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Ask HN: Beating depression with or without anti-depressants?

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Re: Ask HN: Beating depression with or without anti-depressants?

#121

Post by frankincense »

dimal wrote: post #106
frankincense wrote: post #56

PLEASE do not read any of these people's advice. Talk to a MEDICAL PROFESSIONAL, preferably a DOCTOR. DO NOT trust your mental health to strangers on the internet, be it reddit, or hacker news, or whatever. If you are based in the US and live nearby a university they usually have good counseling services and the infrastructure to refer people even if you're not attending the school. Search "{school} counseling servic…

Sorry, you are very very wrong about this. Have you ever talked to a _medical_ professional about depression or any mental health issue? They generally don't know what they're doing. Medical professionals only have one tool in their arsenal for depression: antidepressants. So a medical doctor will likely prescribe them, whether that's appropriate or not. Antidepressants are no joke. Sometimes they can help, but they…

You're a frontend engineer, not a doctor. You're not qualified to give advice on medicine.

Re: Ask HN: Beating depression with or without anti-depressants?

#122

Post by mattbaker »

I’m not qualified to provide medical advice, but I have a lot of personal experience to share which may or may not be helpful. Some things I’ve learned through the years, speaking only for myself (early onset bipolar-ii, many different doctors and meds over the years):

- Not all doctors are created equal. I’m very glad I got some second opinions on medication regimens. If you have access to that level of care, try talking to more than one doctor about your options.

- It was tricky but necessary for me to balance a medical professional’s superior knowledge in certain areas against my own intuition and internal awareness. I have (correctly) chosen to decline proposed treatments that I felt were inappropriate based on the experiences loved ones had had on similar regimens. I don’t have an easy answer on this one, sometimes the doctor may know best. For me I had to feel the medical professional and myself were working as a team, and they should treat me as a team mate. If this wasn’t the case I had the (immense) privilege of being able to find a new doctor even if it took a while.

- My journey to find the right treatment was essentially trial and error and that seems common among my friends as well. Some had crappy side effects. None of them were dangerous for me or permanent. I have tried many different medications and none of the experiences I had were scary or risky, even if some side effects were really unpleasant.

- I found the right medication with a doctor I trusted. It has changed my life. I made the right choice for myself by pursuing treatment.

- It’s possible I could have toughed it out, but with medication all the energy I spent staying alive could be spent thriving and that has made all the difference. I am glad I made the choice to use meds to manage my mental health.

- I have found a lot of healing with the use of psychedelics, which some have mentioned. In Oregon they’ll be approving them for therapeutic use in specific settings soon and I’m hopeful this will be another option that could help some people. The impact can be unpredictable which is why I like the idea of someone providing guidance instead of individuals taking it alone. So while I see a lot of potential, I also think it can be risky to try solo without a strong support system.

This is hard work you’re doing and good for you for exploring and trying to find the choice that is right for you in this moment. I hope you find some relief <3

Re: Ask HN: Beating depression with or without anti-depressants?

#123

Post by emerged »

Depression runs in my family but daily exercise completely reverses it. I’m referring to 60m+ of cardio average per day. Anytime I go more than 2 days without exercise, I’m immediately under a dark cloud.

I’ve heard plenty of people say it doesn’t work for them. I have to assume they’ve actually tried it for a length of time and it’s true. But it’s at least worth finding out of it works for you before resorting to medication.

Re: Ask HN: Beating depression with or without anti-depressants?

#125

Post by michaericalribo »

jpgvm wrote: post #118
YuriNiyazov wrote: post #109

Not all drugs are created equal. I've been on Welbutrin for about four years now; absolutely life-changing; not an SSRI, so really minimal side effects. 10/10, will take again. Welbutrin is really special. It's not an SSRI, it's not a TCA. It's an NDRI https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norepinephrine%E2%80%93dopamin... and there aren't a whole lot of others like it.

Did you try many drugs before you found Welbutrin?

I take Wellbutrin. It came after a long string of SSRIs, and I take it with Effexor (an SSRI) to manage obsessional symptoms.

The side effects of Wellbutrin are on average lesser than SSRIs, but be aware / mindful that SSRIs are a very wide class with varying side effects, targeting different symptoms. It can take some experimentation before you find the right fit, in terms of both relieving your depression and minimizing side effects.

In my experience, a psychiatrist will generally start with their “preferred” / go-to SSRI, but a good doctor should be attentive to your specific symptoms of depression, and your reaction to the side effect profile. Then you can start tinkering to see what works.

Re: Ask HN: Beating depression with or without anti-depressants?

#126

Post by [deleted] »

frankincense wrote: post #56

PLEASE do not read any of these people's advice. Talk to a MEDICAL PROFESSIONAL, preferably a DOCTOR. DO NOT trust your mental health to strangers on the internet, be it reddit, or hacker news, or whatever. If you are based in the US and live nearby a university they usually have good counseling services and the infrastructure to refer people even if you're not attending the school. Search "{school} counseling servic…

[deleted]

Re: Ask HN: Beating depression with or without anti-depressants?

#127

Post by [deleted] »

inter_netuser wrote: post #77
kappuchino wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I DISAGREE. For this reason: I was given antipressants by my (former) doctor for a moderate anxiety "phase". It was escitalopram. And it did well for me - within a day! When it came to end the medication, I was told to just stop taking it. Which I did. But I should not have - I had anxietiy "echoes" over the following YEAR, really weird stuff. So I started to read about the medication: Studies have shown the longer y…

You had an incompetent prescriber. Tapering doses for all sorts of medications are routinely done, and any pharmacy can handle such an rx. If they can't - you don't want to go to such a pharmacy anyway.

[deleted]

Re: Ask HN: Beating depression with or without anti-depressants?

#128

Post by idontwantthis »

michaericalribo wrote: post #103

One thing to highlight: there's no "beating" depression--setting that as the goal will be discouraging. But as you alluded to, there are ways to cope, and to manage it, and to live a good + fulfilling life in spite of the depression. I've had great luck with antidepressants. They don't "solve" the problem, but they give me a bit more space to operate and work on my mental health. As others have said, symptoms of SSRI…

> Medication is not a commitment for life, it's an experiment to see if you can find something to help your symptoms.

Make sure you have a doctor who shares this view and is honest about withdrawals. While antidepressants may have saved my life, my doctor from the get-go had me planning to be on them for the rest of my life. Fortunately, eventually I didn’t need them anymore, but I was not prepared to get off them either.

Re: Ask HN: Beating depression with or without anti-depressants?

#129

Post by hsn915 »

frankincense wrote: post #56

PLEASE do not read any of these people's advice. Talk to a MEDICAL PROFESSIONAL, preferably a DOCTOR. DO NOT trust your mental health to strangers on the internet, be it reddit, or hacker news, or whatever. If you are based in the US and live nearby a university they usually have good counseling services and the infrastructure to refer people even if you're not attending the school. Search "{school} counseling servic…

This is really weird advice.

Yea it's mainstream and to be expected under legaleeze circumstances.

But it's not the kind of advice I would give to a friend whom I'm genuinely concerned about.

Have you known anyone who was depressed and managed to get better by following the advice of a generic "profressional"?

I haven't.

Quite the opposite. I've seen people get worse in one dimension or another by taking medication or following other professional advice.

Re: Ask HN: Beating depression with or without anti-depressants?

#130

Post by michaericalribo »

chousuke wrote: post #28
wodenokoto wrote: post #10

Eat healthy, go for walks, talk to a professional, open up to family and friends. Don’t be afraid of taking medication or changing your career. Don’t be afraid of admitting to yourself what you actually want out of life. Don’t expect it to be easy. The nice thing about medication is if you forget to take a pill today it is very easy to take one tomorrow. You can also stop when ever you want. Best case, they are a cru…

"Don't be afraid" is something that doesn't really work as advice. If I could just not have fear, what's left is just work. I feel like the majority of the effort I have to put into things is overcoming my own brain. Whenever I get my brain to agree with what I want to do and that doing it it is worthwhile, the rest is easy . It's ignoring the billion stupid reasons my brain generates why I should not do something I…

OP’s comment was a bit flippant, but I interpret it as encouragement to try something new, and reassurance that it’s not as bad as you fear—someone else’s anecdata that the billion stupid reasons your brain generates aren’t valid signal for you to listen to. I agree with that sentiment.

That’s not easy either…but it’s the best I’ve got at a certain point

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