It's time I say something about this

[Senip]

Re: It's time I say something about this

I always found it odd people say that antidepressants made them turn into low emotion characters. When I was on them (4 years), I was always able to experience great emotional highs and significantly less emotional lows. I was also on some medium-heavy doses as well (40mg Prozac, 60mg Remeron, not at the same time though). Then again, I actually was clinically depressed. I honestly believe you can "cure" depression, but it takes years of rebuilding yourself, brick by brick.

Not sure why that's surprising, most of the people who make antidepressants don't actually know what effect they have on the brain, they just notice that some people feel better so they're like "this will work for everyone!"

[top]

Re: It's time I say something about this

that's something that frustrates me...how some people always assume that a drug (street or pharmaceutical) will have the same exact effect on everybody

[iironiic]

Re: It's time I say something about this

Things that have helped me fight through depression: (I am actually still suffering through it ever since my father passed away and pretty much everything else that snowballed from there)

Do things that will sincerely make you happy (hobbies, interests, etc.)
Take good care of yourself (i.e. eat healthy, sleep well, exercise)
Connect with the people who loves and appreciates you (close friends, family, even yourself)
Try and make light of the situations causing you to be depressed. Note: this is not always possible, but having an optimistic viewpoint certainly helps.
Always give. I can't stress this enough.

I would highly discourage seeing a therapist or being on medications. I believe you will get most out of your depression by fixing it yourself since you are the one who knows best about yourself. If you disagree with this, it's important to figure out what makes you, you. Take this opportunity to try new things and see what makes you happy.

I wish you and everyone else in a similar situation, the best of luck. Keep your head up as things will inevitably be fine.

[Cavernio]

Re: It's time I say something about this

I always found it odd people say that antidepressants made them turn into low emotion characters. When I was on them (4 years), I was always able to experience great emotional highs and significantly less emotional lows. I was also on some medium-heavy doses as well (40mg Prozac, 60mg Remeron, not at the same time though). Then again, I actually was clinically depressed. I honestly believe you can "cure" depression, but it takes years of rebuilding yourself, brick by brick.

Yeah, depression is very poorly defined. It's high time they subdivided groups of people who do well on anti-depressants, like you, from people like senip for whom they clearly made him worse, at least in terms of medication etc. I think that fairly recent neuroimaging seems to be showing 2 drastically different forms of depression from that perspective, yet both have the same symptoms.
My experience seemed to be somewhere in between in that it didn't fix my emotions, but I could function a lot better on 1 of them. The other one I tried made me worse emotionally; made me break down more, made hopelessness more pronounced.

[Senip]

Re: It's time I say something about this

^ I actually agree with you on that, Cav. It's a real fucking problem when one of the "side effects" of an anti-depressant is suicidal thoughts.

To all of you bashing on therapists: A lot of fixing your depression is basically rewriting your brain so that you stop going "I AM THE WORST" whenever something wrong happens, and instead changing it to "Okay, I made a mistake, but I'm still a good person" etc. A therapist who is worth the money will be able to help you with that by drawing you out and coaxing you through issues you have. I have a LOT of issues that I refused to face until they basically talked me through a lot of it, and I still bounce things off of people's heads to make sure that I'm not a terrible person. Therapy isn't bad, bad therapists are.

[Snowcrafta]

Re: It's time I say something about this

Yeah, depression is very poorly defined. It's high time they subdivided groups of people who do well on anti-depressants, like you, from people like senip for whom they clearly made him worse, at least in terms of medication etc. I think that fairly recent neuroimaging seems to be showing 2 drastically different forms of depression from that perspective, yet both have the same symptoms.
My experience seemed to be somewhere in between in that it didn't fix my emotions, but I could function a lot better on 1 of them. The other one I tried made me worse emotionally; made me break down more, made hopelessness more pronounced.

More or less you just need to find the right antidepressant and the right dose. I went from 10 to 20 to 40mg for Prozac, I tried Wellbutrin for a few months (mostly to quit smoking cigarettes) but that made me clench my jaw really bad so I stopped. Remeron was 30-45-60 before I got that one balanced out, but the only problem with Remeron is that it had the same dystonia sensation that I get from diphenhydramine and I would get twitchy if I tried to sleep.

Eventually I just took up exercise and outdoor activities over pills and found my own way out.

[Choofers]

Re: It's time I say something about this

Yeah, writing off therapists because of a few bad eggs is not the way to go. I've had some amazing therapists in my life (particularly one in high school and one while I was getting out of the military), but I've also had bad ones (a lady told my mother I was lactose intolerant and milk products made me portray ADHD-like symptoms lmao).

I'm sure there are some really good therepists in Chicago, you should do some research.

[A2P]

Re: It's time I say something about this

update: i took snowc and senip's advice about working out, and so far that's been lifting my mood up tremendously (no pun intended)

[Senip]

Re: It's time I say something about this

More or less you just need to find the right antidepressant and the right dose. I went from 10 to 20 to 40mg for Prozac, I tried Wellbutrin for a few months (mostly to quit smoking cigarettes) but that made me clench my jaw really bad so I stopped. Remeron was 30-45-60 before I got that one balanced out, but the only problem with Remeron is that it had the same dystonia sensation that I get from diphenhydramine and I would get twitchy if I tried to sleep.

Eventually I just took up exercise and outdoor activities over pills and found my own way out.

Yup. I tried pretty much all of them, at varying doses, and the most that happened was that I became very passive.

[Calcium Deposit]

Re: It's time I say something about this

every time I feel depressed enough to kill myself I remember that I'm too broke to buy a gun and most every other way of killing myself seems too gruesome/painful so I usually just pussy out and look at the positive things in life.

I also bought a hamster

[Zeldagurlfan1]

Re: It's time I say something about this

For the past 3 years, I've been depressed as hell. I always beat myself up over the most trivial things, and I've kind of used drugs to escape from this. I'm tired of it.

Does anyone here have advice? I know this is FFR and not exactly a forum full of expert therapists, but anything would help at this point.

No one knows this but i have a ton of problems: but that doesnt mean im troubled. point is i know the processes to getting help. and with drugs... not that you have a drug problem but if your using weed to escape - let me tell you it makes things worse. all drugs are depressants so youre only hurting yourself more - not to mention causing yourself the stress and potential to develop serious mental illnesses like schitzo and bi-polar disorder.

Go to your hospetal, ask for a mental crisis worker. You need to speak with one. Talk to them, tell them your problems, theyll listen and will refer you to specialists and/or programs within and outside of the hospital. Usually the hospital programs and crisis therapists/psychologists are ether cheaper or free. You should be referred to a psychologist who can deal with what you go through. get an assessment done to see if you have a diagnosis. Once you get your diagnosis if you have one, the psychologist should ether do one or all of 3 things: continue seeing you and helping you with your issue, refer you to a program that helps you go through life with your depression and helps recovery (social workers, therapy groups, or a therapist), and/or refer you to a psychiatrist who can give you medication IF NEEDED. whatever the outcome is, always always always accept it. because its you. and its not depressing. ive been diagnosed. but ive gotten better because its who i am and if i learn to deal with it and work with it, i can learn to work with other people and be happier moving on through my life.

I just read this reply to my mom and shes really proud of me because shes seeing how far Ive come and now in showing how to help others. Im not depressed anymore but i do have those everyday problems that im learning to deal with. Its a learning and teaching process. I feel good and maybe youll feel this good too. Theres always hope. Ive stopped using drugs, im not the big fucking stoner chick i was for the past three years (but its still fun once in a while lol) but however its not my path to deal with things and theres a lot of good things that can come out of it. I promise. ****Just be sure to accept it and always keep trying. you WILL go far with this advice.

Love and support from FFR is always here as you can see. Im glad i read this thread and became a part pof it. It helps me too. So thank you xox

[Pseudo Enigma]

Re: It's time I say something about this

My experience seemed to be somewhere in between in that it didn't fix my emotions, but I could function a lot better on 1 of them. The other one I tried made me worse emotionally; made me break down more, made hopelessness more pronounced.

I went on some "happy pills" my therapist gave me, (he was a fucking dick, actually) and I became apathetic from my mom's point of view. I actually did not give much of a fuck about anything, which kind of helped in a sense since it didn't really help that I got picked on a lot for my hair-trigger anger.

anyway, good to hear it A2P. Anything is better than feeling like there's no where left to turn.

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