does going to a chippendales show mean you are no longer depressed?

To The North

linkage

A Canadian woman on sick leave for depression said Monday she would fight an insurance company's decision to cut her benefits after her agent found photos on Facebook of her vacationing, at a bar and at a party.

Nathalie Blanchard said Monday she was diagnosed with major depression and was receiving monthly sick-leave benefits until payments dried up this fall.

When Blanchard called her insurance provider, Manulife, to find out why, she says she was told the Facebook photos showed she was able to work.

"If you have insurance, be careful. This is a major battle and it's not going to be easy," Blanchard, 29, said in a telephone interview from her home in Bromont Quebec.

She said her insurance agent described several pictures Blanchard posted on Facebook, including ones showing her having a good time at a Chippendales bar show, at her birthday party and on a holiday.
Blanchard said Manulife told her it was evidence she is no longer depressed.

Her lawyer, Tom Lavin, said Blanchard was wrongfully dismissed from her benefits, and she had the right to go on a sunny vacation.
"The issue for me is that they stopped her disability benefits without the proper medical recommendations. Her doctor recommended she go on vacation," he said.

Blanchard said she took three four-day trips when she was feeling especially low, on her psychiatrist's advice.

Manulife declined to comment on the case specifically but has said in a statement that "we would not deny or terminate a valid claim solely based on information published on Web sites such as Facebook."

Still, Lavin said the issue raises concerns for anyone who expects their private life to remain so if they post personal information to social networking sites such as Facebook.

"It's good warning for people who use Facebook. It's not like being at home and writing in your diary. It's out there for the whole world to see," he said.

and also how did her insurance company see photos on her facebook page? i thought they were private pages unlike myspace for example?

dubtom

This is indeed a worrying development. The chippendales are still in existence,how very 90's.

dr.bollocko

I see they're from the "A good cock, that's what she needs" school of medicine.

SV

Just another one of the millions who have no idea what depression is or is like to live with.

genericguy

meh, if i were the boss i'd sack her. i personally don't consider depression an illness, and if somebody rang me as their employer to tell me they weren't coming into work because they were 'sad', they be out the window, never mind the door.

admiralofthefleet

it means you have bingo wings

To The North

genericguy wrote: »

meh, if i were the boss i'd sack her. i personally don't consider depression an illness, and if somebody rang me as their employer to tell me they weren't coming into work because they were 'sad', they be out the window, never mind the door.

ooooooer might be opening a can of worms there!

depression is a lot more than being 'sad'.

Grimebox

genericguy wrote: »

meh, if i were the boss i'd sack her. i personally don't consider depression an illness, and if somebody rang me as their employer to tell me they weren't coming into work because they were 'sad', they be out the window, never mind the door.

wow

Fuhrer

She should have said she was on strike, could have got a nice day of shopping in as well.

Gummy Panda

genericguy wrote: »

meh, if i were the boss i'd sack her. i personally don't consider depression an illness, and if somebody rang me as their employer to tell me they weren't coming into work because they were 'sad', they be out the window, never mind the door.

KEYBOARD WARRIOR ALERT!!

:pac:

Dudess

I think going to a Chippendales show is an excellent idea if you're in need of a laugh.

indough

genericguy wrote: »

meh, if i were the boss i'd sack her. i personally don't consider depression an illness, and if somebody rang me as their employer to tell me they weren't coming into work because they were 'sad', they be out the window, never mind the door.

ha! thats sort of akin to saying an alcoholic 'likes the odd drink'

To The North

Dudess wrote: »

I think going to a Chippendales show is an excellent idea if you're in need of a laugh.

her insurers seemed to think it was a valid excuse for them not to pay her anymore though, seems a bit extreme to me. i wonder how she'll get on fighting them on it?

Gummy Panda

dr.bollocko wrote: »

I see they're from the "A good cock, that's what she needs" school of medicine.

Wait.. isn't that what most of your prescriptions prescribe?

genericguy

indough wrote: »

ha! thats sort of akin to saying an alcoholic 'likes the odd drink'

i don't understand your analogy.

depression is not an illness, it is an emotion. simple as that.

if you feel depressed, change whatever is wrong with your life, don't just ask for fcuking tablets.

Mrmoe

I would say she has a legitimate case, insurance companies in general will look for any excuse not to pay.

bigeasyeah

genericguy wrote: »

i don't understand your analogy.

depression is not an illness, it is an emotion. simple as that.

if you feel depressed, change whatever is wrong with your life, don't just ask for fcuking tablets.

A simpleminded post.Depression is a lot more complicated than that.

Kirnsy

genericguy wrote: »

meh, if i were the boss i'd sack her. i personally don't consider depression an illness, and if somebody rang me as their employer to tell me they weren't coming into work because they were 'sad', they be out the window, never mind the door.

spoken like someone who doesnt have a clue what they are talking about and just wants a bit of attention.

stepbar

genericguy wrote: »

meh, if i were the boss i'd sack her. i personally don't consider depression an illness, and if somebody rang me as their employer to tell me they weren't coming into work because they were 'sad', they be out the window, never mind the door.

Troll much?

genericguy

Kirnsy wrote: »

spoken like someone who doesnt have a clue what they are talking about and just wants a bit of attention.

yep that's it. anyone who doesn't agree with the majority and all that...

i've read extensively on depression and this is the opinion i have formed.
if you're depressed you need to sort your life out, taking pills for that is like sticking a plaster on a bullet wound.

kowloon

genericguy wrote: »

i don't understand your analogy.

depression is not an illness, it is an emotion. simple as that.

if you feel depressed, change whatever is wrong with your life, don't just ask for fcuking tablets.

Think you're confusing clinical depression and having a bad day.
The brain is an organ like any other.
On the same line of argument diabetics are people who have a lazy ass pancreas, produce insulin you slackers!

Acoshla

genericguy wrote: »

if somebody rang me as their employer to tell me they weren't coming into work because they were 'sad', they be out the window, never mind the door.

If someone just felt sad, I'd be telling them to suck it up and get their ass into work. If someone's depressed it's a completely different story, they didn't just wake up one morning and decide to feel that way, although, I'm not gonna bother trying to explain that, some people never get it, like my friend's Dad, who on hearing she had been officially diagnosed with depression asked her why she didn't just cheer up? :eek:

PS. I've been to a male strip club in Quebec, with some friends and a few dollars it's the best place to go to feel better! (Mmm Rick, best $9 I ever spent! :P)

SV

genericguy wrote: »

yep that's it. anyone who doesn't agree with the majority and all that...

i've read extensively on depression and this is the opinion i have formed.
if you're depressed you need to sort your life out, taking pills for that is like sticking a plaster on a bullet wound.

Really?
Have you ever experienced it?

kowloon

Spadina wrote: »

PS. I've been to a male strip club in Quebec, with some friends and a few dollars it's the best place to go to feel better! (Mmm Rick, best $9 I ever spent! :P)

:eek:

To The North

genericguy wrote: »

yep that's it. anyone who doesn't agree with the majority and all that...

i've read extensively on depression and this is the opinion i have formed.
if you're depressed you need to sort your life out, taking pills for that is like sticking a plaster on a bullet wound.

reading extensively is not the same as experience of having depression or living with someone who's suffering.

although i do agree that it does need more than simply taking medication (i've seen the negative side of depending on tablets alone to do the job), but i think you're being a bit too totalitarian about it, it's not a black or white kind of thing.

4zn76tysfajdxp

genericguy wrote: »

meh, if i were the boss i'd sack her. i personally don't consider depression an illness, and if somebody rang me as their employer to tell me they weren't coming into work because they were 'sad', they be out the window, never mind the door.

Tone it down, please.

Acoshla

kowloon wrote: »

:eek:

Yup, $9 for a dance lasting one song, my God he was beautiful, and his photo is on the club's website so I reminisce now and again

genericguy

SV wrote: »

Really?
Have you ever experienced it?

i've had two friends over the years who were diagnosed with depression, and pumped full of any tablet the pharmacy had handy to no avail. coming off that shyte and dragging themselves back into society is what helped them. then on the other hand, there's a friend of my mother's who has been on pills for 20 years and is still incapable of living a normal life.

although my second-hand experiences don't represent a statistically relevant sample of all the supposed cases in the country, i think they and many others i have read about speak for themselves.

And to the poster above about diabetes - read about both, you're misinformed.

stepbar

genericguy wrote: »

yep that's it. anyone who doesn't agree with the majority and all that...

i've read extensively on depression and this is the opinion i have formed.
if you're depressed you need to sort your life out, taking pills for that is like sticking a plaster on a bullet wound.

That's like saying I've read the book on football tactics and now I'm ready to be a football manager...........

I think it might be time for you to take a sticking plaster to your ass.

Dudess

genericguy wrote: »

i've read extensively on depression and this is the opinion i have formed.

.

kowloon

True, there might be a culture of throwing drugs at people instead of tackling the problem, but there are very real forms of depression that are the result of biology and not simply bad fortune or outlook.

To The North

genericguy wrote: »

i've had two friends over the years who were diagnosed with depression, and pumped full of any tablet the pharmacy had handy to no avail. coming off that shyte and dragging themselves back into society is what helped them. then on the other hand, there's a friend of my mother's who has been on pills for 20 years and is still incapable of living a normal life.

that's our medical system failing them though, it's not the fault of the sufferers. my experience is that people trust their doctors and that's hard for people to let go of.

irish_bob

genericguy wrote: »

i don't understand your analogy.

depression is not an illness, it is an emotion. simple as that.

if you feel depressed, change whatever is wrong with your life, don't just ask for fcuking tablets.

yeah , the only people that makes happy is your doctor and pharmacist

genericguy

To The North wrote: »

reading extensively is not the same as experience of having depression or living with someone who's suffering.

although i do agree that it does need more than simply taking medication (i've seen the negative side of depending on tablets alone to do the job), but i think you're being a bit too totalitarian about it, it's not a black or white kind of thing.

reading is definitely not even on the same spectrum as first-hand experience. the problem with people though, is that they've now been brought up in a world where the answer to any self-doubt has become a tablet, and if more people adopted a 'black and white' approach to problems sometimes, then controllable issues like depression and alcoholism would be forgotten about.

Gummy Panda

Spadina wrote: »

Yup, $9 for a dance lasting one song, my God he was beautiful, and his photo is on the club's website so I reminisce now and again

Are you now on one of those websites where the stripper does the full monty behind a towel and tries to get the girl to lick whipped cream of him? :pac:

To The North

genericguy wrote: »

reading is definitely not even on the same spectrum as first-hand experience. the problem with people though, is that they've now been brought up in a world where the answer to any self-doubt has become a tablet, and if more people adopted a 'black and white' approach to problems sometimes, then controllable issues like depression and alcoholism would be forgotten about.

i tend to believe that what we need to change is how we approach illness, so rather than simply giving people drugs as an answer we give them lifestyle changes and support that will help them get back on the right track.

telling someone they don't have a problem won't help, but giving someone solutions to a problem (other than just simply taking medication) will take them much further.

irish_bob

genericguy wrote: »

i've had two friends over the years who were diagnosed with depression, and pumped full of any tablet the pharmacy had handy to no avail. coming off that shyte and dragging themselves back into society is what helped them. then on the other hand, there's a friend of my mother's who has been on pills for 20 years and is still incapable of living a normal life.

although my second-hand experiences don't represent a statistically relevant sample of all the supposed cases in the country, i think they and many others i have read about speak for themselves.

And to the poster above about diabetes - read about both, you're misinformed.

your getting a bum rap on this thread generic guy , i can see you mean well , i myself suffered from depression ten years ago due to an extremley traumatic event in my life , i went on tablets for a while and they done nothing , i dont believe that people get depressed for no apparent reason , someone or something triggered it , i dont buy the chemical imbalance line , its too vague and when it comes to the brain , thier is no universally accepted truth anyway , the best and IMO opinion only way to deal with depression is to make positive changes in ones life , that can involve cutting toxic people out of your life , relocating or whatever , eating anti depressants turns you into another couch sitting bore

genericguy

kowloon wrote: »

True, there might be a culture of throwing drugs at people instead of tackling the problem, but there are very real forms of depression that are the result of biology and not simply bad fortune or outlook.

every emotion has a neurochemical basis. i stand by my point - depression is generally long-term sadness caused by long-term bad fortune, and simply demands an overhaul of the portion of one's life where the causative factor resides. it is not by any stretch of the imagination a disease, much less a disease comparable to cancer or diabetes where pharmacological intervention is essential to survival. it simply requires an examination of one's lifestyle.

Acoshla

kowloon wrote: »

True, there might be a culture of throwing drugs at people instead of tackling the problem, but there are very real forms of depression that are the result of biology and not simply bad fortune or outlook.

Just to give an example of how ridiculous the medical system is now:

A few months ago I went to the doctor, I told him that I just didn't feel right, I was very stressed at the time, I wasn't sleeping well, felt anxious, jittery, and had pain across my lower back, he told me I was "perfectly healthy" and that I just needed to calm down. I left feeling like an idiot, that I was imagining all of it.

The next morning I had a panic attack. I had woken up feeling the same, jittery, shaky, and it all just got too much and I broke down. My boyfriend spent the whole day trying to contact the doctor while I was a mess, lying in bed crying. He returned the call the next morning, told my boyfriend I just had to calm down, and that if my boyfriend agreed he could put me on sedatives for a few months, it would make me drowsy all the time but if I didn't calm down it was the only answer :eek:

I went home to my own GP, he listened to how I felt, asked a few questions...turns out I had a raging kidney infection, my first ever, shaking and chills are a common symptom, which I didn't know. A course of antibiotics was what I needed, not sedatives. The other doctor would've happily drugged me up to my eyeballs, the lazy prick.

wudangclan

genericguy wrote: »

every emotion has a neurochemical basis. i stand by my point - depression is generally long-term sadness caused by long-term bad fortune, and simply demands an overhaul of the portion of one's life where the causative factor resides. it is not by any stretch of the imagination a disease, much less a disease comparable to cancer or diabetes where pharmacological intervention is essential to survival. it simply requires an examination of one's lifestyle.

...certainly an examination of ones mode of thinking.

genericguy

http://www.plosmedicine.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pmed.0050045

for anyone accusing me of trolling previously, please have a quick read of the paper i've linked to. the drugs that 'treat' and 'cure' so many have, for the most part, no effect whatsoever, yet people still claim they feel better having taken them.

the condition is not a disease.

G_R

genericguy wrote: »

i don't understand your analogy.

depression is not an illness, it is an emotion. simple as that.

if you feel depressed, change whatever is wrong with your life, don't just ask for fcuking tablets.

it really really really isnt as simple as that.

My da suffers from depression big time and i can assure you its a lot more than being sad. Its not having the ability to see a good or happy side to anything. The anti-depressants help but dont solve it by any stretch of the imagination. There are weeks when a depressed would like nothing more than to curl up on their bed, talk to no one, eat nothing and not even wash themselves sometimes. And this person could be from a really happy home, with a good life, good job etc etc., but then depression will just turn on every now and then and everything is bad.

wudangclan

dannym08 wrote: »

it really really really isnt as simple as that.

My da suffers from depression big time and i can assure you its a lot more than being sad. Its not having the ability to see a good or happy side to anything. The anti-depressants help but dont solve it by any stretch of the imagination. There are weeks when a depressed would like nothing more than to curl up on their bed, talk to no one, eat nothing and not even wash themselves sometimes. And this person could be from a really happy home, with a good life, good job etc etc., but then depression will just turn on every now and then and everything is bad.

As someone who has suffered from depression myself in the past I would have to agree with most of what genericguy has said.
Any emotion will change the neuro-chemical balance of the brain,love for example. Depression also and anti-depressants can help reverse the chemical imbalances but they won't remove the root cause.

genericguy

dannym08 wrote: »

it really really really isnt as simple as that.

My da suffers from depression big time and i can assure you its a lot more than being sad. Its not having the ability to see a good or happy side to anything. The anti-depressants help but dont solve it by any stretch of the imagination. There are weeks when a depressed would like nothing more than to curl up on their bed, talk to no one, eat nothing and not even wash themselves sometimes. And this person could be from a really happy home, with a good life, good job etc etc., but then depression will just turn on every now and then and everything is bad.

man, honestly, i really don't wish to appear insensitive. but there's nothing in the symptoms you describe that could stop somebody from at least grabbing a depressed person and exposing them to something that would take their mind off their perceived condition long enough to have a chat about the source of their problems.

Pace2008

genericguy wrote: »

http://www.plosmedicine.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pmed.0050045

for anyone accusing me of trolling previously, please have a quick read of the paper i've linked to. the drugs that 'treat' and 'cure' so many have, for the most part, no effect whatsoever, yet people still claim they feel better having taken them.

the condition is not a disease.

I don't have time to look at this trial properly right now, but judging by the abstract all it shows is the power of the placebo effect, and the inefficacy of the drugs used to treat depression. You can slow the spread of cancer with inactive sugar pills but this doesn't make the disease any less real.

Euro_Kraut

Anti-depressants are to depression as pain killers are to broken legs. They do not cure the problem but they allow a person to live as normal as possible a life while the problem is being cured.

Any treatment for depression based solely on anti-depressants is flawed. I very much doubt any doctor would suggest that a paintent presenting with depression should just take drugs. They would encourage talking therapy along side the anti depressants.

To return to the broken leg analogy - talking therapy is to depression as physiotherapy is to broken legs.

Of all long term illness I think depression is the one that is most difficult for non suffers to understand. There is no physical manifestation, but believe me it still hurts like hell.

Acoshla

Euro_Kraut wrote: »

Anti-depressants are to depression as pain killers are to broken legs. They do not cure the problem but they allow a person to live as normal as possible a life while the problem is being cured.

To return to the broken leg analogy - talking therapy is to depression as physiotherapy is to broken legs.

Of all long term illness I think depression is the one that is most difficult for non suffers to understand. There is no physical manifestation, but believe me it still hurts like hell.

Very well put Euro_Kraut

genericguy

Pace2008 wrote: »

but judging by the abstract all it shows is the power of the placebo effect, and the inefficacy of the drugs used to treat depression. You can slow the spread of cancer with inactive sugar pills but this doesn't make the disease any less real.

not so much. that paper shows that mainstream drugs failed to outperform placebos to a clinically significant extent. in the case of placebos vs cancer drugs, there are indeed reports of patients receiving placebos who have demonstrated reduced tumor growth, but any such case would have been completely outperformed by any marketable therapeutic agent.

kowloon

genericguy wrote: »

every emotion has a neurochemical basis. i stand by my point - depression is generally long-term sadness caused by long-term bad fortune, and simply demands an overhaul of the portion of one's life where the causative factor resides. it is not by any stretch of the imagination a disease, much less a disease comparable to cancer or diabetes where pharmacological intervention is essential to survival. it simply requires an examination of one's lifestyle.

Certainly there are a huge number of cases where the real cure is councelling, but you can't tar all cases with the same brush. Perhaps the problem is depression being used as a catchall for a whole host of different problems, psychological and physiological. I think ADHD might be similar in this respect.

indough

genericguy wrote: »

depression is not an illness, it is an emotion. simple as that.

that is honestly one of the dumbest things ive ever read

wudangclan

The latest weapon in the battle against depression announced .