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I had crushing anxiety and panic attacks that were destroying my life. I almost smoked the business end of a 12 guage. I started taking Zoloft and my whole lif

I had crushing anxiety and panic attacks that were destroying my life. I almost smoked the business end of a 12 guage. I started taking Zoloft and my whole life changed. Anxiety and panic attacks completely dissappeared. Zero side effects. Happiness and joy all around. I get worried sometimes though about what's happening in my brain chemistry. Hopefully irreversable damage isn't occuring. But I suppose that damage is better than the alternative. I also wonder, since I feel so good, if I should try weaning off the Zoloft. But I can't risk going back into that place of darkness. Life is not worth living when you feel like that.

PragmaticPulp 6y ago
> Hopefully irreversable damage isn't occuring. But I suppose that damage is better than the alternative. On the contrary, untreated depression is far more likely to produce long-term damage than a well-studied medication that has been in use for several decades. Untreated depression really does a number on the brain and body, not to mention the downstream effects of reduced exercise, socialization, sleep, and other problems that come from depression. > I also wonder, since I feel so good, if I should try weaning off the Zoloft. Be careful and only proceed with the help of a psychiatrist. Depressive relapse is very common in patients who decide to discontinue their medication. The scary part is that the depression often returns very slowly over a long period of time, which the patient may not fully notice until they are deep within another depressive episode.
- zander312 6y ago
  Thanks for the reply. That makes sense to me. I am totally fine with taking the meds forever. I am one of the lucky cases where I experience basically zero side effects and it's been 2 years so far. I have heard of the horror story side effects like getting really overweight, not being able to bone, feeling fatigued, constantly napping etc. But I have never felt any of that. These last two years have been the best of my life. I always have this concern though that these meds must be doing something sketchy to my brain chemistry. But it makes sense that the constant terror of anxiety could also produce some neural pathways and brain chemistry that would be very bad...
  - PragmaticPulp 6y ago
    > I am one of the lucky cases where I experience basically zero side effects and it's been 2 years so far. The reality is that most (but not all, obviously) people don't have terrible side effects from modern antidepressants. It's difficult because most people who take antidepressants without issue simply don't talk about it. Partially because they don't feel like advertising their mental health struggles, but also because there simply isn't much to talk about when you simply take a medication and it just works. > I always have this concern though that these meds must be doing something sketchy to my brain chemistry. Given how long they've been in use and how widespread they are, we would have seen any blatant negative effects by now. SSRIs have been in use since the 80s and the antidepressants before that were far less selective. If anything, the research points to SSRIs being helpful in repairing or reversing damage caused by depression.
    - Judgmentality 6y ago
      If antidepressants really are pervasive as you say, I'd be concerned about what it's doing to us as a species when it comes time to reproduce. Are the offspring of parents who regularly take anti-depressants any worse off than those who don't? I think these are the sorts of questions that would be useful to know when really mass-prescribing drugs to humanity. To be clear, I'm not suggesting that the drugs are inherently harmful to offspring - but it seems like something that would be good to know. If the parents have a chemical dependency, what does that mean for the children?
      - PragmaticPulp 6y ago
        All medications, including antidepressants, are studied for potential reproductive harm. This is taken very seriously in wake of the Thalidomide disaster in the 60s. Is it possible that antidepressants have some extremely subtle transgenerational epigenetic effects? Maybe, but comparing healthy patients to SSRI-treated remitted depressed patients is a bit of a red herring anyway. The real comparison would be between SSRI-treated patients and untreated depressed patients, because healthy people aren't prescribed SSRIs. We do know untreated depression is very harmful to people and their families, so speculating about immeasurably small negative effects of SSRIs while ignoring the massive and very real cost of untreated depression would be a mistake.
jokoon 6y ago
> I also wonder, since I feel so good, if I should try weaning off the Zoloft. The problems with ADs, is that people feel better, they think they're cured, but no, it's because the meds are working, and treatment should not be stopped.
- throwaway99111a 6y ago
  Exactly. Before I understood I had life-long condition, I tried to wean myself off multiple times over the last 2 decades, only to come back to the original symptoms months/years later. I now understand I have a chronic condition and I need to treat it as such. It would be awesome to be off antidepressants in the future and I'm trying to train my mind with meditation and other healthy practices but I don't fool myself with thinking that alone will be enough. And you know what? I'm fine. I'm glad antidepressants exist because otherwise I wouldn't be here anymore.
  - zander312 6y ago
    Well I am really glad you are here and i'm also glad they worked as well for you as they did for me. Out of curiosity, why even have the desire to get off the meds? do you experience side effects?
    - throwaway99111b 6y ago
      I think it's a desire to live free. I don't know how to explain it but the thought of depending on something sometimes gives me anxiety about my ability to function as a human being, to experience life as-is, etc. The only side effect I have from taking Venlafaxine is my libido is crap but I can live with that. I'm a Buddhist (even if a crappy one, that's debatable) and in some circles, taking antidepressants feels like "cheating". I was just researching this topic a few hours ago and it seems that's not taboo anymore and even various teachers have come forward and shared they too were on Prozac or other drugs. That was a relief. I'm lucky that in my community that isn't seen as cheating at all but there's that innate feeling that, if I'm trying to control my mind, that an antidepressant would be messing with that, or hindering my practice. I don't think like that anymore. Even if it was cheating, I'd rather be alive and only get some benefits from meditation in this life rather than be dead. So yeah, coming off meds is a bit subjective for me but I'm coming to terms with that. Life is better this way.
gaoshan 6y ago
This highlights what I feel is the real issue with such medications... over prescription. You, clearly, need(ed) it and it was a literal life saver. I was also put on some of these medications and while they evened me out that meant they killed the highs as well as the lows. I feel like they altered my personality and not in only good ways (overall creativity took a hit... I was in a creative field at the time, libido took a massive hit). Now I see my daughter and (pretty much) all of her friends being given these medications for what seem like relatively superficial reasons and years after the initial, "Wow, I have less X" many of them are starting to wonder if it is worth it as they experience periodic "brain fog", disassociation and other possible side effects. My own opinion... these are powerful tools. Critical to some. Overprescribed for most
lordgroff 6y ago
My story with SSRIs is largely similar, anxiety and PTSD almost at zero. One of the things I didn't realize is that my base level of anxiety was through the roof. I thought that was "normal" and that times when my anxiety really kicked up a notch was anxiety. And then within a month and a half of taking meds, the constant feeling of impending doom within my spine that was always there, gone. I had side effects for the first month or two but they're long gone. I also had first sleeplessness and then fatigue, but I found taking meds at night made all the difference, making that issue a thing of the past. I don't worry too much about my long term dependence on it: even if it lowered my life expectancy, which there isn't really any proof of, but even if it did, I'd take it as a fair trade-off.
- imwillofficial 6y ago
  It's crazy! I never realized I was anxious until I started anti-anxiety meds. Modern mental health is pure quackery in my experience so far. It's been "let's try it and see what happens"
  - splithalf 6y ago
    It’s the same with all medicine. Pain medication, antibiotics and so on. Doctors try stuff until something works. You may have overly positive views of science if you don’t think it’s being made up as we go. The body/mind split is artificial too.
rybosworld 6y ago
I weaned off my AD medication once a few years back. I felt guilty about needing a medication to keep my head straight. I was fine for maybe 5-6 months. And one day I literally woke up with the familiar, heavy depression. It was very sudden and I knew I needed to resume treatment. If you need treatment, it's good to get it and maintain it.
diob 6y ago
I also started taking Zoloft (50mg once a day) this past year. I've had zero side effects, besides becoming way more mellow and less anxious. It's weird as hell but it's definitely changed my life for the better. I wish I had started it earlier.
mushbino 6y ago
This is my experience with Paxil. I can't say I would be here today if it weren't for that. Everyone has different brain chemistry and you have to try different things until you find something that works. Now, I can finally get out of bed and exercise which I never thought possible before. There are risks to some of these medications, but they mostly come from not tapering off properly. Cymbalta wrecked my memory for a few months for that reason.
- tylersmith 6y ago
  To reinforce your point, I started Paxil many years ago and had terrible side effects that pushed me away from ssris altogether leading to a long struggle before giving in and trying Lexapro which has given me my life back. If one doesn't work, try others before trying nothing.
near 6y ago
Same story here. But in my case, Zoloft gave me really bad tinnitus that persisted even after stopping. I switched to Intuniv that got rid of the panic attacks but not the depression or the new tinnitus. Added Lexapro and that reversed the tinnitus and kept all the positive benefits of Zoloft. Brain chemistry is different for everyone, so it's worth trying more than one if the first doesn't work for you. It's truly life-changing when it works. No one should have to live with daily panic attacks.
splithalf 6y ago
TNSTAAFL— the stoics were on to something. Also, research falls apart when it comes to rare events, otherwise we could predict and prevent mass shootings, which coincidentally might themselves be a side effect of psychiatric medication. If only there were more data points we could know things we don’t know.
plutonorm 6y ago
I've tried 4 different SSRIs and none of them did anything. Ecstacy has no effect on me. Nor do magic mushrooms. Took me until I was 40 ish to find something that worked. Turns out my issue is too little gabba or at least over excitable neural tissue. Pregabalin fixes me. If I can't get that then CBD helps.
- splithalf 6y ago
  Gabapentin is a very widely prescribed drug so arguably very safe, certainly safer than ssri, but you won’t hear about this outcome from CBD: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4314910/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4314910/ CBD can be hepatotoxic so not a perfect solution even if it’s highly effective.
dkarras 6y ago
Same, with escitalopram (lexapro in the US)
rubicon33 6y ago
Is it at all possible that there were other confounding factors? I ask this because I've struggled with depression my entire life. I took fluoxetine (prozac) in 2012 and had similar experience that you describe. I stopped taking it because I really hated the idea of being a med all my life. After about a year, the depression was back. I never returned to prozac, but I've wondered year after year if I should. Nearly a decade later, I still don't know. Why? I still have my doubts though whether or not the medication was doing anything. I had also coincidentally had a ton of success in life around that time. I had learned some new exciting skills, landed a sweet job in my dream city, and was socializing a ton and meeting people. I reflect on that time (roughly 1.5 years worth) and to this day I can't really decide whether that joy was from the meds, or from learning something I was finally good at, landing a great job, feeling confidence from that and meeting people, etc. The return of the depression did seem to correlate exactly with discontinuing the meds, but, it could also have been that the excitement of the year's events was beginning to wear off too.
- yllorepap 6y ago
  Take the medication I think, coincidence seems unlikely.
- pseudalopex 6y ago
  Have you considered the medication helped you learn new skills, land a great job, and meet people? Diabetics hate the idea taking insulin all their lives. Paraplegics hate the idea of using a wheelchair all their lives. What makes your chronic illness different?

PragmaticPulp 6y ago

> Hopefully irreversable damage isn't occuring. But I suppose that damage is better than the alternative. On the contrary, untreated depression is far more likely to produce long-term damage than a well-studied medication that has been in use for several decades. Untreated depression really does a number on the brain and body, not to mention the downstream effects of reduced exercise, socialization, sleep, and other problems that come from depression. > I also wonder, since I feel so good, if I should try weaning off the Zoloft. Be careful and only proceed with the help of a psychiatrist. Depressive relapse is very common in patients who decide to discontinue their medication. The scary part is that the depression often returns very slowly over a long period of time, which the patient may not fully notice until they are deep within another depressive episode.

zander312 6y ago
Thanks for the reply. That makes sense to me. I am totally fine with taking the meds forever. I am one of the lucky cases where I experience basically zero side effects and it's been 2 years so far. I have heard of the horror story side effects like getting really overweight, not being able to bone, feeling fatigued, constantly napping etc. But I have never felt any of that. These last two years have been the best of my life. I always have this concern though that these meds must be doing something sketchy to my brain chemistry. But it makes sense that the constant terror of anxiety could also produce some neural pathways and brain chemistry that would be very bad...
- PragmaticPulp 6y ago
  > I am one of the lucky cases where I experience basically zero side effects and it's been 2 years so far. The reality is that most (but not all, obviously) people don't have terrible side effects from modern antidepressants. It's difficult because most people who take antidepressants without issue simply don't talk about it. Partially because they don't feel like advertising their mental health struggles, but also because there simply isn't much to talk about when you simply take a medication and it just works. > I always have this concern though that these meds must be doing something sketchy to my brain chemistry. Given how long they've been in use and how widespread they are, we would have seen any blatant negative effects by now. SSRIs have been in use since the 80s and the antidepressants before that were far less selective. If anything, the research points to SSRIs being helpful in repairing or reversing damage caused by depression.
  - Judgmentality 6y ago
    If antidepressants really are pervasive as you say, I'd be concerned about what it's doing to us as a species when it comes time to reproduce. Are the offspring of parents who regularly take anti-depressants any worse off than those who don't? I think these are the sorts of questions that would be useful to know when really mass-prescribing drugs to humanity. To be clear, I'm not suggesting that the drugs are inherently harmful to offspring - but it seems like something that would be good to know. If the parents have a chemical dependency, what does that mean for the children?
    - PragmaticPulp 6y ago
      All medications, including antidepressants, are studied for potential reproductive harm. This is taken very seriously in wake of the Thalidomide disaster in the 60s. Is it possible that antidepressants have some extremely subtle transgenerational epigenetic effects? Maybe, but comparing healthy patients to SSRI-treated remitted depressed patients is a bit of a red herring anyway. The real comparison would be between SSRI-treated patients and untreated depressed patients, because healthy people aren't prescribed SSRIs. We do know untreated depression is very harmful to people and their families, so speculating about immeasurably small negative effects of SSRIs while ignoring the massive and very real cost of untreated depression would be a mistake.

jokoon 6y ago

> I also wonder, since I feel so good, if I should try weaning off the Zoloft. The problems with ADs, is that people feel better, they think they're cured, but no, it's because the meds are working, and treatment should not be stopped.

throwaway99111a 6y ago
Exactly. Before I understood I had life-long condition, I tried to wean myself off multiple times over the last 2 decades, only to come back to the original symptoms months/years later. I now understand I have a chronic condition and I need to treat it as such. It would be awesome to be off antidepressants in the future and I'm trying to train my mind with meditation and other healthy practices but I don't fool myself with thinking that alone will be enough. And you know what? I'm fine. I'm glad antidepressants exist because otherwise I wouldn't be here anymore.
- zander312 6y ago
  Well I am really glad you are here and i'm also glad they worked as well for you as they did for me. Out of curiosity, why even have the desire to get off the meds? do you experience side effects?
  - throwaway99111b 6y ago
    I think it's a desire to live free. I don't know how to explain it but the thought of depending on something sometimes gives me anxiety about my ability to function as a human being, to experience life as-is, etc. The only side effect I have from taking Venlafaxine is my libido is crap but I can live with that. I'm a Buddhist (even if a crappy one, that's debatable) and in some circles, taking antidepressants feels like "cheating". I was just researching this topic a few hours ago and it seems that's not taboo anymore and even various teachers have come forward and shared they too were on Prozac or other drugs. That was a relief. I'm lucky that in my community that isn't seen as cheating at all but there's that innate feeling that, if I'm trying to control my mind, that an antidepressant would be messing with that, or hindering my practice. I don't think like that anymore. Even if it was cheating, I'd rather be alive and only get some benefits from meditation in this life rather than be dead. So yeah, coming off meds is a bit subjective for me but I'm coming to terms with that. Life is better this way.

gaoshan 6y ago

This highlights what I feel is the real issue with such medications... over prescription. You, clearly, need(ed) it and it was a literal life saver. I was also put on some of these medications and while they evened me out that meant they killed the highs as well as the lows. I feel like they altered my personality and not in only good ways (overall creativity took a hit... I was in a creative field at the time, libido took a massive hit). Now I see my daughter and (pretty much) all of her friends being given these medications for what seem like relatively superficial reasons and years after the initial, "Wow, I have less X" many of them are starting to wonder if it is worth it as they experience periodic "brain fog", disassociation and other possible side effects. My own opinion... these are powerful tools. Critical to some. Overprescribed for most

lordgroff 6y ago

My story with SSRIs is largely similar, anxiety and PTSD almost at zero. One of the things I didn't realize is that my base level of anxiety was through the roof. I thought that was "normal" and that times when my anxiety really kicked up a notch was anxiety. And then within a month and a half of taking meds, the constant feeling of impending doom within my spine that was always there, gone. I had side effects for the first month or two but they're long gone. I also had first sleeplessness and then fatigue, but I found taking meds at night made all the difference, making that issue a thing of the past. I don't worry too much about my long term dependence on it: even if it lowered my life expectancy, which there isn't really any proof of, but even if it did, I'd take it as a fair trade-off.

imwillofficial 6y ago
It's crazy! I never realized I was anxious until I started anti-anxiety meds. Modern mental health is pure quackery in my experience so far. It's been "let's try it and see what happens"
- splithalf 6y ago
  It’s the same with all medicine. Pain medication, antibiotics and so on. Doctors try stuff until something works. You may have overly positive views of science if you don’t think it’s being made up as we go. The body/mind split is artificial too.

rybosworld 6y ago

I weaned off my AD medication once a few years back. I felt guilty about needing a medication to keep my head straight. I was fine for maybe 5-6 months. And one day I literally woke up with the familiar, heavy depression. It was very sudden and I knew I needed to resume treatment. If you need treatment, it's good to get it and maintain it.

diob 6y ago

I also started taking Zoloft (50mg once a day) this past year. I've had zero side effects, besides becoming way more mellow and less anxious. It's weird as hell but it's definitely changed my life for the better. I wish I had started it earlier.

mushbino 6y ago

This is my experience with Paxil. I can't say I would be here today if it weren't for that. Everyone has different brain chemistry and you have to try different things until you find something that works. Now, I can finally get out of bed and exercise which I never thought possible before. There are risks to some of these medications, but they mostly come from not tapering off properly. Cymbalta wrecked my memory for a few months for that reason.

tylersmith 6y ago
To reinforce your point, I started Paxil many years ago and had terrible side effects that pushed me away from ssris altogether leading to a long struggle before giving in and trying Lexapro which has given me my life back. If one doesn't work, try others before trying nothing.

near 6y ago

Same story here. But in my case, Zoloft gave me really bad tinnitus that persisted even after stopping. I switched to Intuniv that got rid of the panic attacks but not the depression or the new tinnitus. Added Lexapro and that reversed the tinnitus and kept all the positive benefits of Zoloft. Brain chemistry is different for everyone, so it's worth trying more than one if the first doesn't work for you. It's truly life-changing when it works. No one should have to live with daily panic attacks.

splithalf 6y ago

TNSTAAFL— the stoics were on to something. Also, research falls apart when it comes to rare events, otherwise we could predict and prevent mass shootings, which coincidentally might themselves be a side effect of psychiatric medication. If only there were more data points we could know things we don’t know.

plutonorm 6y ago

I've tried 4 different SSRIs and none of them did anything. Ecstacy has no effect on me. Nor do magic mushrooms. Took me until I was 40 ish to find something that worked. Turns out my issue is too little gabba or at least over excitable neural tissue. Pregabalin fixes me. If I can't get that then CBD helps.

splithalf 6y ago
Gabapentin is a very widely prescribed drug so arguably very safe, certainly safer than ssri, but you won’t hear about this outcome from CBD: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4314910/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4314910/ CBD can be hepatotoxic so not a perfect solution even if it’s highly effective.

dkarras 6y ago

Same, with escitalopram (lexapro in the US)

rubicon33 6y ago

Is it at all possible that there were other confounding factors? I ask this because I've struggled with depression my entire life. I took fluoxetine (prozac) in 2012 and had similar experience that you describe. I stopped taking it because I really hated the idea of being a med all my life. After about a year, the depression was back. I never returned to prozac, but I've wondered year after year if I should. Nearly a decade later, I still don't know. Why? I still have my doubts though whether or not the medication was doing anything. I had also coincidentally had a ton of success in life around that time. I had learned some new exciting skills, landed a sweet job in my dream city, and was socializing a ton and meeting people. I reflect on that time (roughly 1.5 years worth) and to this day I can't really decide whether that joy was from the meds, or from learning something I was finally good at, landing a great job, feeling confidence from that and meeting people, etc. The return of the depression did seem to correlate exactly with discontinuing the meds, but, it could also have been that the excitement of the year's events was beginning to wear off too.

yllorepap 6y ago
Take the medication I think, coincidence seems unlikely.
pseudalopex 6y ago
Have you considered the medication helped you learn new skills, land a great job, and meet people? Diabetics hate the idea taking insulin all their lives. Paraplegics hate the idea of using a wheelchair all their lives. What makes your chronic illness different?