/hb/ - Health & Beauty

i’m not going to be a dormer as such i’ll just say they didn’t work for me. at best i just felt numb and my hands always shook worse than a cokehead’s, at worst whole other array of different side effects for each pill. in fact now when i think about it i’ve never actually heard anyone irl say they helped, the pills specifically. do with this what you will.
>i was under the impression that they dont really change much since everything ultimately depends on yourself
likely closest to the truth

>>18853
*doomer i’m too lazy to delete & repost

Antidepressants are like a lottery of shit side effects and also placebos if you’re not too far down the spiral.

it works like a charm, but different antidepressants work differently depending on ppl

was a mess before taking escitalopram - felt great after, like i was blind before and suddenly could see again
was a mess before taking zoloft - was a bigger mess after

so yep, but you have to find one that will work for you

I'd have to be pretty desperate to take a gamble on psychiatric medicine and it's criminal how casually it's recommended to people considering all the damage they can do

>>18852
>>18852
Prescribed Escitalopram 1 1/2 and risperidone 15 days ago

BEST SHIT EVER NOW I CAN ACTUALLY TALK TO PEOPLE. but sometimes it just comes back and I feel like a complete loser and are toying with everybody

Taking risperidone kind of stopped my fear due to certain thought processes.

Also, I think Escitalopram made me lactate fucking weird or maybe it's unrelated and i may have breast cancer

But, just try it. If it doesn't work for a month then talk to your psychiatrist

>>18852
They helped me a whole lot. I would probably be dead without them. I’m on escitalopram too. I don’t feel like it cured me but it made the depression less intense, made me so much less anxious and made my emotions, that felt way too intense to take before, more bearable. All in all, I feel more like a normal person on them. I still get mood swings and get suicidal thoughts but much less often and less intense and I’m still sensitive asf towards everything but I can live with it now. I’m a bit scared that I can never get off of them, because whenever I tried, it was worse than before. But at least I can live with them and enjoy life a bit

I've been on many different kinds of antidepressants and while maybe I just haven't found the right one, none of the ones I have tried did a fucking thing. To me it just feels like some complacency pill that you wake up and take every morning to say you're at least doing something. The side effects are definitely real though as well as the withdrawals. Take this advice with a grain of salt since ykno, individual brain chemistry

its a gamble if i have to be honest, and only worth it if you really feel fucked up beyond repair. i use to take zoloft but it made me feel incredibly numb and emotionless, i felt like an NPC. and then when i went off it i had a very bad emotional crash.
i was then prescribed wellbutrin as maybe SSRIs werent for me. my problem with my depressive disorder wasn't so much the emotions but rather the symptoms were you are incredibly fatigued and unable to do anything. wellbutrin is to be best taken in the mornings as it can cause insomnia if taken later in the day, for me it worked like a much needed energy boost. i started feeling better especially bc i actually had energy to achieve goals i was pursing for a very long time.

i will say it wasnt all that great bc a side effect of wellbutrin is increased sweating. i was sweating while being seated and it wasnt even hot outside. it did go away with time. i also lost a lot of weight because of how it decreases appetite, which depending on the person can be a plus or minus. for me i was a huge binge eater landwhale, and i lost a lot of weight bc my binge eating was curbed by the medication. i'm a normal weight now.

other than what i've mentioned, i don't have much else in terms of side effects. i still get very emotional but i have better coping mechanisms that isnt stuffing my face with junk. i don't want to sound like i'm supporting psychiatrists prescribing medications out like candy but it's simply my experience. i've heard countless times about how other meds can fuck you up badly and I'm not willing to take the risk.

Antidepressants only work for anxiety, at least in my experience, it basically numbs you down.

>>18905
People always say this as if it’s something bad. When I’m off them, I’m always on edge. On them I feel more normal and I’m not completely numb, it just makes the feelings less intense and overwhelming

>>18905
I feel like they've only given me weird side effects but I've taken them so long I'm not sure I could tell the difference without them anymore.

I personally don't like antidepressants because they make me feel like a labrat - you have to take them indefinitely for a condition that could otherwise be solved through therapy, can't just quit them cold turkey but have to taper (unless you want to risk going insane and having a bunch of other side-effects), and have to jump from one to another constantly, if one isn't working. I've been on several and they ended up either doing nothing, turning me into a zombie, or made me so suicidal I made an actual attempt. There is one I was prescribed, Bupropion, that seemed to work pretty well in the beginning but it made my anxiety so high and my thoughts so crazy that I started disassociating right in the middle of class and thought I would have a meltdown. It also increased my libido which on one hand is good since it is usually nonexistant, but on the other it was annoying being horny 24/7. Speaking of which, if one gives you problems with your libido, you also usually have to switch. IF it gives you a low libido, it may lower it permanently if you don't. I have a feeling mine may have been permanently lowered by one of the antidepressants I took.

CBT would be best for things like depression and anxiety disorders. Antidepressants screw with your brain too much. I am still convinced to this day that they made me retarded.

>>18925
I‘m so tired of people shilling CBT. It doesn’t work for everyone and from my experience it only works for people who have minor or temporary issues

>>18930

Neither do antidepressants. What's your point? I can at least see long-term benefit from changing the way you think through therapy. Antidepressants make you instantly go back to having the same problems as before, when you stop taking them.

>>18852
theyre a bandaid solution
there may be something underneath that is causing your depression that you arent dealing with
also exercise/good eating habits/good sleep go a long way to help
i went on many antidepressants and other psychiatric medication as a teen, and they didnt help. only numbed me out. one of them (pristiq) has given me permanent intermittent sleep paralysis. i stopped taking it years ago but i still get sleep paralysis sometimes and i never got it before pristiq. also coming off of it i had so much sleep paralysis. but its a specific pristiq kind of sleep paralysis, where it sounds like there are masses of bees buzzing in your ear and your brain feels like an etch a sketch.

Yes

>>18905
Agreed, im not anxious and not as retarded as before. But lemme tell you i’m numb as hell and dont feel anything and my suicidal tendencies are 10x worse

Anti depressants 'can' work if there is something wrong with your serotonin system in the way that it processes serotonin. From what I understand most antidepressants are Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors (SSRI), and if there's nothing wrong with the way your brain takes in Serotonin on a chemical level, then anti depressants can actually fuck you up pretty bad

>>18957
Forgot to mention. When I say they 'can' work, I mean that they 'can' work in tandem with a healthy and fulfilling life. They aren't happy pills. For that see psychedelics.

>>18957
when the therapist recommended me to take these I did some research on different brands and ended up freaking myself out because none of the studies I read showed the pill as being significantly more effective than placebo. Another thing: when they diagnose you with depression, they tell you you have a serotonin problem, but they never actually check serotonin levels. It never sat right with me and I'm glad I never took those pills. NGL i thing they just try to put you on anything to keep you from murking yourself so they don't get in trouble and they can check you off as another "healed" patient.
My depression left after reading a lot of philosophy and improving my living situation. I'm certain most of the people taking these pills would be better served by other methods, but i'm not a doctor.
for example, most people have this issue >>18968 .
For those of us that are depressed no matter how fit and healthy we are, I think philosophy and life changes make a big difference.

>>18852
I've heard shrooms help people get their shit together but I've also heard good things about ecstasy

>>18852
it depends on why you're depressed.
existential dread is usually better helped by a changed worldview. 30 grams of psilocybin truffles made me start seeing and thinking about life as a whole very differently. that's what kickstarted my personal development a few years ago after also having been depressed since 11yo
if you've been depressed for this long it's also likely that you just have some neurotransmitter imbalance. if this is the case you may be better off with a psychiatrists educated guess on what kind of pill would work best. but don't just let them put you on a cocktail of drugs

prozac was the best thing I ever did for myself

I'm no longer taking them but when I did I felt numb (in a good way, it was more bearable than how I was feeling prior) and got rid of suicidal thoughts that would come around when I was on my period

I also started caring less about the way I looked, which in turn made me feel better about myself. Kinda wanna go back on them now.

the only side effect I had was weaker orgasms but I could live with it

I have a friend with depression and she's on antidepressants, I don't really notice the difference but she says they makes a really big impact and how without them she feels dead.
If you have mental health problem I'd recommend seeing a therapist anyway, they will help you.

op here to give a bit of an update. first of all, thanks for all of your thoughtful responses i appreciate them. i've started on an antidepressant and been going to a few therapy sessions. i just feel numb instead of sad and my apathy has increased tenfold. i still want to die. i thought therapy would be helpful but i don't really feel that i'm getting anything from it. this is mainly because i think that i don't want to even be there or put in any effort. i'm only going because my doctor told me to and i realized i don't like it. i'm open during my sessions and give information, but it seems like a lot of what i say is maybe too heavy and my therapist is more commonly at a lost for words.

i don't really know what i'm doing at this point in my life. i had to take leave from work and start this treatment plan because i reached my breaking point. i don't have a plan or direction and am hoping my eating disorder slowly kills me

i'll continue to go to therapy and take my medication though. take care everyone

>>19073
which antidepressant you use?

>>19075
sertraline

I've tried so many antidepressants and other classes of drugs in my life that I've lost count, and none of them ever made a difference for me. In fact they were a net negative because of the side effects.

But that was years ago, and nowadays I'm genuinely way happier and emotionally resilient. I haven't had suicidal thoughts in a while and I feel generally content with just existing.

For me what changed was stuff like eating better, getting away from abuse, developing more independence and confidence in doing things, developing new hobbies (I like cooking and fashion), adopting religious beliefs, working on self-esteem… But I know these are all sort of meme suggestions, it's hard to really put your finger on it when you come out of that sort of thing and I think that's maybe why people sound so retarded and unhelpful when talking about how to get better. Like on a surface level, taking care of yourself helps, but it's really more of a deeper philosophical thing where you have to find intrinsic meaning and value in your life. For me it started with stuff like "I hate my life but I sort of want x goal so I'll work towards that."

I'm not good at advice but I hope that maybe it would help someone to hear that someone who got nothing out of any medication or therapy was able to get better. (also if you have specialist issues like trauma, it might help to see a specialist therapist rather than a normie one who just helps people deal with stress)

>>19113
It did help me to read that. My problems aren’t really fixable. There is nothing wrong with my life. It’s just me existing in this world and the agony I feel in existing. But it’s not constant agony. I have done a lot and nothing really worked but reading about your experience was kinda soothing. I hope my brain can fix itself somehow