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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

#501

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.…

Similar story for me, but with Bupropion (Wellbutrin). None of the SSRIs/SNRIs worked for me, spent years trying different medications, Wellburtin was finally the one that worked, and oh man what a difference.

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

#502
Anecdotally, I've been taking a 5,000 IU vitamin E supplement this winter. Seattle area, indoor desk job, I am a vampire. It does seem to help, I would rate it as going from a C to a B grade. I'd prefer not to use antidepressant medications to fix a problem that for me is mostly caused by living at a different latitude than I grew up in.

Do be aware that not all vitamin E supplements actually contain the dosage that they are labeled at, and that inclues both no-name brands and some big name brands. I'm having trouble finding a good reference on google due to AI and SEO pollution. But I recall Nature Made was labelled accurately and that is what I buy.

My wife on the other hand has struggled with life-long anxiety/depression even when living in Atlanta. For her a fairly low dose of lexapro enables her to live her life like a normal person. We wish we could get her mother to give it a shot for a few weeks, as she now can see a lot of similarities in both their personality traits that were affected by a life of untreated anxiety.

We also have cat that would probably have been put down for fear-biting of people and attacking our mild and mellow dog until we got his aggression under control with kitty prozac. I kid you not, it's a transdermal fluoxetine cream we put in his ear each day. Without the constant anxiety stimulus in the way, his real personality came through and he is actually very sweet. To me at least. Still bites my wife, but not hard anymore, just enough to keep her alert.

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

#503

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.…

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

#504
post #441

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Lexapro saved my life

Lexapro made me feel like I was randomly being dropped down an elevator shaft for 6 months after I stopped taking it. I’m glad it worked for you, and am not minimizing that, but these medications have a side effects profile a mile long and should be a therapy of last resort in my opinion.

They have a half life and you cannot stop taking them cold turkey without these symptoms, your psychiatrist should help you ween off of it slowly.

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

#505

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.…

sweet feet seems so random, maybe some serotonin receptors down there? are they noticeably sweety?

something's fucking my hydro balance. i've done my fair share of psychedelics, and i have to keep drinking water on shrooms too. i dont know, something highly idiomatic haha. i also sweat more in other places, but my feet are the moistest. right now i just change socks often, it's hardly a debilitating side effect...

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

#507

Anecdotally, I've been taking a 5,000 IU vitamin E supplement this winter. Seattle area, indoor desk job, I am a vampire. It does seem to help, I would rate it as going from a C to a B grade. I'd prefer not to use antidepressant medications to fix a problem that for me is mostly caused by living at a different latitude than I grew up in. Do be aware that not all vitamin E supplements actually contain the dosage that…

>caused by living at a different latitude than I grew up in.

or society in its current incarnation. its an underexpressed opinion that maybe depression is a justified reaction to ... life, as humans across a lot of earth in 2026.

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

#508

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I feel completely empty and find no joy in things. Maybe the idea that we should find joy and feel full is wrong? We are on a random planet circling a random star in an unfathomable Universe. STOP looking for meaning and you are liberated. The quest for meaning by itself might be exhausting and makes you feel depressed.

Who said I'm looking for meaning? I'm not. It's not as liberating as you might think. A joyless existence is either suffering or nothingness. A life without meaning, either internal or external, is one where nothing is meaningful with no motivation thus one of crippling catatonia til death. All I can say is just that it doesn't feel good and if you can't feel good about anything, your calculus of your life inevitably…

Yeah, most folk get the causation backwards. They think having meaning in life will pull you out of depression. It's the other way around. You have to get pulled out of depression to be able to find meaning in your life.

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

#509
post #161

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Agree. But sometimes there is no "root cause", the brain is still a mystery. If you had been depressed even when you knew there was nothing to worry about, you would see it differently, because then you deduce that the black cloud is produced within. Chemistry trumps psychology. Good enough chemistry enables cognitive treatments. But to fix the wrong chemistry you need chemistry.

The neurotransmitter model of mental illness is largely incorrect. It's much more complex than just "Depressives have less serotonin, therefore lets give a reuptake-inhibitor to keep serotonin in the brain".

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

#510

Anecdotally, I've been taking a 5,000 IU vitamin E supplement this winter. Seattle area, indoor desk job, I am a vampire. It does seem to help, I would rate it as going from a C to a B grade. I'd prefer not to use antidepressant medications to fix a problem that for me is mostly caused by living at a different latitude than I grew up in. Do be aware that not all vitamin E supplements actually contain the dosage that…

Do you mean vitamin D? Humans don’t produce vitamin E at any latitude.
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