Should Depressed People Avoid Having Children?

Only if they are chronically depressed and have major identity issues.

http://healthland.time.com/2012/06/05/should-depressed-people-avoid-having-children/

Well anytime you turn on the tv, you see ads for class action lawsuits against anti-depressants for the damages that being inpig while taking them can cause so if you are that depressed to the point of having to take meds in the first place and you are not willing to give up your anti-depressants for 9 months, then you have NO business having kyds until you are mentally fit. I am still baffled how moo's can sue (and actually win) lawsuits against the drug manufactures because of the birth defects. On the commercials, labels and the pamphlet, it clearly states that ,birth defects can occur if taken while inpig.

You chose to take the drug, you chose to be inpig so no one else is responsible for the outcome of the kyd other than you. Take some damn responsibility for your actions and quit being sue happy already. If I was born with something like a cleft palate due to my moo taking drugs that she knew she shouldn't be taking while inpig with me, it would be her that I would sue, not the drug manufacture. No wonder why medications are so damn expensive!

Now if you have some serious mental illness such as psychosis, multiple personality disorder, ect then no you should not breed even if there is no chance your kid will inherit it.

When I was 19, my mom developed drug induced psychosis. I am really glad that this did not occur until I was an adult and able to get away from the situation. I could not imagine having to deal with that as a kyd.

In some cases, it's not a matter of whether or not you're willing to drop the drugs, but whether or not you CAN, without posing a risk to yourself, or others... in which case, NO!!!!! You absolutely shouldn't breed, if you're depressed. I believe if the situation is closely monitored, it's fine, but the doctor should really, really be heavily invested in letting the impending moo know whether or not birthing children is advisable.


As far as inheriting depressive disorders... it really depends upon the disorder, and how bad it is, I think, that should be considered, as well as a doctor's advice, that should be considered if a person, male or female, is thinking about having children.

Depression is a good excuse when trying to get fixed or get an IUD...

If the illness is hereditary, people should not pass it on.

If the illness cannot be inherited, people who are ill should still not have children because the illness will have a negative impact on the child's life.

If you need medication on a daily basis, you should not breed.

Of course, something like 99.9% of people should not be breeding.

I'm sure people with depression who go off of their meds...couldn't possibly get sick during pregnancy and then suffer with post partum depression....or post partum psychosis....nah, they should be alright once the blessed loaf arrives.

Depressed people SHOULD NOT breed, or people with other psychological and emotional disorders for that matter. I grew up with a mother and father who both took a whole slew of anti-depressants, anti-anxiety, and anti-godknowswhat meds along with drinking heavily... It is not pleasant.

Even if a moo can manage to layoff the prescription meds for 9 months while incubating spawn, she should still avoid having kids because of the high chance of passing on depression, and not to mention putting the child through extreme emotional stressors of having a whacked-out parent... Hell, there are probably hundreds of reasons depressed moos shouldn't breed.

The mentally-ill should not be breeding period especially if its severe. Its totally unfair for a child to have to grow up with a MI parent. Afterall, the kid didn't even ask to be born. If you need to take meds while pregnant thats probably a good indication that you should not be breeding.

Passing on bad genes aside, taking care of a kid when you yourself is facing a mentally-illness is beyond difficult. Speaking from personal experience, while depression doesnt run in my family I have had bouts with it, I also strongly feel I'm a perfect candidate for post-partum depression. I cant imagine having to muster up the energy to take care of a kid. I also know a few people who are bi-polar and believe me, for these friends, breeding is the last thing on their mind. In fact, most of them find that sometimes just waking up every morning a challenge.

Usually when it comes to whacko-Moos, their train of thought is, "I'll just go off my meds that I need to stay sane for nine months" or, "I wanna baybee nooooowwww! I'll just stay on my meds, nothing will happen" and then sue when the kid comes out all fucked up.

People who are mentally ill in any way should not be breeding; sane people can be driven nuts by kids, so if you're nuts before the piss stick turns blue, you're going to be a hell of a lot worse off if you decide to get knocked up. What kind of upside is there to a woman going off her anti-depressants to get in-pig and she starts ODing and cutting herself? Or someone who goes off their meds and gets PPD so fucking badly that they shake their kid to death because the voices told them to?

Unfortunately, there's no way to prevent bipolar bears and schizos and the like from breeding. They don't give a fuck if they have a hereditary illness and can pass it on to their children - since when have breeders ever cared about such things? All they care about is ME ME ME I WANT BABY NOW. I kind of wish all medications for mental illnesses could be spiked with birth control because there is absolutely no reason for a nutcase to be breeding and passing the crazy baton along to another generation.

no.

Anti-depressants have helped people get out of very stressful, dark times in their lives. That said, if they're dependent on their meds before adding kids to the mix, things will only get worse after the onset of parenthood. Their stress levels and anxiety WILL go up. Maybe they'll stay in touch with their doctor, adjust their meds, continue talking to their therapist, adjust daily routines and communication skills...all those things one needs to do to make things better. BUT...most people won't have the time with small children. Using new behaviors and communication skills takes conscious thought...akin to re-training yourself...and someone with a newborn isn't in a position to do that. It's all they can do to make it from day to day with everyone still alive. So if things get worse, it WILL affect the kid.

And all of this is with the assumption that the mother won't take a nosedive into ppd, either. If that happens to someone with previous history of severe depression, anxiety, etc...all bets are off.

Someone I know from college is going through this exact shit right now. I distance myself and bite my tongue, because my advice would be to give up the pre-schooler and infant for adoption and focus on rebuilding herself, followed by rebuilding her relationship with her spouse. I don't think she wants to hear that.

I don't think anyone should knowingly pass on ANY undesirable known genetic traits including depression, mental illness, snake skin disorders, Lobster Man hands and feet, Sickle Cell Anemia, hereditary deafness or blindness, diabetes, Dwarfism, Cystic Fibrosis, Tay Sachs, or even if they're just ugly as hell. If a potential parent already has lived through the difficulties of one or more of these birth defects, one would assume he-she wouldn't want their child to suffer the same fate. Instead though, like with the zealot deaf community set, they genuinely desire for a child to be their literal self replicant! It's different if someone is already born with a defect and more power to their adapting and overcoming it, but WHY subject someone else to it if they don't have to?

No one is saying their life isn't worth living or anything like the staunch defected ones allege, I am simply making the argument that if it doesn't have to be, then WHY do it on purpose? The ones with the "1 in 4" types of chances of passing it on who play Russian Roulette time and time again, generally end up with at LEAST one poor kid who has a life with a birth defect, just like Moo or Duddy, to endure, That is SO unbelievably selfish a parent could even entertain that thought it makes my head spin.:headbrick

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If YOU are the "exception" to what I am saying, then why does my commentary bother you so much?
I don't hate your kids, I HATE YOU!

Speaking from experience, I suffer with a moderately serious MI. It has fucked me up my entire life. My moo was a complete Whack-Job, and I am convinced that she suffers some kind of weird illness like I have.

I could not IMAGINE bringing an innocent person into the world, only to inflict the same pain and misery onto its life that I had to endure for most of my early life.

Medications, suicidal feelings, psychosis....not to mention continual physical abuse at the hands of my whacko famblee. I could not live with myself if I ever did that to another human being....it would be unforgiveable.

That doesn't even speak about the misery I would inflict upon myself, going without medication for nearly a year, and then the endless stress of caring for a loaf.

I have a heart and a brain....and I'm not a mindless baybee machine. I have chosen a different path and I'm glad that I did. If I had chosen to sluice, I don't believe I would be here, talking on BF right now. I would be sitting in a rubber room somwhere with a tin foil hat welded to my head.

The article reads like an elaborate bingo!

Essentially they're promoting the depressed to spawn because 'those same genes' also make you creative! YAY! All you need is the right environment and you'll get Rachel Ray instead of Sylvia Plath.

They're pointing at you Future Moo - and all you need to do is *everything right* - and you will get Einstein!

Same thing with Autistics - do it right and you'll get Bill Gates instead of Leatherface.

Anyone else take it this way? It came off as very pro breeding to me. And alot of Creative People Are Grrreat! rah rah. Orly?

Yeah but that's really only when they're of use to The Sheeple. And even then they'll still be mocked. Just ask Justin Bieber.

And who, exactly is going to be *doing* these creative things - if they switch careers to calving and domestic work?

Note to Lurking Moos - do not stick head in oven like Sylvia Plath.

The buns in my oven made me stick my head in too ~ Hey - this could be like a Country Music song!

Now who would want to quash creativity like *this* ?

Good idea.

First, they would be too sad and self-obsessed to take care of kids.

Second, their gloomy outlook on life would create depressed kids, too. :/

Wow. There's a lot of agreement here which is good to see - like so many others here as well as comments on the TIME article I could never knowingly treat my own kids that way. Coming from a screwed up emotional background, I have a conscience, to me any form of child emotional, mental, or physical abuse stemming from depression is more than unacceptable.

Hell... yes!

I've been diagnosed with schizotypal personality disorder and depression. Which means I tend to be very uncomfortable with other people and therefore often only have a few close relationships because I am reserved and distant. It's also characterized as having odd and eccentric behavior.

Schizotypal personality falls in the middle of the spectrum, with schizoid personality disorder on the milder end and schizophrenia on the more severe end.

When I'm fighting through "episodes" I thank God for my friends and family and that I don't have any children!

If having children means you must go off your medication, then NO YOU SHOULDN'T. Want children that bad? FUCKING ADOPT. And that bullshit of "it's all worth it! you can handle it for a little while until the baby is here!" fuck that. Mental illness and mood disorders are genetic, right? You lived with the condition and knowingly might be passing it on to someone else so they have to deal with it too? And no, it won't be magically over when the baby is alright. Then you'll be messed up and have to go through getting back on the meds AND dealing with an infant. It DOESN'T WORK LIKE THAT.

capslock rage. I'm bipolar, went through hell to work through that shit and take action/control. The idea of giving that up again? Having it all come back? Scares the fuck out of me. Why the hell would I go through that *again* for...a baby? I wouldn't, that's fucking what. Because I've thought about it. And I decided that myself being healthy and stable was far more worth it than ever having children.
Was CF for years, but I think the bipolar is what made me realize that I didn't want babies EVER EVER and anyone who says "you can go off your meds for a little bit and have children!" can go fuck off. the end. /rage

It's especially bad when BOTH parents have two or more mental/emotional/psychological issues. Most of the time the sprogs end up on a fuckton of medication just to function on a base level and need care for the rest of their lives. Provided by the taxpayers, naturally.

If I were on antidepressants and found out I was pregnant, I'd abort ASAP. No telling what kind of mess that chyld would be, between a depressed moo and getting screwed up by her drugs.

My moo probably has several different mental illnesses, and as a result my childhood totally sucked and I often feel angry or depressed. At least one of Moo's parents probably had mental issues, and Duh is likely not completely sane either. His parents had serious marital problems and he never felt they cared about him. So there are at least two generations of fucked up people before me with possible genetic tendencies towards mental illness on both sides of my family. Isn't that special?

I could not live with myself if I knowingly inflicted that mess on someone who did not ask to be born.

About the medications during pregnasty: I know someone whose first grandloaf was born early this year. Less than two weeks after birth he became critically ill with meningitis. I can't help thinking there is a connection between the illness and the anti-depressants his moo was on before she knew she was in pig. Maybe they weakened his immune system. He survived, but it may be years before they know how badly the meningitis fucked up his brain. What a crappy way to start life.

It's so ironic that Dooce gave up the drugs during preg 1 and the child is definitely at LEAST a bit aspergerish and she ended up throwing a gallon of milk at her poor husband and telling him she was going to kill herself so her drove her to the mental ward etc etc.... Anyway she took them through preg 2, and the kid seems perfectly normal.

No.

Don't pass out terrible disease.
Period.

Anyone ever see these drug commercials for anti depressants?

They ALWAYS have some kiddies in the picture... FOR WHAT FRIGGIN PURPOSE???

IMO, trying to sell baby making to everyone they can.

"hey, you can be suicide depressive, but look!! you can breed and moo!!" maybe your kids will not suffer at your hands!! maybe they won't be stunted because they have to tip toe around whacka moo or duh.. afraid of triggering whatever episode(s) they indulge in...

Also, if someone is defective, I think the chances are they will attract an equally (or worse) defective partner. Anyone who is really healthy will avoid defectives for the most part. At least I would hope so.

two cents ¢¢

CERTIFIED HOSEHEAD!!!

people (especially women) do not give ONE DAMN about what they inflict on children and I defy anyone to prove me wrong

Dysfunctional relationships almost always have a child. The more dysfunctional, the more children.

The selfish wants of adults outweigh the needs of the child.

Some mistakes cannot be fixed, but some mistakes can be 'fixed'.

People who say they sleep like a baby usually don't have one. Leo J. Burke

Adoption agencies have strict criteria (usually). Breeders, whose combined IQ's would barely hit triple digits, have none.

2C -

Reminds me too that the people who seem to use these meds the most are Moos. Especially SAHMoos.

I don't see too many people who are say college students or airline pilots or mechanics talking about being on anti depressants. I'm sure there are all kinds of people on them, but Moos seem to be their biggest customers.

I got lucky in the brain game - I'm very smart, creative, and yet reasonably stable. A bit of moodiness here and there, nothing serious. There certainly *are* plenty of MI issues among my relatives also. Both of my brothers lost it - one's in the can for a violent crime and the other is addicted to hard drugs.

I got lucky and got the smarts and creativity. I can get rather moody with PMS - even edging into a really black mood - but not always, and I know what it is and can handle it. I drink some beer. It calms you down plus helps to make you pee out the bloat. I figure, if a few beers can calm me down this must not be 'too bad'. I do know that for awhile there (and maybe still) they were pitching Prozac for bad PMS (to be taken only at this time, too.)

Yeah. I'm real leery of all those drugs. Completely in favor for those who really need them, absolutely. I think alot of Moos take them because their life sucks, they're trapped, and their hormones are seriously effed up also. So maybe they do 'need' them.

On the other hand, if you can't cope with drama on Fake Book or your child isn't as pretty as Suri Cruise boo hoo - ah - I think you probably need more help than drugs can give.