Help Do anti depressants actually work for everyone and would you recommend it?

[konstantine_217]

At this point I'm willing to try everything

 

[GhostShell]

They are anywhere on the spectrum from extremely helpful to extremely harmful. It is hard to tell where you will land unless you have previous experience and can tell from that.

One thing I would have appreciated knowing about beforehand is the very real risk of withdrawal (which may take years to resolve) and permanent side effects (PSSD). You may get a manic episode, this is a known side effect and does not at all mean you are bipolar even though they will insist and try to medicate you further. If it is not working out just remember to do an extremely slow taper each time (months minimum), avoid being on multiple psychoactive drugs at the same time (treating side effects with more side effects and more dependency is a recipe for disaster), and you can give it a go if you want.

This should all be part of informed consent you get via healthcare but unfortunately we do live in a society.

 

[NoHorizon]

I think if you're aware of the risks and willing to try then they're worth a go. They do help a lot of people.

For me personally I've tried two different types and I feel that the side effects were more harmful than the benefits to me.

 

[Scattered-Soul]

Everyone's experience is different. Some people have their lives saved by meds, for some they don't do anything, for others they do help for a certain period of time but then they stop, they have to switch, they deal with debilitating withdrawal etc And some people don't react well to them and can even be left with damage.

The reason why I'm even on this forum is because I have SSRI (one of the many types of antidepressants) induced brain damage and a neurocognitive disorder aka dementia. Everything I've ever been has been stolen from me by those drugs and my life's over, it's been like that for almost 4 years. There's an extremely low chance for this to happen to you, you'd probably benefit from them so if you feel like that's your only option, I say to give it a go. But keep in mind that there's a minuscule possibility of it not ending well at all and damaging you, might be small but it's not nonexistent. Best advice I can give is to trust your own gut, don't trust the doctors blindly and advocate for yourself if you need to. Good luck.

 

[justcallmeJ]

They did help me throughout my gender transition. It lowered my depression to a point were I was mentally ready to begin my new life. I was on a high dose of venlafaxine for a year and a month. One downside I had was that I have forgotten a lot. I cannot remember details and moments from that time. That is the reason I dont want to start taking them again. But if you are feeling suicidal, it could be recommended. Im sure I would of ctb'd without them.

 

[Rhizomorph1]

Yes.

Absolutely worth it. I only wish I tried them sooner.

You have to push through about 2 weeks of potentially intense side effects and then 6 weeks of mild side effects which often include your mental health getting worse before it gets better though. Be mindful that this period can increase suicidality due to the side effects but it is temporary. wait until the 6-8 week mark and you will feel a lot better.

Some people don't get any side effects though too; it varies.

But for a potential lifetime of benefits, it's absolutely worth sticking it out.

Unfortunately for me I have chronic fatigue and brain fog/dissociation that the antidepressants didn't affect, but it's a godsend for depression, anxiety, and stress from PTSD.

Statistically they work for the majority of people. And if one medication doesn't work then the odds of a different one working are quite high.

They are anywhere on the spectrum from extremely helpful to extremely harmful. It is hard to tell where you will land unless you have previous experience and can tell from that.

One thing I would have appreciated knowing about beforehand is the very real risk of withdrawal (which may take years to resolve) and permanent side effects (PSSD). You may get a manic episode, this is a known side effect and does not at all mean you are bipolar even though they will insist and try to medicate you further. If it is not working out just remember to do an extremely slow taper each time (months minimum), avoid being on multiple psychoactive drugs at the same time (treating side effects with more side effects and more dependency is a recipe for disaster), and you can give it a go if you want.

This should all be part of informed consent you get via healthcare but unfortunately we do live in a society.

FYI the prevalence of PSSD is about 4 in 100,000 or about 0.00004%

It's worth being informed but it is incredibly rare and for many it could be life-saving; thus worth the risk.

Definitely talk to your doctor so they can look over your medical history or any contraindications. We're not doctors here ofc.

Speaking of which, I'm gonna go masturbate. I'm currently on Lexapro and my sex drive/functioning is fine :)

Peace

 

[dangero]

I took escitalopram and enjoyed the little things. I watched Turkish series, I enjoyed it, I even cried. Overall, happiness levels have increased.
I was more carefree, I was more selfish, I had no remorse, I took care of myself.
There are dangers: uncontrolled purchases, or you take greater risks.
Generally, reduced awareness, many impulses, you buy something without remorse.
This has its good sides, because you don't worry, you don't think about work or people, there is no negative thinking.

 

[NumbItAll]

FYI the prevalence of PSSD is about 4 in 100,000 or about 0.00004%

It's worth being informed but it is incredibly rare and for many it could be life-saving; thus worth the risk.

Definitely talk to your doctor so they can look over your medical history or any contraindications. We're not doctors here ofc.

Speaking of which, I'm gonna go masturbate. I'm currently on Lexapro and my sex drive/functioning is fine :)

Peace

I assume you are referencing this study which places the risk at 0.46% based on 866 subjects. It is the only attempt I've seen at quantifying the risk but unfortunately it is a very rough estimate based on a very limited methodology. It does appear the risk is low, but is it negligible? I think there is simply not enough information available. That's just one pitfall though. SD as a side effect is common so it appears you've had good fortune there.

 

[Rhizomorph1]

I assume you are referencing this study which places the risk at 0.46% based on 866 subjects. It is the only attempt I've seen at quantifying the risk but unfortunately it is a very rough estimate based on a very limited methodology. It does appear the risk is low, but is it negligible? I think there is simply not enough information available. That's just one pitfall though. SD as a side effect is common so it appears you've had good fortune there.

I had sexual dysfunction early on but it went away.

It's not negligible but for many people on this forum where it could be life or death I would say it is negligible.

If people are at the point of crisis that they find themselves here then a 0-point risk of PSSD is negligible for this specific population.

Potential risk vs. benefit should be appraised differently for e.g., minor depression vs. those who are suicidal

It's a moot point though - either way it's worth knowing the statistics to make an informed decision

 

[Hollowman]

Yes.

Absolutely worth it. I only wish I tried them sooner.

You have to push through about 2 weeks of potentially intense side effects and then 6 weeks of mild side effects which often include your mental health getting worse before it gets better though. Be mindful that this period can increase suicidality due to the side effects but it is temporary. wait until the 6-8 week mark and you will feel a lot better.

Some people don't get any side effects though too; it varies.

But for a potential lifetime of benefits, it's absolutely worth sticking it out.

Unfortunately for me I have chronic fatigue and brain fog/dissociation that the antidepressants didn't affect, but it's a godsend for depression, anxiety, and stress from PTSD.

Statistically they work for the majority of people. And if one medication doesn't work then the odds of a different one working are quite high.

FYI the prevalence of PSSD is about 4 in 100,000 or about 0.00004%

It's worth being informed but it is incredibly rare and for many it could be life-saving; thus worth the risk.

Definitely talk to your doctor so they can look over your medical history or any contraindications. We're not doctors here ofc.

Speaking of which, I'm gonna go masturbate. I'm currently on Lexapro and my sex drive/functioning is fine :)

Peace

There's no proof that they work for the majority.

 

[Rhizomorph1]

There's no proof that they work for the majority.

What on earth are you talking about? I mean this respectfully, but I really don't think you know what you're talking about.

I studied psychology, specifically substance use research and psychopathology and learned all about antidepressants clinical efficacy.

Depression: Learn More – How effective are antidepressants? - InformedHealth.org - NCBI Bookshelf

This study shows 40 to 60% of depressed patients improved symptoms (mean = 50%), and that's not accounting for people who receive psychotherapy alongside SSRIs; which we know synergizes the effects of SSRIs via combined neuroplasticity and stabilizing functional connectivity and neuropathways associated with wellbeing.

More evidence is these reviews which have an average of around 8/10 ratings, with 67% of reviews being rated between 8 to 10 (suggesting statistical homogeneity AKA a trend towards the positive). Only 27% of reviews were less than 5/10 and the majority of those stopped using the drug before the 6-8 week mark where people witness benefits (i.e., they are less reliable as they didn't follow the recommended regimen)

What evidence are you basing your claim on? I sure hope it's not word of mouth or anecdotal...

There is tons of evidence that SSRIs are effective for most people. At least back up your claim if you're going to make a face-value statement that is all but a single sentence...

 

[todienomore]

i would avoid ssri's i dont think they are good for your brain. 'low serotonin theory of depression' is debunked. I respect everyones opinions here but check out roger mcfillins ssri criticisms.

i think bupropion is a lot safer, no withdrawals. It doesnt focus on serotonin.

bupropion + bromantane + caffeine pills is my current daily.

itll sound insane but the most important thing is circadian health. At least get as much sun as you can mid morning. Any level of sunbathing is best, bonus if earthing, light exercise. That sets your neurotransmitter levels, even melatonin. Sunrise/sunset and exposure through day is important. Avoid blue light diet after dark.

finding things to be grateful for goes a long way.

destroy your addictions and bad patterns.

cold showers.

trauma release exercises

id say research how to be healthy, cant get happiness in a pill ultimately. There are no silver bullets.

 

[ForgottenAgain]

I can only talk about my experience which has been positive. The anti depressants made it so that I didn't steep too low in mood, that's what they're meant for I think.
Meds with psychotherapy worked for me several years ago. Now I'm back at it again.

As for side effects, I didn't have much besides a few exceptions which are not anti depressants. The anti depressants just made me feel drugged and sluggish for the first weeks, maybe a month. Afterwards you get used to the meds and they don't impact almost at all, at least for me. I started having a more positive outlook on life whilst taking them. After I stopped and continued with psychotherapy, that persisted and improved.

What I will say is that I don't think meds alone are worth it, psychotherapy does the heavy lifting, the meds are just a safety net.

 

[juliejulie95]

Agree. They take the edge off the worst times. Means I can function. But only a temporary solution.

 

[kittyswift]

i have only tried SSRIs so far and i haven't really found them to be helpful. in addition to that i have had serotonin syndrome TWICE because my psychiatrist increased the dose too quickly along with my antipsychotics

 

[Germanicus]

There are many classes of antidepressants and everyone's physiology is different. I would ignore the specific statistics and just know that they work for most people, however it can take trial and error to find the best meds for you.
Personally, they haven't worked for me, but I know many people that they have worked for.
I've taken Zoloft, Cymbalta, Trintellix, Effexor, Lexapro, Trazodone, and many more ads and mood stabilizers.

 

[NumbItAll]

What on earth are you talking about? I mean this respectfully, but I really don't think you know what you're talking about.

I studied psychology, specifically substance use research and psychopathology and learned all about antidepressants clinical efficacy.

Depression: Learn More – How effective are antidepressants? - InformedHealth.org - NCBI Bookshelf

This study shows 40 to 60% of depressed patients improved symptoms (mean = 50%), and that's not accounting for people who receive psychotherapy alongside SSRIs; which we know synergizes the effects of SSRIs via combined neuroplasticity and stabilizing functional connectivity and neuropathways associated with wellbeing.

More evidence is these reviews which have an average of around 8/10 ratings, with 67% of reviews being rated between 8 to 10 (suggesting statistical homogeneity AKA a trend towards the positive). Only 27% of reviews were less than 5/10 and the majority of those stopped using the drug before the 6-8 week mark where people witness benefits (i.e., they are less reliable as they didn't follow the recommended regimen)

What evidence are you basing your claim on? I sure hope it's not word of mouth or anecdotal...

There is tons of evidence that SSRIs are effective for most people. At least back up your claim if you're going to make a face-value statement that is all but a single sentence...

That is a very misleading interpretation. It is important to check how the drugs work compared to placebo. Many people improve regardless of what they're taking and some experience a placebo effect. From the study you linked to:

• Without antidepressants: About 20 to 40 out of 100 people who took a placebo noticed an improvement in their symptoms within six to eight weeks.
• With antidepressants: About 40 to 60 out of 100 people who took an antidepressant noticed an improvement in their symptoms within six to eight weeks.

In other words, antidepressants improved symptoms in about an extra 20 out of 100 people.

That is proof that they do not work for the majority of people and that many people are taking them unnecessarily. User reviews are not exactly reliable as you can find 5 star reviews on basically any supplement even though most of them do nothing. I'm not saying that antidepressants do nothing though. Individual experience can vary wildly as witnessed in this thread. Unfortunately there's no way to tell in advance what the effect will be. Btw, it is worth considering why someone might stop taking something before the recommended 6-8 week mark. It should be obvious but I will leave it up to the reader to draw that conclusion (hint: it is not the patient's fault).

 

[tunnelV]

I am getting to that point same as you. I was against it before hand because of possible long term neurological problems. Additionally for my situation it's always a less than ideal environment. I've never had an easy peaceful environment to live in ever. Its hard for me to tell if it's me or my environment.


I believe they do work for some and others no. It's because some people have environmental depression or a combination. Like what will a pill do if you have some moron yelling at you, causing chaos for entertainment in a place you live.

I could try now but I don't have health insurance so whatever another road block but another good excuse.

I wanted to try TMS therapy. I wanted to skip all of the taking and pills and go for that. Like everything it's extremely expensive. It wouldn't matter anyway I have metal in my face because of a past surgery. I feel like sometimes the universe is playing a sick game on me. I thought doing TMS would be a full blown brain reset after 20 years. However you can't have metal in your face including surgical steel from what I read.

My only real go to that's mostly free and safe. Is getting back to exercising and getting back to eating a good diet.


Currently I am physically addicted to kratom. Over 6 months I never have time to go CT because of work. I need at least a week for the detox. At least that way I can find some freedom with occasional phenibut use. At least a few times a month. Better than zero times a month and months in a row.

 

[certified_idiot]

It depends on the person. They worked pretty well for me, but they have also caused a lot of harm to other people. If you're willing to try anything, then I would recommend it, just be aware of the risks.

 

[todienomore]

@tunnelV

Definitely get away from adjust your environment, its not everything but its huge

check out the quittingkratom community on reddit. The negatives creep up on users. Withdrawals can me mitigated using ultra low dose naltrexone and high dose vitamin c. I actually mixed som uldn for a friend yesterday, he has been stuck at 30 grams per day. Has bad brain fog and mood issues, I dont think he realizes its probably the kratom. Uldn is microdosing, i mixed a 50mg pill in a 2oz tincture bottle so 1drop is 50mcg. A few mg's or more would cause immediatr full withdrawals.

phenibut is nice and it sounds like you know to be careful. You can also support gaba with sustainable stuff like magnesium, skullcap, pregnenolone, taurine, lithium orotate etc.

 

[Spiritual survivor]

They might work for awhile, but mainly they take the edge off of getting too low in mood. In my experience when I found ones that worked it makes it so u are less in touch with your emotions since they can get numbed out. The problem with this is that your emotions are your guidance system to warn u of potential threat, or to help u move towards things that are good for u. So let's say u get on antidepressants and they numb u to the horrible job environment you might be in or a toxic relationship. U might not make moves to get out of bad situations b/c the medication is making it tolerable to deal with what would normally be intolerable off the medication. This is why they don't really work as far as major improvements in life quality. They only mask your sense of well being but they will make it so u aren't actually solving problems that are causing the depression in the first place. Not only this but some of these meds can increase suicidality, and they often will have undesirable side effects. Prozac was the only one that seemed to help and didn't have severe side effects for me. I ended up taking myself off all of the meds wen I turned 36 b/c I started to learn about the medical complex and how these meds longterm are not good for our body.

 

[sympathyforthedevil]

On my third brand of antidepressant since first prescribed by docs six months ago (2 are SSRIs, 1 is a NASSA)

All had really terrible side effects, it's like a new sickness for me that makes things worse; they get better but don't go away completely way after the initial two weeks.

I really want it to work - keep thinking one morning I'll wake up (that is if I got to sleep) and feel better/different

 

[UtopianSoliloquies]

Statistically, for the general population, they are much more likely to help you than to hurt you. Though, as many others have stated on this thread, be sure to understand the risks, even if they may not be likely. If you're really willing to try anything though, medication should be one of the simplest things on your bucket list.

 

[Rhizomorph1]

That is a very misleading interpretation. It is important to check how the drugs work compared to placebo. Many people improve regardless of what they're taking and some experience a placebo effect. From the study you linked to:

That is proof that they do not work for the majority of people and that many people are taking them unnecessarily. User reviews are not exactly reliable as you can find 5 star reviews on basically any supplement even though most of them do nothing. I'm not saying that antidepressants do nothing though. Individual experience can vary wildly as witnessed in this thread. Unfortunately there's no way to tell in advance what the effect will be. Btw, it is worth considering why someone might stop taking something before the recommended 6-8 week mark. It should be obvious but I will leave it up to the reader to draw that conclusion (hint: it is not the patient's fault).

You're assuming the proportion of variance attributed to placebo is "not working" which is not an accurate understanding of the placebo effect. The placebo is incorporated within the positive effect and the fact that the placebo effect synergizes (almost like a 3rd effect due to the interaction) with actual biopsycholgical effects, emphasizes the need to incorporate the placebo effect into the proportion of variance for positive effects.

What might be a more compelling argument with your line of reasoning is simply that the effect size may not be very considerable. Bayesian statistics are helpful for contextualizing the size of the effect for this reason; as others have mentioned, they tend to just take the edge off. Thus, the proportion of variance attributed to the placebo effect is likely to be much much smaller in the experimental group compared to the placebo control given the effect size. And indeed, antidepressants are not a magic bullet.

Context matters and multiple psychometrics are required to contextualize intergroup differences. Your comparison is oversimplified and doesn't account for the multiple variance matrices within the statistical models underpinning these data.

I never denoted anything about considerations for why people stop taking it before the 6-8 week mark. It is considerable and my original point is compatible with this fact. This is a strawman.

The reviews are not hard evidence (as you seem to be assuming I am saying; a strawman by deconstructing something I never said). They are simply a very simple rebuttal to the comment I was replying to which stated that "there is no evidence that they work for most people". Whether the evidence is "hard" or "soft" (for which I demonstrated both) any evidence whatsoever is evidence rebutting the claim that there is no evidence. Let's stay consistent with the teleological logics put forth so that we don't accidentally construct strawmen fallacies (whether explicitly or implicitly).

Respectfully, and compassionately, please read my comments more precisely so as to not put words in my mouth. I don't think these strawmen are intentional but I do think they misrepresent what I have thus far stated.

@OP if you're at the point where you're on this forum, and you're willing to try anything, I would say the benefits outweigh the risks, but do talk to your doctor to inform yourself on the risks and side effects. As others have mentioned the risks can also be considerable

 

[CPY]

They did nothing for ocd but I still take them.I also sometime take Olanzapine to sleep and as augmenting agent.It made me fat and my cholesterol is high but I need it for sleep.Somethimes I take more than prescribed to sleep so I don't have to stay awake...for a period of time it gave me restless legs but not anymore now, the brain really is strange lol

I believe I'm going if I don't CTB I might experience even more suffering because of the risk of strokes and cardiovascular disease these medication comes with

 

[penguinl0v3s]

Nobody has ever claimed that antidepressants work for everyone. They work for some people and not others, and you just have to keep trying the available ones. Tip: Escitalopram is regarded as the best tolerated SSRI. If several SSRIs have no effect on you, then it's possible that serotonin is not your imbalance. Try an NDRI instead: burpropion. And then you can try tricyclic antidepressants and MAOIs, which are unusual and not front line treatments, but last resorts. Hopefully you don't get there.

Personally I recommend not trying SSRIs as the first line of treatment and trying buproprion instead if you hate weight gain and sexual dysfunction. It has other risks, but not weight-related and all.