321–330 of 388 posts
Luckily we’re also discovering that drugs that target the glutamate pathway can often reverse these changes within a matter of hours or minutes.
Check this video out from Therapy in a Nutshell for some basic info: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=zECMyPdXS1A
Anecdotally, from my experience, it was like an antidote or a brain reset.
Also remember psychiatrists often have crushing medical school debt into their 40s. Think about that.
Before you take meds please read this https://slatestarcodex.com/2019/05/22/the-apa-meeting-a-phot...
I'm not sure if this totally out of left-field, but have you tried dietary change like a ketogenic or other type of restrictive diet? I know that for some people some foods can trigger horrible mood changes like bipolar, anger, feelings of fear, depression, etc.. Especially if you're sensitive to some foods like gluten, dairy, certain meats & veggies, etc. Also if you ingest any other drugs/chemicals it would be wort…
Always better to see a pro but we can try finding a root cause.
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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…
Oh I know a good story.
I know a woman who unfortunately isn't the most educated person in the world and happens to have a nasty health issue where both her feet are all swollen up and makes her hard to walk around.
She's been seeing doctors left and right to solve or mitigate her condition.
One time, when she went to an appointment at the local hospital, her doctor handed her a form for her to sign and told her just to sign on the dotted line and don't worry about it.
The form was a consent form to amputate both her legs.
I happened to come across her when she was going to get a second opinion with the very form in her hands, completely furious.
She still has both her legs, even though she still suffers from the same issue.
Oddly enough, the hospital which handed out the leg amputation form also had a malpractice suite where they amputated the wrong leg of a patient.
Moral of the story: even though medical professionals are expected to be more knowledgeable about health topics, they are still human and far from infallible. More importantly, ultimately you're the person responsible for your personal health, and you need to have a say on what's done with your life based on the info that medical professionals make available to you. If you do not take an active role on these decisions on your health, others will eventually make these decisions for you, and they may not be good or have your best interests in mind.
> 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…
I get that's not everybody's experience. However, my feeling is that if you shop around until you can get the right dose and the right meds, the only side effect pain is when you start, and when you stop or draw down your dose.
The real danger of starting meds is that it can give a severely depressed person the motivation and wherewithal to commit suicide, so I do think it's worth starting them in a setting where you're not going to be alone. Still, I'd say that's less a 'side effect', and more just an effect of having severe depression and suddenly not feeling so debilitated that you can't do anything about it.
In general, I just find the conversation around anti-depressants completely unhelpful and baffling. People focus on the extremely long-tail side effects, and ignore the massive bump in the bellcurve that is a depressed person either committing suicide, or just living a totally miserable life until they die from some substance abuse problem. People who are diagnosed with depression do not live good lives without medication. The statistics for life expectancy, etc, are just awful (it's worse with stuff like schizophrenia or bipolar). So all the stuff about antidepressants making you fat or whatever is just totally irrelevant.
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You're a frontend engineer, not a doctor. You're not qualified to give advice on medicine.
So any support group is invalid then? AA? Smart Recovery? Addiction is a medical problem, so just talk to your doctor? If you have PTSD, don't talk to other people with PTSD, just isolate and talk to your doctor? If you have depression, don't talk to other people who have had depression, who might make you feel less alone, just talk to your doctor? Think through what you're saying.
SSRI can be life changing for some people, in a very positive way. But definitely not for everyone or at the first time. Have a plan with your doc on what to do if things get worse, and if needed on how to stop taking the meds in a safe way.
2. Schedule a follow up
Maybe 1 month after you start taking the medication schedule a follow up to review the meds. You may need to change a couple of times before you have the right ones. Have a doctor who understand and agrees with this plan. Then schedule a follow up something like 6 months later and so on regularly maybe yearly if everything goes well. Don't see it as a one off thing. Psychiatric meds are often hit and miss.
3. Don't rely solely on meds
There are many interventions that help with depression, including psychotherapy, mindfulness, and lifestyle changes. All this should be considered for the success of the therapy. Meds at their best will help you with the change.
Also if you feel a tight stomach, after ruling out organic illness, you may consider massage therapy to help you with anxiety. Learning massage therapy actually helped me a lot.
The responses to this thread seem overwhelming to me, as someone who has struggled with burnout/depression. I think these are the important takeaways: * Talk to a medical professional, like a doctor / GP * Keep talking to your therapist if it helps. Look for a new therapist if your current one isn't a good fit. * Work with your "care team" (therapist, doctor, loved ones) to create a treatment plan. Agree on ways to c…
This got a lot more responses than I anticipated but by and large they have been very informative, supportive and I'm very grateful for everyone that has shared their journey.