Please consult a doctor and do not take mental health advice from this clown fiesta website.
Ask HN: Beating depression with or without anti-depressants?
61–70 of 388 posts
Re: Ask HN: Beating depression with or without anti-depressants?
#62[deleted]
Re: Ask HN: Beating depression with or without anti-depressants?
#63PLEASE 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…
https://www.betterhelp.com/
An option if you prefer an entirely-online experience.
But yes, your mental help is not worth asking strangers on the Internet for help. You deserve better than what we here can offer.
Re: Ask HN: Beating depression with or without anti-depressants?
#64> For these reasons I am completely shit-scared of them. I see them as my option of last resort but increasingly I feel my options running out. I was in the same boat. Don't listen to the haters. Anti-depressants are amazing. Most of the people who 'cured' their depression through some kind of cheap trick turn out to have been self-diagnosed. Anti-depressants, if dosed and chosen properly, have basically no side effe…
I tried a whole host of anti-depressants including several SSRIs and an SNRI and all gave me many horrible side effects. At times they were necessary evils, but right now I'm doing pretty well on a low dose of gabapentin. In particular, they tended to both make me sleepy during the day and dramatically reduced the quality of my sleep at night. I also ended up getting tremors and RLS. In the end, I think most of these symptoms were due to the medications decreasing the effective amount of dopamine in my brain (they increase seratonin, but due to how seratonin and dopamine interact, this can decrease the effect of dopamine in the brain; they really need to be in balance with one another).
I also take methylphenidate (Ritalin) for ADHD and it is MUCH easier to stop stimulant medication in my experience compared to anti-depressants. And while stimulants affect sleep, I found the SSRIs to be much worse in this regard since they made me sleep poorly regardless of when I took the SSRI unless I skipped a day of the SSRI (and I was on the lowest possible dose).
Not only do these medications have side effects, they have severe side effects, at least for some people.
Re: Ask HN: Beating depression with or without anti-depressants?
#65PLEASE 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…
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 you take time to reduce it in steps (like 10% of the former dose) the better is the time after. But since this is burdensome, its rarely suggested and also people need to "cut" pills to have the exact dose for their reduction.
My current OPINION is: Until you have read studies and got some plausible experiences from people with the same medication, one doctor alone isn't a good source for taking medication.
I will only take medication in the future if life wouldn't managable without, but not for issues that just take time.
Re: Ask HN: Beating depression with or without anti-depressants?
#66i have a life long history of major depression. only recently have i felt any better. i checked myself into rehab and had an amazing therapist. specifically EMDR therapy for trauma, and finally deciding to forgive myself for pretty evil things i did in my addiction. gabapentin for anxiety also helped. best of luck, please seek professional help, but don't be afraid to switch therapists/psychiatrists until you find someone you connect with. much love to you, and good job speaking up and being vulnerable, that's a difficult first step towards healing.
Re: Ask HN: Beating depression with or without anti-depressants?
#67> For these reasons I am completely shit-scared of them. I see them as my option of last resort but increasingly I feel my options running out. I was in the same boat. Don't listen to the haters. Anti-depressants are amazing. Most of the people who 'cured' their depression through some kind of cheap trick turn out to have been self-diagnosed. Anti-depressants, if dosed and chosen properly, have basically no side effe…
> Anti-depressants, if dosed and chosen properly, have basically no side effects
WTF is that bullshit ?
SSRIs destroy libido and possibly permanently (see r/pssd)
MAOIs have many side effects
NRIs are not effective
NDRIs can cause tinnitus.
Stims are cardiotoxic and usually not prescribed for depression.
TCAs are not an action mechanism and therefore fall in the above categories.
Atypical mechanisms are not better either.
The only ones with low side effects either cause some sedation (mirtazapine, agomelatine) or have dubious effectiveness.
The only one that stands out is moclobemide and maybe bifemelane. The latter is only available in japan. The former has low efficacy.
hence for someone that don't want side effects, only moclobemide make sense, or ultra atypical stuff that has probably low efficacy. One of the only atypical that might be potent is SAM-e but who wants to play with his DNA methylation ?
9 mebc is phototoxic unfortunately as it is very promising otherwise.
edit: it's true though that testosterone is apparently as effective as SSRIs and with less side effects.
What should be said though is that there are some great anxiolytic out there, it's just that no one knows them, e.g opipramol, emoxypine, etifoxine
Re: Ask HN: Beating depression with or without anti-depressants?
#68Don't fear the SSRIs. They get a bad rap because they've been blown way out of proportion from what I've seen. I have a co-worker who didn't just treat his MCD with Zoloft, IT WAS CURED ENTIRELY. He hasn't needed it or taken it for something like 5 years now and he's still just fine. The truly dangerous ones - and this is also not as bad as it sounds most of the time - are MAOIs. They're reserved as a last-line treat…
MAOIs are not necessarily more dangerous, they just need a low tyramine diet which is easily doable. Moreover you can significantly lower this need with a concommitant NRI.
transdermal (emsam) or selective mao-a or b don't even need a diet and are safer than SSRIs (no PSSD)
Re: Ask HN: Beating depression with or without anti-depressants?
#69Honestly: go and talk to a doctor you trust.
My opinion (not a doctor): What is wrong in your life? Are you:
+ Working too hard
+ Commuting
+ Not exercising and taking care of yourself
+ Eating a diet with lots of processed foods
+ Using drugs and alcohol as a crutch
+ Overweight
+ Not resting regularly
+ Sleeping poorly
+ Have other health issues not addressed
+ Without genuine friends
+ Without a good partner
+ A certain age without kids
+ Spending too much time on social media
+ Spending too much time watching TV
+ Not engaging in hobbies, such as reading
+ Neglecting talking to family
+ Wanting to do something different in life but ignoring it
+ Harbouring regret, judging yourself and generally being cynical
+ Judging those around you too harshly
+ Not trusting people
Etc.
I fully understand that depression causes people to avoid addressing problems like I’ve listed. I’ve been there too, and it is not easy to climb out of the hole. It’s a positive feedback loop though: you start neglecting things (maybe due to time constraints), you lose a bit of happiness/stability, you neglect more things & so on. The hard part is to break out of the loop and start ticking these boxes. Start small and don’t judge yourself harshly if you slip.
Really do examine my small list and see if any of these things are pulling you down. If there’s something there you can’t fix, don’t beat yourself up on it. That’s the last thing to do. No one can be perfect, so don’t worry.
Re: Ask HN: Beating depression with or without anti-depressants?
#70PLEASE 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…
You may be correct about not trusting mental health with strangers. But at the and taking anti depressant or not taking it up to you. Doctor cannot weight pros and cons of taking anti depressant for you.