With alcohol, there are even greater dangers.Alonzo goes out drinking with his buddies after work. For a while
he feels better, but when he gets home, he feels much worse. At
first alcohol eased his pain, making him forget about his wife.
Now, the thoughts are back, and the alcohol has removed his
inhibitions. Tears wash over him and deep currents of sadness
seem to sweep away everything he’s ever hoped or dreamed. He
takes out his pistol and stares at it, thinking that death might be
a relief. Before he can load it, he passes out.People with a reactive depression are the highest risk for suicide, and
people with reactive depressions who drink are even higher. We think of
alcohol as removing inhibitions, but it actually works by inhibiting the
higher, more rational parts of the brain that worry about consequences.
People think and do things when they’re drinking that they never would
while sober. The same chemical action that gets uptight people out on the
dance floor can make a depressed person like Alonzo forget that there’s
more to life than pain, and think about death as a permanent solution to
an immediate problem.
Medications for Reactive Depression
Painful as it is, a reactive depression is a normal response to loss. People usu-
ally go through it and come out the other side within a month. During the
acute phase, the best treatment is social support and enforced healthy
living—eating, sleeping, exercise, doing things for fun, etc. Antidepressants
that take two to four weeks to work are often superfluous, but just as often
are prescribed anyway, because doctors see the symptoms of depression, have
the technology to alleviate them, and want to make their patients feel better.
Though serotonin reuptake inhibitors are the usual treatment for
most depressions these days, they are not a good choice for someone recov-
ering from a loss, especially a marital separation. Agitation is a common side
effect when starting SSRIs. Though it generally abates in a few days, the
damage may already be done. People in the throes of reactive depression
are often agitated already. Their minds are working overtime to try and
make sense of their loss, which is not altogether a bad thing. Often they can’t
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