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Recovering Emotions After 24 Years on Antidepressants

madinamerica.com

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Re: Recovering Emotions After 24 Years on Antidepressants

#61

Post by drb91 »

psergeant wrote: post #4

The only thing that seems to be universally true about mental health is that we’re all different, and someone else’s experiences rarely apply perfectly to your own. I put off getting on the meds for at least 15 years longer than I should have done because of stories like this. They have been life changing lot positive for me with almost no downsides. In addition, I’ve read more than one story like this where the pers…

Hey if we’re offering sample sizes of one, SSRIs make me sleepy and unmotivated—nearly the opposite of a helpful effect. I’ve also heard quite a few complaints from women friends about weight gain. Sexual side effects are common. For me, at least, SSRI medication was and remains to be a distraction from mental health treatment.

I also have plenty of rage at big pharma, but that’s more around enabling bad therapists to prescribe medicine without providing the appropriate support. They obviously have every incentive to make sure that anyone who sees a psychiatrist has some medicine that could apply.

Re: Recovering Emotions After 24 Years on Antidepressants

#62

Post by op00to »

mgamache wrote: post #58
op00to wrote: post #47

This article is absolute bullshit and quite frankly dangerous. It seems to me this woman was emotionally vulnerable and taken in by a snake oil huckster masquerading as a doctor. > Shortly after I started seeing him, my new doctor had me read the book Anatomy of an Epidemic by Robert Whitaker. Robert Whitaker's theses in that book have repeatedly been scientifically disproven. It's anti-science drivel. > The pharmace…

There are issues with the simple Serotonin model: With SSRIs it takes weeks to see an effect, but Serotonin levels are elevated within days why the delay? (There are theories, but all point to Serotonin as a secondary effect) Also, antidepressants work in a minority of people (20%-25%), but Serotonin levels are effected in almost all users. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmedhealth/PMH0087089/

That's correct - Serotonin is not the only factor. That still refutes the author's hypothesis that mental illness is some sort of personality defect.

Re: Recovering Emotions After 24 Years on Antidepressants

#63

Post by dwaltrip »

op00to wrote: post #47

This article is absolute bullshit and quite frankly dangerous. It seems to me this woman was emotionally vulnerable and taken in by a snake oil huckster masquerading as a doctor. > Shortly after I started seeing him, my new doctor had me read the book Anatomy of an Epidemic by Robert Whitaker. Robert Whitaker's theses in that book have repeatedly been scientifically disproven. It's anti-science drivel. > The pharmace…

Unless you believe she is lying about doing much better after quitting her meds and trying other treatments such as meditation and group therapy, the article is not complete bullshit.

That being said, I would not be surprised if there is truth to what you said about that book.

Re: Recovering Emotions After 24 Years on Antidepressants

#64

Post by op00to »

drb91 wrote: post #61
psergeant wrote: post #4

The only thing that seems to be universally true about mental health is that we’re all different, and someone else’s experiences rarely apply perfectly to your own. I put off getting on the meds for at least 15 years longer than I should have done because of stories like this. They have been life changing lot positive for me with almost no downsides. In addition, I’ve read more than one story like this where the pers…

Hey if we’re offering sample sizes of one, SSRIs make me sleepy and unmotivated—nearly the opposite of a helpful effect. I’ve also heard quite a few complaints from women friends about weight gain. Sexual side effects are common. For me, at least, SSRI medication was and remains to be a distraction from mental health treatment. I also have plenty of rage at big pharma, but that’s more around enabling bad therapists t…

Huh. SSRIs made my life way better, but I also get sexual side effects. For me, at least, SSRI medication was and remains to be a critical link in mental health treatment.

Re: Recovering Emotions After 24 Years on Antidepressants

#65

Post by throwaway-efxr »

towndrunk wrote: post #35
pasabagi wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When I started on venlafaxin, I used to fall out of chairs. I think part of what gives anti-depressants such a bad rap is they have a god-awful beginning and end. I still go around evangelising them, because I just can't bear to imagine all the people who get put off by the (horrible) start and horror stories, and live in purgatory for years with no light at the end of the tunnel. Because, as far as I can see, side-e…

I’m working my way off Venlafaxine after years of use. It’s been a horrible experience. Brain zaps. Hearing odd noises. Crazy emotions. Feeling sick etc. I backed up and started opening the capsules so I can count the number of beads I take each day and then try to reduce by a few beads each week. It’s been really tough to get off this stuff.

Weaning off Venlaflaxine was absolute hell until I started taking Prozac as a bridge. It still wasn’t great, but it was a fraction of its previous awfulness.

Took me about nine months to wean off venlaflaxine, started the Prozac bridge in the middle and grateful that I eventually used the bridge. Feeling better now.

Good luck to you.

Re: Recovering Emotions After 24 Years on Antidepressants

#66

Post by simen »

gcb0 wrote: post #46
simen wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I sympathize with you, I really do. I've had some similar experiences. But you're overstating the case. Numerous meta-analyses have found that antidepressants do work for people with severe depression, much better than placebo. Unfortunately there's many people for whom they don't work, and even when they work you may have to try many different kinds to find the right one(s). The state of depression treatment is sadl…

just because it works better than placebo doesn't make it the best treatment. all over the world, terapies works better than antidepressants, with infinitely less undesirable side effects for patient and society. yet in the US it is very common to treat depression (and many other conditions) with drugs alone. arguments against drugs is not favor of "don't do anything". that argument would be extremely dumb. just to g…

As far as I'm aware therapy and antidepressants are equally effective, in the studies that have actually compared them such as this one: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3683266/ However that is only true in aggregate and obviously not necessarily true of any given individual.

I'm really reluctant to get into any further discussion though because it seems like you're arguing against things I never said, and bringing up irrelevant, but extremely invasive and side-effect prone procedures like hemispherectomy as if that proves that data about antidepressants is bunk, which is just a complete non sequitur. It would be like bringing up bloodletting or lobotomy as if that proves that the data about modern vaccines NOT causing autism is bunk. Just a complete logical disconnect.

Re: Recovering Emotions After 24 Years on Antidepressants

#67

Post by drb91 »

op00to wrote: post #64
drb91 wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hey if we’re offering sample sizes of one, SSRIs make me sleepy and unmotivated—nearly the opposite of a helpful effect. I’ve also heard quite a few complaints from women friends about weight gain. Sexual side effects are common. For me, at least, SSRI medication was and remains to be a distraction from mental health treatment. I also have plenty of rage at big pharma, but that’s more around enabling bad therapists t…

Huh. SSRIs made my life way better, but I also get sexual side effects. For me, at least, SSRI medication was and remains to be a critical link in mental health treatment.

I struggled with the decision to stop taking it because it’s very hard to nail down how it even affects you. Talk therapy proved enormously successful.

This is kind of my point, though—if in my case I do NOT have a treatable chemical imbalance, if the medication is certainly not successful, is there any good way to tell?

Re: Recovering Emotions After 24 Years on Antidepressants

#68

Post by coldtea »

psergeant wrote: post #13
presscast wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In all fairness, though, these aren't isolated incidents. There seems to be some subgroup of the general population that suffers from SSRIs. That's what's interesting here -- what binds these people together as a group. In other words, brushing this aside as "just a bunch of individuals" isn't useful, nor is it satisfying anyone's intellectual curiosity.

> brushing this aside as "just a bunch of individuals" isn't useful If it gets one person like me who was under the impression that SSRIs make you a zombie, to try them, then it’s useful.

Not if they do make you a zombie (either in general or as an individual exception that's not covered for)

Re: Recovering Emotions After 24 Years on Antidepressants

#69

Post by Alex3917 »

op00to wrote: post #47

This article is absolute bullshit and quite frankly dangerous. It seems to me this woman was emotionally vulnerable and taken in by a snake oil huckster masquerading as a doctor. > Shortly after I started seeing him, my new doctor had me read the book Anatomy of an Epidemic by Robert Whitaker. Robert Whitaker's theses in that book have repeatedly been scientifically disproven. It's anti-science drivel. > The pharmace…

> Robert Whitaker's theses in that book have repeatedly been scientifically disproven.

The book doesn't even have a thesis. Good job not even reading enough of the Wikipedia article to plausibly pretend to have read it.

Also, did you even read the link you posted? It says exactly the opposite of what you're claiming it says. The conclusion is literally, "Simple biochemical theories that link low levels of serotonin with depressed mood are no longer tenable."

Re: Recovering Emotions After 24 Years on Antidepressants

#70

Post by PavlikPaja »

gowld wrote: post #31
PavlikPaja wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Autistic people were never thought to lack emotions, in fact many complain about feeling too intense emotions. The article is garbage. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2518049/ https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fnhum.2010.0022...

Read the article, not the parent poster's mischaracterization of it. The very first paragraph explains the autism+emotion issue. Also your own sources contradict the claim "Autistic people were never thought to lack emotions".

>Also your own sources contradict the claim "Autistic people were never thought to lack emotions".

Where?

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