Help What should I expect from anti depressants?

[Miyari]

Hello. So after scrolling through this forum, I decided to go through the recovery portion one day and decided to give that a shot.

I've tried therapists but never found much help from them. I have an appointment with a psychiatrist and I'm really hoping he gives me antidepressants, but I'm terrified it'll turn me into an emotionless being.

Does anyone have any positive stories or any experience with pills?

 

[Mundi]

Anti-depressants were very bad for me. I felt angry and distant. But I was misdiagnosed as depressive when I actually have bipolar disorder. People with BD tend to react poorly to anti-depressants (and marijuana, haha) because it pushes manic/mixed states. BD medication has worked much better for me. I definitely think anti-depressants are worth a shot first. Just keep checking in with yourself and letting your psych know what the effects are.

 

[mathieu]

They numb the pain a little bit. Less crying.

 

[Grandexit]

I got brain zapps, hair loss and a brand new 15 lbs., dead sex drive, and some emotional blunting. No repreive from depression, anxiety or absolutely soul emptiness.
I don't usually go down rabbit holes, but reading how little is known about mental illness, and the absolutely casual attitude of providers when prescribing meds, and the legitimate studies that say antidepressants preform little better than placebo, I really think its a huge scam.

 

[bipolarg0ner]

My friend give me her anti depressants when she doesn't take them. I just take em because If anyone puts pills in front of me I take em.

 

[ArtsyDrawer]

The very minimum.
On the positive side you may indeed get some stability. Note that I said some stability. "Some" is an important key word here. So is "stability", actually.
I'm taking levecirateam, which now constitutes as an anticonvulsant, and lacosamide, which is a different anticonvulsant. Both, however, started as antidepressants. This is the history of most epilepsy medicines - some guy tries to make money out of antidepressants seeing as antidepressants would be needed for as long as humans exist. I've googled "antidepressants for dogs" as a joke and was surprised to discover it is indeed a thing that exists. And so, our guy attempts to make an antidepressant, fails, but notices it works acceptably as an anticonvulsant, so he rebrands his product.
I am indeed somewhat stable emotionally most of the time.
This particular duo made crying impossible for me, which is a bad thing. Crying is a form of release, which holds more importance than you'd believe. The whole "boys don't cry" movement needs some beating.
Second, the prime reason I'm less depressed is because I'm a zombie. Zombies don't get depressed as far as I know, but then again, zombies don't feel anything either.

Now, the reason epilepsy meds fail as antidepressants, I think, is because I'm not always a zombie, only about ⅓ of the time. I do "feel", so to speak.
Whether or not zombieness is good is up to debate.
Much like ctb being a solution to stop pain in all forms, it also stops everything else, including pleasure and happiness.

Of course, the zombie side effect is not a promise, there's always the "uncle jebedaia" who turned his life upside down and is now the happiest motherfucker on earth.
It's not that antidepressants made uncle jebedaia happy, it's that the pills made uncle jebedaia zombie enough to numb the pain, but then uncle jebedaia wrestled the zombie to do his bidding.

 

[Shamana]

Does he prescribe tianeptine?

I would opt for drugs that dont destroy your sexual function and turn you into a zombie which a lot of them do.

 

[nerve]

I probably don't need to say this, but given that this is a suicide forum, most people answering will be the sizable chunk for whom antidepressants haven't worked well. I'm also the furthest thing from a doctor, just heavily medicated, so don't take what I say as gospel.

A doctor will likely put you on an SSRI/SNRI if you're presenting with depressive symptoms. If they're ethical, you'll be started at a lower dose and titrated up every few weeks. Please look up whatever it is you're prescribed and check if you're being given a typical starter dose.

It takes at least 2 - 4 weeks for these drugs to "settle in" a person's system, but you might start noticing side-effects earlier. These early ones might fade away as your body gets used to the medication. They might not. This is another good chance to look up your drug on the Mayo Clinic website and see what the usual side-effects are and which ones to be concerned about.

The nice thing about starting on a low dose is that the side-effects will also start out relatively low for your body. If you notice you're getting zombified, weaning off of a medication yourself isn't half as complicated as doctors like to say it is. The withdrawals might suck (Effexor & Pristiq are famous for their shitty withdrawals) but they're bearable and time-limited in most cases.

Keep us posted on how you're doing !!

 

[ssaaahmo]

all the ones i've tried didn't make me feel any different at all

 

[Deleted member 1465]

My experience.
Six weeks of constipation then the drugs kicked in and all my OCD symptoms and depression went away. This lasted for around 8 months then gradually stopped.
The next twenty years or so were spent on and off different SSRIs that didn't work. Higher doses made me dangerously disassociated.
Some of the medications had different 'side effects' like sexual issues or sedation.
After all this time, non of them work. I now find myself with a set of nebulous symptoms that mimic diabetes but with normal blood sugar. Admittedly, much of this will almost certainly be due to alcohol and diet, but I also believe that the medications have had a significant role in destroying my metabolism.
These drugs may offer short term relief.
They are likely to give you short term side effects.
They will almost certainly stop working at some point and give you profound long term metabolic damage if continued.
Switching medications may give you some relief, but will compound the long term bad effects.
These effects are not 'side effects'. That is a dismissive term that the doctors give the biochemical changes that they invoke in order to minimize your perception of risk and persuade you to continue to take a harmful drug.
The effects are profound long term metabolic changes.
You may or may not get benefits from the drug, but it almost certainly will have long term bad effects, often making worse the condition it tries to treat.
The doctors rarely tell you this because it doesn't fit their narrative. Their priority is not your long term care, but a short term fix which then kicks the problem down the road.
Risk/benefit analysis is important here:
Is the short term possible benefit worth the long term risk?
It's different for everyone and it's expedient to have all the facts before you decide.

 

[Fish Face]

Four weeks on mirtazapine. Feel like a zombie. Could sleep for at least 12 hours a day. Went up to 30 mg a day because it is supposed to make that better. Skin became like sandpaper, eyes constantly watering, bad stomach upsets. Feel more depressed than ever and couldn't function at all. No antidepressants have ever worked for me at all just side effects and if on them long enough awful withdrawals, even after cutting the tablets up into little bits. I can only seem to get talking therapy after I have tablets working but I cannot get tablets to work. I just get dependent on them and suffer horrible withdrawal. Other treatments should be looked at more.

 

[Blackpoolbootz]

They numb the pain to a certain extent nothing more unfortunately depending on the medication will numb any positive feelings as well. Someone people can take them solve the immediate problem and work through issues using CBT ect. Some people they don't work at all. Worth a try you can always come off them under supervision or reduce dosage over time. An aspirin may kill the pain of a tooth ache but doesn't cure the bad tooth.

 

[rhiino]

Expect that they do nothing or do more worse than good. Still, you might be lucky. I took two different kinds, a SSRI and an SSNRI. The first did nothing but a few minor side effects. The second helped a bit at first, then started to fuck me up big time, so I had to stop taking them (cold detoxification), what fucked me up even more. Swore to never take any meds again.

 

[Shamana]

If its anti-depressants or suicide, i would go with medication but most of us here probably havnt been too lucky.

 

[Velia]

It seems so common that antidepressants don't work at all and even make people feel worse from the insane side effects, I wonder why. I had the exact same experience with 3 different types, the last time I tried was so awful, 2 weeks worth of hell. I've been considering benzos instead but no idea if that would help me

 

[depressedpolyaddict]

It seems so common that antidepressants don't work at all and even make people feel worse from the insane side effects, I wonder why. I had the exact same experience with 3 different types, the last time I tried was so awful, 2 weeks worth of hell. I've been considering benzos instead but no idea if that would help me

Would be interesting to know how much more effective MAO-inhibitors like Phenelzine or Tranylcypromine are, compared to SSRIs/SNRIs/NDRIs/TCAs. You can't really generalize antidepressants. Phenelzine for example inhibits GABA transaminase (GABA breakdown) and is apparently very calming, anxiolytic, etc.

 

[kinzokukae]

all sertraline did for me was reduce some physical symptoms of my anxiety - did nothing for my depression, or anything else beyond that, though i do still take it

 

[JustLosingMyself]

My experience: I was on prozac, quietiapine and later paroxetine. Prozac made me eat everything in sight, turned me into a eunuch but no real improvement. Quietiapine knocked me out cold. Took it at 8 pm, fell asleep soon afterwards. Couldn't remember where i was or what i did most days for anything before mid afternoon that day.
Paroxetine flattened the average emotions but did little for real spikes of joy or deep deep troughs of despair. Everything else vanished. Constipation and urinary retention. Not hungry and lost weight (no guarantees there: some gain weight). Was horny all the time but could never climax.
When I quit that one I had bouts of extremely violent rage where I destroyed everything within reach, followed by self harm. This lasted for 3 months. 16 suicide attempts in 9 weeks, 1 stint in psych (4 weeks), 1 arrest later ended up with a deep depression and 14 months off work. Still not done with the depression but back in work.

In short, only a court order would have me take psychiatric drugs again

 

[RileyTanaka]

Please take a look at my post in the recovery section about amino acid therapy. It's probably more effective than psychiatric meds and it's safer. Good luck.

 

[Sensei]

I probably don't need to say this, but given that this is a suicide forum, most people answering will be the sizable chunk for whom antidepressants haven't worked well.

Very well put! I think this is forgotten all too often. Antidepressants are not a universal miracle cure and they can have harmful and even dangerous effects on people sometimes, but they do help many people. I think it's sound to warn people about the potential risks with antidepressants, but outright destructive to categorically dismiss them all as some kind of poisons.

For the record, I'm bipolar and antidepressants triggered a manic or at least manic-like episode in me, which could have ended in disaster, so I'm very well aware that they aren't risk-free. Still, there are several studies which show that up to 80 % who take antidepressants get better, to one degree or another. 4:5 aren't bad odds.

 

[artificialpasta]

They work for about 70% of people.
The 30% are on here lol

 

[madbananas]

I got brain zapps, hair loss and a brand new 15 lbs., dead sex drive, and some emotional blunting. No repreive from depression, anxiety or absolutely soul emptiness.
I don't usually go down rabbit holes, but reading how little is known about mental illness, and the absolutely casual attitude of providers when prescribing meds, and the legitimate studies that say antidepressants preform little better than placebo, I really think its a huge scam.

I second the sex-drive thing (and this whole post generally to be honest). My poom-poom went completely numb for weeks, thankfully that wore off. For me, it also didn't give me any relief, but that's just my experience. Others report different.

 

[ceelo]

I got brain zapps, hair loss and a brand new 15 lbs., dead sex drive, and some emotional blunting. No repreive from depression, anxiety or absolutely soul emptiness.
I don't usually go down rabbit holes, but reading how little is known about mental illness, and the absolutely casual attitude of providers when prescribing meds, and the legitimate studies that say antidepressants preform little better than placebo, I really think its a huge scam.

For anxiety in particular its a fact of medical science that they cant cure anything at all only mask at best.

They work for about 70% of people.
The 30% are on here lol

absolute tosh, the numbers are actually 46% notice marked improvement in 6 month period and it was 42% with placebo.......

 

[rhiino]

The studies that I read often showed no benefit of the tested meds over placebos. The pharma companies make much money with those meds, so I would not count on the system making up for that.

 

[Throwawaysoul]

My experience with antidepressants has been months of false hope,, weeks of trial and error with no results.

 

[ceelo]

Suggestibility and placebo is definitely a big part of anti depressents.

 

[Sensei]

Suggestibility and placebo is definitely a big part of anti depressents.

For the better or the worse, suffering is subjective, not really possible to measure neurobiologically, and difficult or impossible to quantify. Hence, the only "evidence" there ever (?) will be that a psychiatric medicine is effective is the subjective experience of the test subject. If the test subject says it's effective, it's effective. This is of course problematic, but I can't see how it would be possible to get around this problem, at least presently.

 

[Gladtogo]

Well if there's a chance they'll make you feel better then they're worth a shot. My experience is that they make you feel numbed, but coupled with CBT with your therapist, they might help. Pointless if not coupled with CBT in my opinion though.
A better treatment in my opinion is running, it's only thing that's ever helped me in any measurable way.

 

[rhiino]

If the test subject says it's effective, it's effective.

If the placebo has the same effect it is by definition not effective. Why bother with side effects if you can have an empty pill that does the same?

 

[Sensei]

If the placebo has the same effect it is by definition not effective. Why bother with side effects if you can have an empty pill that does the same?

Good point indeed. However, as far as I can tell, there are many more studies that conclude that antidepressants are more effective than placebo than the other way around.

(For the record, I personally know many people whom have been helped by antidepressants, but that's of course only anecdotal evidence.)