antidepressant success stories? anyone?

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Grisha
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22 Sep 2011, 9:45 am

The_Perfect_Storm wrote:
Part of the reason I don't take them is I worry that I will no longer be 'me'. Plus it feels like cheating. :/


That sounds pretty much exactly the way I thought before I gave up and tried them - but I eventually came to believe that it was kind of like a paralyzed person refusing to use a wheelchair...

Anyway, the decision is yours - I hope I've given you some things to consider - good luck! :)



Aimless
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22 Sep 2011, 10:13 am

Grisha wrote:
The_Perfect_Storm wrote:
Part of the reason I don't take them is I worry that I will no longer be 'me'. Plus it feels like cheating. :/


That sounds pretty much exactly the way I thought before I gave up and tried them - but I eventually came to believe that it was kind of like a paralyzed person refusing to use a wheelchair...

Anyway, the decision is yours - I hope I've given you some things to consider - good luck! :)


I think the real me was struggling under a heavy blanket of depression and antidepressants helped the "real me" to emerge. As far as cheating, it seems you still see depression as something that's a choice (many do) but I don't think you would tell a near sighted person that wearing glasses was cheating. It's not a happy pill, they just help keep me from feeling like life was a life sentence of despair.


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lelia
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22 Sep 2011, 6:10 pm

Effexor and Welbutrin for me. The stuff keeps me from being surly and hateful to my family. I take allergy meds and diabetes meds. I see antidepressants as no different. You do need to know that they can take up to six weeks to be effective and that you can start out feeling more suicidal for a while. Weird, but there it is. And yeah, everybody's chemistry is different. The first one I tried had side effects I did not want to live with, so I switched to another. It may take months, but if you and the doctor have patience with each other, eventually you should find a solution.



886
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22 Sep 2011, 9:01 pm

I've taken anti-depressants for 9 years.

I've had success with a drug Lexapro, but the problem with anti-depressants is they change your state of mind. It's nice, it cures depression. But after that all my other problems that make me depressed are still there.


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lelia
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23 Sep 2011, 1:07 pm

886: Well, of course the problems are still there. But having a balanced mind means that you can deal with them better. When one is depressed, in my experience, one can't come up with solutions. And true, for some things there are no solutions. But one can face them better.
For me, some of the problems did go away simply because I wasn't drowning in despair anymore.



The_Perfect_Storm
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23 Sep 2011, 11:55 pm

Aimless wrote:
Grisha wrote:
The_Perfect_Storm wrote:
Part of the reason I don't take them is I worry that I will no longer be 'me'. Plus it feels like cheating. :/


That sounds pretty much exactly the way I thought before I gave up and tried them - but I eventually came to believe that it was kind of like a paralyzed person refusing to use a wheelchair...

Anyway, the decision is yours - I hope I've given you some things to consider - good luck! :)


I think the real me was struggling under a heavy blanket of depression and antidepressants helped the "real me" to emerge. As far as cheating, it seems you still see depression as something that's a choice (many do) but I don't think you would tell a near sighted person that wearing glasses was cheating. It's not a happy pill, they just help keep me from feeling like life was a life sentence of despair.



I don't see it as a choice but I see it as something that I can overcome. For example, by targetting the flaws I see in my self that lead to my low self-esteem. I don't really see how this is similar at all to near-sightedness..



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24 Sep 2011, 10:21 am

The_Perfect_Storm wrote:
Aimless wrote:
Grisha wrote:
The_Perfect_Storm wrote:
Part of the reason I don't take them is I worry that I will no longer be 'me'. Plus it feels like cheating. :/


That sounds pretty much exactly the way I thought before I gave up and tried them - but I eventually came to believe that it was kind of like a paralyzed person refusing to use a wheelchair...

Anyway, the decision is yours - I hope I've given you some things to consider - good luck! :)


I think the real me was struggling under a heavy blanket of depression and antidepressants helped the "real me" to emerge. As far as cheating, it seems you still see depression as something that's a choice (many do) but I don't think you would tell a near sighted person that wearing glasses was cheating. It's not a happy pill, they just help keep me from feeling like life was a life sentence of despair.



I don't see it as a choice but I see it as something that I can overcome. For example, by targetting the flaws I see in my self that lead to my low self-esteem. I don't really see how this is similar at all to near-sightedness..


That can be helpful and is sometimes possible in the early stages of depression to alleviate the symptoms. However, if you have been in a clinical depression for years it is virtually impossible to decide you don't feel how you feel. I spent 30 years trying through just therapy to do what antidepressants can do. I think it is optimal to use antidepressants in conjunction with therapy, many therapists consider therapy without the use of antidepressants to be ineffective. The analogy I made to near-sightedness is to point out that a person cannot change their eyesight by will and a person in a clinical major depressive episode cannot change how their brain uses neurotransmitters. Perhaps you have not experienced a paralyzing depression. A really good book on depression is The Noonday Demon by Andrew Solomon. He suffers from periodic depressions so bad his friends have to come over to bathe and feed him. He investigates depression from every angle. It is really a very interesting read.


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The_Perfect_Storm
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24 Sep 2011, 1:19 pm

Aimless wrote:
The_Perfect_Storm wrote:
Aimless wrote:
Grisha wrote:
The_Perfect_Storm wrote:
Part of the reason I don't take them is I worry that I will no longer be 'me'. Plus it feels like cheating. :/


That sounds pretty much exactly the way I thought before I gave up and tried them - but I eventually came to believe that it was kind of like a paralyzed person refusing to use a wheelchair...

Anyway, the decision is yours - I hope I've given you some things to consider - good luck! :)


I think the real me was struggling under a heavy blanket of depression and antidepressants helped the "real me" to emerge. As far as cheating, it seems you still see depression as something that's a choice (many do) but I don't think you would tell a near sighted person that wearing glasses was cheating. It's not a happy pill, they just help keep me from feeling like life was a life sentence of despair.



I don't see it as a choice but I see it as something that I can overcome. For example, by targetting the flaws I see in my self that lead to my low self-esteem. I don't really see how this is similar at all to near-sightedness..


That can be helpful and is sometimes possible in the early stages of depression to alleviate the symptoms. However, if you have been in a clinical depression for years it is virtually impossible to decide you don't feel how you feel. I spent 30 years trying through just therapy to do what antidepressants can do. I think it is optimal to use antidepressants in conjunction with therapy, many therapists consider therapy without the use of antidepressants to be ineffective. The analogy I made to near-sightedness is to point out that a person cannot change their eyesight by will and a person in a clinical major depressive episode cannot change how their brain uses neurotransmitters. Perhaps you have not experienced a paralyzing depression. A really good book on depression is The Noonday Demon by Andrew Solomon. He suffers from periodic depressions so bad his friends have to come over to bathe and feed him. He investigates depression from every angle. It is really a very interesting read.


Thanks, I'll see if I can find a copy of it. I've never experienced anything as 'paralysing' in that way. Or at least not prolonged enough to do any real harm to me. It probably would be optimal to take anti-depressants. My low mood often gets in the way of progress. Nonetheless I want to continue on my own. It works, slowly but surely (well as far as I can tell). I feel that an acceptable quality of life is within my reach. It's a small source of pride to me to look back on how far I've come on my own.

Still, I'm aware that there's really not much else if the chemicals in my brain are getting in the way. Medication isn't going anywhere. I can change my mind at any time.