Fuck shit like this, I was having VERY stupid thoughts about ending my existence until my girlfriend dragged me to the doctors, yes there are side effects but the alternative is that otherwise I wouldn’t be here anymore.
I think the “joke” is that those side effects would make you very sad as well. Pretty counterproductive to the whole problem itself. 😅
But hey, I’m very glad you made it out of that state, and your girlfriend sounds like a real keeper. 💖 Keep on trucking! 🙏
Doc: we are all interested in your bum
Me: my bum?
Doc: your bum, we want to stick six feet of hosepipe up there
Me: I don’t want that to happen
Doc: expect not, are you free next Tuesday morning?
🎶 check the poo, check the poo 🎶
🎶 our number one test is your number two 🎶
There’s a testing called genesight that I did through my doctor (so seemingly not sending my DNA to a private company like 23&me) that helped me identify which SSRI would metabolize with the fewest side effects with my specific body chemistry. For those lucky enough to have health insurance, I think insurance will pay for it after 2 attempted SSRIs with bad side effects.
I wish for rest & gentleness for us all. 🪻🪻
Same. I literally almost died because paxil wasn’t something I could even take and it was giving me serotonin syndrome.
2 years on now, after the test, found a far better drug with no side effects for me.
Went to therapy for depression and high anxiety.
Put me on depakote. Gained a lot of weight(spare tire) and ended up with body dismorphia which made me even more depressed.
Quit that therapist and went to another who pulled me off of it. Body went back to normal. Just needed someone to talk to. Helped me realize that I cared too much about what others thought.
My anxiety was due to trying too hard to people please when most people don’t know themselves what pleases them. And the depression was me failing to help others.
If they don’t know, how the fuck am I supposed to help them. Answer: Don’t. Help myself and by extension I help everyone. Problem not solved but definitely more managed.
Came up with the phrase “Slow the Decay”. Best way to do that is by making suggestions that others may or may not take. If they do, I helped slow the Decay. If not, then it’s not my fault. Can’t help the entire world, but I can help slow the decay in my small part of it.
Started working out, which helped immensely.
Turns out that sitting inside and looking at doomers is bad for your well-being.
If only my insurance provider believed mental health care was worth covering more, I might be in a better place. And medicated.
(UHC can choke on my fat hog)
It’s wild to me that it feels like we’ve thrown in the towel on creating conditions good for human health mentally. Im not always the most chipper of people, but I thought it was wild that Ive had multiple coworkers casually and openly discuss how hard adjusting to ssri medication has been for them.
Life sucks? Stressed? Hate your life and or job? Take a pill…
Im not discounting that the medication actually helps a lot of individuals. I just hate that it has become the blanket remedy to unhappy mental states. Even eating healthy, positive social relationships, and exercising gets written off quickly.
You can’t lose weight, but that’s okay because the lack of appetite balances that out! (A common side effect my antidepressants have)
Lucky
me: I’m sad
Local feral cat: Here’s my three kittens. I must go now, my planet needs me
Vet: This will be expensive and exhausting for you
Therapist: Pets would be good for you, but you won’t be able to keep up with the necessary work and routines. Maybe at a later time.
me: Oh yea? I’ll show you! I will attempt to keep up with the necessary work and routines!
Me again: I failed and broke down immediately
Still me: gotta give up the cats
Yet again me: Perfect…
*that can also make your symptoms far worse!
I’d rather have weird side effects and be fat than be dead.
How many calories do these pills have?
sertralin works perfectly fine w/o that stuff
For some. If it works for you, you’re lucky. Especially if it’s the first drug you tried.
For others, depression treatment means bouncing around between different drugs and drug classes until landing on something that works, and doesn’t make things worse. For some people that’s a holy grail that doesn’t actually exist, and they won’t be helped by any of the “traditional” first-line treatments. (The SSRI, SNRI, tricyclic, etc. drugs).
Some of these take weeks before you even know if it’s working or not. If it doesn’t work, and you have to stop taking it, you either go cold turkey, risking bizarre withdrawal symptoms and/or worse mental issues, or its a slow taper of weeks to months. Best case scenario you feel dull and blah for a few weeks during that taper. Or you may experience worse symptoms. Either way, it’s a huge waste of time and resources, with a high degree of chance you’ll just say “fuck it” and make a choice that will make things even worse.
Now imagine repeating that cycle several times over, until you cross whatever arbitrary threshold your local health system deigns is enough suffering to allow them to give you the “treatment resistant” label and open the gates to newer, “non-traditional” treatments with a higher chance of actually working. This magic number of different drugs you have to try can vary based on local laws and your insurance. In my situation, it’s at least 7 different drugs, and you have to try one from each major category. (So 1 SSRI, 1 SNRI, etc…) You also must comply with all your provider’s instructions. If they want you to taper off, you can’t just say “fuck it”, you must take all the scheduled doses until that’s complete. You must be a good obedient patient until whatever authority applies to you decides you’ve had enough.
There are a few things out there with much higher success rates, like ketamine therapy, MDMA therapy, psylocybin and electroconvulsive therapy (which sounds really scary, but it’s been and continues to be refined and modernized, and currently has a success rate of about 60%, which is considered very good).
Patients in my area have to survive the drugs gauntlet I’ve described above, plus talk therapy, before they’re allowed to take advantage of the things which medicine already knows are just as safe and vastly more effective - it’s really fucked. Many don’t come out better on the other side of that process, which can take YEARS, and some don’t survive. The only exceptions to this are of course wealthy people who can just end-run around most of the rules because they have the ability to pay directly for the good stuff out of pocket.
Speaking of money, these treatments which are known to work more often for a greater percentage of people are often a lot more expensive in the short term - if they’re even available where you live. It doesn’t have to be that way but, thanks to regulatory capture, there is a boatload of overhead. These therapies all require licensing, certifications, a higher level of expertise and skill, etc., way way above and beyond just writing a script for, e.g., wellbutrin.
Because they all work for quite a while after a session, though, you don’t need them as often, and they cost far less in the long run. Sounds good, right? But insurance companies hate things like that. They would much rather you take one or more pills every day for your entire life. They especially like the ones that are difficult to get off of. So they force providers to tinker around with your brain chemistry for a while, with drugs that are just barely effective enough that they continue to be manufactured. They would love for you to give up or die during that phase of treatment, because then they don’t ever have to subsidize those expensive therapies which are more of an occasional appointment or even “one and done” treatment model.
Some turn to black market sources of ketamine, MDMA or psychs in a desperate attempt to treat themselves, but, naturally, not everyone coloring outside the lines has the knowledge or werewithal to test their drugs or use the correct dose/dosing schedule or provide themselves the proper mindset and environment like a professional would.
Mental health treatment can be a real wilderness for many.
tldr
Sertraline was actual torture for me. I stopped sleeping entirely, had constant chills, pounding headache, mood instability where I would just start sobbing for no reason. Started on week 3 and by the end of the week I was begging my doctor to take me off it.
Sister had similar results. I ended up on different meds.
i am very sorry to hear that
Took me a few months on sertraline to get back to my horny self and even being able to cum - a frustrating few months indeed - but it helps a ton with the anxiety and eventually I got back to busting nuts so I think it’s worth it.
I wish
Are you daft? It works perfectly fine without side effects for some amount of people. But not nearly everyone.
I’ve stayed on it because I don’t want to go through the hassle of trial and error with others, but I don’t have that many side effects after many dose modifications.
It’s asinine to think it works for everyone as intended. Please educate yourself before spouting such bs.
Also, it’s Sertraline (generic name).
seems i struck a nerve.
It’s just that everyone’s experience is so drastically different. It doesn’t make sense to generalize.
Huh. Ever seen side effects of depression?
Death
Lose weight? Didn’t know that was supposed to be a thing, I was able to lose 10kg in some months. However, the sexual side effects are real
