Many People Taking Antidepressants Discover They Cannot Quit • Hacker News Board

Re: Many People Taking Antidepressants Discover They Cannot Quit

#51

Post by ada1981 » Sat, Apr 07, 2018, 9:15 PM UTC

Keep in mind that SSRIs appear to do little more than active placebo in the vast majority of cases with the downsides of withdrawals and all the other symptoms including deceased emotions in general.

There are many alternatives that have been shown to be as or more effective.

Writing and then reading 14 Gratitude Letters to people.

Spending an afternoon a week outside.

Practicing telling the 100% truth in your relationships.

And of course, Psychedelics.

Many of you know my story of coming from schizophrenia, bipolar, anxiety, suicidal depression, mania, etc. and going on a path of returning to my self after having a vision that what was needed to was to go into the pain more fully and then seeking out various modalities to do just that.

It's possible to do, but you'll need to seek out support outside the mainstream.

Re: Many People Taking Antidepressants Discover They Cannot Quit

#52

Post by cordite » Sat, Apr 07, 2018, 9:15 PM UTC

dbt00 wrote: post #17

I was up to 10mg/daily of Lexapro for two years. When my doctor and I agreed it was time to stop taking it, his advice was to go down to 5mg for a week, then stop. When I tried stopping after the 5mg dose I had constant vertigo symptoms and incredible difficulty sleeping. What I ended up doing was cutting the pills in half for a few weeks, then quarters, then removing one day a week from the schedule until I was down…

Intense vertigo is the same for sertaline / zoloft, It lasted more than a month for me. But I needed the energy and initiative to get a new job.

Re: Many People Taking Antidepressants Discover They Cannot Quit

#53

Post by jacquesm » Sat, Apr 07, 2018, 9:16 PM UTC

bm1362 wrote: post #24

tempagain567i wrote: post #2

The use of these anti-depressants is extremely irresponsible. Most people who use them dont even have an inherant chemical problem. This will all be looked back upon as very stupid indeed.

If you're interested in working for a startup working on improving the physical health -> behavioral health system integrations, checkout https://www.quartethealth.com/ in NYC.

The last thing we need is people who clearly lack a basic understanding of a field as complex as mental health to start working for start-ups in that field.

Re: Many People Taking Antidepressants Discover They Cannot Quit

#54

Post by make3 » Sat, Apr 07, 2018, 9:16 PM UTC

intralizee wrote: post #15

I've seen enough people in my life become addicted to antidepressants because of a traumatizing event in their life for me to have a dark outlook on it. Instead of therapy or taking real course of action to resolve the trauma/inner problem, a doctor will just label a person suffering depression. The greatest use of an umbrella-word "Depression" to get people on prescription medication and typically the problem never…

There is no doubt that antidepressant therapy needs to be combined with psychotherapy, sports, meditation and just reducing the unhealthy parts of your life.

The cost of taking antidepressants is really low however. Most of the time, they have almost no side effects, and are proven to help https://www.bmj.com/content/360/bmj.k847 Where I live, they are pretty cheap.

I find that there is undue bias against antidepressants. If you need them, take them! They help.

Re: Many People Taking Antidepressants Discover They Cannot Quit

#55

Post by [deleted] » Sat, Apr 07, 2018, 9:19 PM UTC

intralizee wrote: post #15

I've seen enough people in my life become addicted to antidepressants because of a traumatizing event in their life for me to have a dark outlook on it. Instead of therapy or taking real course of action to resolve the trauma/inner problem, a doctor will just label a person suffering depression. The greatest use of an umbrella-word "Depression" to get people on prescription medication and typically the problem never…

[deleted]

Re: Many People Taking Antidepressants Discover They Cannot Quit

#56

Post by toastermoster » Sat, Apr 07, 2018, 9:20 PM UTC

dsnuh wrote: post #47

thearn4 wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I had the same issues coming off of Lexapro. Weird brain shocks. Bupropion (Wellbutrin) has been better for me all around, but I worry about what it will be like coming down off of it too. The good news is that I'm overall in a good place and feel like I probably don't need it anymore.

Same thing happened to me going off of Lexapro. I called it "the zaps".

That's exactly how I felt getting off of Effexor. I stopped taking them completely one day and after trying to push past the zaps for two weeks I got back on them. I had to get of them gradually by splitting the pills open and splitting up the little balls instead.

Re: Many People Taking Antidepressants Discover They Cannot Quit

#57

Post by fogzen » Sat, Apr 07, 2018, 9:20 PM UTC

gabept wrote: post #35

The "Chemical Imbalence Theory", although heavely popular and promoted, is largely unfounded on science: https://joannamoncrieff.com/2014/05/01/the-chemical-imbalanc...

SSRI’s are no more effective than placebo or exercise in multiple studies: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3674785/#

Re: Many People Taking Antidepressants Discover They Cannot Quit

#58

Post by Fnoord » Sat, Apr 07, 2018, 9:20 PM UTC

ada1981 wrote: post #51

Keep in mind that SSRIs appear to do little more than active placebo in the vast majority of cases with the downsides of withdrawals and all the other symptoms including deceased emotions in general. There are many alternatives that have been shown to be as or more effective. Writing and then reading 14 Gratitude Letters to people. Spending an afternoon a week outside. Practicing telling the 100% truth in your relati…

> Writing and then reading 14 Gratitude Letters to people.

> Spending an afternoon a week outside.

> Practicing telling the 100% truth in your relationships.

> And of course, Psychedelics.

Heh, a decent psychologist would suggest #3 during e.g. CBT sessions. Suggesting #4 is downright dangerous, you don't know who reads your post.

Readers, please seek professional help -based on conventional science- instead.

I tried all kind of self-help BS, including using psychedelics on my own, because I did not trust conventional science (ie. psychologists, psychiatrists). None of the pseudoscientific self-help BS helped, of course, and it gave me a severe lag in my life and professional career.

At the very least people should try out professional help first. But if I went on with it after the first failure (a diagnosis + meds for GAD which didn't quite work out) right afterwards, I might have figured out I have autism at my 27th instead of my 34th.

Re: Many People Taking Antidepressants Discover They Cannot Quit

#59

Post by ada1981 » Sat, Apr 07, 2018, 9:22 PM UTC

make3 wrote: post #50

gabept wrote: post #35

The "Chemical Imbalence Theory", although heavely popular and promoted, is largely unfounded on science: https://joannamoncrieff.com/2014/05/01/the-chemical-imbalanc...

Meta studies still show that antidepressants help more than the placebo https://www.bmj.com/content/360/bmj.k847

Hmm... I question a meta study that says it has finally solved the issue and put it to rest, when there are plenty of other studies saying the exact opposite.

Here's one:

https://bmcpsychiatry.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12...

"SSRIs might have statistically significant effects on depressive symptoms, but all trials were at high risk of bias and the clinical significance seems questionable. SSRIs significantly increase the risk of both serious and non-serious adverse events. The potential small beneficial effects seem to be outweighed by harmful effects."

Re: Many People Taking Antidepressants Discover They Cannot Quit

#60

Post by fogzen » Sat, Apr 07, 2018, 9:22 PM UTC

make3 wrote: post #50

gabept wrote: post #35

The "Chemical Imbalence Theory", although heavely popular and promoted, is largely unfounded on science: https://joannamoncrieff.com/2014/05/01/the-chemical-imbalanc...

Meta studies still show that antidepressants help more than the placebo https://www.bmj.com/content/360/bmj.k847

And multiple studies show them no more effective than exercise: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3674785/

The bigger problem is “depression” is not reproducibly measurable, because it has no falsifiable or biomedical marker.