
SSRI Stories: Antidepressant nightmares - unlinker
http://ssristories.org/ssris/
======
Analemma_
If you want the "full story", with peer-reviewed sources, about SSRIs,
including a true/false on the various assertions that get passed around the
Internet often with little justification, I strongly recommend
[http://slatestarcodex.com/2014/07/07/ssris-much-more-than-
yo...](http://slatestarcodex.com/2014/07/07/ssris-much-more-than-you-wanted-
to-know/). Scott is both a licensed psychiatrist and a very good rationalist
with access to a lot of good data, who doesn't easily fall for Internet
misinformation and definitely doesn't gloss over the "complicated bits" about
the flaws and methodologies in clinical trials. This post is my go-to source
for most discussions about SSRIs.

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some-guy
As someone who's been on SSRIs for the majority of my life for Panic
Disorder[1] (from age 11 to age 28), there was a period of time when being on
Paroxetine (Paxil in the US) I started to read these stories and sympathize
with them, trying to blame all of my behavioral / mental problems on the drug,
even though the drug literally saved my life. Paroxetine isn't without its
issues, and it took many many years to taper off of it without side-effects,
but these sorts of anecdotes do nothing to help people in these situations.

There's a stigma with SSRIs that you either a) lose your creative ability and
become a pharmaceutical drone or b) become suicidal. I've heard people tell me
that anti-depressants are bad since they are not "pure" and you aren't being
"yourself". They clearly don't know what it's like to have something like
Panic Disorder, or severe depression. It was this stigma that made me taper
off Paroxetine. I felt like I was "cheating". Eventually my anxieties started
coming back (though less severely) in my later years and I'm on Lexapro now,
and I've realized that not only have these drugs worked, my life is in _every_
way better than it was before. Who cares if it's cheating?

I know this is just an anecdote just like the ones in the link, but I think
it's important that people do what they need to do to live a good life, and if
you're reading this and considering anti-depressants, there is nothing wrong
with trying, and the stigma should be fought.

[1]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panic_disorder](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panic_disorder)

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sawthat
"science". This stuff comes from this org:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Coalition_for_Dr...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Coalition_for_Drug_Awareness)
and Dr. David Healy, long time campaigners against antidepressants. Draw your
own conclusions.

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Bartweiss
This article is alarmingly sloppy, even without getting into questions of core
accuracy.

Statements like "it is important to withdraw slowly from these drugs,
sometimes over a period of a year or more" paints with an unconscionably broad
brush. The drawdown period for antidepressants is completely dependent on the
actual drug, and some (like bupropion) have no withdrawal symptoms at all.

Similarly, the claim that antidepressants cause people to lose their fear of
death treats an open question like settled science. The antidepressant-suicide
correlation is complicated and ill-understood - failing to even mention that
there are other theories (e.g. antidepressants treat low energy faster than
low mood, which enables but doesn't cause suicides) is downright dishonest.

It's worth learning about SSRIs if they're relevant to your life, but this
piece skips over open questions and conflates nearly-unrelated drugs to the
point where it's essentially useless.

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neverminder
NSI-189
([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NSI-189](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NSI-189))
is starting to look like a potentially big game changer in antidepressants.
It's a novel drug that (to my understanding) works in a way that's different
from any other drugs.

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DominoTree
The plural of "anecdote" is not "data"

~~~
matt4077
People like to repeat that. But you know what's funny? It actually is!

(for large numbers of anecdotes)

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joesmo
Exercise really is great and should be tried before anything else. It's the
only thing that I've found that works for me in a reliable, safe way. As far
as SSRIs and Wellbutrin (which is not an SSRI like the chart states), I can
confirm that after about 8 months or so, I did indeed have unprecedented
thoughts of suicide and no longer cared about living much. I can also confirm
meeting many doctors who were extremely eager to prescribe it after as little
as 5 minutes of getting to know me (I declined). Basically, taking SSRIs was
indeed one of the worst decisions of my life and almost cost me my life. So I
stick to exercise now.

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yarou
I highly suspect melatonin-receptor (MT1 and MT2) agonists will be more useful
in correcting mood disorders such as depression than anything that messes with
monoamine neurotransmitters.

