Do antidepressants permanently damage/ruin your brain?

[lmfao]

I'm almost 20, been on antidepressants for over 2 years now. I'm worried these drugs will have permanently changed my brain. Any experiences with this?

The psyche is always in such flux throughout ones' life. So then you can't really logically deduce causality for certain changes. 

[IJB063]

@lmfao

Only take antidepressants if you desperately need them

I was diagnosed 20mg of Prozac when I was 16 and they uped that to 40mg when I was 17

I took them for about 2 years before I just quit, my gp didn’t even bother telling me to take one 20mg in the morning and one at night so for a year I was just in the morning doses myself with both (don’t know if that could of fucked my head up because I’m ignorant on SSRIs)

I don’t know if they permanently change the brain, I need to look into it, I can tell you I don’t feel the same as I did when I was 15 but that’s gotta be fucking normal right?

It can’t be good to take artificial drugs to feel “normal”, I know that, they don’t even really know how SSRIs work and I would never trust the pharmaceutical  industry,especially with your own sanity and brain chemical soup

Its worth the gamble taking SSRIs if otherwise you’d off yourself, otherwise I’d advise not taking them, take a gamble man, life’s a gamble go sober, I know I’m not taking any pills again unless I completely lose my nut

 

[lmfao]

@IJB063 Yeah that's why I'm weening off them right now. Emotional blunting is my main negative effect. 

[IJB063]

@lmfao Yep same thing I had, makes you a psycho man 

I could of probably seen a car accident with mangled bodies and not felt a flicker of emotion 

Edited May 25, 2020 by IJB063

[JessiChell]

Please look into bioidentical hormones. Taking testosterone to treat depression. 

9 times out of 10 if you have extreme suicidal depression, it's from low testosterone. 

This is the field I work in. If you want more info you can dm me. 

[Espaim]

I used to take Lexapro for anxiety. I took it for 8 months before realizing what I was getting into. Exercising was so fucking hard on it and I didn't enjoy doing anything. I think that maybe I got even more depressed than before trying them. I only thought about suicide while on antidepressants(lol).  After all that, I discovered that the source of my anxiety was caffeine and I just cut it for good. My psychiatrist said I could just drink coffee and that there was no problem 

After I stopped taking it I had like zero motivation or sex drive for one year or so. If I could, I wouldn't even take the first pill. No regrets though. If I haven't done that I wouldn't find psychedelics.

I only started recovering properly almost 2 years later. I juggled with some nootropics here and there but with low success.

Currently I started microdosing LSD to see where it takes me.

Edited May 25, 2020 by Espaim

[lmfao]

7 hours ago, IJB063 said:

 

I could of probably seen a car accident with mangled bodies and not felt a flicker of emotion 

@IJB063 hahahahahah

6 hours ago, JessiChell said:

Please look into bioidentical hormones. Taking testosterone to treat depression. 

9 times out of 10 if you have extreme suicidal depression, it's from low testosterone. 

This is the field I work in. If you want more info you can dm me. 

@JessiChell I'll think about raising may testosterone, never a bad idea. Although I really wouldn't want to take something artificial, and would rather do it all naturally

2 hours ago, Espaim said:

I used to take Lexapro for anxiety. I took it for 8 months before realizing what I was getting into. Exercising was so fucking hard on it and I didn't enjoy doing anything. I think that maybe I got even more depressed than before trying them. I only thought about suicide while on antidepressants(lol).  After all that, I discovered that the source of my anxiety was caffeine and I just cut it for good. My psychiatrist said I could just drink coffee and that there was no problem 

After I stopped taking it I had like zero motivation or sex drive for one year or so. If I could, I wouldn't even take the first pill. No regrets though. If I haven't done that I wouldn't find psychedelics.

I only started recovering properly almost 2 years later. I juggled with some nootropics here and there but with low success.

Currently I started microdosing LSD to see where it takes me.

@Espaim Yeah I've have suicidal thoughts directly from taking antidepressants as well. I'm glad someone replied to this thread with their progress. That you're trying different things to recover from it all now 2 years after

About the sex drive thing, I've been having that as well. It's probably gone from very high to now very mild. I don't think it's completely the anti depressants though. I think my ideals/fantasies about sex have changed a bit. For example, the prospect of having a girlfriend or ever having kids in the future has lost its appeal to me, perhaps maybe due to seeing dysfunctional relationships with my parents growing up. Or in seeing my asian sister getting stressed looking for someone to marry. 

Edited May 25, 2020 by lmfao

[Espaim]

@lmfao About the sex drive part: I noticed that I had a lot of repressed shit about relationships, rejection and love. Working on that first made my sex drive go wild. As I kept going, it got somewhat balanced and now I have a healthy relation to my urges. I was planning to go out find a girl before quarantine but my plans went bad .

If you stop completely, I would recommend finding a healthier alternative because you may get very low after using an antidepressive for 2 years. 8 months was enough to fuck me up for a good period.

I started meditation while I was on Lexapro and it was the best habit overall that helped me get off it. If you don't already, I would recommend you start. That's a very useful tool. When I started I couldn't do 5 minutes. Now currently doing 30 minutes a day on average. I went to 1h for some time but I found that to be too much for my lazy ass.

Anyway, don't take anything I say too literally. You are a different person and may get more benefits doing another practices.

I went through that hell and I know how it's to be there. I wish you the best 

[lmfao]

@Espaim Yes thank you for the encouragement sage. I've been getting too lazy with kriya yoga. It's like, you can experience how good it is for you but then you don't get around to doing it. 

 

Edited May 25, 2020 by lmfao

[Lyubov]

Each one is different and the effects they will have will be different per person. I've had mostly good experiences with them. They diminished my sex drive some and made me not able to cry as easily. On the flip side they supported me greatly from delving into some very low and frightening places emotionally. I think they could be overprescribed a bit. I honestly am not really sure. 

[JessiChell]

@lmfao So you would need to get your hormone labs checked along with your thyroid levels. (This is not medical advice, I'm just letting you know there are safe alternatives to anti-depressants out there but you would need to see a MD certified in Bio-identical hormones) 

Bio-identical hormones are natural to the body and much safer than anti-depressants. When we experience fatigue, depression, or low sex drive, those are all signs of low testosterone levels or thyroid issues. A lot of people have this issue because our diets are heavy in estrogen levels (milk, cheese, animal products etc) It's not like going on roids or anything your regular doctor would recommend. They act as replacements and don't force your body to "make more" they simply supplement. 

I work in a private sector of healthcare and I'm telling you the meds regular doctors will put you on will mess up your brain and the way it functions. 

I would look into functional medicine. If you look into functional medicine make sure they're MD and hopefully won't charge too much. 

Hope this helps <3

[Rilles]

i would be wary of what i put into my body, especially medicines, Big Pharma doesnt care about you, youre a dollar sign to them, try to see if you can treat your depression with therapy or other natural modalities ??

youre a human being who deservers happiness, youre not gonna wanna be hooked on pills for the rest of your life so might as well ditch them asap❤️

Edited May 26, 2020 by Rilles

[Lana Faye]

On 25.05.2020 at 2:21 PM, lmfao said:

@IJB063 Yeah that's why I'm weening off them right now. Emotional blunting is my main negative effect. 

Hey there! How do you feel now? I’m off antidepressants for three days, emotional blunting has gone but I still feel weird…like  my consciousness is not the same. 

[Sid X]

They will surely have permanent effect on your consciousness if you take them long enough. Antidepressants are substance that are way stronger than caffeine and alcohol.

[flowboy]

On 25/05/2020 at 10:01 PM, lmfao said:

perhaps maybe due to seeing dysfunctional relationships with my parents growing up.

This is why you had depression.

Not because you have something inherently wrong with your brain chemistry.

Or hormones.

It's almost criminal that people get put on these pills and told a story that they are defective in some way.

Anyways, if you find a therapist who can work with childhood trauma and can do regression therapy, you'll be good.

You can even heal yourself.

This is the domain I work in, you can ask me questions about it via pm also.

[Shawn Philips]

I took antidepressants during 5 yers and I got a small tumor in the pituitary gland that messes up my hormonal balance.

Obviously if I could go back in time Id never take them. But back then we had zero resources about self-help in internet.