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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

#521

Post by charles_f »

b800h wrote: post #10

Can I just add: In addition to this, if you struggle with anxiety or have some sort of ADHD, then try cutting out caffeine entirely . Not just switching to "decaf" (which isn't), but cutting out tea and coffee, and switching to an alternative like Barleycup. Doing this has had a massive positive effect for me, and combined with decent nutrition and daily exercise, has been wonderful.

I cut coffee for over 6 months, and one of the most significant thing it did for me is that, when I resumed, I noticed that caffeine actually helped me feel more awake and alert (while I didn't notice any effect when taking a lot of it before stopping cold-turkey)

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

#522

Post by dghlsakjg »

detourdog wrote: post #520
zeroonetwothree wrote: post #491

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

If only I knew what an NPI was.

Non pharmaceutical intevention

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

#523

Post by jollyllama »

isoprophlex wrote: post #514
jollyllama wrote: post #476

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you take the citalopram year round, then?

This is my first year, doc told me to wait until at least march, April to start talking about tapering. I have zero symptoms in summer, so I'm inclined to get off them outside the darkest months... we'll see how bad the discontinuation syndrome hits.

Here's hoping it goes well, whichever path you take.

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

#524

Post by thewebguyd »

kstrauser wrote: post #453
ghusto wrote: post #161

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The hate on antidepressants is not because they're not effective, but rather that they're abused by psychiatrists. Ideally, a professional will prescribe them as a necessary helper to becoming (more) mentally healthy whilst tackling the root cause. Most of the time however, it's more of a "here, take these indefinitely". It's like if we took sleeping pills every time we had trouble sleeping. Having said that, I just…

Sometimes the root problem is that your neurochemistry is FUBAR and no amount of counseling with overcome a biological cause. Frankly, I see this as similar to telling diabetics that they should use just enough insulin to get them to learn to stop being diabetic. That’s possible for a few type 2 diabetics who could make lifestyle changes that got them back into good ranges. It’s completely useless for type 1 diabetic…

> I’m just always astonished at “have you tried not being depressed?”

There's a lot of this attitude, at least in the USA, when it comes to mental illness in general. I have ADHD, it's a common trope/meme at this point of "Have you just tried focusing?" "Gee thanks, I'm cured!"

It's a form of institutional ableism, particularly prevalent in the US I think because of our hyper individualist culture. A lot of people tend to assume that you are just lazy, or not trying hard enough, as if it was just a matter of willpower.

Kind of frustrating, because those same people would never walk up to someone in a wheelchair and say "have you just tried walking?" but for some reason mental illnesses get a free pass to be ableist.

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

#525

Post by Projectiboga »

corv wrote: post #365
Aerbil313 wrote: post #348

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Bit off-topic, but melatonin taken at right doses appears to work very well. (commonly prescribed doses are 10-30x too much and likely cause tolerance). See the post https://slatestarcodex.com/2018/07/10/melatonin-much-more-th...

I’ve heard this before that common doses are unnecessarily high but why is that? Patents?

The help aiding sleep is only one function for melatonin. The reason for higher suggested doses is due to its anti-oxident function. From personal experience melatonin needs to be paired with vitamin e to really clear out over night. I take vitamin e as I get into bed right before I take a melatonin sublingual. Another benefit of melatonin is that it upregulates our insulin receptors.

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

#526

Post by toxik »

WarmWash wrote: post #321
hu3 wrote: post #269

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not whom you asked. But it's a resonable association for some cases. But I understand that it would have been better to ask and not associate because it's a fraction of the cases.

If I told you that I often have a fire in my fireplace, it would be incredibly strange if you suggested that pyromania can be a trauma response. Either OP is confused about what libido means, or has some kind of heavy shame around sexuality.

That is not what this was. You have been firing your fireplace, now you put on a sweater and you suddenly don't want to fire so much. Maybe that's not bad, but a return to normal. That was the proposition. Is it true, who knows. Case by case question.

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

#527

Post by Projectiboga »

calfuris wrote: post #497
temp0826 wrote: post #473

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

So 1ml (20 drops) would yeild an average dose of .25mg in that form.

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

#528

Post by dghlsakjg »

zeroonetwothree wrote: post #491
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…

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.

I don't in any way mean to discount adverse affects, or negative experiences. Those are just as valuable points. People should be aware of the risks when they take any pharmaceutical, and there are doctors who will happily prescribe these drugs without educating the patient or themselves about downsides and alternatives.

My point is that a lot of the commenters here are saying some variation of "have you tried being happier?" and "these drugs do nothing". Both of which are absurd to the point of offensiveness to people who have gone through it, in the same way that it would be absurd (and offensive) to claim that these drugs have no possible downsides and a negative reaction is placebo.

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

#529

Post by kstrauser »

thewebguyd wrote: post #524
kstrauser wrote: post #453

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sometimes the root problem is that your neurochemistry is FUBAR and no amount of counseling with overcome a biological cause. Frankly, I see this as similar to telling diabetics that they should use just enough insulin to get them to learn to stop being diabetic. That’s possible for a few type 2 diabetics who could make lifestyle changes that got them back into good ranges. It’s completely useless for type 1 diabetic…

> I’m just always astonished at “have you tried not being depressed?” There's a lot of this attitude, at least in the USA, when it comes to mental illness in general. I have ADHD, it's a common trope/meme at this point of "Have you just tried focusing?" "Gee thanks, I'm cured!" It's a form of institutional ableism, particularly prevalent in the US I think because of our hyper individualist culture. A lot of people te…

That was my experience with ADHD. In retrospect, I clearly struggled with it my entire life, with it starting to cause problems around middle school age. I started getting treatment a couple years ago and it was like someone flipped a light switch. Wait, this is what it's like for everyone else? They can just decide to start doing a necessary thing before it becomes a crisis?!

In before "of course things are easier when you're taking stimulants!", which is another dumb thing I hear too often. I feel basically nothing from taking Adderall, and not in the least stimulated or more alert or more awake or anything. I can just concentrate on boring things afterward.

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

#530

Post by naasking »

phoronixrly wrote: post #187
perching_aix wrote: post #177

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They're saying that it successfully filtered out the bit where the author told people to overdose by 40000x. I guess that's the value.

There would be value if it pointed out the mistake instead of hallucinating a correction.

IU was correctly used everywhere else in the article except that one place with the mistak, so the LLM didn't hallucinate a correction, it correctly summarized what the bulk of the article actually said.
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