OT: Anti-Depressants changed my life

[9520575]

 

Its odd though, because if a person found a medication to significantly manage hypo/hyperthroidism or diabetes with the understanding that it is a lifelong maintenance, people tend to stick to that more frequently than if that imbalance in the body causes the above mentioned mental health issues.

 

 

Yeah, I dunno I was watching that recent frontline on AIDS in America. There was a woman who was on AIDS medication, then felt so good she stopped taking it because she thought it had gone away. I thought that was pretty incredible. Now she has to take far more medication than she was taking before.

[t-rey]

Donde esta T-Rey?

 

[gorebuc]

I'm bipolar and on Effexor, Zyprexa, Klonopin, Propranolol, and Lamictal. My evenings suck but I'm functional. Had a horrible summer and spent two weeks in a mental hospital (my third stay). I'm weaning off of the Zyprexa and going up on Lamictal (which seems like its really gonna help) as the Zyprexa has produced some nasty side effects (including almost 100 lbs weight gain in 2 years). I'd like to wean off the Klonopin after that, since I don't wanna be benzo-depedent forever. Not worried about the Propranolol since its just a beta-blocker and I probably need it for my blood pressure anyway, in addition to its anti-anxiety properties. So yeah, I have some experience with pyschotropic drugs...

[CicadaSilence]

I probably need them. I don't trust the mental health community. I'll probably remain an avoidant, self-hating, antisocial jerk for the rest of my life.

[amarr1]

hey amarr, where've you been?

 

 

I've been at college, still playing music here and there. Hoping to have good academic standing, yah dig.

[MegaMustaine]

Thanks for the kind words everyone, lots of knowledge being dropped in this thread.

 

As far as them being in my head- I thought that for a while. I was actually prescribed prozac a year ago. I took it for 8 months, stopped. Felt perfectly normal the 8 months, was alright on the 10th month, and had some SERIOUS depression/anxiety come back around 12 months. I was hoping to make it through without the need for any more medication, and to be honest, it was a hit to my pride when I went back to the doctor. Back on the medication, the results are absolutely huge, as I mentioned, and I can't believe I was so prideful to not look for a solution.

 

Certiainly medication isn't the end all be all, but as other have said, I am of the opinion that there are chemical/receptor issues that the medication is correcting. I don't feel like anti-depressants magically make me feel great or give me a high...they just restore how i used to be. Hoping that in a few years I can be medication free, but for now, I'm happy to have my life back.

[Phil O'Keefe]

 

Quoted for wisdom. There should be no shame in treating a chemical imbalance, which affects your quality of life in an immensely negative way with medication. SB

 

 

I agree 100%

[MegaMustaine]

 

I've been fighting depression for almost my entire life, but was only put on medication a little over ten years ago. depression runs on both sides of my family, there have been suicides and whatnot going pretty far back, so it was inevitable that at least one of my parents kids had to deal with some form of depression. I've been on various medications, usually it works for a couple years with dosages sometimes being increased, and then the effectiveness drops and I either go off it for a bit and try to deal on my own (never works out well in the long run), or switched to something else. been on Effexor, Cipralex, a couple others I can't recall, and I'm on Pristiq right now, but it seems to be in a decline right now, been going through a real rough patch the last few months, not sure if I'm going to increase the dosage again or look for something else again. each pill comes with its own side effect, from weight gain to panic attacks to insomnia to various other things, and it sucks. I'll say this: anti-depressants don't make me feel better. they make me more stable, functional, and allow me manage better, but I never really feel "better". just numb. I {censored}ing hate it. I used to be really {censored}ty and want to kill myself (pills don't take these thoughts away either, just your drive to do anything), but at least I was still creative and had a wild imagination that worked out great for music and art. now, I'm lucky to have a brain fart and come up with a single thing. I tell myself that I'm in a rut, but really, how many years can a rut last? hopefully you're lucky and meds do really help you get through it, and you don't have any negative effects or can eventually get off of them. I wouldn't want anyone (ok, some people in really special cases maybe) to have to deal with depression long term.

 

 

Sorry to hear about your negative experiences man. I can't exactly relate- the anti depressants have made me feel anything but numb. But maybe I'm a rare case. I went into them expecting they would make me feel 'weird' but that hasn't been the case. My cold reality is that: before i was on medication and a few months back when I was between medication, I probably had suicidal thoughts at least 1-2 times a day. When I'm on anti-depressants, those type of thoughts don't even register at all.

 

I think anyone who has experienced depression may know what I'm talking about here: when I get into a depressed, extreme mood swing, I'm pretty aware of going on. That doesn't mean I can stop it or instantly feel better. But I'm aware that how I'm feeling isn't the normal way I do, yet I cling onto that depression for whatever reason. It almost feels like another person, and even though I was aware of it, I just couldn't really control it.

 

When I'm taking my meds, that 'other person' just doesn't ever come out. I'm my rational self 100% of the time. THat's not to say things don't get stressful, or I get sad. But the way that I react to adversity feels like ME, not some mood swing or depression wave that's severely influencing my behavior.

[Phil O'Keefe]

 

Thanks for the kind words everyone, lots of knowledge being dropped in this thread. As far as them being in my head- I thought that for a while. I was actually prescribed prozac a year ago. I took it for 8 months, stopped. Felt perfectly normal the 8 months, was alright on the 10th month, and had some SERIOUS depression/anxiety come back around 12 months. I was hoping to make it through without the need for any more medication, and to be honest, it was a hit to my pride when I went back to the doctor. Back on the medication, the results are absolutely huge, as I mentioned, and I can't believe I was so prideful to not look for a solution. Certiainly medication isn't the end all be all, but as other have said, I am of the opinion that there are chemical/receptor issues that the medication is correcting. I don't feel like anti-depressants magically make me feel great or give me a high...they just restore how i used to be. Hoping that in a few years I can be medication free, but for now, I'm happy to have my life back.

 

 

I was on trazodone and Prozac together several / many years ago, and took a trip out of state and forgot them. Within two weeks, I was having major issues with drastic mood swings. Scary, scary stuff. I would never recommend stopping anti-depressants without the advice and supervision of your health professional. You have to decrease the dosage gradually - you shouldn't just stop taking them.

 

As far as having to take them on an ongoing basis, please re-read what hangwire said (and that I quoted above). There's no shame in taking insulin for diabetes. There shouldn't be any shame in having to take Prozac to address a different chemical imbalance in a different part of the body.

[sparkfriction]

Cool! thank you for the post/thread MegaMustaine! many good infos and it gives me some power Depressions are just crazy and i am glad to hear you're doin better...

 

i am on pills since the last half year... it helps me to sleep, but its kind of a blunt sleep... i see the anti-depressants more as a part of the whole therapy at the moment for me. - but thats a different story.

 

take care!

[Sad Darwin]

+1 for starting this thread, and also to everyone contributing.

I really feel like society stigmatizes admitting to feelings of depression and hopelessness as "weakness", which is a major contributing factor to why many who need help don't seek it. We're almost socially trained to be ashamed of it even though, no matter WHAT your position in life, we all go through it. It's one of the few facts of life that is static. It's like gravity, except cyclical.

Point being it takes courage to admit to those feelings, even with loved ones.

[AaronF]

 

+1 for starting this thread, and also to everyone contributing. I really feel like society stigmatizes admitting to feelings of depression and hopelessness as "weakness", which is a major contributing factor to why many who need help don't seek it. We're almost socially trained to be ashamed of it even though, no matter WHAT your position in life, we all go through it. It's one of the few facts of life that is static. It's like gravity, except cyclical. Point being it takes courage to admit to those feelings, even with loved ones.

 

 

It's true. I've had several friends struggle with depression and it is really tough to see someone have to deal with that. People who stigmatize taking the medications bother me. Sure, it might not be an end-all for someone's problems (sometimes it is, depending on brain chemistry - but that's another thing), but sometimes all someone needs is just a change of rhythm or some time to feel themselves again in order to retake control of their personality. I'm sure the people who stigmatize taking the meds probably have something in their lives happening (unhappy marriage, money problems, family issues, limp penis etc.) that if they were told all they have to do is take a pill and the problem would be fixed, they would jump at the chance. Hell, I wish I lived in a place with better weather; if a pill would fix that I would swallow the whole bottle ASAP.

[MegaMustaine]

I STRONGLY agree, Sad Darwin. Thanks for posting that.

 

To be honest, before this thread, I felt great but was still a little ashamed that I 'needed medication' to be normal. After reading what everyone has said, I feel a lot better about seeking help and continuing to maintenance certain deficiencies I may have. I appreciate the encouragement- wish my family and others understood the diabetes analogy, but so be it. I feel happy and that's all that matters. It is just a shame that our society views so many mental health issues as signs of instability or weakness, as Sad Darwin mentioned.

[hotmess]

I think the issue is that most people don't understand the difference between "being depressed" and "having depression." I compare my disease a lot to diabetes in the sense that yes, somebody can be depressed from whatever event happens, just like somebody can get too high of a blood sugar when they eat too much candy, but there's a HUGE difference between eating too much candy and having diabetes. Depression is terrible, and unless you have it, you have no idea how it feels. It is NOT the same feeling as being depressed. Also, like diabetes, it isn't curable but can be maintained. The medication didn't help my depression, but it did give me the ability to get out of bed every day and try to get a routine started. Now, I'm working, everything is pretty stable. I'm maintaining my disease, and I'm happy. It's a weird thing to say "I am a happy person with depression" that I don't think many people understand. I just think that the stigmas attached to depression and anti-depressants is just an ignorance as to what exactly it is.

[spoonie g]

 

I think the issue is that most people don't understand the difference between "being depressed" and "having depression." I compare my disease a lot to diabetes in the sense that yes, somebody can be depressed from whatever event happens, just like somebody can get too high of a blood sugar when they eat too much candy, but there's a HUGE difference between eating too much candy and having diabetes. Depression is terrible, and unless you have it, you have no idea how it feels. It is NOT the same feeling as being depressed. Also, like diabetes, it isn't curable but can be maintained. The medication didn't help my depression, but it did give me the ability to get out of bed every day and try to get a routine started. Now, I'm working, everything is pretty stable. I'm maintaining my disease, and I'm happy. It's a weird thing to say "I am a happy person with depression" that I don't think many people understand. I just think that the stigmas attached to depression and anti-depressants is just an ignorance as to what exactly it is.

 

 

It is a distinction to be made that sometimes people that aren't affected by it can abstract and gloss over. I have some people in my family that have true organic depression, and though I think I have a touch of that in my genotype, for the most part I'm pretty even as far as mood goes (many would term that "boring").

 

However, I did have some "situational" depression that really gave me a taste of what they went through. I then realized that we all have a truly unique experience in what life is and gave me an appreciation for the empathic view. We live in a society that tends to be highly individualistic and therefore has a "deal with it yourself" sort of attitude (which i think is also part of the problem).

[SwingingAx]

You should read the book "Mad In America" AND do a web search on 'Prozac side effects'
before you get too trusting of modern medicine's remedies for Depression.

I have NO doubt you could alter your diet and end your depression, if you wanted to.
You'd want to look for food allergies/intolerances and nutritional imbalances to start.

http://www.grassfedgirl.com/suicide-by-sandwich-12-reasons-to-banish-bread/

[AaronF]

Aaaaaannnnnnnnnd here we go.

[t-rey]

 

You should read the book "Mad In America" AND do a web search on 'Prozac side effects' before you get too trusting of modern medicine's remedies for Depression. I have NO doubt you could alter your diet and end your depression, if you wanted to. You'd want to look for food allergies/intolerances and nutritional imbalances to start. http://www.grassfedgirl.com/suicide-by-sandwich-12-reasons-to-banish-bread/

 

 

That's simply not true.

 

I'm all for changing diet, increasing exercise, developing healthy outlets, and eliminating stressors, because doing this will help alleviate symptoms of depression. But to suggest that simply changing a persons diet will alleviate depression is (at best) insulting to everyone who actually has major depressive disorder.

[soapbladder]

 

That's simply not true. I'm all for changing diet, increasing exercise, developing healthy outlets, and eliminating stressors, because doing this will help alleviate symptoms of depression. But to suggest that simply changing a persons diet will alleviate depression is (at best) insulting to everyone who actually has major depressive disorder.

 

 

Swinging Ax has similar cures for everything ranging from cancer to bacterial infection. He's a regular shaman.

 

SB

[big69]

That's simply not true. I'm all for changing diet, increasing exercise, developing healthy outlets, and eliminating stressors, because doing this will help alleviate symptoms of depression. But to suggest that simply changing a persons diet will alleviate depression is (at best) insulting to everyone who actually has major depressive disorder.

 

 

This. My girlfriend is the healthiest eater I know. Exercises daily, eats a mostly vegan diet (Based on Joel Fuhrman's dietary reccomendations) but she still needs to take Cipralex, albeit a fairly low dose, every day.

 

The side effect? A happy, well adjusted person. OH MAN MODERN MEDICINE IS TERRIBLE.

[AaronF]

big69's avatar

[AngryGoldfish]

I've been on anti-depressants for five years. I sometimes wonder whether I'd be alive without them, or whether I'd simply be the same. It's hard to tell. I didn't suddenly feel better after a few weeks of taking them, but when I started gradually coming off one of them, the {censored} re-hit the fan, and I haven't been the same since.

 

I think therapy can be a lot more beneficial for some. A change of life can help massively, too, because depression is often circumstantial, while for others it's simply a chemical imbalance that needs correcting. It's hard to find which you are. I believe I'm a bit of both. My mind is {censored}ed up, but so is my life.

[JRBain]

My wife has depression and was prescribed prozac a few years ago when we were students (and not married). The effects were transformative; some positive, but the 'highs' were firmly matched with the 'lows'. The effects on her mood and temperament were very, very difficult to deal with at times (and you really can't tell someone that 'they're only saying/doing that because of the prozac'...), not to mention for her to live with. And then there was the constant paranoia on my part over whether or not she had remembered to take it...

 

I guess it must work for some people and not others. As for us, we resolved 'never again', and are very glad of it. I'm glad for you that it has had such a positive effect.

[outtahear]

 

 

 

And you studied brain chemistry @ what Med School?

[big69]

brain chemistry is a western lie and med school is just a business run by lizard men