Do anti-depressents really work?

Meowzers

Meowzers

Member
Citalopram and Sertralline didn't work for me, so now I'm on Mirtazapine since yesterday. Feel drowzy. but always feel skeptical about these things. Anyone with issues that feel better whilst taking happy pills?

I have a physical issue, so difficult for professionals to deal with.
 
I was on Wellbutrin for a while. It helped quite a bit, but it took a while for it to kick in. Maybe a month of taking it daily is when I started noticing..

They're not happy pills though, for sure. You won't suddenly be bubbly. But you will be at a more even baseline. At least for me, negative things didn't seem to bother me as much and positive things felt a bit better.

I'm off them now because I switched insurance, but I should get back on.
 
NecrosaroIII said:
I was on Wellbutrin for a while. It helped quite a bit, but it took a while for it to kick in. Maybe a month of taking it daily is when I started noticing..

They're not happy pills though, for sure. You won't suddenly be bubbly. But you will be at a more even baseline. At least for me, negative things didn't seem to bother me as much and positive things felt a bit better.

I'm off them now because I switched insurance, but I should get back on.
Click to expand...

Wish they were happy pills lol. If the ones I'm on now don't work, I'll try to switch to Wellbutrin.
 
Imagine the mood of most people represented as a sine wave graph made up of peaks and valleys, cycling up and down over time. Then imagine the graph of people diagnosed with clinical depression as having valleys on that graph that sink down way low, abnormally low, into areas beyond the average person's "the blues" or "my life kinda sucks and I'm bummed about it," and into "it feels like my brain is suffocating me and I can't experience normal emotions" and other such poetic analogies to describe the exotic weirdness the compromised brain can descend into. Anti-depressants are supposed to cut off those abnormally-low valleys, letting your mood sink only so low. They're not supposed to make you feel like everything's groovy or that you're perpetually high on life or sth. So if your life sucks (independent of your mental illness) you'll still feel bad, but you'll ideally feel only as bad as most normal people would.

Anti-depressants also supposed to help people who have off-the-charts gnarly mutant depression, with symptoms like not being able to move, loss of bowel control, and hallucinations.

I know a little about this--my avatar is a sitcom psychiatrist.
 
Yes, but its not a cure all/fix, it just makes the low lowes a bit easier to manage. I've had to be on them twice in my life (after some bad breakups and death), they just help you get through, but you still have to fix the underlying problems.
 
Pagusas said:
Yes, but its not a cure all/fix, it just makes the low lowes a bit easier to manage. I've had to be on them twice in my life (after some bad breakups and death), they just help you get through, but you still have to fix the underlying problems.
Click to expand...

My Dad's wife is manic depressive, the medication has to constantly be changed, sometimes she'll just go off her rocker and stop taking them entirely and they have to hospitalize her. It's fucked up.
 
They worked for me but medication is not a magical cure. Most studies show medication with therapy is the best route and once you feel more in control of your life you can start to easy off on the drug.
 
Last edited:
highrider said:
My Dad's wife is manic depressive, the medication has to constantly be changed, sometimes she'll just go off her rocker and stop taking them entirely and they have to hospitalize her. It's fucked up.
Click to expand...
That is generally a very bad idea. No wonder she had to be hospitalized. If you quit cold turkey it can be worse if you were not taking medication at all because your brain chemistry has to deal with the sudden change. It's kind of the same thing with heroin users. If you run out of heroin for 1 day your body will start to shut down and you will feel real ill because your body has become dependent on the drug to function.
 
Meowzers said:
Citalopram and Sertralline didn't work for me, so now I'm on Mirtazapine since yesterday. Feel drowzy. but always feel skeptical about these things. Anyone with issues that feel better whilst taking happy pills?

I have a physical issue, so difficult for professionals to deal with.
Click to expand...
Not really and I've been on Mirtazapine since early 2019.

Btw Mirtazapine will make you VERY drowsey for the first month or two and increase your appetite but that'll pass once your body gets a acclimated to it.
 
Last edited:
NecrosaroIII said:
I didn't know Frasier was a psychiatrist. I thought he was a therapist.
Click to expand...
Hmm, looking at wiki, it says he's a psychiatrist. So maybe he's got the schooling to be a psychiatrist, but over the radio, he's just a therapist.

(For anyone wondering: psychiatrist = mental illness doctor who can prescribe meds and has more medical training. Psychologist / therapist = mental illness doctor who can talk you through stuff, but can't prescribe meds. At least this is the case in the US, not sure about the distinction in other parts of the world.)
 
Not an expert by any means but the way COVID has caused me to unfold I went into a downward depressive spiral of anxiety which led to depression. My doctor put me on the generic of Lexapro. It has worked for me and kept me out of the darkest places I was in and helped me to manage my feelings and emotions better. That's only one person's experience so take it for what it's worth.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

Not really depressed...
2
50
3K
Valedix replied
iPhones are really hard to break
17
943
Mistake replied
I have trouble seeing Starship Troopers as an anti-fascist film?
2
82
4K
StueyDuck replied
Just another day at work, watermain burst..
6
734
Avid Reading Horse replied
Finished work for Xmas!
28
2K
Windle Poons replied
Top Bottom