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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

#441

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As someone that falls on the side of “depression is real and antidepressants can help” it is very clear that there are people in this thread that need to hold their tongues because they know not of what they speak. (Not you OP) There are some forms of depression that you cannot think or act your way out of. If you haven’t experienced that, I promise that you do not understand what it is like. You cannot really unders…

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.

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

#442

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.…

“God, I see what you’re doing for others, and I want that for me.” I had a very similar experience, except it killed my libido, so I chose to endure the suffering of Winter rather than live with emotional numbness. Still, I strongly recommend it for people flirting with the abyss. It was life-changing for me while I was raising an autistic 2yo during the pandemic.

I spent $300 on high lumen output light bulbs. 28 200W equivalent LED bulbs and 2 LED corn bulbs. Just a TON of light. Depending on severity either run it all day (late January and February tend to be the worst months), but even 10 minutes in the morning helps substantially. Just a lot of light. You can get hung up on high CRI and full spectrum but just do it badly first, then if it works worry about perfecting the setup. I just kept buying more bulbs and as I bought, I felt better and better.

Edit: this was the blog that gave me the idea, it comes up on hacker news a lot. https://www.benkuhn.net/lux/

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

#443
At this point, I mostly avoid prescribed medications and don't take very many things at all regularly. Mostly because I've had some of the worst interpretations of the side effects of most medications I've ever been on. These include hospitalizations and side effects I'm still dealing with years after (looking at you Trulicity/Ozempic)...

I'm usually able to reason or force my way through depression and the like, but have had a few deep bouts in my life. The medications have ranged from ineffective to building a tolerance quickly, to just plain worse than the symptoms being treated. Nothing like missing your highway exit multiple times back and forth because you get lost "in" the drive on medication, or having 140 browser tabs open and losing 5 hours of work time.

Everyone is different. I am amazed at how much western society has so many hormonal issues that come down to the lack of quality or appropriate fatty acid intake and a lack of something as simple as more outdoor/sun time. I think the "low fat/cholesterol" advice for most of the past half century combined with the increase in snacking and junk foods have been massive disservices to humanity as a whole. I wouldn't be surprised if some of the effects are multi-generational in the making either.

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

#444

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The things that keep me away from SSRIs are the potential for addiction and not being able to take psychedelics. I had a friend on SSRIs not tell us they were on them when they hit a DMT vape pen at a party years ago and they got serotonin syndrome. Had I known I would have warned them not to.

It's more "dependency" than "addiction". No one's waking up jones-ing for another hit of their SSRI. Dependency works well because some people are dependent on it like I am dependent on glasses/contacts.

Whatever the word, getting off of them is not fun. It took 6 months after getting of Paxil to stop feeling like I was being dropped down an elevator shaft at random times day and night.

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

#445

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If it is SAD have you tried bright daylight balanced lighting?

Yeah, I have an extremely bright lamp designed to tread SAD that I sit, or well used to sit, in front of every morning. Daylight responsive led strip in my home office. And a pair of glasses with blue LEDs for on the go. It did... 10%? of what citalopram eventually did for me.

Have you tried more light? Like, a lot more light? Like, getting a light meter and aiming for 10-20,000 lux in your room? This blog was a good start for me.

https://www.benkuhn.net/lux/

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

#446

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I won the SSRI lottery I guess, From reading internet comments you’d think so, but your experience is more typical than anything. Depression is deceptively common. As a consequence, SSRI use over a lifetime is also more common than most would assume. Any drug will come with negative side effects for some portion of its users. Multiply that by the high number of people who have ever taken an SSRI and it starts to be…

To add to this discussion as someone who had above experience this winter, after (literally) years of mood fluctuations, fatigue and brain fog. I have started taking SSRI after a harder-than-usual body collapse, and after no matter what I did my mood hasn't improved for a month. Regular running, meditating, writing, crafting, coding etc were my antidote to my mood swings but this time it didn't work. Started taking S…

Why were you getting body collapses?

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

#447

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.…

As someone that falls on the side of “depression is real and antidepressants can help” it is very clear that there are people in this thread that need to hold their tongues because they know not of what they speak. (Not you OP) There are some forms of depression that you cannot think or act your way out of. If you haven’t experienced that, I promise that you do not understand what it is like. You cannot really unders…

[deleted]

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

#448

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.…

I'm guessing you can afford spending $300 on light therapy glasses. Disclaimer: I'm not a doctor, but saw 4 seasons of dr. House. Moreover, few hours of Huberman Lab on sleep and light and most importantly, this episode of Additude Mag Podcast on curing SAD and ADHD day-rhytm shifting with light glasses: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fu4mLgkNc6I What happens in the seasonal affective disorder season is the sunlight…

I just spent $300 on LED light bulbs. Especially if you have an older house the sockets are all wired up for incandescents so you can just split the socket and run 7 bulbs per socket, I have 30 light bulbs, including two 200W corn bulbs and the rest are “100-200W equivalent”

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

#449

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?

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

#450

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The things that keep me away from SSRIs are the potential for addiction and not being able to take psychedelics. I had a friend on SSRIs not tell us they were on them when they hit a DMT vape pen at a party years ago and they got serotonin syndrome. Had I known I would have warned them not to.

It's more "dependency" than "addiction". No one's waking up jones-ing for another hit of their SSRI. Dependency works well because some people are dependent on it like I am dependent on glasses/contacts.

Yeah, that's fair, there's not really a loss of control so dependency is probably the better term. Still, if you go off of them I've seen people get rocked with physical symptoms. I really try to avoid anything that would have such an affect on me physically.
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