Ask HN: What is your experience with SSRIs?

Escitalopram for anxiety works quite well, you should continue with it, mostly along with Therapy to create productive coping mechanisms against anxiety.

I took 10mg of escitalopram during 2 months for anxiety, depression and suicidal thoughts. It had no effects. I'm currently on week 3 of 50mg of sertraline. I didn't notice any change yet.

So this is my story, I won't' claim it invalidates anyone else's experience and it will have an element of anecdotal. Everyone can have different levels of depression and there are many variables at play (current lifestyle, health etc).

I found myself in an utter mess. I constantly felt depressed or under huge stress from rampant anxiety. The best way of describing my depression is to imagine wearing a weighted jacket, just constantly pulling you down and zapping all zest from your life. Here I was, working a very well paid job, loving young family and everything going for me and I just wanted to crawl into a ball and die.

I was just on the verge of going to see a Dr to get prescribed something, but I was hesitant about this from stories of side effects. It seemed no one had a consistent experience and some had a horrible time, with a few finding them great.

I went to see a therapist which really helped me to unspool everything, as my life seemed like a blur at the end. They recommended to me a book. The book was called 'feeling good' by Dr David Burns an American psychiatrist, and it was basically a manual of using Cognitive therapy on yourself. I found it laid out in away my engineering brain could grab onto. The text is a little dated, when it comes to case studies, but everything is very applicable. The premise is that we constantly shape our emotions based on our thinking and that if you can challenge your thinking, you change the way you feel. I devoured this book and within a few weeks felts massively better. I now find that depression can start to creep back in, but I can right away use some tools to get myself right again.

Some will read this and think 'if this guy was fixed by a book, it could not have been 'real' depression'. What do you have to lose though, 1/2 weeks of trying something out and $20 on the price of the book.

100% positive. Even though outwardly I was a popular, social, active, easy-going kid/teen I suffered from constant anxiety and sometimes depression throughout my childhood and adolescence. (I wasn't aware of it at the time -- thought it was normal to feel that way.) I also would also often feel inexplicable dread about doing things I usually enjoyed, like music or sports. I would often make excuses to skip these things and stay home in bed... even though they were my hobbies and nobody was forcing me to do them.

Finally things came to a head around age 19-20 when I dropped out of university two years in a row due to depression/anxiety. I had no real problem with school -- but I would just get a month or so in and it would feel unbearable to even think about going to class or opening a book. And I liked school!

After the second time a doctor suggested I start on a small dose of escitalopram. Within a week I was more or less rid of the anxiety, and I think for me an overload of anxiety was what would put me into a depressive state. The biggest thing for me was gaining the ability to have some control over my thoughts. Prior to starting medication my internal monologue was basically just an uncontrollable, irrational, negative stream of consciousness. Since starting, by default I feel... "OK". Which is perfect -- they are not happy pills for me. I still feel negative emotions and I still have bad days but I am able to live my life!

I am still taking 5/10mg alternating daily 10 years later.

Had anxiety and depression from anxiety. Got lexapro and didn’t like how it felt. Switched to welbutrin, and it worked great to get off the couch and made anxiety about being late or not doing things way less. Still like an XL in winter months. Benzos felt like a magic bullet for anxiety, a little too good, you can see why they are addictive. But you sound like a good candidate for some short term temazepam or something. Anyway, after all this, saw a naturopath. Gave the rundown of everything, all my symptoms, why I tried, what those things helped or didn’t help with in a massive 3 hour interview. Ran a battery of blood and urine tests for a baseline. I was near the bottom but within the “acceptable range” of the bell curve. But then I remembered that are statistics are lies, bell curves say nothing about the individual, my naturopath agreed and got a tiny dose 25 microgram of levothyroxine and that was it, that was my life changing drug. Low thyroid is so often misdiagnosed in younger people. Sometimes a TSH or T3 level in the acceptable range does not mean it’s enough for you. The thyroid regulates all other hormone systems including the anxiety hormones and the confidence hormones such as testosterone. If I were you I’d get some short term benzos to give you the courage to see a naturopath and then inquire about your thyroid. It’s super common for your thyroid to be fucked up, and many environmental and genetic factors can affect it. There’s even autoimmune things. If you have allergies and the like, it’s almost certain your body will eventually try to eat it’s own thyroid. Seriously, check it out.