# Anti-depressants - do they work for you?



## Universal (May 30, 2005)

My mom just spoke to a shrink and he tells her that anti-d's aren't really all they are hyped up to be. He says it's mostly to dull the person from experiencing whatever discomfort he or she experiences at the moment, and that they don't really cure anything. I was wondering what all of you experiences are with anti-depressant medication, how it's helping you or how it's working to your detriment.

:arrow: :arrow: :arrow:


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## Sojourner (May 21, 2005)

Your mother needs to talk to someone who knows what they are talking about. What that person told her is totally false.

They do not "dull" anything. They work by causing serotonin to not be depleted in the brain. Without enough serotonin, people suffer from depression and anxiety. These illnesses run in families.

Zoloft worked fine for me for 12 years. I was on a very low dose (25 mg) for about six months. My doctor told me to increase or decrease according to how I felt. I had been at 50 mg for about 6 years, and then about 100 for another few years. Total 12 years.

Taking anti-depressants allowed me to go to graduate school and begin a better career.

It makes me mad that they don't work for everyone.


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## Sojourner (May 21, 2005)

Oh, I forgot to say that I had no side effects and all it did was remove my symptoms of depression. It didn't change my personality or anything else.

I blossomed as a person, because what had held me back was removed.

It's interesting that ten years before that I was baptized and confirmed in the Catholic Church (I had been an agnostic all my life), but it took God 10 years to get through to me that I needed to accept the gifts He was offering.

If you believe that God's in charge of everything, you've got to trust the ones he sends to help you. But you also have to use your critical judgment to discern good information from bad information.

With the Internet, you can go the FDA sites, to university sites, and zillions of others and read about how Zoloft works chemically.

So, don't believe me, believe the experts, and that person who talked to your mother is no expert.

My doctor once made the point to me, after I had said I didn't want to be "drugged," that Zoloft is useless to anyone without depression. He said it offers nothing to people seeking a drug "high" or a thrill and that's why it's not a recreational drug.

Its function is "elevation" of mood, but that is accomplished not by "dulling" your pain sensors, but by restoring the proper chemicals to your neurons so they can communicate normally.

When they communicate abnormally, anxiety and depression result. That is, symptoms of "fight or flight" result -- what we are experiencing as panic, anxiety, or DP/DR. I think DP is just a flavor of panic.

Anyway, I personally had a wonderful experience and I am looking forward to getting better, well, not "better" but on the proper dose.

People who have these illnesses do not recover from them; they simply use medication to provide what their bodies for some reason are not providing.

There are analogies to diabetes and other diseases, as well. I think it's a tragedy when some people are made to believe it's a psychological problem only when it's quite possible that it's not.

One of the tests may well be whether Zoloft actually works for a person. If it works (or any other anti-depressant, for that matter), the person should have proof that what was wrong was fixed; if it doesn't work, maybe it IS psychological only. I am going to ask my doctor that tomorrow, as a matter of fact.

Sojourner


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## Universal (May 30, 2005)

you say "people who have these illnesses do not recover from them" yet's i've already read a couple of recovery stories. it seems there's still help without anti-d's (although i'm feeling not so bright about the future At the moment). thanks for your 2 cents tho


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## Sojourner (May 21, 2005)

It's not technically "recovery" if you take medicine every day to restore a proper chemical balance.

There is no cure for depression. All we do is control the symptoms by making the brain chemicals approach normal.

"Recovery" from an illness means you a free of the illness and do not need to do anything but enjoy your health.


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