Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

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

news.ycombinator.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

131–140 of 388 posts

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

#131

Post by jnwatson »

SketchySeaBeast wrote: post #73
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…

But as grandparent suggests - talking to a forum full of strangers is not doing research.

No, but it does give avenues to research.

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

#132

Post by vorpalhex »

frankincense wrote: post #121
dimal wrote: post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

They aren't writing a prescription for op, they are sharing anecdotal data. That's a reasonable thing to do.

Having had a critical infection repeatedly misdiagnosed until I finally went out of my way to pick a better professional, I don't buy the "just have faith in your doctor" argument.

Doctors are more like plumbers than we like to admit. There are good ones and bad ones, and it's hard to tell the difference. They do best when you can give them direction (cooperatively) and when you are willing to get a second opinion.

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

#133

Post by maxlamb »

Do you exercise regularly? First thing I would make sure to take a 1hr walk or short jog every day, go outside and get some sunshine. Maybe 30 min walk in morning and then another walk after work. Diet is also very important, cut out all sweets and fried food, add small fish to you diet like mackerel and sardines for omega 3’s. One or two cups of (good) coffee has been shown to reduce depression symptoms as well

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

#134

Post by grp000 »

TameAntelope wrote: post #90
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…

Quoted post unavailable.

Doctors aren't infallible, and most are probably not reading research papers. That's aside from the fact that psychiatric drugs aren't even that well understood by how they actually work. If you understand basic stats and read white papers on drug efficacy that are looking for correlations with your personal attributes, that's probably really useful info to know, and much more in depth research than your doctor will be doing for you.

That's not to even mention the disgusting influence that the drug industry has on psychiatry. My own doctor prescribed Cymbalta to me for mild anxiety and told me it was completely safe and effective, which it was not. Their (doctor's) basis for prescribing those meds was based on their own experience with a small sample of patients, and I imagine what the drug company told them/gave their own first party literature for. Had I actually looked into studies, I would have seen that the risk was nontrivial, there are bad actors motivated by greed, the mechanism of action is not known, and that there are doctors with limited time and effort per patient.

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

#135

Post by kayodelycaon »

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…

Not OP, but I have. If you go to a family doctor in the US, they really aren’t qualified or trained in treating mental health.

My psychiatrist was fairly clear on what was what and which things needed to be treated with therapy and which medication could help with. (Medication helps symptoms, it does not cure.) Finding the right medication would take months or years and will not solve everything. There will be side effects that I needed to monitor and report. And so on.

When seeing any doctor, you are your own best advocate. It helps to come prepared, knowing your family history, and things you are struggling with.

Researching medications can help, but most people are not qualified to use them without supervision, myself included.

Note: This is assuming you need medication. It was fairly clear in my case medication was absolutely required to at least treat psychosis.

I prefer to refer friends to a therapist or psychologist, who do not prescribe medication.

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

#136

Post by idontwantthis »

pasabagi wrote: post #51
chas wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This isn’t an accurate description of the possible side-effects. Anti-depressants can cause meaningful side-effects including changes to appetite, difficulty regulating body temperature, nausea, changes to sleep, and akathisia. They are also very, very not fun to quit abruptly if you run into an intolerable side-effect. That said, nothing that you said about depression is wrong and the effects of untreated depression…

Yeah, re-reading my post, I probably should have expanded on the 'if dosed and chosen properly' part. Obviously, if you take the wrong dose, or have an adverse reaction, it's going to not very fun. I recommend talking to a psychiatrist. That said, my first go-around with anti-depressants was a hugely overdosed prescription of venlafaxine from an overenthusiastic doctor, which is pretty side-effect-tastic, so my eyes…

For the first several months of drugs I had zero sex drive. I talked to the doctor about it and we both agreed that this was 100% tolerable compared to how I’d been without medication. Also that if my opinion on the matter changed, there were other options. Fortunately that side effect eased on its own.

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

#137

Post by santa_boy »

I've been coming across quite a few posts on this topic and would be great to get inputs on this topic (weird opinion ..... I feel real people can provide better inputs than isolate doctors).

i) How does one identify that they have anxiety or depression? (vs. the shit happens feeling that can be brushed off over a period of time)

ii) How to identify when professional help is the required (vs. running up on hourly bills for random pointless "talk therapy")

iii) When are meds required and what they do?

I feel many would be inquisitive about these (taboo) questions. Many thanks for inputs.

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

#138

Post by vorpalhex »

TameAntelope wrote: post #90
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…

Quoted post unavailable.

They're a doctor, not a deity. You can question them, get second opinions, read research and think critically.

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

#139

Post by kayodelycaon »

hsn915 wrote: post #129
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 o…

I have told friends to see professionals. Mostly getting a good therapist. Medication should be a second line for the usually encountered forms of depression.

It’s worked.

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

#140

Post by michaericalribo »

idontwantthis wrote: post #128
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 ei…

Good point! “Experiment” was probably a bad word to use. It’s important to work with a medical doctor, preferably a psychiatrist, to try any sort of pharmaceutical solution like SSRIs. They can offer professional guidance and informed supervision, and monitor for a variety of edge cases. eg, you may be unlikely to be bipolar, but if you _were_ and an SSRI triggered a manic episode, you’d want someone to notice and treat you!

But also as you said there should be an entire intake / triage conversation to understand things like family psychological / medical history, and to make informed decisions before trying any medication.

Post reply on HN