# Empathy & Anti-Anxiety Medication



## ThoughtOnFire (Feb 10, 2015)

http://www.theverge.com/2016/6/27/12044356/rats-empathy-frontiers-in-psychology-university-of-chicago-peggy-mason


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## Visual (Oct 13, 2010)

Meds (particularly SSRIs and antipsychotics) usually blunt all emotions, not just the negative. Guess all the prozac going around is contributing to a dog-eat-dog rat-eat-rat world








Wonder if this guy is on anti-anxiety medication?


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## Visual (Oct 13, 2010)

Autonomic Space Monkey said:


> Very interesting find TOF. It's always confused me when people with DP say they feel better after taking Prozac. A mate of mine was put on it once, & his family fell apart; his wife left him & took their child. He said to me that at the time he didn't care at all, as the Prozac had numbed him & turned him into a zombie. Another mate who has Bipolar was put on it for a short time & hated it, he said he felt no emotions on it. That's why I find it conusing that people with DP who are emotionally blunted, say they feel better after taking Prozac which emotionally blunts you. Go figure!


Even my son-in-law stopped taking it because he didn't like being 'blunted' (although his family is happier when he is on it, lol).

I know several cases just as you describe with broken marriages. SSRIs long term often end intimacy - and not just sex, emotional closeness. While there are probably good situations with it, I've never actually seen any myself.

Curious, haven't see the same problems with Xanax or Klonopin as with SSRIs (although benzos have their own issues).


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## Zed (Jul 25, 2015)

Visual said:


> Meds (particularly SSRIs and antipsychotics) usually blunt all emotions, not just the negative. Guess all the prozac going around is contributing to a dog-eat-dog rat-eat-rat world


... and when you're emotions are blunted it's very easy to assume "I feel better".. when in actual fact the truth is 'I feel less'. That's not a healthy human existence in my books. We're humans - we're meant to feel and be emotional and without that, there's an important part of life missing.

i think it's fair to assume the tons of prozac and other antidepressants consumed by the millions will alter how they react to others. Without the ability to feel deep compassion or empathy it's easy to believe they could treat people in an uncaring way - even in a sociopathic kind of way.


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