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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

#491

Post by zeroonetwothree »

dghlsakjg wrote: post #411
isoprophlex wrote: post #43

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…

As a counterpoint, I experienced such severe negative symptoms after taking SSRIs that I had to be hospitalized for months. Medical treatment is not without its risks. I would always advise trying NPIs before drugs.

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

#492

Post by strontian »

meroes wrote: post #469

I used to have very rough winters. Despite the fact that I ate well and was outside 2+ hours every day. I got my blood tested and I had very low vitamin D, two tiers below normal. This was the first winter being on Vitamin D, and my energy and hunger levels stayed normal. I never crashed or had extreme hunger or trouble sleeping. Getting Vitamin D from food is a fools errand, and since sunscreen and protective clothi…

You may consider that you have a dust mite allergy. If you have any of: chronic coughing, frequent sickness, eczema, or IBS then that is even more evidence this is your problem.

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

#493

Post by kayodelycaon »

marcuschong wrote: post #470
dghlsakjg wrote: post #411

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…

I was incapable of the compassion you're talking about until I had a bad shroom trip and felt some horrible, hard-to-describe anxiety the next morning. It was some of the worst hours of my life until my serotonin system rebalanced itself. I'm not saying it's the same thing as depression or regular anxiety, but it gave me tremendous perspective on how bad these conditions can be and you just don't have the ability to…

> Maybe that’s how my wife feels

The good thing is it isn’t necessary to know how someone else feels to have compassion.:)

It’s enough to accept you don’t understand the other person‘s thought process and stop trying to tell them what they are thinking. You don’t need to fix things, you just need to listen and not make them justify or explain themselves to you.

Doing nothing is better than doing the wrong thing.

This comes from my own personal experience. I can’t relate to people on an emotional level. Every relationship is processed with deliberate, logical action. If I love a friend, I need to figure out what would change their internal state so they can experience that love.

From the outside, this looks like I can relate on an emotional level.

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

#494

Post by steve_adams_86 »

Aurornis wrote: post #292
isoprophlex wrote: post #43

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 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…

> Depression is deceptively common

I didn't even know I had it, but when I was diagnosed, my psychiatrist was very concerned and made a point of encouraging me to keep in touch, making sure I worked through things and engaged with the problem. I initially thought something like "I'm fine, just a little down here and there, I wonder if this person is inventing work for themselves?"

Same with anxiety. I would have told you something like "I'm not an anxious person at all. I don't even know what that's like, though I can sympathize with people who suffer with it". As it turned out, I was suffering pretty severe anxiety. In retrospect it's as clear as day, but at the time it was just... The way life was.

The thing is, all of my assessments remarked that I demonstrated relatively high self awareness and openness. My experience being diagnosed with ADHD and depression made me seriously concerned for people who 1) can't afford this process and support, and 2) will just continue to grind like I was, living half-dead without knowing it can be any other way.

I suspect there are a ton of these people—I think I notice them quite often—and I was arguably accidentally pulled from that stupor and would likely still be there, unaware, if it weren't for a chance encounter that caused me to think slightly differently about the possibility of having ADHD.

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

#495

Post by vikingerik »

grep_name wrote: post #322
staticassertion wrote: post #228

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I know this road leads to SSRIs at the very least, so I always reply in the negative. Seems odd. Your doctor can't force you to take anything. If they say "do you want to try X?" just say "No". Not giving your doctor full medical context seems like a mistake - for example, maybe depression would be indicative of another issue, or maybe people who are depressed really shouldn't take a specific medication. To each th…

N=1, but last yearly physical my primary care doctor asked me if I ever had anxiety. I said yes, but that I wasn't really interested in treating it outside of lifestyle change. They asked if I wanted a prescription for prozac, without explaining anything about how to does it or titrate up or down or a time frame. I said I wasn't interested again, and that I particularly didn't want to take any medications that you ca…

Likely the office was getting a kickback from the supplier for writing that prescription. This is shockingly common in the US. A straight cash payment is prohibited, but it's easy to work around that legally and provide equipment or "compensate" some other expense.

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

#497

Post by calfuris »

temp0826 wrote: post #473
quietsegfault wrote: post #403

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> why is that Why buy 1mg pill when you can buy 100mg pill?

Even funnier is that often 0.25mg or 0.5mg is closer to the correct dose, and those sizes tend to be hard to find. There actually is a condition that calls for extremely high (100mg+ doses), but it is a very rare thing, no one should ever consider that much without instruction from a doctor. But you'll find it right next to the normal <=5mg doses without any explanation.

The Natrol liquid isn't usually too hard to track down. They advertise it as 1 mg or 2.5 mg, but it's the same stuff, the bottle just direct you to take 4 or 10 mL respectively.

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

#498

Post by meroes »

strontian wrote: post #492
meroes wrote: post #469

I used to have very rough winters. Despite the fact that I ate well and was outside 2+ hours every day. I got my blood tested and I had very low vitamin D, two tiers below normal. This was the first winter being on Vitamin D, and my energy and hunger levels stayed normal. I never crashed or had extreme hunger or trouble sleeping. Getting Vitamin D from food is a fools errand, and since sunscreen and protective clothi…

You may consider that you have a dust mite allergy. If you have any of: chronic coughing, frequent sickness, eczema, or IBS then that is even more evidence this is your problem.

Not a bad suggestion, I live in the country so it's very dusty here and my digestion has always been wonky. Thank you.

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

#499

Post by turtlesdown11 »

zelphirkalt wrote: post #15
r1ch wrote: post #4

Please do not take 5000mg/day of Vitamin D. The author confuses IU and mg which is very dangerous.

Only recently again I read in the newspaper, that most products are overdosed. There is a typical number that the vitamin D products usually show, and in the article it said, that only up to 800 IU is safe, and everything above is an overdose. There are many products out there with 2000 UI or maybe even more. Beware. EDIT: Wow, the HN-local doctors at it again. Imagine getting downvoted for sharing information from n…

perhaps citing a source would be helpful

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

#500

Post by tracerbulletx »

dghlsakjg wrote: post #411
isoprophlex wrote: post #43

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…

The placebo effect is a statistical reporting effect. Not a physical effect.
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