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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?

#191

Post by tbalsam »

sjg007 wrote: post #38
f0e4c2f7 wrote: post #20

Check 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!

I listened to his podcast. It is really good and I enjoy it. But I found something even better that worked for me which is the audiobook Self-coaching by Dr. J Luciani. It is on audible for free right now if you have an account. I was put off by the title (self-coaching) but boy was I wrong and I now highly recommend it. For my own story I came to terms with being "smart enough" for life. This is after years of anxie…

Ayyyy, Wellbutrin squad! :D

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

#192

Post by heavyset_go »

amirhirsch wrote: post #104
inter_netuser wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

50% of doctors are by definition below the average. In reality, roughly 3-10% are good, the rest just go by standard guidelines only and/or punt you off to someone else.

50% are below the median.

Median is a type of average.

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

#195

Post by jpgvm »

_moof wrote: post #177

Your utter terror of these drugs is not warranted. Yes, some of them have intolerable side effects. Some of them will just be ineffective. But there are lots and lots of different antidepressants and there is probably one that will work for you without intolerable side effects. If there isn't, then there are other options (ketamine or TMS for example - but you can't start with these, you have to try antidepressants f…

The whole "don't ask for advice from strangers" thing has been repeated a lot in this thread.

I'm not asking for advice, I'm asking for anecdotes, success and failure stories, etc. Real experiences with tackling these problems and the medications that professionals prescribe or ways people have come to "beat" or manage their depression without said medications.

I'm not going to self medicate and I'm not going to make a decision on a specific treatment based on what I read here, I will consult a professional when taking that step.

Thank you for the rest of your advice and thoughts however, it's gratefully received.

FWIW I am terrified of depression. I've seen my greatest heroes all die from it and deep down I know if I take no action I will be among them someday.

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

#196

Post by nonce-3460712 »

tomatowurst wrote: post #57
pasabagi wrote: post #47

> 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…

Dangerous advice. Anti-depressants are band-aid solutions. Depression isn't an imbalance of "chemicals", it has been marketed that way for decades to sell pills. As soon as you are off them, you will likely relapse back into depression. While it can help someone that is in immediate risk, it does not solve the core issue of what depression is which requires a holistic, non-conventional view that Western medicine shun…

No post body was provided.

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

#197

Post by skytrue »

What’s mildly infuriating about these threads are people’s concepts on “what you should do if you have depression”, and the things they list are like, eat right, get enough sleep, take vitamin D, exercise… like, no shit! If you are truly depressed, you often have to do those things just to meet a baseline. You don’t have the luxury of _not_ doing at least some degree of self-care. No overcaffeinating, undersleeping, going on a substance binge, whatever. Those suggestions are to get to an even ‘okay, my life still sucks, but I can get out of bed after an hour’ baseline.

My experience as somebody with Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder and clinical depression is that SSRIs are awesome. Do they have side effects? Yup. Do most either not get them or get mild side effects that often go away? Yup. For me, I can’t even function as a result of my mental illness without medication.

I’ve also been in therapy for many years, off and on, and therapy is no cure all. I do recommend it, and medications often help when first starting therapy (studies have shown therapy efficacy increases with medicated participants).

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

#199

Post by wheelerwj »

hn_throwaway_99 wrote: post #186
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…

I think the reason you are getting so many "I disagree" responses is because many of us have had awful experiences when it comes to medical professionals and mental health. It's important to understand the economic pressures in psychiatry. I went to see a psychiatrist, who prescribed me antidepressants. They helped give be a baseline level of energy to get me out of my acute depression, but they addressed none of my…

> I think the reason you are getting so many "I disagree" responses is because many of us have had awful experiences when it comes to medical professionals and mental health.

> I've heard it said that giving antidepressants to a depressed person, without any therapy, is like giving amphetamines to a tired person: yes, they may temporarily cure your "tiredness", but what you really need is to go to sleep.

I don't even know where to start with this comment. This whole thread should be booted waaaaay off HN.

A few people have problems with medical professionals. It's true, assuming you're in america, we're definitely not the best. But you find a few 1,000 people online with bad experiences (obviously, because people with good experiences have moved on and don't spend their time researching that issue) and assume you have a complete picture but you're only looking through a pinhole of information returned with biased search results. You probably aren't googling, "how many people have gotten their lives back after using anti-depressants?"

> he should be aware of his options.

Yeah fine, be aware. Talk to professionals, get second and third opinions if necessary. Take a holistic approach to your well-being. But please lets not glorify google medicine here.

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

#200

Post by fdgsdfogijq »

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…

I don't trust doctors, and I have seen many people medicated for no reason at all. They basically just go by the book to avoid any sort of malpractice.
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