Anyone have any experience with anti-depressant medication?

Coming from someone who had to deal with a highly medicated stalker not too long ago, once your friend gets on the meds, take them regularly until the doctor says otherwise. Skipping doses of an anti-depressant can do really unpleasant things to your friend's brain chemistry.....and then they might kill someone's rabbit or something.

 

Tell him/her to join the Church of Scientology instead of taking those devil-pills.

 

Isnt that who created the pills?

 

What do you want to know?

 

Paxil has done wonders for my sister. Mood-swing/craziness factor has been reduced by over 50%.

 

It's harder to get an erection, but the positive is you don't get upset over it.

 

My professors in medical school told me that anti-depressant studies indicate a strong placebo factor in regards to the medication. Basically they were saying anti-depressants really don't do anything, unless you think they do. The best anti-depression therapy in my opinion is laugh therapy. Tell your friend to go watch comedic films whenever he gets a chance. He will laugh himself out of the blues.

 

I was just going to spout off that he should exercise, since that see to work for me. However I thought I would actually look it up to see if its effective for other people, and to my surprise it has actually been studied.
I would definitely try it before resorting to pills.


http://hdlighthouse.org/see/diet/triad/exercise/duke.htm
http://www.webmd.com/depression/guide/exercise-depression

 

I was on antidepressants from about 8 until my mid 20's with a few years off in my early 20's.

In my experience, I didn't notice much of a difference in normal day to day moods. Where it helped was during periods when I got really depressed. The meds made a noticeable difference there. There were still "lows" but they weren't as low as they would have been without the meds.

They take about 2 or 3 weeks to fully kick in.

Oh yeah, drinking alcohol while on anti-depressants is a no no. It can make the depressions worse. It can make the side effects worse. You can get drunk faster. And if the pills are MAOI inhibitors (instead of SSRI inhibitors) it can cause a stroke.

 

lol... nice, shade. not sure about that one, but i've heard that it makes it harder for you to reach that "mountain that you must conquer by any means".

 

When we talked 80 years ago, I didn't think you were a doctor... lol.

You are?

 

As for the experience part, I've been on anti-depressants since around 18/19 and I'm 24 now.

I've never been on Celexa, so I can't help there. I can tell you about Cymbalta, Effexor XR, Lexapro, Wellbutrin XL, and Zoloft however .

Take a look (or also have your friend take a look) at Revolution Health also. Pretty nifty site with user ratings on many drugs out there.

Specific link:

http://www.revolutionhealth.com/drugs-treatments/rating/celexa-for-depression

 

That's flat out not true. Yes for some people there is a placebo effect but to somehow generalize this to all anti-depressants is basically church of scientology propaganda. That's just total bs. There are people who really suffer from clinical depression and absolutely benefit from anti-depressants. I used to work for a psychiatrist for a little while and I can tell you with 100% certainty that statements like yours are not only wrong but just insulting to a lot of people who suffer from mental health issues.

 

A big thing about anti-depressants is that many times it depends on the individual. Certain people react in specific ways and good psychiatrists are flexible in that regard. The best advice is to try it and have your friend be honest with his or her psychiatrist. Conversely i hope your psychiatrist explains what i just wrote. its a delicate process when choosing what medication is right for a patient.

anyway good luck.

 

That just about clears up what I wanted to post on my first reply once I went back and read Brightside's post but I didn't want to post 3 in a row. You don't just laugh your way out of daily depression. It's a nice tool but you simply don't watch comedies all day and lift yourself out of a deep depression or suicidal tendency.

 

This is the worst drug ever!!


I'm glad it helped your sister but that drug is poison for most of the population. I had never felt more depressed, suicidal, or crummy untill that medication.


I wasn't the same person for about 2 months even after I quit.

Words of advice, if taking anything take Lexapro. ADs don't help much anyways. It has few side effects.

STAY THE F**** AWAY FROM PAXIL THOUGH.

I don't know how much I can stress that, I heard it was bad and decided to try it anyways, more side effects than you can imagine.

And the withdrawal is so brutal

 

If you have to take pills to control natural human emotion, then you're on a path downhill to failure.

 

Another thing about Paxil where it would benefit people, like= you said that your sister was moody. What is basically does is turn you into a zombie, completely senseless.

I never laughed.

I didn't smile.

Hell I didn't even care when I was on it. That + the withdrawal was the worst six months in my entire life.

What works for one person doesn't work for another, any body who has taken them knows what kind of happy feeling it is.

The general idea is that It makes you "Happy". That is not true. ADs help you deal with life stresses and help you manage what ever pain you are going through. They don't make you happier, but they lift your mood. Big difference.

Takes about 2-3 weeks to kick in.