I took my first antidepressant this week. The effects were frightening | Deborah Orr

The number of people with mental health problems is soaring, and the crisis-ridden NHS cannot cope

" Deborah Orr is a Guardian columnist

Most people know about SSRIs, the antidepressant drugs that stop the brain from re-absorbing too much of the serotonin we produce, to regulate mood, anxiety and happiness. And a lot of people know about these drugs first hand, for the simple reason that they have used them. Last year, according to NHS Digital, no fewer than 64.7m antidepressant prescriptions were given in England alone. In a decade, the number of prescriptions has doubled.

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