I can tell you from bitter experience that they fucking suck. I’m currently trying to get off after a solid 8 years on them. You don’t realise how much they affect you until you start to drop the dosage - your brain works completely differently.
Withdrawals are awful, but I finally decided pushing through it was worth it. Give it another few months and hopefully I’ll be 100% free of this crap.
Congratulations to you regarding this accomplishment. Wishing you the best as you sound to be in the home stretch!
I have been fortunate enough to not need/be introduced to these sorts of medications... I always worry that however they might intend to help, it is unbalanced with how it might rob your brain's natural ability to do these sort of chemical-related tasks. But I hardly know much about them to say with any certainty, so I appreciate your sharing here regarding your experiences with them.
I needed them to begin with for sure, but they’re a bandaid solution, not a permanent fix. Yet they were given to me, and I’d guess many others, without any sort of plan to ever actually get off them or solve the underlying issues. All of that, I’ve had to figure out myself.
Not sure what you mean by that. Withdrawals themselves are just dizziness, anxiety, mood swings, and lack of sleep. It sucks, but I think the effects of the SSRIs themselves, especially at higher doses, are far more concerning.
Joe Rogan actually talked about how his friend described them once, which was like it’s impossible to have a negative emotion - he said he could watch his best friend get killed and it wouldn’t bother him in the slightest. That’s 100% accurate. I haven’t felt like that for a while - I’ve been on a medium sort of dose for a few years now - but just think of the implications of that. It absolutely doesn’t surprise me how many mass shooters are on these things, put it that way. Imagine you’re a depressed loser who’s angry at the world, and maybe has other mental health issues on top, and now suddenly you’re on a pill that makes you completely non-reactive to even the most horrendous of experiences.
Sensory and movement disturbances have also been reported, including imbalance, tremors, vertigo, dizziness, and electric-shock-like experiences in the brain, often described by people who have them as "brain zaps". These "brain zaps" are often described as feeling like an unsettling shiver or shock sensation that starts in the head and moves quickly through the entire body.
It is said to be common with SSRI.
My aunt is quitting duloxetine, which is SNRI, and she says it's fucking atrocious to bear
The brain zaps suck really bad. They tapper off over time but not sure if they will ever go away completely. I still get them over 1 year from last dose, less now, and not as intense.
Sensory and movement disturbances have also been reported, including imbalance, tremors, vertigo, dizziness, and electric-shock-like experiences in the brain, often described by people who have them as "brain zaps". These "brain zaps" are often described as feeling like an unsettling shiver or shock sensation that starts in the head and moves quickly through the entire body.
I don’t doubt it. Something I read only recently as well is that they can actually mess with your vision, which is something I’ve noticed. It seems to be hit and miss whether it’s permanent or not, and it might just be coincidence, but it’s that sort of thing they leave in the small print.
The sexual dysfunction one is what worries me the most. But then theres the increased suicidal ideation too and all of a sudden things start to seem way too convenient to be not planned.
Well I’m not fully off yet, but down to 5mg which is pretty much as low as you can get, with the next step being zero.
There’s a lot of physical differences, tiredness and needing to sleep a lot when I’m on them being the main ones. The tiredness isn’t like normal tiredness though. Most people can function when they’re tired from, say, a bad night’s sleep, they just feel rough while they’re doing it. This is like, massively mentally taxing to make myself a sandwich tired. Weird things that I’d taken for granted like just cleaning up pots after myself immediately, I just do it without thinking about it now, whereas 6 months ago that’d be a genuine effort. It sounds ridiculous, I know.
And I can get by on much less sleep now and stay awake all day.
The more subtle stuff is things like clarity of thought and motivation. One of the most noticeable things for me was my ability to concentrate in the gym - I’ve been getting injured a lot over the past few years and not making a whole lot of progress, and I’ve got no doubt now that it’s been due to the SSRIs. I just couldn’t concentrate and focus on what I was doing, and I was literally physically weaker. Motivation wise, they definitely make you feel completely ok with doing nothing, which is probably not a bad thing if you’re suicidal, but absolutely sucks if you actually want to get out of the rut that may have made you depressed in the first place. These sorts of things are really hard to get a grasp of, too, since once you’ve been on them for long enough, you forget what ‘normal’ even feels like.
I had to look up what an SSRI is, lol. I don't know what that says about me, but hopefully it is a good thing.
I can tell you from bitter experience that they fucking suck. I’m currently trying to get off after a solid 8 years on them. You don’t realise how much they affect you until you start to drop the dosage - your brain works completely differently.
Withdrawals are awful, but I finally decided pushing through it was worth it. Give it another few months and hopefully I’ll be 100% free of this crap.
Congratulations to you regarding this accomplishment. Wishing you the best as you sound to be in the home stretch!
I have been fortunate enough to not need/be introduced to these sorts of medications... I always worry that however they might intend to help, it is unbalanced with how it might rob your brain's natural ability to do these sort of chemical-related tasks. But I hardly know much about them to say with any certainty, so I appreciate your sharing here regarding your experiences with them.
Thanks.
I needed them to begin with for sure, but they’re a bandaid solution, not a permanent fix. Yet they were given to me, and I’d guess many others, without any sort of plan to ever actually get off them or solve the underlying issues. All of that, I’ve had to figure out myself.
Do you experience brain zaps?
Not sure what you mean by that. Withdrawals themselves are just dizziness, anxiety, mood swings, and lack of sleep. It sucks, but I think the effects of the SSRIs themselves, especially at higher doses, are far more concerning.
Joe Rogan actually talked about how his friend described them once, which was like it’s impossible to have a negative emotion - he said he could watch his best friend get killed and it wouldn’t bother him in the slightest. That’s 100% accurate. I haven’t felt like that for a while - I’ve been on a medium sort of dose for a few years now - but just think of the implications of that. It absolutely doesn’t surprise me how many mass shooters are on these things, put it that way. Imagine you’re a depressed loser who’s angry at the world, and maybe has other mental health issues on top, and now suddenly you’re on a pill that makes you completely non-reactive to even the most horrendous of experiences.
It is said to be common with SSRI.
My aunt is quitting duloxetine, which is SNRI, and she says it's fucking atrocious to bear
The brain zaps suck really bad. They tapper off over time but not sure if they will ever go away completely. I still get them over 1 year from last dose, less now, and not as intense.
How are those like?
Long term SSRI use can physically alter your brain structure, I looked into it. There are some seriously fubared side effects that can happen.
we seem to be kind of turning into reddit here, where randos will demand proof, so here is one article showing it. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2015-09-common-antidepressant-sertraline-brain.html
and https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamapsychiatry/fullarticle/2761879
"Conclusions and Relevance In this secondary analysis of a randomized clinical trial, antipsychotic medication was shown to change brain structure."
I don’t doubt it. Something I read only recently as well is that they can actually mess with your vision, which is something I’ve noticed. It seems to be hit and miss whether it’s permanent or not, and it might just be coincidence, but it’s that sort of thing they leave in the small print.
The sexual dysfunction one is what worries me the most. But then theres the increased suicidal ideation too and all of a sudden things start to seem way too convenient to be not planned.
Anti-psychotic medications are not SSRIs. They are neuroleptics.
You're probably being downvoted because the article specifically mentioned sertraline, which IS an SSRI.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sertraline
Sertraline, sold under the brand name Zoloft among others, is an antidepressant of the selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) class
I feel like they helped me tremendously. But I only occasionally get the urge to cross dress.
I mean they do say the key to getting over depression is to get some hobbies...
Whats the difference(s) you noticed with your brain on them vs off?
Well I’m not fully off yet, but down to 5mg which is pretty much as low as you can get, with the next step being zero.
There’s a lot of physical differences, tiredness and needing to sleep a lot when I’m on them being the main ones. The tiredness isn’t like normal tiredness though. Most people can function when they’re tired from, say, a bad night’s sleep, they just feel rough while they’re doing it. This is like, massively mentally taxing to make myself a sandwich tired. Weird things that I’d taken for granted like just cleaning up pots after myself immediately, I just do it without thinking about it now, whereas 6 months ago that’d be a genuine effort. It sounds ridiculous, I know.
And I can get by on much less sleep now and stay awake all day.
The more subtle stuff is things like clarity of thought and motivation. One of the most noticeable things for me was my ability to concentrate in the gym - I’ve been getting injured a lot over the past few years and not making a whole lot of progress, and I’ve got no doubt now that it’s been due to the SSRIs. I just couldn’t concentrate and focus on what I was doing, and I was literally physically weaker. Motivation wise, they definitely make you feel completely ok with doing nothing, which is probably not a bad thing if you’re suicidal, but absolutely sucks if you actually want to get out of the rut that may have made you depressed in the first place. These sorts of things are really hard to get a grasp of, too, since once you’ve been on them for long enough, you forget what ‘normal’ even feels like.
Its anti depressants
Prozac or Zoloft lol