Sertraline sucks

[RU482]

OP needs to stop being a pussy. I go on and off citalopram cold turkey all the time. It's supposed to have these "brain zaps" and withdrawal but I never seem to experience any of it. I also don't get caffeine withdrawal headaches and I don't get hangovers.

Damn....You're probably one of those people that is immune to AIDS too

 

[ShawnD1]

I respect the anti-pharma stance that many people have. I can't pinpoint why I think your point of view is incorrect or uninformed, but it is how I feel. Enjoy the feeling of superiority it gives you, let that be your crutch.

IMO, the anti-drug people are jealous and in denial. It's easier to say that others are wrong than it is to say that your own life was wrong.

I'll give an example. My dad was always against drugs and medicating people. The irony is that he's one of those people who really should be on drugs. He has no friends, he's very negative about everything, and he's generally in a bad mood. I was like that too, but I actually did something about it. Taking prescription drugs immediately cured all symptoms of depression and it works almost every time. Imagine what it would feel like to know that most of your life was wasted and it's all your fault. To accept that drugs are the answer is to admit that he threw away his own life. Saying that drugs are not the answer is like saying "this is unavoidable; it's not my fault I'm unhappy!"

 

[ShawnD1]

Damn....You're probably one of those people that is immune to AIDS too

I'm not immune to all drugs. Mirtazapine has some really weird withdrawal effects for me. I'll be walking or standing and suddenly I get that feeling like I stood up too fast. It feels like I'm losing my balance, but the feeling only lasts for a microsecond, so it doesn't really affect my balance.
I don't know if it's the same brain zap that SSRI people talk about. It's not painful or anything. It just feels weird.

 

[RU482]

My dad was always against drugs and medicating people. The irony is that he's one of those people who really should be on drugs. He has no friends, he's very negative about everything, and he's generally in a bad mood. I was like that too, but I actually did something about it. Taking prescription drugs immediately cured all symptoms of depression and it works almost every time. Imagine what it would feel like to know that most of your life was wasted and it's all your fault. To accept that drugs are the answer is to admit that he threw away his own life. Saying that drugs are not the answer is like saying "this is unavoidable; it's not my fault I'm unhappy!"

very very good point.

 

[Mixolydian]

That's why I love Prozac. Long ass half-life eliminates the discontinuation effects.

 

[Rage187]

I just started Z about two weeks ago. I was on Paxil for about a year and stopped that cold turkey a little over 2 years ago. The withdrawals were horrible. Just closing my eyes and moving my eyes side to side made the room spin.

The Z felt like it worked for the first two days but doesn't seem to have changed my mood. I'm likely going to quit.

Edit: I tried Prozac a month ago for about a week but had the brain shocks right away. I only imagined going off would be even worse, so I asked to switch.

I heard getting off Effexor is the worst.

 

[pelov]

IMO, the anti-drug people are jealous and in denial. It's easier to say that others are wrong than it is to say that your own life was wrong.

I'll give an example. My dad was always against drugs and medicating people. The irony is that he's one of those people who really should be on drugs. He has no friends, he's very negative about everything, and he's generally in a bad mood. I was like that too, but I actually did something about it. Taking prescription drugs immediately cured all symptoms of depression and it works almost every time. Imagine what it would feel like to know that most of your life was wasted and it's all your fault. To accept that drugs are the answer is to admit that he threw away his own life. Saying that drugs are not the answer is like saying "this is unavoidable; it's not my fault I'm unhappy!"

Right, except there's a notable difference between ironing out the issues without the drugs, with the help of drugs, or relying on the drugs for years without doing a fucking thing about it other than taking drugs. If you haven't noticed, the latter is why we have the thread in the first place (along with a few other comments that apparently mimic this route as well).

For a lot of people the drug becomes a crutch and a permanent fixture of their lives but feeling better synthetically doesn't amount to actually producing positive results. You can coke up a homeless guy with AIDS and he'll feel fantastic but he's still a homeless guy with AIDS. An overwhelming majority of people don't have it anywhere near as bad as a homeless guy with AIDS but are somehow diagnosed with depression purely based on their natural temperament. What they neglect to realize is that a majority of these people don't need the drugs to get better.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cognitive_behavioral_therapy

Also a mandatory emo pic

"But the drugs work!"

Well, no fucking shit? It's a serotonin reuptake inhibitor. Who the fuck wouldn't feel amazing with that much serotonin being absorbed by your neurons?

 

[Sust]

Agree that for the majority of people, there should not be a chronic sprinkling of meds without psychotherapy running in parallel. There are a few with truly severe depression who need to stay on meds for the rest of their lives, but they are a minority. Unfortunately, your average person gets psych meds from primary care doctor who ordinarily doesnt have a clue about which therapist to refer patients to which IMO is often why patients linger on antidepressants for so long. Also, the antidepressants arent meant to make you happy, but rather allow you to think about something else other than how depressed you are.

 

[Pray To Jesus]

LOL lots of pharm haters in this thread. You haters are the problem. Get an MD first and see if you can treat your patients the way you want to.

BTW it's called Evidence Based Medicine bitches.

 

[Soundmanred]

Good riddens!

 

[RU482]

Good riddens!

riddens, riddance...my bad

 

[ShawnD1]

Agree that for the majority of people, there should not be a chronic sprinkling of meds without psychotherapy running in parallel.

Probably because therapy doesn't work. This "mind over matter" hippy bullshit needs to stop. It's not grounded in reality. There's no magic crystal or penis metaphor that will explain why some people are prone to explosive anger or why some people have dramatic mood swings.

Real study of the brain is done by psychiatrists. Psychologists are the people who weren't smart enough for engineering or medicine but still wanted to say they went to college.

 

[Sust]

Probably because therapy doesn't work. This "mind over matter" hippy bullshit needs to stop. It's not grounded in reality. There's no magic crystal or penis metaphor that will explain why some people are prone to explosive anger or why some people have dramatic mood swings.

Real study of the brain is done by psychiatrists. Psychologists are the people who weren't smart enough for engineering or medicine but still wanted to say they went to college.

Not sure if serious, but...

Psychotherapy in the right hands can be very effective especially since it tends to try and address the environmental or developmental issue that's brought the person to this point. There's no pill that can take away the pain of child abuse, or stop a soldier from having combat flashbacks. Frankly, gold standard treatment of most mental illnesses is typically a combination of medication and psychotherapy, but you have to choose the right kind of each which is what separates good mental health clinicians from the rest. It sounds like you or someone you know may have had a bad experience with psychotherapy in the past, but psychotherapy is not the way it's been portrayed on mass media and not something to be so easily dismissed in anyone's treatment plan. The only problem again is that primary care providers have no idea what kind of psychotherapy to send patients to and have very little formal training on managing mental illness. Not knocking their training, but they just dont have the time for that in their program, and very few outpatients want to even see psychiatrists due to the stigma of mental illness so these guys are left holding the mental health ball whether they like it or not.

This might be more than ATOT wants to hear, but from a gross neuroscience standpoint, my understanding is that you're basically trying to use psychotherapy to exert more influence on top-down modulation of "higher" frontal cortical brain structures over the subcortical affective and sensory brain structures.

 

[Pray To Jesus]

You might consider that both sides are necessary: pharm and psychotherapy

Which, if you use EBM, psychotropics and CBT works well as a combination for a lot of psychiatric illnesses. Usually studies are done using CBT, CBT & meds, or meds by itself.

Surprisingly, for social anxiety disorder, the data shows that medicine by itself works better than the combination.

 

[FelixDeCat]

Dont forget about behavior modification along with the course of therapeutic medications.

If you were depressed for a while and your situation changes for the better because you 'saw the light' (or things changed on their own) while you were on therapeutic meds...and as result you are seeing and doing things differently, you should try to taper off. Like I said before however you have those who are hard wired in a negative way so they use the meds to make a difference. I think in the end its up to the individual as to what course of action to take and when.

Inconsistency is a major problem these days for everyone. Acting or thinking differently based on who you are with, what you are doing and when you are doing it is not as good as being the same person / personality at all times.

One catchphrase that has evolved over the last 20 years is "What would Jesus do?". Well, what would YOU do in a particular situation? Whatever decisions you are making and actions you taking should be somewhat consistent. Change is fine, but dont be too erratic. I hate people that are too erratic.

 

[dagamer34]

I'd uhh... avoid taking medical advice from an online forum. And, be careful with your taper.

Hope everything works well for you.

 

[rudeguy]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SSRI_discontinuation_syndrome

something that doesn't technically exist....but does...and sucks. Good riddens

Basically, pulses of...sensation, I dunno, sound sensitivity or something.

I can describe it as pulses of ear ringing that resonate throughout the brain. at no common interval, but frequently enough to just not quite nauseate.

My best description is your brain floating upside down

 

[alkemyst]

man, do our forums have any people not on dozens of meds?

 

[ShawnD1]

man, do our forums have any people not on dozens of meds?

Spidey07
Hal9000
dmcowen
Anarchist420
a777pilot

 

[nickbits]

man, do our forums have any people not on dozens of meds?

I'm only on 3

 

[MustISO]

When I was a teenager they gave me some of those "medications", not sure if it even helped. I'm pretty sure it caused long-term memory loss and now I barely, if at all, remember people's names from middle school, and barely anything education-wise from middle school. All seems like a blur. Coincidentally this was when I was on these "medications".

That's interesting you should say that. I have the same issue with memory loss and long term use of medications. Even after being off of it I still don't feel normal (whatever that is).

 

[FelixDeCat]

That's interesting you should say that. I have the same issue with memory loss and long term use of medications. Even after being off of it I still don't feel normal (whatever that is).

Remember when I loaned you that $20 not too long ago? :sneaky:

 

[ShawnD1]

That's interesting you should say that. I have the same issue with memory loss and long term use of medications. Even after being off of it I still don't feel normal (whatever that is).

Working as intended. Making your memory fuzzy is part of how antidepressants are supposed to work. You're probably familiar with the expression "time flies when you're having fun" - positive memories are not as strong as negative memories. When you're bored or depressed, you notice every second.

Depression and anxiety can be tied to a lot of things. For some people, anxiety is caused by overthinking everything and constantly second guessing. A drug that fights anxiety, such as alcohol, will make a person not notice things like that. A slightly drugged person will go with their instincts and do what they want instead of overthinking everything. If your dosage is too high, you might even start to miss important details. Can't remember faces, names, dates, keep track of money, etc.

Erasing memory is actually one of the ways to treat "shell shock" or post traumatic stress disorder. If your memory of being in a POW camp is vivid and feels like it happened yesterday, then minor things can cause a lot of anxiety. Things you interact with look and sound like things from the POW camp. Random objects bring back painful memories. Making those memories a bit fuzzy can reduce the impact they have.

 

[Jeff7]

Entirely non-addictive, and no withdrawal symptoms, unless you stop taking the medication. In that case, sweet jesus, hold on tight!
:awe:


I was on something....Celebrex, I think it was? When I stopped with that stuff, I was dizzy as hell for a few days afterward.
I had also been prescribed Wellbutrin. One grand-mal-style seizure later, and I decided that antidepressants were probably not a good idea.

Spidey07
Hal9000
dmcowen
Anarchist420
a777pilot

spaceman
zanejohnson
spaceman
spaceman

 

[ShawnD1]

Entirely non-addictive, and no withdrawal symptoms, unless you stop taking the medication. In that case, sweet jesus, hold on tight!
:awe:

I don't know why they would say it has no addictive qualities. That means it doesn't actually work!

Instead of it being a drug, let's use that argument with a car.
"I sold my BMW and I don't even miss it!"
Does that sound like a positive testimonial or a negative one?