okay, you hit a nerve here. i'm actually going to be in an upcoming documentary about all of the bad things that antidepressants can do to you, so, yeah. as if that doesn't say enough, i'm going to continue:
1. first, you probably don't know as much about anti-d's as you think you do. check out www.paxilprogress.org to get the other side of the story -- the side you'll never hear from a doctor, or read about in your psych books.
2. hey, psych major: CBT actually works. it's the one and only thing that's helping with me anxiety right now.
3. i took paxil for 2 years and it's got a crapload of awful effects other than weight gain. it's not exclusive to paxil either; any SSRI basically does the same thing in terms of side effects. weight gain, the eventual numbing of emotions, the 12+ hours a day of sleeping....if these things never happened to you, good for you. but they can set in at any given period of time.
4. i'm curious, what dose & what anti-d were you on?
5. have you done any research in psych/biology/etc about magnesium, vitamin C, and fish oil (which is one of the #1 cures for depression right now, i might add)?
The only thing I know about anti depressants is that I abosolutely hated the way I felt when I was on them... I was happy, but I didn't know why. And I wasn't happy on the inside, I just was. I don't want to be on them but I feel like I've hit a low and I'm just not making any progress. I've heard great things about CBT and I'm a big fan of the theories... but I feel like if I get my depression under control everything else will fall into place... as I've never had a problem with anxiety or panic attacks before.
I really can't remmeber the dosages, but I was on Zoloft first, and asked to be taken off of it because I was shaking like crazy. Then I was on Paxil... that's when my "numb" episodes started.... even now, if I'm really low I'll go weeks literally... without being able to feel. I can't feel temperatures, can't tell if my hair is wet, etc... so I got off that and I was on Wellbutrin and lastly Wellbutrin SR.
I've heard of Magnesium but not vitamin C or fish oil... that's one of the B vitamins, right? I know that if you take a supplement for the vitamin B's it's supposed to help with SAD and bipolar disorder... but I didn't know about depression.
Out of curiousity... who is doing the study? Is it actually the makers of Paxil or is it an independent thing?
anxiety and panic attacks can actually be a post-SSRI effect, you know. it especially depends on how quickly you tapered off the paxil/wellbutrin -- a taper of less than a 6 month to 1 year can produce prolonged withdrawal effects that can last up to 3 years. unfortunately, most docs are clueless and they tell you to cut down over a period of about two weeks. idiots, really; it should be malpractice.
zoloft's notorious for hyping you up, as is prozac. paxil killed my emotions too, removed any and all motivation i ever had in regards to schoolwork or making & retaining friends. it was awful. wellbutrin's even shadier, as it not only ups your serotonin but your norepinephine as well. this could lead to problems with your dopaminergic system in the future -- parkinsons's-esque shakes & things. i've got them, ugh, but thank god they're only occasional.
magnesium is fantastic for muscle relaxation, especially the citrate version. it works like a charm for me. and vitamin C is good for anxiety because it combats cortisol, which as you know is a key anxiety horomone. fish oil's value lies in its omega 3 fatty acids. it's not a vitamin of any type, but rather a fatty acid (if you want to get technical and all). you're supposed to take fish oil with 600 EPA per day to get depression-lifting effects. check paxilprogress.org for a lot of sources on the fish oil thing; none of the fish oil related studies were sponsored by GSK or any other pharma company -- which makes them a little more trustworthy, in my eyes. gotta check those sources & funding, as i'm sure you know.
watch out with the B vitamins if you have anxiety & panic; those actually give you more energy & hype you up quite a bit. not the greatest combo.
my main point is there's a ton of stuff you could look into, before meds, that might work for you! if i had only known that cutting caffeine & taking a goddamn vitamin & a CBT class would help me, i would have never touched the paxil. seriously -- have you heard of bipolar III? antidepressant induced bipolar? yeah. ha. not a funny thing.
I actually did not know that. I can't remember my dosage, but I know they increased it pretty much once a month until I told them no more, so I just stopped taking it. It definitely should be malpractice, that's awful.
I'm definitely going to look into the magnesium and vitamin C thing... I hadn't heard about them. Maybe I'll just see if I can get into a psychologist instead of psychiatrist for some sort of therapy to see if that helps.
I just hope my semester isn't so far gone that I can't catch up on everything.
I've never heard of Bipolar III either! That's so weird. You would think with buying $110 text books the would at least include the most recent diagnoses. You don't happen to know if it's in the DSM-IV, do you?
bipolar III is either in the DSM-IV or is going to be in the next version; it's labeled as "provisional" or something? (see http://www.biopsychiatry.com/bipolar3.htm ). it doesn't cause full blown mania, but rather "hypomania", which i guess is a less severe form. each pole lasts about 3-4 days, followed by a day or two of normalcy, and then the opposite pole. the tricky thing is this: it's recognized in the DSM as an actual illness, so quite often, people with bipolar III get put on lithium & other mood stabilizers! in actuality, many people with the so-called bipolar III return to a normal state after a period of time. i swear, the DSM is shot to shit; have you heard that COMPULSIVE SHOPPING DISORDER is going to be in version V?
sidenote: have you heard of Gogo Lidz? google her; she's a college student who was given, like, ritalin for her ADD...which in turn caused mania, so she needed lithium...which in turn caused depression, so they gave her abilify and an SSRI, which in turn....(and so on and so forth). yuck.
getting a psychologist as opposed to a psychiatrist is a fantastic idea. you can march in there with your own detailed CBT plan, really. some of the most effective things for me were exposure to & desenstization of my anxiety triggers.
I'm definitely going to check that out. I have heard that complusive shopping disorder will be added.... but I think that's one of those trendy things that will be taken out by the next revision.... sort of like how "gay" was a disorder in the 70's
I will google her, I've never heard of her but it sounds interesting that they would continually administer drugs to combat side effects of the previous drug.
Haha, I keep going over it in my head, how I'm going to walk into some poor persons office and be like, "THIS is what's wrong with me, THIS is my fixation, THIS is what I can't get over, THIS is how I've tried, and THIS is what I want you to do"
& that's exactly what i did, haha. i think they like when you do that; they don't have to think or plan as much, i would imagine. my walk-in spiel went something like "i'm withdrawing from paxil so i'm getting paxil w/d side effects, anxiety, and panic. i panic when my body feels weird or wrong; e.g., fast heartbeat, lightheaded, etc. i want to stop that via exposure & i want to pick apart my own cycle of panic. teach me techniques & how to snip the arrows between stimulus & response."
okay, you hit a nerve here. i'm actually going to be in an upcoming documentary about all of the bad things that antidepressants can do to you, so, yeah. as if that doesn't say enough, i'm going to continue:
1. first, you probably don't know as much about anti-d's as you think you do. check out www.paxilprogress.org to get the other side of the story -- the side you'll never hear from a doctor, or read about in your psych books.
2. hey, psych major: CBT actually works. it's the one and only thing that's helping with me anxiety right now.
3. i took paxil for 2 years and it's got a crapload of awful effects other than weight gain. it's not exclusive to paxil either; any SSRI basically does the same thing in terms of side effects. weight gain, the eventual numbing of emotions, the 12+ hours a day of sleeping....if these things never happened to you, good for you. but they can set in at any given period of time.
4. i'm curious, what dose & what anti-d were you on?
5. have you done any research in psych/biology/etc about magnesium, vitamin C, and fish oil (which is one of the #1 cures for depression right now, i might add)?
Reply
I really can't remmeber the dosages, but I was on Zoloft first, and asked to be taken off of it because I was shaking like crazy. Then I was on Paxil... that's when my "numb" episodes started.... even now, if I'm really low I'll go weeks literally... without being able to feel. I can't feel temperatures, can't tell if my hair is wet, etc... so I got off that and I was on Wellbutrin and lastly Wellbutrin SR.
I've heard of Magnesium but not vitamin C or fish oil... that's one of the B vitamins, right? I know that if you take a supplement for the vitamin B's it's supposed to help with SAD and bipolar disorder... but I didn't know about depression.
Out of curiousity... who is doing the study? Is it actually the makers of Paxil or is it an independent thing?
Reply
zoloft's notorious for hyping you up, as is prozac. paxil killed my emotions too, removed any and all motivation i ever had in regards to schoolwork or making & retaining friends. it was awful. wellbutrin's even shadier, as it not only ups your serotonin but your norepinephine as well. this could lead to problems with your dopaminergic system in the future -- parkinsons's-esque shakes & things. i've got them, ugh, but thank god they're only occasional.
magnesium is fantastic for muscle relaxation, especially the citrate version. it works like a charm for me. and vitamin C is good for anxiety because it combats cortisol, which as you know is a key anxiety horomone. fish oil's value lies in its omega 3 fatty acids. it's not a vitamin of any type, but rather a fatty acid (if you want to get technical and all). you're supposed to take fish oil with 600 EPA per day to get depression-lifting effects. check paxilprogress.org for a lot of sources on the fish oil thing; none of the fish oil related studies were sponsored by GSK or any other pharma company -- which makes them a little more trustworthy, in my eyes. gotta check those sources & funding, as i'm sure you know.
watch out with the B vitamins if you have anxiety & panic; those actually give you more energy & hype you up quite a bit. not the greatest combo.
my main point is there's a ton of stuff you could look into, before meds, that might work for you! if i had only known that cutting caffeine & taking a goddamn vitamin & a CBT class would help me, i would have never touched the paxil. seriously -- have you heard of bipolar III? antidepressant induced bipolar? yeah. ha. not a funny thing.
Reply
I'm definitely going to look into the magnesium and vitamin C thing... I hadn't heard about them. Maybe I'll just see if I can get into a psychologist instead of psychiatrist for some sort of therapy to see if that helps.
I just hope my semester isn't so far gone that I can't catch up on everything.
I've never heard of Bipolar III either! That's so weird. You would think with buying $110 text books the would at least include the most recent diagnoses. You don't happen to know if it's in the DSM-IV, do you?
Reply
sidenote: have you heard of Gogo Lidz? google her; she's a college student who was given, like, ritalin for her ADD...which in turn caused mania, so she needed lithium...which in turn caused depression, so they gave her abilify and an SSRI, which in turn....(and so on and so forth). yuck.
getting a psychologist as opposed to a psychiatrist is a fantastic idea. you can march in there with your own detailed CBT plan, really. some of the most effective things for me were exposure to & desenstization of my anxiety triggers.
Reply
I will google her, I've never heard of her but it sounds interesting that they would continually administer drugs to combat side effects of the previous drug.
Haha, I keep going over it in my head, how I'm going to walk into some poor persons office and be like, "THIS is what's wrong with me, THIS is my fixation, THIS is what I can't get over, THIS is how I've tried, and THIS is what I want you to do"
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