Serious jobs

I can’t say I’m surprised that the number of antidepressants prescribed in Scotland has risen by more than 15 per cent in the past three years (your report, 6 July).

I know so many people who have either been made redundant, or fear they might, or are stuck in jobs with no prospects and too scared to leave in case they end up on the dole.

We keep hearing about the Scottish Government making deals to bring more jobs here, but sometimes it feels as if the only jobs available are the kind that students might want to do in their summer holidays.

I, like many of my friends, have a business studies degree and 15 years’ experience, latterly in middle management.

We don’t want to work as waiters in one of Donald Trump’s hotels, and we don’t want to work in an Amazon warehouse, packing books and CDs (though we have every respect for people who do).

Scotland needs to make more of its talented, educated people or it will lose even more of them.

Maybe the answer is for us all to retrain as psychotherapists.

DONALD PETERS

Fernieside Avenue

Edinburgh