Anti-depressants
Posted by ledzepfan12 on Nov 20, 2008 · Member since Jan 2007 · 675 posts
I've been thinking about going on them for a long while, but there's a little bit of me that says no. I just don't like drugs or supporting the pharmaceutical companies, but I feel they could be useful.
I was very depressed as a child, had an eating disorder that does manifest itself in different masks every now and then. I feel really hopeless most of the time like I will never go anywhere in life and I'm just really annoyed a lot.
So how do I even go about getting them? Do I just go to a regular doctor or a psych?
Also, to those who have been on them, how did you respond to them?
Antidepressants can help, certainly. But make sure you are also dealing with the causes of the problem, not just symptoms. If you limit treatment to the symptoms, the root cause may go merrily on.
I find antidepressants most useful for limited periods of time,in conjunction with talk-therapy or whatever modality works best for you. Do talk to a trusted physician or therapist if you have one, as in my personal experience you need someone who knows you and your body's reactions to find the most helpful aid. Sadly, some psychiatrists or physicians see them as a quick fix and don't seem to have any issues with their patients being on them for years...and years...and years. I'm not saying that some organically-rooted disorders don't need lifetime medication...but often a depression is more effectively dealt with by finding the cause in person-to-person dynamics, traumas, etc. and working to modify behaviour, reactions or situations from outside the body.
I agree with Yabbit.
If you need to take antidepressants to get you through a rough patch, well then all hail the gods of psychopharmacology! The idea isn't to go on meds and stay on them. As I understand it, you're supposed to take the meds just so you have enough of a reprieve to get your feet under you and start fighting back.
A few years ago I went on Lexapro and stopped taking them a few weeks later due to the side effects. They re-acted with the migraine preventatives I was taking at the time and caused me to sleep 20 hours a day. As far as how I got them...I just went to my GP and talked to her about what I was feeling physically and the mood swings I was having. Personally I don't think there's anything wrong with taking anti-depressants to give you a helping hand when your down.
I've been on anti depressants for about 10 years now and I just turned 24 on Monday (thanks for the birthday thread biotches), I wish I could say that its only a short term treatment but for me and many others it can prove to be a life long thing, this is normally if you have some sort of chemical imbalance that just doesnt allow your brain to release or absorb the right amount of seratonin or dopamine thats required to feel "normal". Also I have a history of substance abuse that has no doubt retarded my brains ability to regulate anyways. I've been on a few different treatments some more succesful than others but currently im on prozac which has helped me out a lot. Its almost like after i've been on something for a while it just doesnt seem to do the trick.
The best thing to do is be completely honest with your doctor about how you feel. There's no shame in it and if you can take it for a little while just to get back on your feet then thats awesome! If not, its not that bad. Just let the doctor know whats going on and I've learned that you have to be honest or it jsut wont help. If there's some deep seeded cause for your depression they can help, it takes time though.
Good luck with everything!! I hope this kinda helps.
http://i110.photobucket.com/albums/n95/sb4100/Graphics/Happy%20Birthday%20Late/Animation210.gif
EMG, saying that the condition doesn't exist just because the medicine didn't is crazy. Diseases existed before their treatments/cures.
And LZF, I'm teetering on the same decision for anti-anxiety meds. I just can't bring myself to ask for them, because of the anxiety. Ugh.
Thanks HH! I was hoping someone would get my hint and make me not feel like a loser. haha ;D
See a psychiatrist. And a psychologist, also if you can.
Figure out if your depression is "beatable" or chemical. Figure that out first, and don't be afraid or ashamed to admit that it's something that you can not beat on your own. I know a lot of people look at drugs as a crutch, but I encourage you not to. Sometimes, your body betrays you. Drugs can help with that.
My wife is chronically depressed. Lexapro keeps her sane. A friend of ours is severely bipolar. Drugs keep her able to a person, to be a friend.
Get as much professional advice as you can manage, then decide. There is no shame in needing medication. There is shame in ignoring a problem, or denying its persistence.
Before there was 'depression' people had to just put one foot in front of the other, dust their shoulders off and move on. People in third-world countries don't have the 'luxury' of having 'depression' yet here in the US of A we do..
And before there was anesthesia people had to bite the bullet, I think I'd put my money on what's available. :)
please don't listen to people like eatmoregreens.....depression is a very real disease, and some people can't function with out their anti depressants
I would be wary of anti-depressants and seek other alternative therapies to find the root of the problem. Antidepressants forever alter your brain chemistry in order to increase 'seratonin' when you can gain seratonin from a number of positive activities. Western medicine can be evil and doctors get those lovely kickbacks to prescribe the Rx's-- they're not looking for you, but their own bank account. Depression is an industry that they created and they continue to profit from. Before there was 'depression' people had to just put one foot in front of the other, dust their shoulders off and move on. People in third-world countries don't have the 'luxury' of having 'depression' yet here in the US of A we do..
Um, yeah. Marketing. ;)b
I totally disagree about depression just being a huge advertising campaign. I guarantee you I didn't know what Prozac was when I was a kid hoping I'd die every day or a teenager putting my finger down my throat to vomit every thing I ate when I was a teenager. I've tried other ways and it doesn't go away. It doesn't get any easier being around people or being more social. It doesn't get any eaiser to not hate myself and my life.
And I don't know about anyone else, but I'd be damn near suicidal if I lived in a third world country if I didn't do it sooner or have someone else do it. That's a big statement to make about something so horrible.
EMG, Speaking as someone who has a family predisposition to clinical depression (mom killed herself when I was 11....) and had a fucked up brain to begin with (coma at nine months, stroke at 20), "Depression" is not made up, other countries have it, it is just called something different, it isn't dehumanized like it is here.
Sometimes meds are necessary; sometimes herbal medicine (ie what you'd get from the "healer" in a "3'rd world country") works, sometimes it doesn't; sometimes Western medicine works, sometimes it doesn't; sometimes a combination works, sometimes it doesn't.
I didn't start anti depressants 'till after the stroke. I was told then (and multiple times there after, often following "psychotic breaks" (ie hallucinations/unable to do anything but cry/shake/inability to cry/etc)) that I'd be on meds for the rest of my life.
Recently, I was off medication for over a year w/o incident, then I had my first real "Manic" break where I was unable to sleep for 80 + hours and I was watching the walls melt while puting up shelving w/ a sprained wrist (yes, I was sober). It was really bad, I spent 10 hours in bed and was awake just watching the walls melt. That was when I knew it was time for me to get help again.
With of years counseling I've been able to work out strategies of how to deal with depressive episodes so I don't need medication for those, but now with the Mania, that is a new animal for me, and one where I may be on medication (and acupuncture, and chinese herbs, ad nauseum) for quite a while 'till things get sorted out and I find a counselor that I can jell with. I'm already onto trying my second med for Bi Polar type 2, it seems to be working, but I'm only 2 months into it, and you never really know how long they'll last for you.
I started going to counselors off and on when I was 8, it wasn't 'til I was 20 that I found a person who understood me (my theory has always been, you have to find someone who's crazier than you, otherwise how're they supposed to help lead out of a hole if they don't already know the way?), luckily for me it was a psychiatrist who'd spend an hour with me a week and knew his meds backwards and forwards and encouraged me to listen to my body and feelings, etc etc. Thanks to him I'm now able to go into the Crisis clinic, or any center really and be understood clearly as to how I am emotionally/mentally.
The best advice I ever got in regards to treatment for a mood/personality disorder is that it is a 3 part path, the medication may be temporary, but it may not (and that is OKAY) what is permanent are the counseling and lifestyle changes (usually the hardest to do!). When you find a counselor you are able to mesh with, and figure out how to change your life for the better (mine included me moving out of the dorms and getting cats!), you are able to live in a colorized world vs black and white and not freak the fuck out.
Don't focus on you're "not being happy", it'll only make you more depressed; don't even focus on "being happy"; instead focus on "being okay". I find the more "okay days" I have and the less "depressed" ones I have, the happier I am. But remember just as it is not normal to be depressed ALL THE TIME, it's also not normal to be HAPPY all the time! When I'm depressed, sometimes it is hard for me to remember that.
Hang in there, and get the help you feel you need.
Here, I made a debate thread about this topic. That might be a better location.
http://vegweb.com/index.php?topic=25288.0
Before there was 'depression' people had to just put one foot in front of the other, dust their shoulders off and move on. People in third-world countries don't have the 'luxury' of having 'depression' yet here in the US of A we do..
And before there was anesthesia people had to bite the bullet, I think I'd put my money on what's available. :)
A few things that existed and were diagnosed and tracked before there was a good treatment available:
Diabetes
Cancers of different sorts
Tuberculosis
Various venereal diseases
AIDS
etc. etc. etc.
Not to mention clinical depression. The original meaning of the word "hypochondria" is "low spirits". If you read 19th century medical journals you will see that "hypochondria" originally meant what is now known as clinical depression. And doctors felt helpless in the face of it...they knew their patients were suffering hell, but didn't have the tools to treat them. That is why many who were able to afford it were sent to the country/mountains/seaside...a change of scene was all the doctors could recommend, in hopes that it might help.
This is not turning into a debate. Not here. If eatmoregreens or anyone else wants to continue to be ignorant about this, they can go on the debate thread.
http://vegweb.com/index.php?topic=25288.msg261338#msg261338
That is why many who were able to afford it were sent to the country/mountains/seaside...
In case it might help just a little :)
http://www.janesoceania.com/cookislands_postcards/Cook%20Islands%20Aitutaki%20Lagoon.jpg
That is why many who were able to afford it were sent to the country/mountains/seaside...
In case it might help just a little :)
http://www.janesoceania.com/cookislands_postcards/Cook%20Islands%20Aitutaki%20Lagoon.jpg
I would be depressed there are no waves to surf :-(
For your happy place.
http://www.extremesportscafe.com/Graphics/surfing_indonesia/man_surfing_indo_4.jpg
For your happy place.
http://www.extremesportscafe.com/Graphics/surfing_indonesia/man_surfing_indo_4.jpg
FUUUUUUUUUUCCCKKKKK YEEEAAAHHHH
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