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> Hopefully irreversable damage isn't occuring. But I suppose that damage is better than the alternative. On the contrary, untreated depression is far more lik

> 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.
      - Judgmentality 6y ago
        > The real comparison would be between SSRI-treated patients and untreated depressed patients, because healthy people aren't prescribed SSRIs. I see it very differently, as you are focusing entirely on the parents and completely ignoring the children. If the untreated patients weren't going to have kids, the question is only whether or not the children are happy. If the children of parents with antidepressants are more likely to require antidepressants themselves, I'd say that's indicative of a serious problem.
        PragmaticPulp 6y ago

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.
    - Judgmentality 6y ago
      > The real comparison would be between SSRI-treated patients and untreated depressed patients, because healthy people aren't prescribed SSRIs. I see it very differently, as you are focusing entirely on the parents and completely ignoring the children. If the untreated patients weren't going to have kids, the question is only whether or not the children are happy. If the children of parents with antidepressants are more likely to require antidepressants themselves, I'd say that's indicative of a serious problem.
      - PragmaticPulp 6y ago