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Doctors are finally learning to manage antidepressant withdrawal

newscientist.com

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Re: Doctors are finally learning to manage antidepressant withdrawal

#251

Post by 15feetOfclay »

fsuts wrote: post #246
15feetOfclay wrote: post #243

This comment section is absolutely full of people ready and willing to insist that people with depression simply need to cheer up and get over it. And all I can say is: I hope someone shows them a similar level of compassion when they are at their lowest.

Most of the problems I would say are related to the modern isolated Nuclear family. See that programmer sat next to you that is not a nice person? Well some kid had no choice but to have him as a parent. Throw in a society that doesn’t value teachers and pays them below many other jobs and the kid spends all his day and evenings with no one to guide and nurture him or her.

Certainly we are all an alchemical output of our nurturing environments and our intrinsic characteristics, and I don't dispute that we could likely dramatically lower the incidence of severe mental illness by improving our culture's capacity for care and solidarity. It's tough out there, for children and adults.

Re: Doctors are finally learning to manage antidepressant withdrawal

#252

Post by NoMoreNicksLeft »

fsuts wrote: post #246
15feetOfclay wrote: post #243

This comment section is absolutely full of people ready and willing to insist that people with depression simply need to cheer up and get over it. And all I can say is: I hope someone shows them a similar level of compassion when they are at their lowest.

Most of the problems I would say are related to the modern isolated Nuclear family. See that programmer sat next to you that is not a nice person? Well some kid had no choice but to have him as a parent. Throw in a society that doesn’t value teachers and pays them below many other jobs and the kid spends all his day and evenings with no one to guide and nurture him or her.

Truly, the cause of all this suffering is not enough antinatalism. You've cracked the code.

Re: Doctors are finally learning to manage antidepressant withdrawal

#253

Post by dennis_jeeves2 »

movespebp wrote: post #184

[dead]

>In a generation these drugs are likely going to be seen as a big mistake and a medical scandal.

Of course the next generation will deal with a bunch of other drugs where the side effects are underplayed. The playbook of the mainstream medical industry is a common one.

Re: Doctors are finally learning to manage antidepressant withdrawal

#254

Post by orangedog »

erkt wrote: post #238
krupan wrote: post #229

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Were you experiencing side effects that made you want to get off? For the vast majority of people there really are none.

You think the vast majority of people do not experience side effects from anti-depressants? Wild.

What's wild about that? What does the science say?

I've tried a variety and I can't say whether I've experienced side effects. That's just an anecdote but that's the thing with this discussion, that's all you will get. If people don't suffer side effects, they're not likley to get on HN and post about them, etc.

The bigger issue is the person dealing with these issues is taking them because they are not well-off. If you deal with reduced desire, for example, is that a side effect of the medication or is that a side effect of being depressed.

I think your "wild" is a little flippant or telling because it just points back to anecdotes.

Re: Doctors are finally learning to manage antidepressant withdrawal

#255

Post by YinglingHeavy »

sparklingmango wrote: post #186
bb123 wrote: post #126

There is a real lack of transparency in communicating some of the long term impacts of SSRIs to new patients. When I was prescribed sertraline not one doctor mentioned the massive (and sometimes permanent!!) sexual side effects, the likelihood of weight gain or how brutal it would be to taper off. Also, I ended up ignoring my doctor's (way too aggressive) tapering schedule and managing my own down-dosing with a pill…

Could you share the specific mg/week taper you did for Sertraline?

You start with Marcus Aurelius and work your way up to Nietzsche.

Re: Doctors are finally learning to manage antidepressant withdrawal

#256

Post by orangedog »

_the_inflator wrote: post #159
bb123 wrote: post #126

There is a real lack of transparency in communicating some of the long term impacts of SSRIs to new patients. When I was prescribed sertraline not one doctor mentioned the massive (and sometimes permanent!!) sexual side effects, the likelihood of weight gain or how brutal it would be to taper off. Also, I ended up ignoring my doctor's (way too aggressive) tapering schedule and managing my own down-dosing with a pill…

You are absolutely right. In fact with the hit on men’s sexual ability sometimes or often times you could consider this a hit hot (very sinister framing) on the practical side, having in the best case no anxiety and being able to meet people and how are you supposed to date? Blue solution? Men’s inability to perform is causing a huge hit on their psyche. So in any case consider wisely, I heard many accounts of very d…

You're going to hear about it when it happens because it really bothers people when it happens but you aren't going to hear how often it statistically happens.

I notice reduced desire but I'm depressed, too, it's hard to disentangle the effects, there is a ton of fud.

Re: Doctors are finally learning to manage antidepressant withdrawal

#257

Post by Noaidi »

I think about 10 years ago maybe even more than that maybe 15 years ago I had a conversation under a different name on hacker news and I was telling them about my antidepressant withdrawal.

I was downvoted and ridiculed. Told it was just my mental illness and it was all in my head. I even attempted to show the mechanism but people thought that was not enough.

Now I see this. It makes me angry. No one listens to the mentally ill and our experiences.

By the way, this is also true for and drugs that act on receptors. Like most antipsychotics. It’s is even true for GLP1 drugs.

This is a form of addiction that is not see only because the “craving” is absent. It is an addiction which fits not tell you what you are addicted to.

Psychiatry is the worst practice right now. There has been zero progress and even less compassion.

Re: Doctors are finally learning to manage antidepressant withdrawal

#258

Post by wett »

richardlblair wrote: post #198
pas wrote: post #169

Earlier quoted context omitted.

people whose life is amazing don't go through the process of getting stimulants (or even SSRIs) prescribed to them. psychiatrists know about this. the plan is usually to cycle the meds. is this great and works every time? no. is this better than the alternative? yes. ADHD is not great. and in many cases it's so bad people die from "not paying attention", and Ritalin (methylphenidate) is visibly helping people avoid t…

One should not question the seriousness of ADHD or the benefits of an appropriate treatment plan. One should question the rate of which it is diagnosed, and who is getting diagnosed.

My anecdata as a college aged kid on ADHD meds with friends who want a stimulant prescription:

Psychs will put you on an SSRI first, and then atomoxetine (non-stim ADHD med) before prescribing the good stuff.

The kids who want to party and/or study harder don’t take the stuff that doesn’t get you high. The kids that are struggling with basic stuff bear with it, and usually follow up to me with surprise that the non-stimulant is actually helping them.

Of course, we usually do graduate to the good stuff. So I understand the sentiment, and often question my own reliance on the drugs.

Re: Doctors are finally learning to manage antidepressant withdrawal

#259

Post by throwway120385 »

NoMoreNicksLeft wrote: post #252
fsuts wrote: post #246

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most of the problems I would say are related to the modern isolated Nuclear family. See that programmer sat next to you that is not a nice person? Well some kid had no choice but to have him as a parent. Throw in a society that doesn’t value teachers and pays them below many other jobs and the kid spends all his day and evenings with no one to guide and nurture him or her.

Truly, the cause of all this suffering is not enough antinatalism . You've cracked the code.

Actually what they're saying is that most people did not have a lot of nurturing adults in their lives growing up, from which they've learned that the adult thing to do is to isolate themselves and avoid nurturing other people. Which they're presenting as a bad thing. The reason they bring up the "nuclear family" is an appeal to prehistory, in which we probably would have been raised by a much larger social group than mom and dad, to include other relatives and friends, and that this would give us more opportunities to be included and nurtured by a wide variety of people.

Re: Doctors are finally learning to manage antidepressant withdrawal

#260

Post by orangedog »

mancerayder wrote: post #212
chewbacha wrote: post #153

I’ve been on a SSRI for 5 years and not once have I thought about getting off of it. It literally saved my life. I remember a while life of depression and constant churn of recursive emotions destroying me. I’m worried that too many people are downplaying the benefits that this drug for those of us that it has helped immensely. And it’s extra risky to be downplaying it while RFK jr is actively working to remove the d…

An unfortunate aspect of modern discourse and thinking is how black and white discussions can feel. Several sides of the topic can co-exist together and all be true, so (well, in my experience and reading): - Some people really benefit from and even need SSRIs or other psychoactive drugs to function well in society. - Too many people are prescribed them such that there may be more harm than good. They may have side e…

> In the US you meet with one for 15m, get prescribed a cocktail of drugs, a few months later you report if it worked, and if not they'll up the dose or play around with the cocktail. I don't know how we call that stuff science.

Is that not science? It's on a small scale but this is all they have to work on. We don't understand enough, it is all trial and error.

I note that not all psychs operate this way, mine would not give me a perscription until several visits in.

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