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Each person responds differently to antidepressants. Once I found the ones that worked for me and had no side effects, I felt nothing but improvement in mood status and depression level.
They virtually saved my life. It took a long time to get the proper ones with least side effects but now I've been stable on them for many years.
Are you having what might be depression, OP? We talk about it openly here on cd, nothing to be ashamed about...perhaps you can start by discussing with your family MD. Or have you a counselor??
Anti-depressants don't work as advertised for most people.
There are scholarly articles you can read that say this.
You are smart for asking.
There are many bad side effects.
The people who promote drug use as a fix might not be the best to take advice from.
There are many, many ways to deal with depression that don't involve toxic substances. If interested, google "natural remedies for depression" (or "anxiety") - lots of good info out there. This forum is not the best for scholarly advice or natural remedies.
OP you have to realize that personal accounts using AD meds can only be anecdotal; C-D forum members can relate how they worked for them, but no one can make a blanket statement whether they are useful or not unless they provide impartial proof for those statements. To be credible that would need to be backed up with scientific study and peer reviewed data analysis. AFAIK no members here are doing clinical research on efficacy of AD medications nor are they psychopharmacologists. There is no law that says you can't stop using some AD if it doesn't help you. There will always be people here who adamantly claim ADs are ineffective or unnecessary. That is an opinion or at best a personal experience. They affect individuals differently. I can tell you they have been effective for me over quite a few years, but that is all I can claim. I had the most common side effect of weight gain but other than that nothing serious enough to discontinue them. So much better than the alternative.
Last edited by Parnassia; 01-02-2019 at 02:36 AM..
They have different effects and are good for different things. For me, Prozac helps lift the depression cloud, but makes me quite irritable. It does nothing for my social anxiety. Zoloft alleviates my social anxiety, but doesn't help my depression much. Sometimes an AD can be prescribed with other classes of meds.
There are a ton of scholarly articles out there that indicate antidepressants don't work, and further, that they have negative side effects. Think also of the long-term side-effects!
Since I went on anti-depressants decades ago, I've tried about half the ones that exist. It is hard not to ignore the warnings that they may actually increase the risk of suicide for some people, like working in reverse. For me, they don't really work, but withdrawal could be fatal. Getting into the state medical cannabis program is my only hope. It would be vaping oil, not smoking.
I told my therapist about 20 years ago that I discovered that if I smoke some cannabis and it makes me numb, my anxiety and depression goes away. He responded "I think you may have a neurological disorder".
As best as I know, they don't have an effective pill for neurological disorders. A psychiatrist who quit prescribing pills (see madinamerica.com) said very long-term use may take many years off a person's life.
That has me very worried. Best wishes to all.
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