What do anti-depressants feel like??

[z_silversurfer_]

Currently I am going through a rough time in my life and was thinking about medicating myself for a while. My question is what do anti-depressants make you feel like?? Are you basically just happier or do you just walk around in a daze and feel no emotions at all. also are they addictive? And I've heard that they give you energy, true??. Basically I would just like some any info. Thanks

[RepubCarrier]

Currently I am going through a rough time in my life and was thinking about medicating myself for a while. My question is what do anti-depressants make you feel like?? Are you basically just happier or do you just walk around in a daze and feel no emotions at all. also are they addictive? And I've heard that they give you energy, true??. Basically I would just like some any info. Thanks

SSRIs are extremely addictive. I would suggest google.com, there are thousands of personal accounts and FAQs devoted to the questions you have here.

[z_silversurfer_]

Also I have done some research and it seams you can buy them on the internet without going to see a doctor. Is this true?

[DecemberDays86]

www.crazymeds.org

look up these drugs: Zoloft, Lexapro, Wellbutrin, and Effexor

[Plyersway]

I take Lexapro. Not for Depression, but for anxiety. I tried another one before and had an attack so I dont know about others. The Lexapro doesnt make me feel as good as I used to, atleast of what I can remember. Ive been on it for 3 years now =/ Lexapro is expensive. I take 15 MG and its $105 a month. Thats my input, feel free to msg me if you have any questions on it.

Clint

[PapaDaca]

once u start uc ant stop if u do u will have severe depression, take days to get over, I took paxil b4. ur better off getting some 5 htp take 500 mg a day u will fell better.

[/\/\ () |) This]

try something natural...trust me you dont want to become addicted to anti depressants let alone anything bro

[Plyersway]

Depends on your personality. I know a lot of people get addicted to them, but I am not the least bit. I wish I could get off em buttt its not worth having the attacks.

[myPecsRbigger]

anti depresants are not ment for rough spots in life, they are ment to correct chemical imbalances that result in a negative mental state. ive had depression and anxiety for 10 years, i tried everything. The only way im normal is with meds.

[sword_]

I briefly used Effexor. I decided that I wanted to deal with my depression by combatting the problem more directly.

[MuscleGainer]

I'm a shy guy and don't want to socialize with people and if I do it just doesn't seem natural to me. I also have another weird fear and it has to do with shopping for a certain kind of clothing because of size and I try to avoid shopping for that certain type of clothing for as long as I can to save myself embarrasement. Does anyone here that takes a SSRI have weird fears similar to mine fixed by taking them.

[badboyslayer]

I had mild anxiety and I was recommended to take paxil a few years ago. The 6 months I was on it I felt a drain in energy, apathetic/ loss of motivation and people I knew began commenting on my personality change for the worse. When I stopped taking it I had electric charge type sensations in my head for months afterwards

[32_4_EvEr]

What do anti depressants feel like?? Well i've only been on one anti-depressant medication and that was like last year. It was called *****. Basically when I was on it, I felt absolutely nothing. No fear. No hate. No love. No anger. Nothing. I was numb and loved it! It was incredible because before the medication I was an emotional wreck.

Stress does that to you and it's pretty normal when one becomes overloaded with life. Really, I don't think I would have made it without anti depressants. The thing with anti depressants though is that some people can have a hard time getting off them even when they don't need them anymore. I know I did. When I was really stressed or worried, I would pop a ***** and make everything go away. Hopefully this helps bro and good luck with your battle.

[sprung]

go natural bro, trust me. we all go through rough times in life, getting prescribed on medication will make things worse in the long run .. and it's hard to stop once youre on it.

[kendog]

I've been taking Zoloft for 3+ years. I need it to take the edge off. I was afraid if was affecting my memory at one point, but I think it might have been placebo. Some people just need it. I can operate in society w/o it but I feel like death every day; Zoloft just takes the edge off, nothing real special, just helps from day to day.

[pires_gun]

I suggest that you stay away from anti-depressants.

[hybrid426]

I had mild anxiety and I was recommended to take paxil a few years ago. The 6 months I was on it I felt a drain in energy, apathetic/ loss of motivation and people I knew began commenting on my personality change for the worse. When I stopped taking it I had electric charge type sensations in my head for months afterwards

I had the same thing happen to me. I was prescribed Paxil for depression and anxiety. No energy or motivation when I was on Paxil CR. It helped me concentrate a little better, made me feel a little better mentally and emotionally, but I always felt tired while on Paxil. I've been off for a while now, and I need something to help. I don't want antidepressents, so what natural routes are there?

[Andy K]

Original Poster: Most anti-depressants won't make you addicted in the true sense of the word like nicotine would. But they can become a crutch that is hard to lose after a while. Most importantly, don't just buy some off the net without a prescription. Seriously! If you need them get them from a psychiatrist. If someone who was trained in the field for at least 5 years doesn't think you need them then try to make yourself feel better with other, natural methods. But if you do ever go on anti-d's, don't ever stop them suddenly.
As to how they make you feel, it varies. One I was on made me feel like I could not get depressed OR happy, one made me feel like I was going to die, one did nothing for my depression and the one I'm on now stops me from going too far down in bad times but besides that has no noticeable effect on my life/moods. This is another reason you shouldn't just buy one over the net.
I've never experienced increased energy from anti-d's but on almost every one I've been on the first 3-7 days has felt my mood was very noticeably chemically lifted. Basically it felt like being on a small dosage of ecstasy.

You really should read what myPecsRbigger said. It would be better if you tried other methods to make yourself feel better. Exercise regularly, get some sun on you, sleep well (but don't oversleep), do things that give you a sense of achievement, minimize time you spend procrastinating, spend time with people who you like. Even try meditating or whatever else comes to mind.

Musclegainer: What you are describing sounds like Social Anxiety Disorder. It's a bastard to have. Anti-d's are unlikely to fix this, it's doubtful they'll even help very much at all. What you might need is a form of therapy called CBT (Cognitive Behaviour Therapy) and graded exposure. If you can't afford the therapy you can do the graded exposure yourself. Basically you just need to condition yourself to social environments. This can be built up slowly but it's vital that you REGULARLY put yourself in these types of environments. For example, I know someone who started out just by asking someone in a shop for the time (this is quite a severe case). Figure out what's just slightly hard for you and start there. Make things harder over time.

32_4_EvEr: ***** is definitely not an anti-depressant. It is an extremely strong benzodiazepine (same family as ******). This is TRULY one of the most addictive drugs around. I've known people in rehab solely for addiction to *****. How serious is *****? If you're taking a whole heap and stop suddenly you can die. ***** is normally used for anxiety disorders like Social Anxiety Disorder.

badboyslayer: Did you stop the Paxil suddenly? That sucks about the electric charge shock things.

[ingo_1978]

How long have you been depressed? You need to be depressed for at least 6 months before considering meds, as this will mean you have some sort of chemical imbalance in the brain as most people recover in 6 months. I suffered with anxiety for years which eventually led to depression to the point I could'nt function normally before my doc considered SSRIs.

SSRI's will only work if your depression is cause by low serotonin otherwise they can make things worse. The only problem is there is no way of knowing but to try the medication.

SSRI's will just make you feel normal again if your depression is caused by low serotonin levels, otherwise you will probably feel emotionless or just not with it or even more depressed and anxious. Their are a few common side effects like dry mouth and sweating but they will dissappear over time (except the dry mouth in my case)

What you must remember about SSRIs is they take 2-4weeks to start to work. But in that time they will more than likely make you feel worse, but you just have to try and stick it out. This also makes if difficult to come of it, as you know you could be looking at 2-4 weeks at least of anxiety and depression to look forward if your not 'cured'.

If you do choose to take SSRIs, go for Celex or Lexapro first as they are more selective than the others.

[the_fake_webmaster]

I have had good luck with the following:

ErgoPharm Psychotropin
http://www.bodybuilding.com/store/ergo/ps.html

Since I am the webmaster for the largest bodybuilding site, I get to try a lot of new things.

The following had 0 effect on me:

5-HTP
Kava Kava - at least the kava here in the US. If you can get your hands on some pure kava, wow!

Ginseng
Did help elevate energy levals, but not with my mood or anxiety.

Pinnacle Tranquilease
http://www.bodybuilding.com/store/pin/tran.html

I had great success with this for about 3 weeks. Felt good, energy was up, wasnt having as many anxiety attacks. Then it just stopped working...

I think this might be one you might want to cycle.

Valerian Root
This stuff made me sleepy as hell. It makes you all relaxed. It would be good if you are having trouble sleeping. But if you are having trouble sleeping, the best would be meletonin. Start with 2mg and work up.

If I take 3.5 -4mg 1-1.5 hours before I go to sleep, it works great. No groggyness in morning like when you take Tylenol PM.

Overall, this is what I have found to help with my anxiety:

Multivitamins/mins
EFA's - Beverly International
Glucosamine/Chondroitin/MSM - I have had 2 knee surgeries and this helps with the 'poping' 'crackling' and a lot of the pain, at least that is what I think.
ISS Research Satur8
This stuff is great. Made great gains and kept them. ISS makes quality products.
Whey during the daytime
Casien once at night

Kick up the cardio sessions and kick some ass in your workouts. That will take care of most of your problems. Or at least it has for me.

I hate doctors. They are good for two things:

- Give you drugs
- Refer you to someone else

If you have any questions, email me.

Will

[PapaDaca]

thats why theres good old Dr Dre

[razortech]

I have been diagnosed with depression since i was a child. MyPecsRBigger nailed it with a chemical imbalance in your brain. My advice would be to see a psychiatrist and have him be the one to prescribe them to you if he see's fit. I went to my regular doctor who doesn't know crap about these drugs and just let me try all different kinds until one worked. At the time I did not know that a regular M.D. is not a specialist in this field and I was very angry with him when I found out. These drugs are no joke and I definitly would not take any without a prescription. I took Wellbutrin which did nothing for me and after some more trial and error (good ol Dr.Ding Dong) I took Serzone which worked very well for me. It took 6 weeks to get up to the recommended dosage and if I missed even 1 day(2 pills a day) and then took 1 pill the next day I felt like the world was crashing down on me. It was actually a little scary how strong these were. I would talk to a professional and not mess with drugs that alter chemicals in your brain on your own, its not worth the risk. If you're just depressed about a current situation in your life them I would definetly ride it out and try to find natural alternatives. As for myself, one talk with my psychiatrist at the time showed him that I was severly depressed b/c of my views on life in general. It was also obvious to me that this was not how everyone else pictured life. And this went on for most of my life. The ultimate goal of any anti depressant should be to correct the chemical imbalance permanently so that you do not have to stay on these for the rest of your life. After about 9 months on Serzone I began to view life in a better light and I started to look forward to the future. I never felt any addiction to any of the anti's that I took. But side effects ranged from low libido (not with the serzone), short term memory loss, and even dizziness and blurred vision. I have been off Serzone for about 5 years now and feel no need to take anything else. Going to a psychiatrist I think would be your wisest choice.

[RueReeRo]

Sorry to bump an old thread, I just had to give my 2 cents on this serious subject

Years ago, I was near-suicidal. I had anxiety about simple things, such as going to the store or hanging out with a new group of people.

I started taking one 1mg of ***** in the morning. The first affect I felt was drowsiness. You WILL feel tired, quite often.

However, this drug has helped me immensely. I no longer feel anxious about everything. I can talk to complete strangers like they were my best friend. Since I'm no longer worried about what I say, I can relax. Being relaxed, I can joke around and bull**** much more easily with people. Meeting new people is no problem for me as my anxieties about what I do changed. ***** has helped me a ****load. It's not for everyone, though. It affects eople differently.

If you take ***** and wish to drink alcohol, be careful. On *****, small amounts of alcohol f you up and many times you will wonder what you did the night before. If you wish to drink and take this drug, take a small dosage such as .25mg or .50mg. Stay away from the 1mg and 2mg tablets. Also, take this drug in moderation. I've heard of many people taking, in one day, 10+mg of this substance. I feel most people will probably only need a single dosage in the morning. Be sure to get ***** XR (extended relief), as a single tablet will last you the whole day.

Hope this helps

[thicketman]

once u start uc ant stop if u do u will have severe depression, take days to get over, I took paxil b4. ur better off getting some 5 htp take 500 mg a day u will fell better.

BULL ****!

I've taken prozac for 9 years and quit cold turkey a few months back. Depression might SEEM worse by comparison of self while under dosage, if the SSRI was working.

I've never had a problem with it, aside from my lack of ability to focus. Then again, I've also been diagnosed w/ ADD, so focus might not be a problem for others. It made me feel like I was in a good mood most all the time,and had no anxiety, which was nice in a way. So, during an extreme tough time in your life, I think it's a nice crutch, but it IS a crutch. I stopped for that reason along with the fact that it's tough to get motivated to do anything while on it.

Under "normal" circumstances, I would look into supplementation. I recommend fish oil as a part of your supplementation foundation and then to build from there. Depression is ONE of the MANY issues that it can help to deal with.

[signal20]

This is a great reminder that im not alone. This forum is the only place ive seen where these issues are openly discussed with no stigma attached. This is unfortunately something that people feel they have to hide in day to day life.

the illness is in my bloodline. My father, granmother, uncle, and grandfather suffered. My sister and myself also suffered. My case is chemical. My relatives have suffered from a myriad of disorders such as Generalized anxiety, panic disorder, OCD, Bipolar, and Schizoaffective disorder.

Im a normal functioning successful adult. I take Paxil, but i havent always. It comes in waves in my life. I will be "normal" for years, and then it will just hit and take over my life. Drugs prevent this. I dont have the intense emotion i once had, but thats a fair tradeoff knowing that i wont have a wave of insanity.

My advice: for depression, try counseling first, then maybe natural remedies, unless you're suicidal, then see the shrink ASAP.


Remember: Youre not alone. i just wish our society would accept us and educate the public. afterall, our society created us.

[signal20]

BTW if i miss one dose of Paxil, within hours i get those electric brain shocks. theyre a bitch.