Antidepressants

[pozorvlak]

I've been on the antidepressant fluoxetine (better known as Prozac) for nearly a year now, and I thought I'd write about what it's been like. I've heard a lot of scaremongering about how awful antidepressants are and how they don't actually work and they all have terrible side effects ranging from permanent impotence to a constant emotional

Comments

[andrewducker]

I'm entirely in favour of antidepressants as a method of pulling people out of a downward spiral. Anything that stops you creating a smoking crater is good.

Are you getting help with sorting the root problem while you're suspended in mid-air?

[pozorvlak]

Some, but NHS mental health services are badly overstretched and I'm a pretty mild case. I did a five-week CBT course at the end of last year, and I've read a book about it. It's mostly homework, is the thing, and I need to do that myself. To the extent that I've learned and practiced the techniques, they seem to be helping. I've also made some concrete changes in my life like getting involved in an open-source project and joining my local mountaineering club: getting out and exercising in the hills has a huge positive effect on my mental state.

[andrewducker]

All of that is good. Glad you're getting out more and involving yourself in the world

[pozorvlak]

I don't *think* I have any trauma deeper than "did a PhD in a subject I thought I was good at, got badly stuck for 2.5 years, then got a succession of jobs for which I wasn't qualified". Though given what figg says below about social situations, I'm wondering if I'm further along the autistic spectrum than I'd realised.

Sorry to hear that you've suffered from this awful disease, but I'm glad to hear you're doing better these days!

[figg]

As an internet doctor, and someone who has also tried fluoxetine: Congratulations, it sounds like you're having a better experience because of the medication. Hooray and other good news sounds

[figg]

> Annoyingly it hasn't made me as functional as I'd hoped, [...but ] barely-functional and meh is, I repeat, a huge improvement over barely-functional and miserable. And I am more functional: [...] No way could I have done any of those things a year ago. Side effects: there have been a few, mostly pretty mild

[figg]

tl;dr depression is terrible, you're not, glad the meds are working out, but keep working on your sad brains, it takes time.

[michiexile]

You're still beating yourself up, and then beating yourself up because of it.

Wow. Yeah. This is me too. So often it's almost painful to think about.

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oh wait…

[johnckirk]

That's interesting, thanks. It sounds similar to what I tell people about Entonox (an analgesic gas): "This won't make the [physical] pain go away, you'll still be aware of it but it won't bother you." I'm glad to hear that this has worked well for you.

[michiexile]

I recognize most of what you write a lot from my ~6 weeks now on fluoxetine. Libido and orgasm issues? I have them. Reduced caring, makes me not actually freak out about it? Yup, that too.

Since I have a history of bipolar-spectrum problems, I have been on the lookout for hypomanic reactions for a while. I had one, probably more psychosomatic than anything else, flash of manic-spectrum mood swings on my first day of medicating - but my mania has been keeping itself in check as well.

You'd tell me if you all hated me, right? I'd much rather know, and however low your opinion of me I can guarantee I've thought much worse things about myself.I count you among some of my most important friends. Spending time with you is an absolute joy, and picking your brain is delightful. Srsly

[shuripentu]

I find it interesting that fluoxetine's primary effect on you is apathy, which in your case seems to be a very helpful thing. I was on paroxetine for several years, and I eventually asked to come off it shortly before my last exam season because it also made me apathetic, which was generally fine (and significantly better than constantly suicidal) but not so helpful when I really needed to pull my finger out and acquire some sort of degree. So I came off it, the self-loathing and anger and wanting to smash all the things came back in spades, but I got a degree. (I also took the most exciting overdose I have ever taken and landed myself in hospital again and then there was hilarity and also police, but swings and roundabouts.) For me, antidepressants helped me get through a particularly difficult several years, and stopped me from being a constant major clusterfsck (and ensured I was instead merely a constant minor clusterfsck with occasional major outbreaks of clusterfsckery), but I think their usefulness for me is now past, and it is

[pozorvlak]

*offers hugs*
*is glad to hear the anorgasmia has gone away*