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Vitamin D and Omega-3 have a larger effect on depression than antidepressants

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Re: Vitamin D and Omega-3 have a larger effect on depression than antidepressants

#161

Because it's common to hate on antidepressants, I've always personally had a bias against them. For the past 15-20 years, november thru february are basically a writeoff due for me due to seasonal affective disorder. Cold showers, exercise, no alcohol, strict sleeping rituals. Vitamin d. I can still sleep 11 hours and feel like reheated cat shit. Enter citalopram. "It will take up to six weeks to dial in" they said.…

The hate on antidepressants is not because they're not effective, but rather that they're abused by psychiatrists. Ideally, a professional will prescribe them as a necessary helper to becoming (more) mentally healthy whilst tackling the root cause. Most of the time however, it's more of a "here, take these indefinitely".

It's like if we took sleeping pills every time we had trouble sleeping. Having said that, I just realised I have the impression that's exactly what people do in the USA?

Re: Vitamin D and Omega-3 have a larger effect on depression than antidepressants

#162
post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is easily possible to overdose on oral Vitamin D tablets and damage your body.

Source? There have been many articles on HN showing the RDA to be ~10x too low (something like 5,000 IU) and that the daily safety limit to be significantly higher than that (something like 30,000 IU). Edit: for clarity I am not saying it is impossible to overdose on oral tablets, but rather that with most tablets 400 IU to 1000 IU and the safe limit so much higher than these, it seems like it would be extremely unli…

I do know somebody taking way more than 30k/day though.

Seems to be a thing in conspiracy theories "they try to hide those simple tricks from you (drinking bleach, ivamectin, 100k D3, ...)

Re: Vitamin D and Omega-3 have a larger effect on depression than antidepressants

#163
post #4

Please do not take 5000mg/day of Vitamin D. The author confuses IU and mg which is very dangerous.

Only recently again I read in the newspaper, that most products are overdosed. There is a typical number that the vitamin D products usually show, and in the article it said, that only up to 800 IU is safe, and everything above is an overdose. There are many products out there with 2000 UI or maybe even more. Beware. EDIT: Wow, the HN-local doctors at it again. Imagine getting downvoted for sharing information from n…

Can you provide a link to the newspaper article at least while whining about the downvotes?

Re: Vitamin D and Omega-3 have a larger effect on depression than antidepressants

#165
post #161

Because it's common to hate on antidepressants, I've always personally had a bias against them. For the past 15-20 years, november thru february are basically a writeoff due for me due to seasonal affective disorder. Cold showers, exercise, no alcohol, strict sleeping rituals. Vitamin d. I can still sleep 11 hours and feel like reheated cat shit. Enter citalopram. "It will take up to six weeks to dial in" they said.…

The hate on antidepressants is not because they're not effective, but rather that they're abused by psychiatrists. Ideally, a professional will prescribe them as a necessary helper to becoming (more) mentally healthy whilst tackling the root cause. Most of the time however, it's more of a "here, take these indefinitely". It's like if we took sleeping pills every time we had trouble sleeping. Having said that, I just…

you're not wrong that pharmaceutical crutches are overused. but as an outsider to these problems my 'ambient impression' was always one of haha antidepressants are for suckers. well, in my specific case, so what if i'm a sucker... they're super effective in fixing what appears to be a defective winter brain.

Re: Vitamin D and Omega-3 have a larger effect on depression than antidepressants

#166
post #4

Please do not take 5000mg/day of Vitamin D. The author confuses IU and mg which is very dangerous.

That would be 5g. At this point everyone should notice that something is off. :-D 5000 mg of vitamin D3 = 200,000,000 IU (200 million IU)

Why didn't the author notice? AI slop?

Re: Vitamin D and Omega-3 have a larger effect on depression than antidepressants

#167
post #4

Please do not take 5000mg/day of Vitamin D. The author confuses IU and mg which is very dangerous.

I used an LLM to summarize and it told me 5000 IU.

Wow, so what value is there in LLM slop exctracted from already dubious self-medication advice?

Re: Vitamin D and Omega-3 have a larger effect on depression than antidepressants

#168
post #161

Because it's common to hate on antidepressants, I've always personally had a bias against them. For the past 15-20 years, november thru february are basically a writeoff due for me due to seasonal affective disorder. Cold showers, exercise, no alcohol, strict sleeping rituals. Vitamin d. I can still sleep 11 hours and feel like reheated cat shit. Enter citalopram. "It will take up to six weeks to dial in" they said.…

The hate on antidepressants is not because they're not effective, but rather that they're abused by psychiatrists. Ideally, a professional will prescribe them as a necessary helper to becoming (more) mentally healthy whilst tackling the root cause. Most of the time however, it's more of a "here, take these indefinitely". It's like if we took sleeping pills every time we had trouble sleeping. Having said that, I just…

> It's like if we took sleeping pills every time we had trouble sleeping. Having said that, I just realised I have the impression that's exactly what people do in the USA?

I'm not sure if it is common but I've definitely taken my fair share of my dog's trazodone.

Re: Vitamin D and Omega-3 have a larger effect on depression than antidepressants

#169
post #161

Because it's common to hate on antidepressants, I've always personally had a bias against them. For the past 15-20 years, november thru february are basically a writeoff due for me due to seasonal affective disorder. Cold showers, exercise, no alcohol, strict sleeping rituals. Vitamin d. I can still sleep 11 hours and feel like reheated cat shit. Enter citalopram. "It will take up to six weeks to dial in" they said.…

The hate on antidepressants is not because they're not effective, but rather that they're abused by psychiatrists. Ideally, a professional will prescribe them as a necessary helper to becoming (more) mentally healthy whilst tackling the root cause. Most of the time however, it's more of a "here, take these indefinitely". It's like if we took sleeping pills every time we had trouble sleeping. Having said that, I just…

> like if we took sleeping pills every time we had trouble sleeping

Yes, that's normal in the US. I have multiple family members who take Ambien (zolpidem) before bed every night.

Re: Vitamin D and Omega-3 have a larger effect on depression than antidepressants

#170
post #21
post #10

Can I just add: In addition to this, if you struggle with anxiety or have some sort of ADHD, then try cutting out caffeine entirely . Not just switching to "decaf" (which isn't), but cutting out tea and coffee, and switching to an alternative like Barleycup. Doing this has had a massive positive effect for me, and combined with decent nutrition and daily exercise, has been wonderful.

Fascinating. Can you describe what else you tried? Other supplements? Any other non-food/supplement techniques like journaling, breathing, etc.? Any therapy and other similar human interventions? After all those - is it / was it still the case that cutting caffeine drove the best outcome?

Not OP but I'll share my experience. For me, I have to quit caffeine for those to even become an option. Otherwise I get my short burst of productivity then everything shuts down after and I don't want to do a thing, everything feels "impossible" or like it doesn't matter at all.

Things like journaling / breathing / etc calm the nervous system while caffeine stimulates it. I would say caffeine is counterproductive to those practices.

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