Say I had a friend who has gone through several different prescription regimens over the last 10 years (with reportedly modest benefit). How might I he wean off the current prescription and get away from artificial pharmacology?
SSRI had no clear benefits, many side effects, and stopping them gave vertigo that was less annoying that the side-effects of taking them.
Maby your friend actually feels better on them, maby it's placebo.
What actually had clear effects on my was daily exercise. It takes 2 to 3 weeks to get the mood improvements, but they are noticeable and it keeps improving over the months.
But you really have to exercise daily. Find something that can fit in your routine and adjust to your physical condition. Walking at a fast pace for 30 minutes a day is a good start. Bring music if it bores you.
A treadmil or a stationary bike (takes less space ) covers your base for bad weather, and you can read, listen, play or watch something while doing it.
Absolutely, exercise has had the clearest effect and benefit on every single facet of my life and my depression.
My favorite Andrew Tate thing has said was that if you're truly depressed and suicidal, give it a chance and go for a six pack. You have nothing to lose by trying and by the time you probably have a six pack you will have changed the things in your life that are making you that depressed.
Just having a more well-conditioned body significantly helps one’s mental health and self esteem.
Running anything more than a mile used to be a challenge for me. Now, I can run a 10K at a 8.5 minute per mile pace. Gaining that confidence to run longer distances also carried over to other aspects of my life.
You need to slowly come off it, perhaps longer than six months to a year and start doing strenuous exercise to let your body and brain naturally replace those chemicals. You must replace the habit with something else.
High intensity cardio and going to the gym would be my suggestion.
I know from personal experience, and from a few comments I've read in the last month alone, that it's not entirely uncommon for people to end up on a rather low dose after a few years of dealing with such meds.
Usually after rejecting doctor recommended doses and controlling their own dose to min-max with regards to any benefits vs side effects. Standard recommended doses for a lot of these meds are just godawfully high, and it takes a while for some patients to recognize and address this themselves.
There's also a fair bit of variation in efficacy and potency between different generic manufacturers that throws things off a lot too.
Say I had a friend who has gone through several different prescription regimens over the last 10 years (with reportedly modest benefit). How might
Ihe wean off the current prescription and get away from artificial pharmacology?The benefits may be fake. But the withdrawal effects can be very serious (benzodiazepines can be fatal)
SSRI had no clear benefits, many side effects, and stopping them gave vertigo that was less annoying that the side-effects of taking them.
Maby your friend actually feels better on them, maby it's placebo.
What actually had clear effects on my was daily exercise. It takes 2 to 3 weeks to get the mood improvements, but they are noticeable and it keeps improving over the months.
But you really have to exercise daily. Find something that can fit in your routine and adjust to your physical condition. Walking at a fast pace for 30 minutes a day is a good start. Bring music if it bores you.
A treadmil or a stationary bike (takes less space ) covers your base for bad weather, and you can read, listen, play or watch something while doing it.
Absolutely, exercise has had the clearest effect and benefit on every single facet of my life and my depression.
My favorite Andrew Tate thing has said was that if you're truly depressed and suicidal, give it a chance and go for a six pack. You have nothing to lose by trying and by the time you probably have a six pack you will have changed the things in your life that are making you that depressed.
Just having a more well-conditioned body significantly helps one’s mental health and self esteem.
Running anything more than a mile used to be a challenge for me. Now, I can run a 10K at a 8.5 minute per mile pace. Gaining that confidence to run longer distances also carried over to other aspects of my life.
You need to slowly come off it, perhaps longer than six months to a year and start doing strenuous exercise to let your body and brain naturally replace those chemicals. You must replace the habit with something else.
High intensity cardio and going to the gym would be my suggestion.
Depends on what dose the patient's already used to taking. Lower doses are going to be at least a little easier and quicker to wean off over time.
The poster specifically asks about 10 years of depression meds, but of course you are correct.
I know from personal experience, and from a few comments I've read in the last month alone, that it's not entirely uncommon for people to end up on a rather low dose after a few years of dealing with such meds.
Usually after rejecting doctor recommended doses and controlling their own dose to min-max with regards to any benefits vs side effects. Standard recommended doses for a lot of these meds are just godawfully high, and it takes a while for some patients to recognize and address this themselves.
There's also a fair bit of variation in efficacy and potency between different generic manufacturers that throws things off a lot too.
Good question. My understanding is that stuff is habit forming to the point that detoxing at that stage is nigh-impossible.
You essentially need to go to rehab.