301–310 of 377 posts
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I don't to my knowledge suffer side-effects. Why are you certain about this?
chemistry of complex systems you don't experience side-effects now, but you will if you need to stop taking it
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Yeah, I’m open to the idea that their effectiveness may have been overestimated and they’re overprescribed as a result. But this “I can’t believe we’ve normalized antidepressants” “there are better solutions than drugs” stuff is just moralizing.
I suppose it can be moralizing, and probably is in the parent comment. For me I still feel the surprise because I've followed the evidence carefully for well over a decade, and the methodological problems and lack of evidence for meaningful effectiveness have always been clear. I.e. it is clear standardized effect sizes are meaningless, and you need to determine important differences, as this is just basic science, b…
This is what really rubs me the wrong way and makes me call it moralizing. There's this implicit foundation of "drugs bad" that's basically straight out of D.A.R.E. You're supposed to avoid drugs, but we might make an exception if they treat a serious problem and there are no alternatives.
Once in a while I'll take Tylenol or ibuprofen for a headache. Do they actually help? Hell if I know. Is it "reckless" to do this when I don't know if it actually does anything? Absolutely not. Antidepressants aren't as safe as those are, but at least some of them seem like they're safe enough to say, let's give this a try and see how it goes.
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…
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.
For me, it wasn't an SSRI, but a norepinephrine-dopamine reuptake inhibitor - often prescribed for treatment-resistant depression. In my early 20's, I had tried everything, nothing seemed to work, then these treated the physical symptoms pretty well - I got my energy and motivation back, sleep normalized.
After several years though they stopped working. We upped the dose until there was nowhere left to go. At the dose I was taking, it was very important to take it at the precise right time or you could spiral into some very bad symptoms. Drink at all, or just a little too much, could spiral you into an episode. I finally decided that it was worth being depressed than what I was dealing with physically and emotionally on the drug, so I stopped it.
It was a rough month or two but I entered a new treatment program, the doctor found I was severely D3 deficient. We worked on my sleep habits, nutrition, diet - finally discovering what I had was seasonal affective disorder. So we have a plan for those months, and honestly, it's been 2 years off of them and I have never felt better.
Depression is a complicated condition, there's no one treatment in my mind, it's a lot of contributing factors. I won't take them again, especially since there's a moderate chance these drugs actually worsen depression and highly increase risk of suicide. Doctors will just prescribe them without much warning, and that is what I hate, not the drugs themselves.
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…
Were you experiencing side effects that made you want to get off? For the vast majority of people there really are none.
I was on a very low dose of Bupropion for about 5 years and did mostly well; it only made my existing brain fog slightly worse. I usually recommend that one over SSRIs due to my experiences.
EDIT: I forgot to mention the damn brain zaps on SSRIs. Even if I missed a dose by 18 hours, I would get the zaps.
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So, this is not supported by the data when people are asked. Sexual effects alone hit about 50–70% people. Then you could face nausea, insomnia, profuse sweating when you’re still, emotional blunting, and weight gain. I don’t want to discourage anyone, they can save lives. It is a net benefit for some people, but even then most people will experience side effects and wish they didn’t have to take them.
> The most common side effects reported by patients in the study by Hu et al1 of 401 outpatients taking SSRIs were drowsiness (38%), dry mouth (34%), and sexual dysfunction (34%) > which was conducted in 1999-2000, questioned patients about side effects via phone interviews within 75 to 105 days of starting antidepressant therapy. The side effects deemed most bothersome were sexual dysfunction (17%) It's no where nea…
Different thing entirely from long-term effects.
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> The most common side effects reported by patients in the study by Hu et al1 of 401 outpatients taking SSRIs were drowsiness (38%), dry mouth (34%), and sexual dysfunction (34%) > which was conducted in 1999-2000, questioned patients about side effects via phone interviews within 75 to 105 days of starting antidepressant therapy. The side effects deemed most bothersome were sexual dysfunction (17%) It's no where nea…
> phone interviews within 75 to 105 days of starting antidepressant therapy. Different thing entirely from long-term effects.
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> far too high for a social good Not sure what you're basing this on -- hopefully not just your impression after reading things online.
lol, I know plenty of people offline that are addicted to this shit too. It’s just that this forum and Redditors cheerlead about their addictions willingly. Most people are shyer about it.
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I wonder if you feel the same about drug-based treatments for multiple sclerosis or ALS. Or hormone replacement therapy. Or palliative end of life care. Sometimes treating symptoms is what we can do because we don’t have a cure.