F's and Depression or Anxiety Medication

[Santosha]

I have a question for any of you feelers that are currently or have ever taken any anti-anxiety or anti-depression medications.

What was/is your experience with it?

I've never actually taken any meds like this (though in my early twenties and late teens there were sure times I considered it!) but I was talking to my mom the other day about it, she is either infp or infj.. and she had gone on prozac for about two months a few years back. She was telling me that it was a complete emotional blocker for her.. she didn't feel anything, goor or bad. This concept of no emotions at all is hard for me to grasp, because so much of my personality is emotions. I honestly couldn't imagine who or what I'd be like, what the world would look like to me without an emotional undertone. I also wonder how I would behave towards others if I did not have any sense of emotional impact. Its just such a strange concept to me. I had an ISFJ friend go on Zoloft while she was also taking Acutane because it caused a major depression.. and her personality changed drastically! During that time many of our friends had a hard time being around her, because she would say alot of rude things, seemed to have little concern, etc. for the people around her. Ofcourse we all knew it was the meds, not HER, and supported her still. When I was asking my mom about the prozac, she told me the reason she went off it is because it turned her into a zombie. Not someone that felt bad, or crazy, she just didn't feel anything. I understand that meds are helpful and sometimes neccessary to balance certain people out.. so this isn't meant to be a "bash scrip users" thread. I am looking for honest experiences from a feelers perspective.

 

[prplchknz]

meds normalize me, but everyone experience things differently

 

[Viridian]

I'm on sertraline right now. It's no panacea or anything, but it has helped curb some of my obnoxiously OCD-ish tendencies. I now feel somewhat mellower. Now, if only there was a drug for procrastination...

 

[Santosha]

Thanks for the responce. This is probably a touchy subject.. but I don't think it should be. Especially if your on something that has balanced you. Do you find that it limits your range of emotion, but you still feel like you? Or do you find it to be completely numbing?

Edit: if you could describe the feelings you were having before, and compare to now, what would you say?

 

[prplchknz]

I was a total mess crying and forgetting important shit, also had psychotic symptoms throwing up and headaches, now I still have emotions but they're more in check and my memory's coming back slowly but it is.

 

[Viridian]

Thanks for the responce. This is probably a touchy subject.. but I don't think it should be. Especially if your on something that has balanced you. Do you find that it limits your range of emotion, but you still feel like you? Or do you find it to be completely numbing?

Edit: if you could describe the feelings you were having before, and compare to now, what would you say?

Were you talking to us both, or just to prplchknz?

 

[Saslou]

I was on anti depressants in my late teens. I loved it because i became a zombie and didn't feel anything. Nothing fazed me but then i did something silly so maybe not feeling anyway was counter productive.

I was put on prozac but was confused with regards to the hype as they didn't seem to touch me so was put on other tablets.

Although at the time clearly there were benefits to the medication, ultimately being a feeler who's entire body is an emotional antenna, i suppose i cut off a part of me that needed support in order to progress.

When my marriage broke down i asked my doctor for anti depressants for the short term and was declined. Sometimes its nice not to feel pain but in order to move past it, we have to feel it .. in all it's horrible glory. As the saying goes though 'This too shall pass'

Meh, each to their own.

 

[prplchknz]

the problem is when it doesn't pass even when you try to. try 10 years of trying to "get over it" and not happening. and it gets worse and worse.

 

[Santosha]

Were you talking to us both, or just to prplchknz?

To both, and anyone else that wants so share.

 

[Santosha]

I was on anti depressants in my late teens. I loved it because i became a zombie and didn't feel anything. Nothing fazed me but then i did something silly so maybe not feeling anyway was counter productive.

I was put on prozac but was confused with regards to the hype as they didn't seem to touch me so was put on other tablets.

Although at the time clearly there were benefits to the medication, ultimately being a feeler who's entire body is an emotional antenna, i suppose i cut off a part of me that needed support in order to progress.

When my marriage broke down i asked my doctor for anti depressants for the short term and was declined. Sometimes its nice not to feel pain but in order to move past it, we have to feel it .. in all it's horrible glory. As the saying goes though 'This too shall pass'

Meh, each to their own.

See, this is what I would imagine. Because being a feeler is so core to our personalitys, I wonder how you could have been productive, in the sense of doing what you wanted to do. If you couldn't "feel" a sense of what you wanted. How much you loved another person. What career made you happy. etc. How would you ever know what was true for you and what wasn't? Unless my concept of these pills being emotional blockers is off... or there are pills that still give you a sense of self and a range of natural emotion....

 

[Viridian]

To both, and anyone else that wants so share.

In that case, I admit I feel like I'm on auto-pilot sometimes... Sometimes, I feel like I'm slowly eroding on account of my inner conflict, which is seldom externalized. I've also felt a bit dysthimic, even depressed, sometimes... Medication of that sort is ineffectual, I think, if you don't combine it with good therapy.

 

[Stanton Moore]

I was on some form of anti-depressant for years, starting in high school. From lithium to cymbalta. Nothing really was very helpful after the first week or so.
Now I take no meds at all, and after a period of feeling very depressed and sad, I'm coming out of it. I also have an excellent therapist and hypnotherapist who have helped me a lot in this journey. I really feel that meds are not the answer, certainly not long term. They just compress emotional experience into a narrow middle band, where you are not sad, but not very happy either.

 

[Saslou]

See, this is what I would imagine. Because being a feeler is so core to our personalitys, I wonder how you could have been productive, in the sense of doing what you wanted to do. If you couldn't "feel" a sense of what you wanted. How much you loved another person. What career made you happy. etc. How would you ever know what was true for you and what wasn't? Unless my concept of these pills being emotional blockers is off... or there are pills that still give you a sense of self and a range of natural emotion....

I didn't want to make any rational decisions though, i wanted to forget or just not feel as it hurt too much and just go about my life in a state of zombiness
I was fortunate in that i had ended my relationship so only had to look after my children (glad they were little so can't remember this period of their lives), i didn't work, i lived in the countryside and was rarely visited by family, had no friends and was never asked to attend any social functions .. I was put out to deal with life alone. Oh well.

After great therapy i choose to stop the tablets as what i had learned from a lovely psychiatrist helped sow the seeds which in hindsight didn't really help as i went back to blaming myself when an issue arose. I suffered from 'fixing people syndrome' Lol.

But for me there was no sense of self or feelings of natural emotions. I hated every fibre of my being so why would i want to feel that disgusting sense of worthlessness. I knew i had to think differently (for my childrens sake) but didn't have the skills nor knowledge to change my thought process and this is where the tablets helped temporarily.

I do think though that especially in present time, anti depressants are given out like fucking candy when instead people would be better off being referred to external agencies or counselling to help them overcome their current thoughts/situiations and show other possibilities. I see this on a daily basis in my job yet the funding available is getting more and more scarce. Or maybe this is a ploy to control people. Different subject/thread. lol

 

[prplchknz]

ok listen to me, I tried just therapy it didn't work. I went off meds and things fell apart in a few months so yeah some people can function fine without meds. I can not. some people meds make them feel numb, I feel numb off of meds with crying spells.I feel more on meds than off so explain that. do i think society is overmedicated? yes I do.

 

[scantilyclad]

I started taking anti depressants in my early teen years, but I never really noticed a difference, my depression never went away and sometimes made me slip into mania. I tried almost every single one of them. When I was off everything I would feel almost exactly the same. I now am on a mood stabilizer and an anti-psychotic and I have honestly NEVER felt more normal. I still have emotions, and I still feel things, I'm just not as depressed anymore. This has changed my personality a bit because I'm more emotionally stable, less angry and I'm a bit more outgoing, but I can't say anything negative about the way I feel now. I am not functional without meds AT ALL. NOT EVEN A LITTLE BIT. Medication affects all people differently though. You have to find the right ones.

 

[Santosha]

You know, I guess it all goes back to individual chemicals and such. If your not functionable without something to balance you, then you probably do have more of a chem imbalance, etc. I think there are alot of things someone can do to try to bring their hormones and chemicals to a natural level.. like through really good exorcize, eating, ya know.. be as healthy as you possibly can (which is probably a catch-22 when your really depressed and anxious) but I would never say that no one should be using meds. That would just be silly, as there are tons of case studies on people with imbalance. I do think that scrips are being written like rampantly for people with non-chemical problems that would be better suited for some counseling.

 

[Thalassa]

I didn't take medication for many years even though I was a highly sensitive child and started experiencing depression in my teens. I was in my twenties before I decided for myself that it might be a good idea because my panic attacks were so severe that they were interfering with my life - and I knew it had to be some kind of chemical imbalance because in many ways I'm a very ballsy, daring person.

Also, my depression can get so bad that I won't be able to stop crying...and my great-aunt Kate did this. She cried and cried like that, they didn't have anti-depressants back in her day, her doc prescribed her valium of all things (???) and she ended up attempting suicide three times in her 50's or 60's. She finally got help in the mid-1980's as an old lady after the sucide attempts.

I'm too stubborn and full of life to say "oh I'll just live this way." No, no I won't. I'm the sort of person that if I get depressed I fight it, which makes me anxious, disrupts my sleep, and makes me angry. I'm an emotional depressed person rather than a "flat effect" depressed person, and those people are apparently more likely to just give up and feel nothing.

So, now I take an anti-depressant and an anti-convulsant, pretty low doses, actually. It helps me tremendously, though I don't recommend medication as a band-aid fix-it-all for everyone and even if you need meds you also need lifestyle changes. I can't get over the people who think prozac will save their life even as they continue to sit around and do nothing, not exercising, eating badly, not sleeping properly...it's like fucking duh, the meds help but you also have to holistically care for your physical and mental health to be well.

I also DO NOT recommend taking benzos, like xanax and valium. I think it's just asking for trouble unless it's used as a rare, temporary thing for very particular situations.

 

[guesswho]

Why is this a "feeler" thread?

What's the difference between a "feeler" experiencing depression and a "thinker experiencing depression?

None.

 

[Thalassa]

Why is this a "feeler" thread?

What's the difference between a "feeler" experiencing depression and a "thinker experiencing depression?

None.

On one hand I agree, on the other hand I wonder if Feelers are medicated more than Thinkers, and I also have a theory that Thinkers who are depressed are more likely to experience "flat affect" depression than Feelers.

 

[guesswho]

I miss being depressed.

The numbness took the pain away.


haha this is going to turn into a group therapy thingy..