Only guy I know who takes antidepressants tells me they didn't cure his depression at all but when he stops taking them he feels even worse so he keeps taking them.
Sounds like a total scam to me. It sounds to me like antidepressants just make you become dependent on antidepressants to not feel even worse but do nothing to actually improve thus creating a person who is essentially "coerced" into a lifetime of pills.
If you're reliably feeling 2/10, turning it into a 2.5/10 means you still feel like shite, but technically, it's better on the scale, and you'd notice the difference if it dropped again.
I’m thinking it’s more that the person will experience less “extremes” (as the study attests to)…
So they might average out at a 4, but the SSRIs in theory prevent them from reaching a 1/10…
But they likely also prevent them from ever getting much above a 6 or 7 out of 10.
So the question is, is that worth it? With all the side effects, and all that we know, is it worth “neutering” that..?
And that’s what arguable. I guess it keeps people alive, which in turn gives them the chance to fight for a better life, and to truly… “Get better”. But as to whether it actually “helps” the depression…
I think most would agree that the jury is very much still out on that one…
There's a fairly well documented "SSRI discontinuation syndrome" where people feel physically unwell for weeks after stopping a SSRI cold turkey.
It's more of a constellation of unpleasant physical symptoms rather than true return of the depression though.
It's theorized that it's a result of suddenly decreasing serotonin release after the body has upregulated the number of receptors after a time of plenty.
But realistically, psychiatrists and neuroscientists don't actually know ahit about what SSRIs actually do despite Prozac being on the market since the late 80s.
It's a bit of both. The withdrawal effect from decreasing a dosage, or going off cold turkey, won't "make" depression return necessarily, but it can open up some vulnerability to it due to the somewhat shaky neurochemical state.
Also, there's usually a bit of a blowback effect from decreasing some of the calming effects that were previously present (from the higher serotonin levels), which typically leads to heightened anxiety and agitation. Mostly in the short-term, but it can be tricky to shake off the fearful state even after a person's system starts to rebalance itself.
You're right about one thing though, the exact nature of the "supposed" therapeutic effects from SSRI's are... basically something that can't realistically be quantified or measured. There's some hints at what some of those neurological effects are, but they can't trace it with any kind of precision or accuracy. T
here's not any specific chemicals or by-products they can trace, because it's not specifically the serotonin that's supposedly the therapeutic effect. It's the by-products produced from ramping up that serotonin uptake. And those effects will not really correlate with how much of the active ingredient is measured in the bloodstream.
The serotonin CAN however have a direct therapeutic effect on anxiety related symptoms however. But for the purposes of developing and marketing drugs as antidepessants? The serotonin itself was never intended to be the main fix, though they did end up marketing it that way, likely because it was easier to try and explain in laymen terms.
Only guy I know who takes antidepressants tells me they didn't cure his depression at all but when he stops taking them he feels even worse so he keeps taking them.
Sounds like a total scam to me. It sounds to me like antidepressants just make you become dependent on antidepressants to not feel even worse but do nothing to actually improve thus creating a person who is essentially "coerced" into a lifetime of pills.
If you're reliably feeling 2/10, turning it into a 2.5/10 means you still feel like shite, but technically, it's better on the scale, and you'd notice the difference if it dropped again.
I’m thinking it’s more that the person will experience less “extremes” (as the study attests to)…
So they might average out at a 4, but the SSRIs in theory prevent them from reaching a 1/10…
But they likely also prevent them from ever getting much above a 6 or 7 out of 10.
So the question is, is that worth it? With all the side effects, and all that we know, is it worth “neutering” that..?
And that’s what arguable. I guess it keeps people alive, which in turn gives them the chance to fight for a better life, and to truly… “Get better”. But as to whether it actually “helps” the depression…
I think most would agree that the jury is very much still out on that one…
Never. But also, someone who got better, is likely not someone who will broadcast it. The people who don't get better tell everyone as a cry for help.
There's a fairly well documented "SSRI discontinuation syndrome" where people feel physically unwell for weeks after stopping a SSRI cold turkey.
It's more of a constellation of unpleasant physical symptoms rather than true return of the depression though.
It's theorized that it's a result of suddenly decreasing serotonin release after the body has upregulated the number of receptors after a time of plenty.
But realistically, psychiatrists and neuroscientists don't actually know ahit about what SSRIs actually do despite Prozac being on the market since the late 80s.
It's a bit of both. The withdrawal effect from decreasing a dosage, or going off cold turkey, won't "make" depression return necessarily, but it can open up some vulnerability to it due to the somewhat shaky neurochemical state.
Also, there's usually a bit of a blowback effect from decreasing some of the calming effects that were previously present (from the higher serotonin levels), which typically leads to heightened anxiety and agitation. Mostly in the short-term, but it can be tricky to shake off the fearful state even after a person's system starts to rebalance itself.
You're right about one thing though, the exact nature of the "supposed" therapeutic effects from SSRI's are... basically something that can't realistically be quantified or measured. There's some hints at what some of those neurological effects are, but they can't trace it with any kind of precision or accuracy. T
here's not any specific chemicals or by-products they can trace, because it's not specifically the serotonin that's supposedly the therapeutic effect. It's the by-products produced from ramping up that serotonin uptake. And those effects will not really correlate with how much of the active ingredient is measured in the bloodstream.
The serotonin CAN however have a direct therapeutic effect on anxiety related symptoms however. But for the purposes of developing and marketing drugs as antidepessants? The serotonin itself was never intended to be the main fix, though they did end up marketing it that way, likely because it was easier to try and explain in laymen terms.