Antidepressants are a hit or miss. You need to find one that works for you. If you don´t like them you can quit them. And until you go to the doctor you won´t know what the treatment will be. Maybe they will give you Bupropion. Who knows?
Ask HN: Beating depression with or without anti-depressants?
11–20 of 388 posts
Re: Ask HN: Beating depression with or without anti-depressants?
#12Don't overthink this or spend too much time researching. Improving mental health is very much trial and error.
If you're uncomfortable taking anti-depressants, start with therapy and improvements to diet and exercise. For a lot of people this is enough.
If after a while, you're not getting the results you want, try an antidepressant. You may have to try a few since they work differently for different folks.
If you're taking the anti-depressants and don't want to anymore, try reducing the dose or stopping altogether. A lot of people only need them temporarily. Some people find them useful long-term.
Re: Ask HN: Beating depression with or without anti-depressants?
#13This is gonna be very different from the rest, but looking at a wide variety of options prob won't hurt:
I struggled with depression for several years, and what got me out was a combination of understanding myself better and improving the most important relationships in my life, basically personal development.
If you're interested/open to this, I can talk about it in more detail. Don't want to just start sharing a bunch of stuff if no one wants to know lol.
EDIT: Sorry maybe that's a bit too vague. I meant things like figuring out my thought patterns, my specific pain points, past traumas/wounds, etc. and also things like my (and my partner's) personality traits and tendencies.
Re: Ask HN: Beating depression with or without anti-depressants?
#14If you want to avoid SSRIs, you can try ketamine treatment. Should be able to find it in most major cities now. In my city the cash price is about $400/a session and you probably need 2-3 sessions. Pros: if it works you will start to feel better in just a few days, and you only have to get a few 2-4 hour treatments a year. Cons: hard to get insurance to pay for it, SSRI are cheaper.
https://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/ketamine-for-major-depre...
Re: Ask HN: Beating depression with or without anti-depressants?
#15Have you looked into non-pharmacological treatments like tDCS or rTMS? brain stimulation is safe and often as effective as drugs but without the side-effects.
Re: Ask HN: Beating depression with or without anti-depressants?
#16Eat 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…
> You can also stop when ever you want.
To clarify, it’s important antidepressants are not stopped suddenly, but rather gradually reduced over a few weeks. Stopping suddenly can lead to withdrawal symptoms [0]
[0] https://www.nhs.uk/mental-health/talking-therapies-medicine-...
Re: Ask HN: Beating depression with or without anti-depressants?
#17After using lots of antidepressants and therapy, i solved it with meditation. I recommend the book "practical insight meditation" by venerable mahasi sayadaw. I applied the technique he teaches to the feeling of being sad, however it manifests physically.
Re: Ask HN: Beating depression with or without anti-depressants?
#18I have had depression for years.
Slowly creeping in.
Last year three things happened:
1. I got a light antidepressants
2. I switched from smoking weed with tabacco to without tabacco
3. I took ecstasy for the first time
Number one lifted my mood. Number two reduced my lethargic and number three Reminded me how it feels to be happy and it gave me back human empathy as well.
I was wearing glasses for a long time and that always made the idea of needing help for my brain easy to accept. Why do I accept that wearing glasses is normal and just necessary but my brain has to work 'normal enough' without help?
On a side note though: mote depressed you get the less you have to loose anyway right? After all hard depression leads to doing nothing and thriving to end it. You need to realize that this mental state already gives you the chance to do whatever you want.
After all if you really fuck it up, you still are at the same point of ending your life.
Good luck!
Re: Ask HN: Beating depression with or without anti-depressants?
#19Most cases of depression are not single isolated episodes but part of a recurring pattern. Sometimes even the intervals between episodes are characterized by mildly depressed mood, mild anhedonia etc., the so-called dysthymia.
I point out the relapsing and remitting behaviour of mood disorders because it shines a light on other ways of managing it. The effect size of SSRI’s is not all that large to be honest. But characterizing the risk of adverse effects as terrorizing is probably over-pessimistic and unwarranted. That said, I’ve taken meds - tricyclics, traditional SSRI’s, atypicals and I can’t say that any were terribly effective. Working with a skilled and trusted therapist has been practically life-saving though. It took a long time to find the right person. Before my current therapist I saw someone for 2-3 sessions and she seemed like she had never even had any experience in clinical interviewing let alone any insight into the sort of existential troubles that I was facing. I am an MD but I try to keep that out of the fray because it can skew the therapeutic relationship in odd ways. I don’t know. Just was “off.” But current therapist is awesome.
I also have two checklists that I review weekly. The first is titled “What’s going on?” It just lists some of my early warning signs. If those start pointing in the wrong direction I look at the second list which is about 60 things I know that have helped me in the past. Exercise or just being outdoors is near the top.
The expectation/anticipation of adverse medication effects is known to increase the risk thereof. The nocebo effect. If you are that agitated about the risk my advice is to work really hard on finding a compatible therapist.
I don’t think you can brute force your way out of depression but you yourself and especially with a therapist can begin to identify patterns of thought and behaviour that can keep you stuck. It’s just a nudge.
Re: Ask HN: Beating depression with or without anti-depressants?
#20Check out the book feeling great by David Burns, known for popularizing CBT.
It's an updated handbook of some of the most recent techniques for managing the way you feel. It also has some good tips on how to find a therapist to work with if the book isn't enough.
The book leans towards avoiding antidepressants but stresses that in some extreme cases they might be best.
Sorry you've been feeling that way. Good luck!