Do you take antidepressants/anxiety medication? (anonymous poll)

[deathwarmedup]

no

 

[meowington]

I took citalopram around my twenties and an antidepressant around 34 years old (took both about 1 year). They did absolutely nothing for me. I switched jobs and my life changed for the better.

 

[Ace_]

I took SSRIs for a month. Never again.

 

[biohazard]

[MENTION=31348]Peter Deadpan[/MENTION]
No, not anymore. I took them for 2 years and always had constant side effects. They didn't help, they only made matters worse for me. The depression and anxiety I had was because I had undiagnosed atypical Celiac Disease and hypothyroidism so Cymbalta did nothing.

The withdrawal I had from Cymbalta was the WORST tbh. I had constant brain zaps and blackouts, bad insomnia, mania moments, etc. I remember I walked to the movie theater like 20 minutes away and forgot how I got there during the withdrawal period. Then I would have bouts of mania where I would start yelling and screaming. And I couldn't even tell you why. I ended up with Hep-A, acute liver failure, and anemia cause of these drugs.

I'm so glad I'm through this period of my life. I will never put that man-made medication into my body ever again. Fuck that.

Anyway, my depression and anxiety went away once I started on the ketogenic diet. I also take a trace mineral called "Boron" that helps with my mood, greatly. I also take "iodine" which helps with my thyroid. Most of us are deficient in trace minerals because US farmers are not required to replenish the soil. So I take a multi vitamin supplement that has various trace minerals in it. It helps so much with depression and anxiety.

I also avoid: soy, grains, starches, sugar, fruits (fructose), corn, etc because they're proven to cause inflammation in the body which causes depression and anxiety. These starches inhibit beta-Hydroxybutyric acid to the brain which is essential for proper brain function.

 

[Stigmata]

Nope. I probably should, though.

 

[Raffaella]

Tried Sertraline, it did nothing for me. Got onto the stronger shit like Venlafaxine - and holy hellllllll. Fucking love that shit!



Venlafaxine has really affected my life positively, it's put a stop to the depression symptoms and improved the anxiety symptoms. I can actually wake up in the morning not feeling jittery about simple tasks like showering. I can function like a normal person, I'm not tired all the time. Bless this cute like chemical with the most awful withdrawal profile


ETA: I knew it was only a matter of time before people with no understanding of medicine entered it and stunk the thread up with their garbage

 

[á´…eparted]

Tried Sertraline, it did nothing for me. Got onto the stronger shit like Venlafaxine - and holy hellllllll. Fucking love that shit!

Venlafaxine has really affected my life positively, it's put a stop to the depression symptoms and improved the anxiety symptoms. I can actually wake up in the morning not feeling jittery about simple tasks like showering. I can function like a normal person, I'm not tired all the time. Bless this cute like chemical with the most awful withdrawal profile

Venlafaxine gets shit on the most because when it doesn't work, it's usually very unpleasent and requires a lot of time to go on, wait, and go off. It does suck. But, when it does work it is one of the most solid medications out there. I mean, the literature behind it is robust, it's popular for a reason. I don't agree with it being first line though. It take investment, so medications that require less investment should be tried first. People are at their worst when they comes for meds, usually, so we ought to try things with the lowest risk first.

ETA: I knew it was only a matter of time before people with no understanding of medicine entered it and stunk the thread up with their garbage

Yes. I have learned to just ignore it unless it gets super blatant and loud, or if I am directly poked.

 

[Raffaella]

Venlafaxine gets shit on the most because when it doesn't work, it's usually very unpleasent and requires a lot of time to go on, wait, and go off. It does suck. But, when it does work it is one of the most solid medications out there. I mean, the literature behind it is robust, it's popular for a reason. I don't agree with it being first line though. It take investment, so medications that require less investment should be tried first. People are at their worst when they comes for meds, usually, so we ought to try things with the lowest risk first.

Definitely agree with this, and thankfully it's not recommended first-line here (SSRIs are first-line). When I worked in a different environment, I was very diligent about explaining the full profile of all psychotropic medications to patients so they knew what to expect. And the majority of them had other medical conditions that made their anxiety and depression less responsive to SSRIs. I genuinely believe primary healthcare practitioners do not get enough training in this field in my country but I can't speak for other places.

Yes. I have learned to just ignore it unless it gets super blatant and loud, or if I am directly poked.

Yeah, gotta love that years and years of research is ignored since apparently a trace element (that conveniently rhymes with moron) can be used to treat depression!

 

[prplchknz]

ETA: I knew it was only a matter of time before people with no understanding of medicine entered it and stunk the thread up with their garbage

It bothers me because it may deter people who need/would really be helped by meds. but i don't have the background to refute i just know mine are lifesavers. and if i weren't on them i'd probably kill myself in a year and i also can't function.

 

[Kingu Kurimuzon]

I take marijuana for anxiety.

 

[Galena]

I tried one once and wouldn't want to put others off trying just because it didn't go well for me. It was a stronger one in hindsight, but still my reaction was, to quote the psychiatrist, uncommon. I purposely want to avoid describing it because it's too individualized to be relevant to the decisions of others, but also because what it meant to me is equally individual and just pretty vulnerable.

Maybe things would have gotten better if I'd tolerated it longer, and there were several side effects I was ready to tolerate, but then there was the one, where I discovered probably the strongest boundary I'm ever likely to have. Whatever the cost, something that did this was not okay to stay with me one day longer. It wasn't suicidality itself, just interference with a part of my mind/experience that coincidentally happens to be my reason to live and persist. For others, it may not have been that important a part, and they might have gone on just fine. For me, it just happens to be. My response wasn't actually even to become suicidal - I just recognized what this was and called a parent, called in a couple sick days, and then called the doc/pharmacists to say I need to stop and really want to see them tomorrow to be safe and to give them an update on how it was going. They were supportive.

Ironically and fortunately, the experience shook up my perspective on what it's like to live in my particular head, in a way that afterward, what motivated me to look into medication was no longer bothering me that way anymore and still isn't. Traumatic, sure, and I'm still working to modulate some of the stress responses that trailed after it, which is a pain, but I wouldn't undo it. So, I guess I'm someone who is not taking anything right now.

 

[Quick]

I'm on a lot of psych meds. In a recent neuropsychological assessment I recently took, they basically said "we don't expect people to have the level of anxiety that you do" and this is coming from people who evaluate a lot of people in terms of their neuropsychology, so it's a lot more than it seems. Naturally, I plan on taking some non actictive anxiety meds for this, which rules out benzo's. Currently on anti-depression meds which I have noticed a direct correlation between being depressed and not taking that particular med. If I don't take it for about a week, I end up feeling worse than most have ever felt unless someone very close to them dies. Basically, I've lived through 2 of my peers dying by suicide and my depression makes me feel worse than knowing that these people that I saw everyday died by suicide. Reason being is that when those things happened, you could say my depression masked my ability to be able to deal with those deaths.

 

[Lexicon]

I took a really low dose of Xanax when I first started trying to manage my PTSD. My mind would calm down when I tried to think rationally about the situation, but my body wouldn’t. This could kind of perpetuate a vicious cycle of paralyzing fear. The medication helped my body catch up with my mind, which in turn further helped to clear mind, and implement some of the cognitive exercises I’d learned in therapy to deal with acute triggers.

I didn’t feel groggy, drugged-up/impaired. I felt completely calm and just, myself, within 15 min of taking it. I was grateful for its effects but hated that I needed it at all. I’m prideful about handling my own baggage myself. It’s hard to admit that can’t always be possible.

It’s not something I need or take anymore, but in the short term, it was very helpful for me. I can’t speak for anyone else but myself. The human brain is complex, and everyone’s physiological/neurological needs/reactions are different.


I do think medication needs to be closely monitored & used in conjunction with some sort of cognitive therapy. Also, adopting healthy lifestyle changes (diet, exercise, sleep) can prove extremely beneficial, though they may not be curative by themselves for some folks, just as medication may not be curative/helpful on its own. I believe in a multidimensional approach.


Exercise has immense stress-reducing effects, but it’s not always doable, nor is it always going to help one person as much as the next. I’ll sing the praises of cardio all day long, but I won’t declare it can cure mental illness on its own. Every little bit helps, though. For instance, when my grandfather committed suicide last March, I was participating in a migraine study, at the time. A few days after it happened, I had a final follow up appointment at the clinic. The nurse asked about recent stressors, as she always did - and I mentioned what happened with my grandfather, in detail. She asked if I’d taken any anxiety medications when it happened. I didn’t, as it was against the study rules, and I told her this. She was surprised because my blood pressure/heart rate remained very steady/low after I’d talked about this acute trauma. She attributed it to the cardio I’d begun doing regularly over the past month or so.

Did cardio cure me of my stress or pain? No. Did I still have some acute stress responses at times/flashbacks of the scene? Yes. But the exercise made it easier to bear, I think. It gave me a little boost in endorphins that I very much needed.



Overall, I firmly believe a full workup should be done to screen for any contributing or exacerbating non-psychiatric medical conditions while assessing a mental health issue, just to err on the side of caution, and have as much of the full picture as possible. This should be done periodically, imo, to also monitor the effects of medications. Some doctors are incredibly thorough, and unfortunately, some people are garbage at their jobs or make mistakes. This is unavoidable to some extent. You have to be your own advocate.

 

[Metis]

To survive in a conformist society hostile to individuation it is necessary to be depressed. So most of us regularly take s powerful depressant called alcohol.

I've been studied by some of the greatest minds in medicine, yet no one can seem to provide any real explanation or any long-term relief for this -- I've been told that they want to try new experimental procedure called a "frontal lobe lobotomy" on me

 

[Betty Blue]

I have been there on meds but I honestly found they made things worse. I'm not a great advocate of meds but understand there are times when they are necessary if no alternative support plan/treatement is available or works. Now for me it's natural medicines through a herbalist, plus some self development and vitamins etc.

 

[magpie]

 

[biohazard]

I have been there on meds but I honestly found they made things worse. I'm not a great advocate of meds but understand there are times when they are necessary if no alternative support plan/treatement is available or works. Now for me it's natural medicines through a herbalist, plus some self development and vitamins etc.

Yeah, I second this.

I went through a family naturopath myself for some natural cures. The conventional way just didn't do it for me. The Cymbalta I took damaged about 10% of my liver with the bad Hep-A I got. Plus, I've had difficulty processing a lot of stuff since. I also have a compromised small intestine from Celiac. So the naturopath has helped me a lot in formulating an individualized supplementation program for me. It's definitely a great alternative option if people are open to it and can afford it!

Health is Wealth! 🙌🏼

 

[Hitoshi-San]

I take 30mg of Prozac every night for anxiety and have been for a little over a year. it doesn't fix everything, but it's fine b/c at least I'm not having panic attacks constantly anymore and I'm not just fucking destroying my cuticles from picking at them so much. it did take a few months for it to start kicking in, though, which sort of sucked.

as for whether I recommend going on meds or not, it all depends entirely on the person and what will end up working the best for them individually. for some people it works like a charm, for others it doesn't/makes things worse. the whole mentality that pisses me off is the one where people insist that doing it one way or the other is the entirely right/wrong way to do it though/turning their nose up at anyone who meds/meditation/etc. hasn't worked for

 

[biohazard]

Yeah, gotta love that years and years of research is ignored since apparently a trace element (that conveniently rhymes with moron) can be used to treat depression!

I would really appreciate it if you would refrain from calling me names like "moron" because you have a different experience than me.

That's okay if you don't want to take boron. I am not pressuring anybody to and have only stated what has worked for me while providing an informative video on Boron. It is *Your Body and Your Choice*. I was just hoping that I would be met with more dignity and respect than being called an antagonizing name. And I don't understand why, since I have never engaged with you before this.

As I said, I also did a major diet change in conjunction with boron which helped greatly with my depression. I no longer feel depressed, I have copious amounts of energy that is steady throughout the day, and I have a TON of mental clarity. I'm now in great health.

Now, onto Boron:

Boron *has* had years of research in the medical and chemistry fields already. This mineral isn't any different than a human needing: zinc, iron, potassium, sodium, manganese, calcium, magnesium, molybdenum, iodine, etc. The more that scientists explore the U.S. soil, the more they find more trace minerals, like boron, that are helpful to our diet in minuscule amounts. Scientists are currently investigating Boron further to establish its Recommended Dietary Allowance and to better understand its complex physiological properties in human reproduction and development.

"In one laboratory, several dietary boron deprivation studies in both rats and humans have consistently found an effect of boron intake on brain electrophysiology and, in humans, on performance of tasks measuring eye-hand coordination, attention, and short-term memory."

I would love for scientists to explore this neural phenomenon further and gain even more data on it. Furthermore, there is a "Tolerable Upper Intake Level" established for adults at 20mg/day.

SOURCE: 13 Arsenic, Boron, Nickel, Silicon, and Vanadium | Dietary Reference Intakes for Vitamin A, Vitamin K, Arsenic, Boron, Chromium, Copper, Iodine, Iron, Manganese, Molybdenum, Nickel, Silicon, Vanadium, and Zinc | The National Academies Press

Lastly, There have been wonderful medical developments of Boron supplementation in the medicine field.:

1. Did you know that Boron Neutron Capture therapy is used to treat brain tumors and cancers?? There are a number of potential boronated pharmaceuticals using boron-10, that are used in BNCT.:

"BNCT has been evaluated clinically as an alternative to conventional radiation therapy for the treatment of malignant brain tumors and recurrent locally advanced head and neck cancer. e. A beam of epithermal neutrons penetrates the brain tissue to a depth reaching the tumor. Once there, the epithermal neutrons slow down and these low-energy thermal neutrons are captured by the boron-10 (delivered beforehand to the cancer cells by drugs or antibodies) to form boron-11, releasing lethal radiation (alpha particles) that can kill the tumor."

SOURCE: Neutron capture therapy of cancer - Wikipedia

2. Did you know that boron supplements are given to cancer patients who have gone through chemo?? And that Boron supplements help lessen the side effects of chemo for cancer patients?? One of those chemo side effects, unfortunately being depression. It also helps decrease the risk of some cancers. I'm not sure if you are aware but apoptosis is the process that kills cancer cells and as stated below, Boron helps initiate this process.:

Mechanisms involving B activity on cancer cells are based on the inhibition of a variety of enzymatic activities, including serine proteases, NAD-dehydrogenases, mRNA splicing and cell division, but also receptor binding mimicry, and the induction of apoptosis. Boron-enriched diets resulted in significant decrease in the risk for prostate and cervical cancer, and decrease in lung cancer in smoking women. Boron-based compounds show promising effects for the chemotherapy of specific forms of cancer, but due to specific benefits should also be included in cancer chemopreventive strategies."

SOURCE: Boron-containing compounds as preventive and chemotherapeutic agents for cancer. - PubMed - NCBI

3. Did you know that Boron helps decrease depression? Boron also helps to increase the uptake of Vitamin D, in which Vitamin D deficiency, is related to depression.

"Boron has been proven to be an important trace mineral because it (1) is essential for the growth and maintenance of bone; (2) greatly improves wound healing; (3) beneficially impacts the body’s use of estrogen, testosterone, and vitamin D; (4) boosts magnesium absorption."

Also:

"CRP levels are typically higher in patients with OA compared with normal controls, and CRP levels with reference values above 0.5 mg/dL in OA patients are associated with disease progression.66,67 As noted earlier, in addition to OA and CVD, higher levels of CRP are also associated with NAFLD, MetS, type 2 diabetes, obesity, depression, kidney disease, and osteoporosis. Boron, in combination with plant-sourced calcium, as calcium fructoborate, has been shown to significantly reduce blood levels of CRP in humans."

So as you can see, Boron helps decrease these C-Reactive Proteins that have links with depression and other illnesses listed above.

SOURCE: Nothing Boring About Boron

So I hope you read the links above and learn more about this amazing, powerful mineral. I wish you nothing but the best in your mental health journey. 😀

 

[meowington]

I smoke 0.3 gr marihuana each day at the end of the day + vitamin supplements in winter time (especially vit D) + I have a normal job now instead of 3 jobs in 1 + jogging 5 miles once a week. Feeling really good.