Have you ever been on anti depressants; do you feel they are effective?

>Have you ever been on anti depressants; do you feel they are effective?
So I've been heavily depressed since I was probably 18 (24 now) and it's been getting worse and worse since then.

I've tried changing my lifestyle; which at times has made me feel better but ultimately it feels like nothing I do helps. I fixed my diet; lost a bunch of weight and got reasonably fit again; to the point where I was in high school.

I have friends who have been on anti depressants and they've said it basically made them feel no emotion at all. I feel like a fucking machine as it is and would prefer not to see a shrink and get a black mark against my name for all time.

At this point; I think if thinks don't improve I'll probably off myself by the time I'm in my mid 30s

>TLDR: Do you think anti depressants are effective; did they help you?

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I'll be honest with you - pretty drunk and high right now but I'll give you my opinion.

Anti-depressants are good depending on what type of depression or anxiety you have. I was on sertraline, and I thought it felt quite like what you'd imagine artificial happiness to feel like. You have no lows, no highs, just a very comfortable base plateau. I took it for a year whilst going therapy, stopped feeling like it was doing me any good and stopped taking it. My main problem with sertraline is that it made alcohol and weed feel way better and like I didn't have to stop. I've heard this is different with other meds, I dunno for sure. Id take em again if I was in a tough place, so long as I had access to therapy.

Honestly I think they do little, but seeing a seemingly caring individual every week for half an hour is probably what makes some people feel better eventually.

Not for me. Paying someone to listen to me sounds like a scam.

A mix of Paxil and therapy worked for me for awhile. Then hurricane Maria came and everything went down the drain

I’m on desvenlafaxine and it actually brings my mood up a bit. But it makes it really hard to cry for some reason.
It also makes me drowsy and I can’t get off of it without severe withdrawals, like head pounding and fever symptoms.
It’s a doubled-edged sword I guess. I also use marijuana but that occasionally makes things worse.

I haven't been on antidepressants but I am depressed af. Manifested since I was a young teen. I'm 23 now and I'm pretty sure it has gotten worse. But weed helps, talking it out to people who actually listen and care also help. I've seen and heard of people turn into zombies with pills, and some say it's a son of b to get off them. I suppose everyone is different. You could always try find a good doctor And try different types and doses.
Or just smoke up and try a bit harder to cope with your life problems. It's hard, but such is life.

I take Trazodone, and it mostly just helps for good sleep, but that sleep is pretty important to your attitude.

>Trazodone
Never again. Gave me night terrors like you wouldn’t believe. Screaming friends, spiders eating giant bumble bees alive, etc.

Antidepressants are a serious last resort. As someone who has been on many, you will probably get erectile dysfunction and end up like your friend where you feel nothing.

See a shrink, being depressed doesn't give you a "black mark" unless you say some really mental shit. Being able to talk about your shit and have a big-brained intellectual help you jump through the right mental hoops can really help

Still here OP?

I was on Sertraline and I will never take another SSRI. It worked for a few months and then one day it just stopped. Increased dosage didn't help but made the side-effects unbearable. Even tapering off caused just major withdrawal symptoms that I ended up missing a lot of work. Tried therapy, once I received a diagnosis of Major Depression Disorder, Generalized Anxiety Disorder, and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder my therapist dropped me and moved me to a different one who just stayed on his phone the whole session while saying "yeah" over and over.

I can't tell you there is a fix OP, and I can't anyone anymore that it will get better, sometimes it doesn't. I've heard good things about Wellbutrin though which is an SNRI. Supposedly has much fewer side-effects and is more helpful to some harder cases. Also try to find a GOOD counselor that actually cares. This is going to be something you fight for the rest of your life. Clinical Depression cannot be cured and if it has gone untreated for several years odds are you have physical brain damage as a result. It can cause a reduction in physical brain mass in the hippocampus.

Good luck user.

>Wellbutrin
Yeah, if he wants to give up alcohol.

Look into TMS therapy. See if you qualify. Though most insurances require you have tried meds before.

Helped me a lot. It’s puts you at a stable state so you can actually function. You’re supposed to combine antidepressants with ya know, actually doing things that make you happy. It’s not supposed to make you feel happy it just put you at a content place and you have to do the rest yourself.

Didn't help me. Made me slightly manic and more anxious.

My life situation was really fucked at that point and what I honestly needed was guidance and support

Took lexapro

Don’t get on SSRI’s. Seriously. Or at the very least please read up on the negative side of them before. Doctors are prescription happy and will jump to shoving pills down your mouth. There are better ways than relying on pharmaceutical to heal you

Look into ketamine for depression, healthy diet, exercise, etc

you should tell your doctor and switch medicines until you find one you find works for you

Do a quick internet search for “magnesium for depression”

Truth is our soils have been stripped of most of their nutrients. Our foods are fertilized to look and taste good, not for nutritional value.

Vitamin D deficiency is also sometime a culprit in depression and anxiety.


You also need good quality sleep. If you deprive a normal person of deep sleep they will become depressed.

Took them for 2 years. I was more social, in a better mood and laughed a lot more while taking them, but they made my dick useless until I stopped taking them. Now I'm back to being socially inhibited, never laugh (just sort of chuckle) and I feel like I've been MORE depressed for a while after stopping SSRIs than before taking them. I also never had suicidal thoughts in my life until I stopped taking SSRIs.

They 100% cured my panic disorder and hypochondria, though, and helped me a lot with generalised anxiety disorder. Anxiety and panic attacks are no longer an issue for me, just social anxiety and lack of motivation.

Most people will go through a couple of antidepressants before picking the right one. There's no reason to think that they'll make you feel like you have no emotions and listening to anecdotes and personal experiences is very tricky since it's biased and it can be hard to differentiate between side effects and psychiatric symptoms.

>get a black mark against my name for all time.
Eh? Unless you want to be an elite space marine, you're fine.

I take Lexapro to help with obsessive thoughts and hypervigilance. I don't plan on taking it forever, it's just easier to practice cognitive behavioral therapy techniques when I'm not constantly looking for threats or worrying myself sick.

Currently taking 20 mg of Citalopram and I agree with what someone said about it being really effective at first but later it just stabilizes my mood in a way. In my opinion talking out your problems with a therapist or even some rando on discord can only be beneficial and you should give it a try.

You can also just keep trying different medications

I took SSRIs for 6 years and it was just a waste of time.

You feel like cotton'd in but in no way better. People who get healed from depression never had a serious one in the first place or are too dumb/busy to realize that they still are depressed and are offloading their mind via work, drugs or other activities.

My sex drive was normal n the meds but the dick numb. Friend of mine, who has lower test, got nearly impotent. I do not trust or condone using theses drugs. From my expereince you get turned into a vegetable who is chemically comforting him/herself and slowly dissolving.

I stopped taking any medicine after using Aurorix which is from the 70ies and is one of the few AD which increases sex drive. This sold me on them.

I got so manic and angry that I nearly drove my fist through the wall BUT after 2 weeks of hell I was able to realize that genetics, circumstances and inactivity destroyed everything and no drug will remove facts and circumstances. I also realized that many of my "friends" were low lives which had zero positive influence on me. Worse influence was the family with the exception of my father. This realization was the hardest of my entire life.

What people who get depressed is do not realize is that they are often finely tuned and have a bad environment slowly killing them. More blunt folks just push through shit and do not think too often about the life they lead... which permits them to function in society as required.... and functioning in society is really all there is to officially pass as normal.

Talking about a problem does not solve anything - if it would all people would be healthy. A way to heal yourself is a strong will, new environment and a form of breathing exercises with help you stabilize and rewire yourself. If you're interest then read, or watch, what Christopher S. Hyatt had to say about undoing yourself. This is of course not the only path but a possible way to find a rope into the light.