Medication: Good Or Bad ?

[SmartFixer_OceanJjb]

@Kelley White  "Currently recruiting participants" <-- !!!!!    

"experiencing an episode of major depression of at least 4 weeks duration and have not responded to two treatment trials may be eligible for this study." <--  Although my depression's kinda chronic, unfortunately (?) I responded to zoloft this time.  My mood don't bottom out like before.  I can do yoga, prep meals, assemble shelves, etc., so I'm not that depressed now.  

I hope the trials go well and  . . Please FDA . . make ketamine happen in the USA.  Also I want ketamin to be pill-form, not IV.  My blood vessels are too narrow for blood withdrawal/infusion so my inner elbows get bruised each times I get poked and MAN IT HURTS!!  

I wish you luck!     Thanks for the info again! 

 

[Kelley White]

@OceanJjb you are very welcome for the information.   I'm not sure what science will have next, but there are new technologies developing every day!    Science is not THE answer, but it can be a great tool for solutions.

[Jan Odvarko]

On 8 February 2016 at 11:29 PM, Simon Zackrisson said:

Mindfulness and meditation are powerful resources in assisting with negative emotions I can tell you.

Yes, I fully agree with you!

I've been on Citalopram (Celexa) and Lexapro for 7 years and without mindfulness meditation I would have never been able to taper off them and overcome the horrible withdrawal effects. The more unpleasant the withdrawal-induced anxiety got, the more I meditated.

SSRI's helped me a great deal, that's for sure, but I would personally never take them again, as they've eventually pooped out on me and I was forced to face my fears and anxiety in their full terror with a more sustainable and holistic approach.

That being said, I think SSRI's and benzos can be very helpful to overcome very difficult life situations when one is feeling absolutely helpless and can't see any other option. But it should be always remembered that medications don't provide a permanent solution. It's a terrible trap to think they do, and pharmaceutical companies seem to happily feed into this misconception. What should also be remembered is that for many individuals the withdrawal symptoms can get very, very unpleasant and may take months to years to go away. Lastly, it's important to mention that the SSRI poop out syndrome (e.g. when body builds a tolerance to the drug) is a pretty common phenomenon which leaves us, as far as I know, with only two options - either to increase the dosage or try a different medication. Neither of these options, however, is guaranteed to work in the long term.

If we decide to take antidepressants, the next thing to do once they begin to work is to start addressing the underlying issues that led to the depression/anxiety in the first place, instead of getting too comfortable in the new situation and taking it for granted. It is so easy to fall into the trap of getting used to new life and believing that antidepressants have solved the problem for good. Because after all, we just want to be happy and leave the old sh*t behind, right? That's not the way it works though, I'm afraid (-:

For me, taking SSRI's was like taking a loan for a good mood, but with very unpleasant repayments in form of withdrawal hell. And without realising I was actually living off a loan. I'm convinced that in order to cure chronic depression or anxiety permanently, every individual must eventually find a method to treat its underlying cause, which may be a long term process that cannot be replaced with any quick-fix cure.

I believe for many people the mindfulness meditation is a way to go. It can happen, however, that the discomfort will get initially worse, but only for some time. See the following Shinzen Young's video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oTcGmoaLyv0

Edited February 18, 2016 by Jan Odvarko

[jimboJones]

I was on pristiq for a year and a half, it worked extremely well after I became depressed very suddenly. Funny thing though, I'm petrified of what the drugs may have done to my brain, I know that all they did was make me permanently feel better but now I'm very anxious "what if they messed up my emotions, what if they changed me in a way that I can't get back to etc" and wish I'd just gone full on psychotherapy. CBT made things better but my fear of what pristiq may have done worse. I am a big fan of Acceptance and Commitment therapy though, very strong ties with Buddhism - mindfulness, acceptance and gratitude. I'm basically trying to use ego-death as a way to see if there is anything wrong with me and if I even care about it. I.e if there is no 'me' to have brain damage (which is a thought) then none of my anxieties really matter.

[Cookiesliyr]

@frog_eaterhello there? how's it going? are those medical pills? i am not a doctor you know, and neither claimed to be one, so this is just an opinion, i believe you shouldn't take things like those from the market shelf's without supervising from experts, not friends, not other patience, not even patience who have same medical issues of yours, age gender and time, don't take his advice on those things and how much you take them.

secondly, i would like to point that medication isn't the cure in this case, they are pain relieve and stress relievers, and taking those without curing the source of the problem that cause depression, which might be caused by bipolar, over stress, grief or other reasons, you should check and expert to get diagnosis and follow their advice and trust them. hopefully you won't get helped by a fraud, yes it is quite sad, but there are some fraud cases in USA for shrinks who doesn't know what they are doing, try to check the background of this expert personal, we are living in strange time.

the last thing i would like to suggest is to ask for help from people who you truly trust, and when you are depressed already your judgement is quite negative, you need some courage and determination of getting better to start this journey.

[GeorgeLawson]

I've been on anti-depressents for over a year now and have forgotten what it was like not to be on them as they have had a very positive effect on my psychology (in other words, I finally feel normal again).

My current understanding is that my depression is genetically caused (my Mum's side of the family has low serotonin levels) and my fluoxitine tablets restore my serotonin imbalance. It has also been environmentally influenced of course by teenage anxiety and lack of self-esteem which I've been working on ever since. 

However, I would like to stop taking them one day (against the advice of my Mum) and rely on more therapeutic practices like mindfulness and meditation to keep me more stable, yet am very concerned about how easy this process is going to be. 

Any advice on this would be much appreciated. 

 

[Vlad Ropotica]

I took antidepressants for good months and i felt nothing but at the same time i was going to psichologist .Since then i started to see some true changes,but i remember that my biggest shifts were when i started to watch Actualized.org,especially i started to feel changes by doing meditations .

If you want to live a peaceful life you need to realise that emotions are not some evil things,they just exist,you need to accept them,mental illnes comes from trying to avoid emotions