A survey has found that one in three womenare resorting to using anti- depressants at some point in their lives.

The staggering figure has revealed many outwardly strong mothers and daughters are battling mental illness.

One in four of those quizzed had been taking happy pills for at least 10 years.

Eighteen per cent of all users did not tell their family, a tenth did not confide in their partner.

The study found almost half of women currently taking anti-depressants had been using them for at least five years.

Fifty-seven per cent who had taken the medication were not offered any alternatives to drugswhen they were prescribed.

The findings raise worrying questions for the NHS, women’s group Platform 51 said. The organisation – formerly the YWCA – quizzed 2,000 women in England and Wales.

“These shocking figures reveal an escalating crisis in women’s use of anti-depressants,” the Sunquoted Policy chief Rebecca Gill, as saying.

“They do have a role to play but they are too readily prescribed as the first and only remedy,” Gill added.