Antidepressants

[Pink Gregory]

Very slowly planning to come off the Citalopram; cutting up my 40mgs into 20mgs and plan to do the same when I get my next prescription, been on them for at least 3 years.  Went on Fluoxetine when I was 18-19, got switched to Venlafaxine for...reasons?  Eventually got onto a very heavy dose of Venlafaxine combined with Mirtazipine for...reasons.  I think I just went cold turkey one day and that was that.  Not ideal but I was young and foolish.

When i went back on them I did get offered a few CBT sessions but I couldn't make the only available appointments because of me job; had them over the phone which wasn't ideal.  Helped me realise that I just fucking despaired at the job I had at the time (had to go on beta-blockers for a bit even to go in, then my legs collapsed), but other than that I haven't had a consistent GP since so I've not really been getting that much support outside of the medication.

It's nice feeling levelled out but there is an element of just not being able to feel anything, prodigous weight gain, being so god damn TIRED all the time that makes it less and less worth it.

[derek stitt]

Beta blockers can be good for reducing anxiety.

[Nowhere Man]

Cock and Ball Torture?

Cookd and Bombd Torture

[Mr Banlon]

Beta blockers can make you gain weight.

[chocolate teapot]

beta blockers (propranalol) is what I was put on when I said my anxiety can get too much, sometimes I felt fobbed off cos I'd ask for Diazepam but they're not allowed to give out that often so got the boring stuff instead. GP's chucking Diazepam at me like it's sweeties now though. 

I haven't tried an antidepressant that doesn't make you gain weight, APART FROM Clomipramine. I miss it's sweet sweet love.

Regarding Zetetic's informative post, thank you for that, about escitalopram I'm not on it atm not sure if I will give it a go but my nurse is looking into it along with an antipsychotic, not sure if I need that either but probably need something that is like Diazepam but not as addictive. I've tried Prozac, Sertraline, Clomipramine, Venlafaxine and Duloxetine.

Sertraline I was on the longest and was the most stable then it just stopped working. I think I need those ADHD drugs to be honest.

[Pink Gregory]

Beta blockers can be good for reducing anxiety.

leftover ones really, really helped when our cat was in and out of the vet

[derek stitt]

beta blockers (propranalol) is what I was put on when I said my anxiety can get too much, sometimes I felt fobbed off cos I'd ask for Diazepam but they're not allowed to give out that often so got the boring stuff instead. GP's chucking Diazepam at me like it's sweeties now though. 

I haven't tried an antidepressant that doesn't make you gain weight, APART FROM Clomipramine. I miss it's sweet sweet love.

Regarding Zetetic's informative post, thank you for that, about escitalopram I'm not on it atm not sure if I will give it a go but my nurse is looking into it along with an antipsychotic, not sure if I need that either but probably need something that is like Diazepam but not as addictive. I've tried Prozac, Sertraline, Clomipramine, Venlafaxine and Duloxetine.

Sertraline I was on the longest and was the most stable then it just stopped working. I think I need those ADHD drugs to be honest.

Please watch the weight gain if you get put on an antipsychotic. I put on three stone in two months on them fuckers. Diazepam is the only drug that really works. Would still be on them now but for accursed Doctors and their morals.

[Bartholomew J Krishna]

From personal experience (Flouxetine, Fluvoxamine, Citalopram, Venlafaxine, Sertraline over 26 years) Sertraline has caused me the least grief. It feels a lot 'cleaner' than the others, less fuzzy-headedness. I've been on it for about eight years, with only one dosage increase. (Didn't gain weight, still appropriately horny). Mindfulness and Beta-blockers really helped reduce my anxiety.
The NHS is fucked. Best of luck.

[chveik]

i take paroxetine but i've also been on the old mood stabilizers for the last two years and its the good shit

[Glebe]

i take paroxetine but i've also been on the old mood stabilizers for the last two years and its the good shit

Was on paroxetine (under the brand name Seroxat) for years myself, been on Faverin (fluvoxamine) for a good long time now. Helps with me OCD a bit too.

[TrenterPercenter]

SSRIs are trending on twitter because of this article in the Guardian

Little evidence that chemical imbalance causes depression, UCL scientists find

First off no one should stop taking their SSRIs they are prescribed medicines with a lead in and out of their effectiveness any altercation of medication should be done under the guidance of medical professional.

It is really quite interesting how this has been taken on Twitter.  I was ready to pounce when I read again that the Guardian might have been badly reporting studies (up there with the DM a lot of the time) but when I looked the headline does indeed just report on the finding and does not say SSRIs do not work.  Still on Twitter loads of people piling in saying they have said that, that them and the scientists in the study are persuading people to stop taking SSRIs and other saying "Well actually I don't really care what causes my depression".

Hmmmm this troubles me.  It's not a rational dialogue, we have indeed known for a longtime that we are not clear on what SSRIs do and that the stated causal reason for them working i.e. serotonin/chemical imbalances isn't proved, now larger evidence is just hammering down that idea. 

I have to say I've found CaB to be very pro and defensive on SSRIs.  They of course do something, they are psychoactive substances, all psychoactive drug does this, that is what they do innit.  Ketamine does things to your brain but their is something iffy about saying it is correcting your chemical imbalance when the evidence points the other way.  Indeed there is more evidence that SSRIs reduce serotonin levels over the long-term and have no long-term efficacy (i.e. between 12-24 months the don't seem to improve people).  This isn't reason to stop taking them, even as a placebo this is still an effect and of course just because the serotonin hypothesis is not true they might be doing something else therapeutic.  It is just weird how these drugs are defended against scientific evidence and whilst talking therapies are apparently robbing people of material gain and papering over societal cracks medicating people with drugs isn't - a bizarre notion I still can't get my head around.  Being parked on SSRIs at the least means a dependency on that treatment usually for life, a drug that whilst mostly safe, we don't really know what it is doing.

One of the things that is being overlooked however with SSRIs is their anxiolytic properties (they make you feel less anxious) which speaks to our poor understanding of the relationship between depression and anxiety (NEWSFLASH massively linked).  I know lots of people that take ADs and virtually all say rather than making them happier they just allow them to function which is of course important.  There does appear to be a really unhealthy conversation growing around these drugs, go back 20 years and SSRIs were very popular yet were understood to be over prescribed and under-researched now it feels like there is an emotional argument going on about shame and stigma around them - I mean who cares what you want to stick in your brain, not me, but that doesn't mean we should start denying science and allow 85% of the population to believe in something that isn't true surely.

[bgmnts]

SSRIs are trending on twitter because of this article in the Guardian

Little evidence that chemical imbalance causes depression, UCL scientists find

First off no one should stop taking their SSRIs they are prescribed medicines with a lead in and out of their effectiveness any altercation of medication should be done under the guidance of medical professional.

To be fair though they are prescribed like skittles. So I think people shouldn't be too scared about weaning off them. Don't overwhelmingly put your faith in the gp when it comes to this.

[TrenterPercenter]

To be fair though they are prescribed like skittles. So I think people shouldn't be too scared about weaning off them. Don't overwhelmingly put your faith in the gp when it comes to this.

They are, they are literally the poster boy for take these and stop moaning yet they get an incredibly soft ride from a lot of people.  Regardless of their effectiveness it's still a valid argument that SSRIs are used to cover up failings of state but no-one ever makes it.  It's bizarre and perhaps further evidence of the Americanisation of UK healthcare.

[Shaxberd]

There's an emotive aspect to this, I think.

SSRIs work for a lot of people. Not everyone, but many people. It's annoying then that there's so much casual dismissal. Oh, you're taking the easy way out. It's unnatural. The drugs make you a zombie. Have you tried running/cutting out alcohol/sticking a carrot up your bum?

For people they work for, they're life changing. First time I took them I was amazed because I hadn't been expecting much but suddenly I could have emotions other than being tired, grumpy and worried. Not happy all the time, but thinking clearly.

It's not a permanent solution to a world that makes people sick in the first place, but I'm not surprised that people are defensive of a thing that makes them feel better. It's not like the world is going to get less depressing any time soon.

[bgmnts]

They are, they are literally the poster boy for take these and stop moaning yet they get an incredibly soft ride from a lot of people.  Regardless of their effectiveness it's still a valid argument that SSRIs are used to cover up failings of state but no-one ever makes it.  It's bizarre and perhaps further evidence of the Americanisation of UK healthcare.

Why are they? Why SSRIs and not some other medication?