This.  I was depressed for years, managing it myself.  Finally I came to realize that everything I was doing wasn't working and I needed something different.  I evaluated with my doctor, talked at length about what we were trying to achieve, and what the risks were.  I started using one, but wasn't happy with the side effect (nothing to do with mental health) and he had me try something else.  This one made me unstable, so I stopped it and after discussion, went back to the first one.  If you need it, you need it.  If you've never had this issue, then you can't really understand what its truely like.  its just not an experience you can relate to since its so far out of what you've been through (and thats a good thing).  If it is something you need, make sure you're working with your doctor at the very least and be honest with them.

They made my ex wife what she is today.

Not everyone's brain is the same, and some people's brains don't have the ability to make you as happy as you should be.  Sometimes the reason your brain is making you feel sad is because you have a chemical imbalance that is repairable by SSRIs.  You're correct though, it first starts with the want to fix your issues.

I have a feeling that if someone is depressed enough to really need antidepressants, they could care less about what "The Man" might try to take away from them.

I avoided them like the plague.  Flatly told my doctor that I needed to get to the root of the problem and not just cover the symptom.  He took me at my word and did enough blood work and testing on me to make me finally almost ready to tap out.  In the end, he got it right and I'm feeling better than I have in many years.  His decision to refer me to an endocrinologist was the right call.  Thanks Doc.  



Depression is a real medical condition for many people.  Don't mess with it because it will kill you.  But I wouldn't just jump on the pop a pill bandwagon until I had a very thorough checkup, if I were you.  



And don't neglect the spiritual component of your mental health.  We are more than just a series of biological processes.  

I have taken them and they work!  But you must be on the right one for your condition, if your not it won't do squat.

Just want to add that I was able to stop them after I discovered I suffer from sleep apnea and started getting my sleep treated.  Also Blood-pressure went down.  Try to find/fix the cause of your problem.

http://www.naturalnews.com/039752_mass_shootings_psychiatric_drugs_antidepressants.html

There is an unbelievable amount of stupid in this thread.



Would you say the same about cancer?





First, depression isn't sadness.  Second, antidepressants don't make you happy.

My neurologist giving me a small dose of ssri for stress and sleep is not a bad thing for anyone I don't think. Depends on your symptoms and what kind of Dr. you see.

Agreed!  I know God RECONSIX, and luckily he blessed me with a mind that is able to trouble shoot problems and find fixes for things.

I agree with this, in its entirety. I went to a CBT for a year before she referred me to a Psychiatrist. I was seeing the Psyc for 4 months before she prescribed anti-depressants. I'm now living a vastly more "normal" life than I ever have in the past. I'm certainly fundamentally more happy (or, balanced, is probably more accurate) and so is EVERYONE that comes into contact with me (debating on the internet notwithstanding).

I was hospitalized (voluntarily) for alcoholism and suicidal ideation (Stage 3). My Psyc decided that my depression was chemical in nature (both she and I were against medicating as a "test" to "see if it works.") and finally said "Look, we've done all we can do without medicine. Let's start really small and see where we get."

For all of you folks so scared of losing your guns to get help, think about people who are really suffering from sever chemical depression. What good are rights to someone so unhappy they are planning on killing themselves?

Priorities, man. Priorities.

I didn't lose any of my rights when I went to get help. Even if I had, I'm a vastly better husband, father, employee and citizen now than I ever could have been before getting help. I'd give up my guns if that's what it cost for me to be a happy human and a positive force in the lives of my family and friends.

Exercise and diet

heard zoloft is the devils piss on a few forums

...Zoloft ...

DON'T DO IT!

See my sig.

Like hell it isn't.  It may be a miserably pit of unabated sadness, but it is sadness nonetheless.  Due to some chemical or other biological imbalance,  you just can't bring yourself to feel happy.

Have more sex, exercise like you're getting ready for a marathon, have a glass of wine with dinner, stop eating prepackaged foods with more than 5 ingredients listed on the back, eat a balance of fruit, veggies, and meat, make "me" time in your schedule, take deep breaths every hour or so, read a book on philosophy or quantum physics, call your parent/sibling/child and tell them you love them, watch your favorite movie, volunteer in your community, give to charity, think for a moment about the TRUE measure of human suffering and just how good you have it, TURN OFF THE FUCKING NEWS.

Do all those things and if you aren't feeling less depressed, then maybe, MAYBE, go see a doctor for some meds.

Oh, you don't have time for all that stuff?

MAKE THE TIME.  If you want to change a situation in your life, you have to suck it up, buttercup.







That's true, but all that means is the the solution for everyone is different.

IMHO, antidepressants should be the ABSOLUTE last resort.

I'm on Zoloft and it works fantastically for me.  As I said before, someone needs to find what works for them.  I was lucky and Zoloft was my first try.

Sure, just make sure that you have a plan to get off of them.  You don't want to get stuck taking little pills for the rest of your life.

Depression isn't something to be ashamed of - or laughed at.  It's a deadly serious disease.  

Find a great clinician that will help you move forward and help you find a way off of the pills permanently.  A lot of psychiatry is helping the patient (you) find the right state of mind and helping you keep to it.

This. I was depressed for about 2 years a while back, and anything the doc gave me just made me feel worse to be honest.

 








 

Only as a last resort for health.  There are far healthier ways to improve your mood.  Exercise goes a *looong* way in this department.  Don't rule it out.

This.   If you need em you need em and if you need help seek it.  But know which way the wind is blow'n.

Best way to get off something is to stay off it in the first place.

Your mental happiness and well being is not going to be treated or cured from a pill.... They do not work. In order for you to get better, 1st you must recognize that you have a problem and 2nd you have to WANT to get better and 3rd you have to do what it takes to get better. The cure is within you but you have to be the one to do the work. The answer or cure IS NOT in pill form. My wife of 23 years suffered from severe depression and anxiety. She was on all sorts of antidepressants some of them highly addictive (klonpin) and some not. Tried several different kinds to try and find the proper "mix" that would work well. NONE of them worked or helped. Of the more addictive medications led to abuse as a way of seeking relief from the depression. It also led to her abusing other medications. We would go to see a therapist and she was given steps, very detailed steps on what she can do to help herself feel better, but she needed to do the work for herself to make herself feel beeter. She needed to WANT to feel better in order for there to be any progress and none of the medication helped her with that. None of it. It all finally came to an end, when she decided to take her life on the evening of Christmas Eve last year. Me and our 3 teenage kids are living proof that a persons well being is not in the form pill. I believe that the pharmacutical companies are not concerned with your well being but are more concerned about getting the doctors to prescribe their patients the medication that the pharmacuticals are pushing. To them, it's all about dollars and cents. If you are suffering from depression, find a good therapist, a good one.... and if you don't like the one you find, then find another one. Get a life partner, someone you feel comfortable talking to about ANYTHING... no secrets and talk to them. Stay away from the medication... they do not work! For those who know someone who is suffering with depression... be there for them, listen openly and do not judge. Support them the best way you can and do not give up on them. Be understanding, tolerant, forgiving and empathetic. Love them with your whole heart and help them down the path they are trying to go down that they feel they are going down alone. Be there for them. Do more, listen more, help more, understand more, love more .... be MORE. You can make a difference in someones life who feels alone in their battle....

A depressed person has essentially lost the ability to suck it up.  Some people need SSRI's to get back to a place where they can even contemplate sucking it up, and pulling themselves up by their bootstraps.  It's not that they can't do it, it's just that they think "what's the point?"

HELL NO!!!!!!!!!!!!


I have seen the effects they have on people up close and personal.   And, at least in these cases, they did not work.  Read the side effects and see if they  are worth exposing your family too.  SSRI's ARE DANGEROUS DRUGS.  And the common link between most, it not all of the mass shootings in this country the last 15 years or so.  

Sigmund Freud was initially a huge proponent of cocaine.  You took it and it made you happy.  Everybody should have some.  What's not to love about it?  It took the addiction and finally the death of his fiance through a overdose to change his mind about it.  

If you think that you need them try running three miles every morning instead.  Exercise is a great way to deal with stress.  The person who mentioned it above was correct.  

If you're actually depressed yes you should probably consider taking them, be aware though this isn't heart medicine. It's not 1 or 2 fits all, there's a million different pills for a reason.
You should also be doing everything in your power to improve your life without the pills. Like diet pills they work a whole lot better if you're doing your part and meeting them halfway.


Some of the replies on here are straight up herp with a big side of derp. Much as I love and honor our lord Jesus Christ he isn't going to fix your clinical depression any more than he's going to fix your cancer and unless you live in the bluest of blue states they aren't coming for your guns.

ETA emphasis

Like this one.... Dude.... read my previous post...

The most effective treatment is to combine antidepressants with traditional psychotherapy. This approach has the best results in terms of lasting effectiveness.

Personally, I would not see my primary care physician for anything of this type except for a referral to a qualified behavioral therapist.

That's mostly because we as a society have decided that any drug that makes you feel too good is bad and must be banned. So now they're having to tinker more and more with the chemistry to make people feel different without making them actually feel good.

Of course that's a real delicate science, so occasionally you pop the wrong breaker and a patient flips out and starts killing people. Still better than dealing with the Quaalude menace though, amiright?

I always see this in threads and have never found it to be true for myself. I doubt I'm the only one.

I feel that alot of doctors see someone depressed and just give them a script before digging any deeper, most of the time I feel dpression is cause by an event or something going on in someones life, a shrink is probably where you might want to start before taking the happy pills. Yes SOMETIMES there can be a chemical inbalance but not as often as they lead people to belive.

Like I did Dude. And like the King Dude said Yeah, well, you know, that's just, like, your opinion, man. You sound like the kind of guy that gets the one lemon jam o matic Glock made that year and feels qualified to give an opinion about all Glocks ever made.

Seriously, I'm sorry that you went through so much shit and lost your wife but SSRIs SNRIs TCAs and MAOIs have their place.

I mean seriously WTF is wrong with some of you people. Clinical depression is a disease that isn't the fault of the sufferer, it isn't a case of the monday's or the blues, it's a deep dark fucking pit that most people can never come out of no matter how strong they are.

You're fine taking them, the only time you should worry about it is when

1. You are court ordered too take them or declared mentally unstable

2. Are trying to join the Armed Forces

3. Or live in Commie State of NY where they violate hippa laws.

Like others, a last resort

If I was dating and looking for a mate, one of the first questions I would ask is "Are you on any kind of prescription anti depressants?"  If she said "Yes", I'd keep looking.

Nope.  

I don't take any medication if I can avoid it.

.... and a pill isn't going to do it either... as for your juvenile Glock anology.... yeah... I feel I am very qualified to make the statement I did... I lived it, first hand knowledge for years longer than I cared to. Saw every stage of it and felt totally helpless through all of it. But learned A LOT about what it was and how it effected not only my wife but me, my kids our family life and the others as well who survived afterwards. It's really frustrating to see these so called "doctors" poke in the dark trying to find what they called the "correct" medication as if they were experimenting on my wife to see what worked. I even had two therapists advise getting off the medication because it could possibly lead to further issues. Ever read the warning label about the side effects of most of anti depressants/anti anxiety  medication out there? When you do, ask your self if you think taking that crap is really going to help a person get better. And if you still think so then you are just kidding yourself...

Nope. That shit is poison. They prescribed them to me when I was having anxiety issues. I finally manned the fuck up and took control of my life instead of depending on some brain rotting chemical. They made things worse and literally made me feel like I was going insane.


Exercise, proper diet, no alcohol, and 7-8 hours of sleep will make you feel great.

The plural of anecdote is not data.

my wife changed a lot of her depression issues with diet and exercise.

AGREE WITH THIS.  BUT, my wife cannot function without them.

And both of my wife's older sisters are EXACTLY in the same situation.

It's interesting too, because my wife's mother lived well into her 80's with very sound health.  

But all three of the daughters in this family have exactly the same depression problems.   None of the sons do however.  Go figure.

It would be easy to just say "female hormones" or the like but the mother, again, lived to a ripe old age with NO problems of this sort.

And, yes, my wife is under the care of a doctor who specializes in these sorts of  problems and her office is usually full of women being treated for this or similar problems.  I never seem to see any men in the waiting room.

Take brain-meds ONLY when prescribed by a board certified PSYCHIATRIST - That's and MD and a PHD.  Do not take brain meds from any other doctor!

In addition, these meds should only be taken temporarily while participating in talk-therapy with a qualified therapist.

One more thing: If you are on these meds and decide to stop, DO NOT GO COLD TURKEY off of these meds.  Seek advice on how to properly taper off your dosage.

Of course.  I'm going with the assumption that the OP needs them in the first place.

while I applaud your efforts in an attempt to seem witty and knowledgeable, I am unclear as to whom this statement is directed and/or how it applies to this.....

Lot's of derp in this thread.  I have been depressed since I was 10 years old.   I lived in misery for 33 years before a damn good doc convinced me to try anti depressants.  We tried several before settling on Zoloft.  The only thing that kept me from pulling a Kurt Cobain was my family.  I could have given two shits if I lived or died.  I for one know that I was much more unstable and a bigger risk to society and myself before I got on anti-depressants.
 Are they over prescribed? Definately.  But there are some very LARGE brushstrokes being painted with in this thread.  Your brain is an organ just like any other.  Sometimes you need a medication to make it work right.  Its not the answer for everybody but neither is "Get some exercise" or "Take Vitamin D."
Do I fear my 2A rights will be taken away? Yes, but its a risk I HAVE to live with.  
If you have never suffered from clinical depression, good for you.  I am jealous.  I wouldn't wish this shit on my worst enemy.  I wish I could "Just get over it."
And yes, I have discontinued under doctor's instructions and I'll be ok for a while, months even, but it always comes back. the Dr. said my brain chemistry is like a gas tank, sometimes it you just run out of juice and need a fillup.  After much trial and error, I'd just as soon top off every day.

Again you are extrapolating your experience onto the whole of humanity. It's silly and you know its silly, you are in no way qualified to give anyone anything other than your experience.

If my wife died from cancer despite all the chemo and other treatments she uderwent would you think I had the qualifications to say chemo/radiation is a fraud and these so called "doctors" who put here through it should lose their licenses. No you would think my grief had made me retarded.

He's talking to you. Your anecdotal second hand experience does not make you qualified to talk about the intricacies of mental health.

It's directed at you. Your experience with antidepressants doesn't, in any way, give you an educated platform to preach from. You have only the sum total of your personal experience to make your claims. That's not data, that's just anecdote.

Further, your "opinion" is dangerous. Heavens forfend you actually talk someone out of getting help because of your very specific experience. Depression isn't a cold, it isn't a gimmick, it's fucking deadly, in many cases.

But...but...but....pills can't do that for you!

It is 100% fact in ny