> Similar for SSRIs. Asked the shrink why SSRIs versus something else - 'got to start somewhere'. Asked them why one SSRI over another, same answer. At the ris

> Similar for SSRIs. Asked the shrink why SSRIs versus something else - 'got to start somewhere'. Asked them why one SSRI over another, same answer. At the risk of over-simplifying - and certainly not justifying blasé, ambivalent answers... the brain is a very complex organism. And we have barely scratched the surface of how it actually works. Most of it, we just don't know. So, from this to psychiatric drugs - SSRIs, MAOIs, SNRIs. Read the drug information sheet in the packet. Not just the "standard" paragraphs on side effects and warnings. All prescription drugs are required to specify "how" the drug works. For a startlingly high number of these drugs, this paragraph starts with the words: > It is not understood precisely how [drug] works. It is believed that it does X, Y and Z... (emphasis mine). We know that they can work for some people and not others. But while we can perhaps make decent educated guesses, a lot of the time, we can't, because, hell, we don't really know how it even actually works, so we can't know it will work for you. Disclaimer: while I am medically educated and work as a prehospital provider, I'm not a MHP, despite my use of 'we' in the previous para.