261–270 of 376 posts
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somewhat off topic but i’ve thought about tapering like this, but i’ve got wondered where can one get a calibrated milligram scale? or perhaps it doesn’t matter too much.
Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/s?k=calibrated+milligram+scale --- They're common, cheap, and plenty of (recreational) drug dealers use them.
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I have first hand experience. Also "depression" is different from "chronic depression". You can experience the former as the direct result of some cause.
> I have first hand experience. You can't have first-hand experience of "usually" where that applies to multiple people.
You’re as capable of typing “causes of chronic depression” into a search bar as anyone else. The fact that you don’t do that indicates you don’t want to contribute. You just want to be argumentative.
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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 tha…
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…
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Sometimes treating symptoms is what we can do because we don’t have a cure.
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There are lots of people depressed for no reason. Look up Winston Churchill and his depression for a public example
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What is your treatment given that you’ve identified the cause as a past childhood experience. You got a time machine? Or do you treat the disease in the present?
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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…
They are also anecdotal, hundreds, thousands of people suffering side effects. Given dozen of millions people in the U.S alone are prescribed those things daily, that a drop in the ocean. But not everyone post on Reddit either
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What "high"? Our brain chemistry literally works differently than neurotypical people and the stimulants don't get us high. In fact they often have a calming effect. I had to fight not to fall asleep at my desk two days this week (Not entirely the medication's fault, lotta family stress wrecking my sleep).
Does tolerance eventually cause the dosage to increase or the medication to cycle? Yes. But as others have mentioned taking the weekend off (or hell, just forgetting periodically in my case) mitigates that to a large extent. And, since there is such a hard time acquiring the medication even with a prescription skipping weekends or vacations has the benefit of seeing people through the inevitable shortage their pharmacy will have.
To provide one additional anecdote: I came off escitalopram with no taper after taking it for about five years (10mg). I got brain zaps for a while, got very irritated at times, but largely was fine after a few weeks. Not downplaying the withdrawal effects for some people, but they’re not as catastrophic as this article suggests for many (perhaps most). And overall I’m very glad I took it! It got me through a rough p…
I also went cold turkey from escitalopram about a decade ago, and my experience was not as tame as yours; my ideation kicked into 6th gear, with paranoia, nausea, and insanely intense and vivid dreams every night. That was while on a 10mg dose. I have been on over-max-dose venlafaxine for nearly a year now. I think it has been an enormous improvement in my life on nearly every axis, but if I miss a dose by even a few…
I can relate to the feeling when missing a dose. No tolerance for being forgetful. Lots of anxiety brought by this tether... and the permanent anorgasmia (in my case) is sad but I was dying...
Sadly I built tolerance over 2 years and had to stop, taper off (horrible experience) and try others (most that were cited in this comment section). All had painful and very annoying side effects and tapering was a pain after trying and each time feeling so disappointed and tired. Most worked on reducing ideation but the costs (inability to concentrate, brain fog, sometimes inability to work) were too high.
Turns out tolerance to venlafaxine ebbs out after some time, so after a moment I was able to restart for a year until I didn't need antidepressants anymore.
I've learned reading forums of the gamut of experiences with antidepressants and just want to add a voice to 'they can work, great even, not perfect' and between dying and trying them (with clear open eyes about the tradeoffs) I'd advise trying.
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It's really not the same as what's being discussed here.
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>>Right now I have bigger problems than just depression. Just depression?! You might want to grab a little empathy before writing off something that has been a major problem in a large chunk of the populations lives. In fact, "just depression" has caused me to try to take my life multiple times. I can hardly see a "bigger problem" out there..
There are absolutely people with bigger problems than depression. For example, I have MS, and my mental health is absolutely one of my less concerning problems. There are so many options for mental health + the treatments are much easier to access than a lot of my symptom management meds + DMT. People undergoing chemo. People with ALS. People with bipolar (who can't take a lot of first line depression treatments) or…