can also be used to treat other conditions, such as anxiety, bulimia, and chronic pain. However, these drugs may have side effects that do not help manage depression, which is why it is best to go to a doctor who can monitor your treatment and give you the best medicine possible. Doctors often start you with a low dose to ease your body into the medication, which reduces the side effects.
The Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) says your doctor might also change your dose, tell you to take your medicine at a certain time of day, or put you on a completely different medication entirely. In addition to this, CAMH also suggests ways you can help manage the side effects of antidepressants on your own. This includes regular exercise and a healthy diet with low amounts of sugar and a high amount of fibre (to prevent gaining fat and constipation), preventing dry mouth by brushing your teeth regularly, drinking water, and using sugarless gum or candy, as well as avoiding dizziness by getting up slowly whenever you are sitting or lying down.
Some people may actually have an increase in suicidal thoughts when taking medication, which is thought to be a result of the medicine making a person more energetic before it gets rid of their depressive symptoms like sadness and self-hatred. This is more common among teens and young patients. CAMH says people should prepare to feel worse before they get better whenever they start antidepressants, and tell their doctor about how they feel on it.
Your doctor can help you decide if you want to continue a medication despite the side-effects or stop taking it entirely, and they can also help you try a new drug if you feel like the one you are currently taking is not working. Do not stop taking antidepressants without letting your doctor know first, since quitting antidepressants may cause withdrawal symptoms, including an increase in depression or anxiety. Antidepressants are not addictive, but taking them and then stopping means your body is no longer used to regulating its depression under its own power. This is why having a doctor help you along the path of taking and quitting medication is so important, because they know the safest way to do these things.