Well that’s me off antidepressants completely (tapered off over a couple of months), having been on Citalopram initially then Sertraline for the best part of a decade (much of a muchness in my experience). This is certainly not because everything is hunky dory, more that I felt that they were having no positive effect whatsoever (if they ever did).
Disclaimer – this is not an anti-antidepressant rant. For some / many people they can be invaluable. I’m not sure they were ever going to work for my particular situation which I believe is persistent depressive disorder (The artist formerly known as dysthymia). But your mileage may vary.
The point of this post though is that one effect that I’ve noticed quite significantly since the drug has left my system (weeks ago) has been the return of emotion. I can find myself welling up quite easily now, most recently on hearing this – a tune that’s always been one of my faves but which I seemed to experience on a heightened level.
Anyway – I’d be interested to hear if anyone has experienced similar.
Can’t help you with coming off the anti-depressants, but I was diagnosed with mild to medium dysthymia about 7 years ago (in the middle of a marriage breakup), never did anything about it, interested to know whether any treatment helped, be it medication or therapy sessions etc. Good luck!
I was never diagnosed specifically with dysthymia – as is often the case these days it’s up to all of us to self-diagnose to some extent. That reflects my experience at any rate. I never felt that any medical professional knew any more on this topic than I did tbh. Looking back on it now, it’s my feeling that antidepressants are more suitable for acute rather than chronic depression but as I say, that’s just based on my experience.
I don’t see my newly heightened emotion as necessarily a bad thing, it’s just something I’ve noticed and wondered if others had experienced similar.
Indeed, probably a good thing, maybe swinging further in that direction after being on the other side of emotion. Thanks.
I hit my brick wall (hard) in 2012, with an initial bad experience of citalopram, followed by fluoxetine (Prozac), which, frankly, saved my life. Took it for two years, tapered off,, stopped and so far so good. OK, life changes aplenty for the positive. What did the drug do? I think it just took the edge off wanting to do things drastic like topping myself, in itself justifying the adverse. It seems I was more than a bit disinhibited, barking at cars and the like, but, hey. It has left me with, too much information alert, diminished orgasm, an acknowledged issue, but, much as that pisses me off, I am still grateful to the drug. It ain’t for everyone, but it works. And has certainly changed how I manage the treatment of depression in my day job, a GP.
Interesting stuff. I wasn’t being provocative when I said that I felt GP’s and therapists didn’t really tell me anything I didn’t already know. That’s where things fell flat for me and I’m sure is the case for countless others. We’re constantly given the well-meaning advice that, essentially, a problem shared is a problem halved etc etc. But in my case, I had the horrible realisation that ‘OMG you actually don’t know any more about this than I do, do you?’. I’ve come to a place where I know 100% what I should be doing to alleviate my condition, yet only implement it half-heartedly. So, we very much are where we are…
To be honest, that’s the point of most talking therapies: to facilitate your pathway to healing. Different methodologies and techniques are used to meet different needs, and there are obviously strong theoretical frameworks underpinning these approaches, but the individual is of course always deemed to be the expert of their own experience.
By their very nature, GPs can’t be experts in everything.
I was only diagnosed with Crohn’s disease (at the age of 42) by a recently-qualified locum GP, after decades of “unspecified IBS”, because he’d recently done his work experience in the gastroenterology department of a local hospital.
7 years on, and numerous visits to a consultant, I definitely know more about my condition than my GP does. But then only about 0.15% of the population have Crohn’s (it’s higher amongst AW contributors).
So, yes, you almost certainly do know more about it than your GP.
(BTW,I hadn’t meant to sound provoked, and wasn’t, I was merely offering a counterpoint around the point that the drugs can work. Best, of course, as part of a package with talking therapies. Sadly, these days, it is those that are increasingly being rationed by cash-strapped NHS mental health teams, and, with the increasing resultant pressure on GPs to “do something”, meaning more prescriptions written without that often vital component available.)
On the subject of what I might still call chronic depression, my own personal take on it is that some folk just function better with SSRIs (the current most likely group of drugs, yer prozacs, citalopram and sertraline) If you liken the brain to a chemistry set, they can balance the levels. Sometimes it is an acute upset of those levels that needs fixing, sometimes the imbalance is lasting. Offer the opportunity and framework to get better, decide on when best to later try reduction of the dose and try to come off. It isn’t always easy, mind, especially if it was the once popular paroxetine. The patient is always the expert in themselves. Such is true in every situation, as @fentonsteve says so rightly. Us guys are around the perspective of how most people will act/react to illness and how most people act/react to medication.
Sorry if I am railroading this discussion; it would become way tiresome for it to become a discussion just around evil docs and evil pharma, which in no way has been suggested, but can all too quickly occur. Especially as there is no shortage or either.
And, as Black Type says, talking therapies really do help.
This Boy is a very powerful piece. Lennon sings the verse in a very blank way which makes his solo bits more powerful. The strange proto-Krautrock stillness of the instrumentation helps create the effect. As usual with the Fantabs, they know what they’re doing but it’s real as well. No wonder you get overwhelmed.
up
Well I hope you are feller. Feeling is living. Choose life.
Maybe his best vocal. This was only a B side in 63, but he seems to be putting way more emotion into it than in any other track from that period. wonder if he was thinking of his mother and his own traumatic childhood..
Yes, no wonder Beatle-fan Alan Johnson chose “This Boy” as the title of his childhood autobiography.
Talking Therapies and a mild dose of Citalopram have made a huge difference to me and my life. The drug has balanced me out and the therapy helped me to realise the things I needed help with and some mental exercises to help me confront them.
They worked/are working for me and, after 44 years of pretty severe depression, going to my GP and ‘putting my hand up’ has been the best thing I’ve ever done for myself.