4 ms·

I tried a whole host of anti-depressants including several SSRIs and an SNRI and all gave me many horrible side effects. At times they were necessary evils, but

by slaymaker1907 5y ago

I tried a whole host of anti-depressants including several SSRIs and an SNRI and all gave me many horrible side effects. At times they were necessary evils, but right now I'm doing pretty well on a low dose of gabapentin. In particular, they tended to both make me sleepy during the day and dramatically reduced the quality of my sleep at night. I also ended up getting tremors and RLS. In the end, I think most of these symptoms were due to the medications decreasing the effective amount of dopamine in my brain (they increase seratonin, but due to how seratonin and dopamine interact, this can decrease the effect of dopamine in the brain; they really need to be in balance with one another). I also take methylphenidate (Ritalin) for ADHD and it is MUCH easier to stop stimulant medication in my experience compared to anti-depressants. And while stimulants affect sleep, I found the SSRIs to be much worse in this regard since they made me sleep poorly regardless of when I took the SSRI unless I skipped a day of the SSRI (and I was on the lowest possible dose). Not only do these medications have side effects, they have severe side effects, at least for some people.

pasabagi 5y ago
Depends on how you rate side effects. My experience of depression was feeling so physically awful I wanted to die, just to make it stop. In comparison, even the 'extreme' side effects from rapid anti-depressant withdrawal (shocks, vomiting, dizziness, etc) are very mild. I get that's not everybody's experience. However, my feeling is that if you shop around until you can get the right dose and the right meds, the only side effect pain is when you start, and when you stop or draw down your dose. The real danger of starting meds is that it can give a severely depressed person the motivation and wherewithal to commit suicide, so I do think it's worth starting them in a setting where you're not going to be alone. Still, I'd say that's less a 'side effect', and more just an effect of having severe depression and suddenly not feeling so debilitated that you can't do anything about it. In general, I just find the conversation around anti-depressants completely unhelpful and baffling. People focus on the extremely long-tail side effects, and ignore the massive bump in the bellcurve that is a depressed person either committing suicide, or just living a totally miserable life until they die from some substance abuse problem. People who are diagnosed with depression do not live good lives without medication. The statistics for life expectancy, etc, are just awful (it's worse with stuff like schizophrenia or bipolar). So all the stuff about antidepressants making you fat or whatever is just totally irrelevant.

pasabagi 5y ago

Depends on how you rate side effects. My experience of depression was feeling so physically awful I wanted to die, just to make it stop. In comparison, even the 'extreme' side effects from rapid anti-depressant withdrawal (shocks, vomiting, dizziness, etc) are very mild. I get that's not everybody's experience. However, my feeling is that if you shop around until you can get the right dose and the right meds, the only side effect pain is when you start, and when you stop or draw down your dose. The real danger of starting meds is that it can give a severely depressed person the motivation and wherewithal to commit suicide, so I do think it's worth starting them in a setting where you're not going to be alone. Still, I'd say that's less a 'side effect', and more just an effect of having severe depression and suddenly not feeling so debilitated that you can't do anything about it. In general, I just find the conversation around anti-depressants completely unhelpful and baffling. People focus on the extremely long-tail side effects, and ignore the massive bump in the bellcurve that is a depressed person either committing suicide, or just living a totally miserable life until they die from some substance abuse problem. People who are diagnosed with depression do not live good lives without medication. The statistics for life expectancy, etc, are just awful (it's worse with stuff like schizophrenia or bipolar). So all the stuff about antidepressants making you fat or whatever is just totally irrelevant.