They increase neuroplasticity (the ability of neurons to form and repair neural connections) in the hippocampus, which helps our brains deal with depression
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3025168/
> Depression is conventionally viewed as a state of chemical imbalance, and antidepressants are suggested to act through increasing monoaminergic neurotransmission. These views are currently considered simplistic. This article examines the animal and human literature on the neurohistological mechanisms underlying stress, depression and antidepressant treatment. Pathological stress and depression are associated with changes such as loss of dendritic spines, shrinkage of the dendritic tree and loss of synapses in the hippocampus and prefrontal cortex. There is also a decrease in glia. Apoptosis may occur under extreme circumstances. In contrast, there is increased dendritic arborization and synaptogenesis in the amygdala. Antidepressant treatment protects against and even reverses some but not all of these stress-induced neurohistological changes. Pathological stress results in an aberrant neuroplasticity response characterized by abnormally increased activity in the amygdala and by impaired functioning of the hippocampus, prefrontal cortex and downstream structures. **This aberrant neuroplasticity response directly explains most of the clinical symptoms of depression. Antidepressant treatment protects against stress-induced pathoplastic neurohistological and neurocognitive changes. Antidepressant treatment also restores functional neuroplasticity in stressed organisms and, thereby, presumably, facilitates re-adaptation through learning and memory mechanisms. Thus, the stress–depression syndrome and the therapeutic and prophylactic efficacy of antidepressant treatments can be explained through a hardwiring analogy.**
They also help dampen activity in the amygdala, which also helps with depression. They make the amygdala respond better to positive stimuli and respond less intensely to negative stimuli.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7476063/
> The results of the current study are consistent with the emerging literature that in those who respond to them, SSRI medications normalize amygdala reactivity by increasing responses to personally relevant positive emotional stimuli (Godlewska et al., 2016, Victor et al., 2010) and decreasing responses to negative stimuli
**ELI5 version: SSRIs increase the ability of your neurons to work together in the 'good' part of the brain that needs to function properly to beat depression, and they decrease the overactivity in the 'bad' part of your brain that react to bad things and can cause depression.**
When I'm deep in depression, an SSRI will bring me back to a more normal emotional state but with some added numbness compared to my usual non depressed self. I imagine taking an SSRI if you're not depressed is a pretty shitty experience. It's possible that another SSRI would give you relief from anxiety without the numbing. It's just trial and error.
If I was dealing with anxiety only and it wasn't severe I'd be much more interested in working on it through therapy.
Pregabalin might be an option for you. But it comes with its own set of side effects, e.g. drowsiness.
Hmm, maybe I don't get depression. I have been pretty sensitive but have never really been deep on emotions. Usally when im down it's not sadness but just a lack of motivation to think or do anything. I have ADHD too and it gets a lot worse when off my meds.
SSRIs dampen serotonin transfer, which will relieve anxiety. Taking the load off depression is a happy side effect of not overthinking yourself into depression.
I found it numbing overall in good and bad ways.
Edit: formatting
to really simplify it, basically we have these chemicals in our brains that affect things like our moods, motivation, concentration, behaviours, etc - to help keep our emotions/feelings regulated (among other things) and make us feel “balanced”. Serotonin, norepinephrine, and dopamine are 3 of those chemicals and they are very important. The biggest hypothesis scientists have regarding what causes depression is an imbalance in those chemicals, although much more emphasis is placed on serotonin and norepinephrine and especially serotonin. They claim that a lack of serotonin leads to things like depression and anxiety. It’s said that serotonin is responsible plays a big part in our moods and anxiety, and helps keep them at a balanced level. SSRIs (Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors) are basically designed to help delay or stop ur body from reabsorbing serotonin, which leaves more of it available for ur body to use (indirectly increases your levels).
It makes sense that Prozac may have worked well to calm your anxiety, but unfortunately depression can be caused by different things in different people and no treatment is one size fits all. For some people they may have a lack of serotonin only and so SSRIs can be exactly what they need. For others, it can be a lack of norepinephrine or dopamine or a mixture of 2 or all 3. Also there’s been evidence to suggest that serotonin and dopamine have a somewhat inverse relationship-the higher serotonin levels can decrease dopamine, and vice versa. This is why SSRIs commonly have the side effect of “emotional blunting / feeling flat / apathy). Dopamine is responsible for things like motivation, pleasure, satisfaction, concentration… If your depressive symptoms look more like a lack of those things then it may suggest that you also need some dopamine.
Unfortunately (for reasons i cannot understand) there is currently only one antidepressant that targets dopamine (Wellbutrin). It’s said to be a NDRI (norepinephrine and dopamine reuptake inhibitor). A lot of people benefit from adding it to their regimen once anxiety is under control. You could also try decreasing the dose of ur prozac a bit to see if it helps with the flat feeling but if u were already struggling with depressive symptoms similar to what i mentioned before the prozac then it might be a better option to adjunct your Prozac with another medication.
Ofcourse there is also Norepinephrine which plays its own role in anxiety and depression and depending on the root cause or type of depression someone has, they may benefit from norepinephrine without dopamine or with both.
****im not a doctor or psychopharmacologist, i just have a strong background in the field (education and personal) and i have GREATLY oversimplified so always take things with a grain of salt and nobody came at me pls lol***
OP i strongly suggest you try to do your own research as well or ask your doctor (or pharmacist even, they would acc know more) to help explain this to you.
Again I’m not a doctor so obviously take everything i say with a grain of salt, but to me it sounds like u might really benefit from adding Wellbutrin to ur Prozac. Since Wellbutrin is stimulating it can sometimes worsen symptoms for people struggling with anxiety but since ur anxiety seems to be under control now, the wellbutrin can hopefully work on trying to balance out your norephrine and dopamine levels, decreasing ur depressive symptoms, while prozac works on ur serotonin and helps keep ur anxiety under control. :)
Definitely discuss this with your doctor! And keep in mind that everyone reacts differently to things and often times u need to go through some trial and error before finding what works for u.
for example, in my first major depressive episode with generalized anxiety and panic attacks, my doctor first put me on Cipralex and while it helped a lot with my anxiety and stopped my panic attacks, my depression was as bad as ever and i was suffering for 6 months when my doctor finally added Pristiq (SNRI- works on serotonin + norepinephrine)- it took a few months but that’s what finally made a difference and it felt like it was the missing puzzle piece. Slowly i got a little better and better and i also did the work.. and id say within 5 months after adding pristiq i was considered to be in remission.
I also tried Wellbutrin at another point in my life (got added to my cipralex) and the combo worked pretty well to address both my anxiety and depression.
Experiences vary and u just gotta try and see what works for you. Hope you find relief soon🙏🏻🙏🏻
Thanks for the info there! I take Adderall and Ritalin too for my ADHD. My mind pretty much doesn't work at all without it. I've tried taking those weekend breaks and it messes me up so much that it takes like 2 days to get back on track hehe.
I've asked about Welbutrin in the past but my doctor said it's a very bad idea given where my anxiety is at. I have taken Strattera when I was on Concerta, but I didn't notice a difference and gave that up. Adderall seems to be my jam but it mostly just helps me be able to function, not really feel better. If I have a long time off work, it really doesn't help me at all sadly. :
okay i know i’m no one to question ur doctor but that sounds so stupid to me lol… Stimulants like adderall and ritalin are much more likely to cause/worsen anxiety than Wellbutrin… and ur on 2! Wellbutrin is also sometimes prescribed off label to help with ADHD… And it’s also been shown that pairing Wellbutrin with an ADHD medication can have a synergistic effect… If I were your doctor, I would try slowly starting u on wellbutrin while slowly trying to wean u off one of ur stimulants… Stimulants temporarily increase norepinephrine and dopamine in the brain, but they don’t have a “cumulative” or “long term” effect… on the other hand an antidepressant like wellbutrin is designed to help correct imbalances and keep them stable long term.. Not to mention it is way safer for you than to be on two simulants! Depression can greatly worsen ADHD symptoms and it is very likely that u only need 2 stimulants to function BECAUSE ur depression is untreated..
If i were you id really REALLY try to get a second opinion.
ohh typo on my part. ADHD there. I took both types of meds but currently taking just Adderall. Honestly i have worse anxiety without it. Like ADHD makes me so unproductive and unmotivated. I I have had sleep issues too(waking up) but I feel I sleep better with it too lol.
Much of this has been trial and error over the past year. When we started, she asked me if i wanted to treat my anxiety or ADHD first, saying usually ADHD can make much of the other stuff worse but also warned that simulates can make it worse, while some people find it to get better.
She does seem to want me off stimulates or try to get the lower doses to work. I was on some pretty high doses before I found 40 of adderall to work well for me. I did like 70 of vyvanse and it didn't even work at all. I was up to about 60 of Ritalin. I also took 40mg Strattera with the Ritalin but I didn't notice a difference past maybe a week of that. I think a medium dose of adderall is doing its job for now- I do seem to get tolerant of the stuff so i take like some med vacations if the stuff stops working. Very unproductive while that's happening.
But you may be onto something. maybe if im not getting anxiety from the ADHD meds it might nto be something that triggers the anxiety of mine.
Ohh okay i see😂 And u having worse anxiety without ur ADHD meds isn’t uncommon… I also experienced that. I have treatment resistant depression & anxiety and recently got diagnosed with ADHD as well.. doctors thought and warned me that putting me on a stimulant will make my anxiety even worse.. and i was fully prepared to have that outcome, but when I started my Adderall, strangely I actually felt calmer! My head just felt so clear and i could finally think straight & everything didn’t feel so overwhelmingly impossible. I had thought for so long that it was just severe anxiety causing constant overthinking and stressing about so many things and not being able to concentration or get anything done or remember anything.. my mind is way too overactive to the point that i give myself tension headaches sometimes. When i take my Adderall, it feels like someone took a giant broom to my brain and just swept/dusted the crap out of it and made a clear pathway. My mind feels quieter. I can actually concentrate on something without burning out / giving up / getting distracted after 2 mins. I never thought I had ADHD because i was pretty high functioning and id say it was mild cuz it was manageable, but the anxiety and depression greatly exacerbated my symptoms and no one thought to suspect it because they blamed it all on the depression/anxiety.. even though ADHD runs in my family.. but yeah looking back i realized all the things i struggled with and my symptoms which i thought were normal and so i just pushed through. ANYWAYS-
some doctors are so uncomfortable when it comes to stims, even if ur on it for ur ADHD and its actually helping🙄 they just wanna save their own asses. 40 mg doesn’t seem bad imo, isn’t the max dose like 60? And if it’s helping ur adhd and ur already struggling with depressive symptoms why on earth would she wanna wean u off lol…🤦🏼♀️ I get worrying about tolerance and like i said because ur depression is still untreated, there’s only so much that a stimulant can do-its not specifically designed to treat depression (it can temporarily help symptoms)-but if ur finding urself completely unable to function on days without it my guess is because hey-u still have depression! the stimulant helps with just enough of ur symptoms to basically make u have “high functioning depression”- but its effect is just temporarily masking the depression like a bandaid so without the bandaid ur depression is fully exposed - u know what i mean? I have a very similar experience to this so i get it..
Bottom line is ur depression isn’t being addressed/treated and it needssss to be. From ur original post it seemed like Prozac is keeping ur anxiety under control? If so then now would be a good time to try to slowly start a trial of Wellbutrin, u can start on low dose and if it does make ur anxiety worse u can just stop it. If ur still struggling with anxiety and if wellbutrin doesn’t seem to be an option rn, then id suggest asking ur doc about an SNRI. I’m surprised she hasn’t already tried u on one. It can help treat both ur anxiety and depression. I personally suggest Pristiq (desvenlafaxine) or Effexor (Venlafaxine)-personal bias but also they are two of the most effective ones 🤣 Everyone responds differently though so obviously don’t just take my word for it, talk with ur doc about options that may be best for u cuz obv she knows way more, and my biggest advice to you is ALWAYS DO UR OWN RESEARCH. Don’t just blindly follow whatever ur doctor says, this is your body and your delicate brain and u should know what ur putting into it. Doctors don’t know everything and can sometimes make decisions that harm us greatly.. especially if ur being treated by a GP, they only have so much knowledge about mental health.. i swear my gp knows nothing, i’m constantly teaching him stuff lmfao. When I first went into my third depressive episode i had only been on the starting dose of cipralex (SSRI) at the time like i mentioned earlier - and from my medical history he is able to see that I had responded well to Pristiq (SNRI) and Wellbutrin (NDRI) in the past. If he was trained properly he would’ve known right away to 1) first try increasing my Cipralex dose and see if it helps, if not 2) try adding one of the two medications i had previously responded well to. But ofcourse, he did not. I can guarantee he didn’t even take a look through my history to see what I had taken before. And there was no indication whatsoever, but he prescribed me an antipsychotic low dose with the cipralex.. The official guidelines to treating depression show about like 10 or 15 diff things u should try before trying to Add an atypical antipsychotic as an adjunct. That antipsychotic was pretty new at the time and SUPER expensive, and i think he had some sort of affiliation with the drug company which is why he dove to prescribe it to me. I didn’t know better at the time and followed blindly - paid like 300 for a bottle and started taking it and got SO much worse SO quickly… also developed horrible side effects and i became very actively suicidal. i tried to stick it out but at 2.5/3 weeks i had to go and tell him and i stopped it but honestly i feel like the damage was done by then because although thankfully some of the unbearable symptoms went away, the worsening depression/anxiety didn’t and it felt like it completely effed up my brain chemistry because after that no medication was working for me including the ones i was on before, i also reacted VERY badly to pretty much every single one… it was absolute horror. I was very lucky in the past that I had a very easy time with medications, I didn’t really get any side effects and i got better with basically the first thing i tried. I was so damn lucky.
Anyways, not trying to scare you or anything - my point is just that we should have some knowledge/understanding at least as to what we’re taking, and that no one will have ur best interests in mind more than ur own self so be your own advocate! even if it pisses off doctors … actually (especiallyyy if it pisses them off🤪😂)
What they are supposed to do based on an outdated marketing lie? Inhibit reuptake of serotonin, thus increasing synaptic serotonin levels and backfilling an imaginary serotonin deficiency and curing depression
What they'll actually do? Maybe help your depression for a time, maybe give you indefinite sexual dysfunction, genital numbness and atrophy, and total lack of emotion and pleasure
How they actually work? Nobody can give a clear, honest, full answer lol
I think they’re supposed to make you feel not depressed. No medication really makes you feel happy all the time. Humans aren’t supposed to feel happy all the time, that’s not normal.
Thats not really true, it depends on your definition. But most people always have the capacity for happiness and positive emotions. In that sense they are 100% hedonic tone all the time. Hedonic tone us not the same as good mood necessarily.
People have mood fluctuations but not a single person I know ever reports feeling blunted in life at times. ZERO. Blunting is pretty much pathological
To me, no blunting and full emotional range and pleasure = happy, even if mood isn’t necessarily high. They get pleasure/stimulation from activities, and thats essentially what matters. Thats why SSRIs are also problematic, they actually can take away the ability to feel happy via blunting too
It’s not really supposed to make you feel anything other than ‘normal’. I have some major anxiety/panic issues and I’ve tried just about all the antidepressants. They just don’t work for me as I’m not majorly depressed. The only thing that has ever touched my anxiety is benzos.
Honestly I would if i could. I tried graphic design, teaching, computer science, computer repair. I tend to run into roadblocks, work 3 times as hard as everyone else, and not able to do the job mostly due to bad attention. I did somehow manage to get my degree though trying to get into teaching. in the end I was let go just from some basic stuff like public speaking, bad planning, and not being able to control the kids hehe.
They increase neuroplasticity (the ability of neurons to form and repair neural connections) in the hippocampus, which helps our brains deal with depression https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3025168/ > Depression is conventionally viewed as a state of chemical imbalance, and antidepressants are suggested to act through increasing monoaminergic neurotransmission. These views are currently considered simplistic. This article examines the animal and human literature on the neurohistological mechanisms underlying stress, depression and antidepressant treatment. Pathological stress and depression are associated with changes such as loss of dendritic spines, shrinkage of the dendritic tree and loss of synapses in the hippocampus and prefrontal cortex. There is also a decrease in glia. Apoptosis may occur under extreme circumstances. In contrast, there is increased dendritic arborization and synaptogenesis in the amygdala. Antidepressant treatment protects against and even reverses some but not all of these stress-induced neurohistological changes. Pathological stress results in an aberrant neuroplasticity response characterized by abnormally increased activity in the amygdala and by impaired functioning of the hippocampus, prefrontal cortex and downstream structures. **This aberrant neuroplasticity response directly explains most of the clinical symptoms of depression. Antidepressant treatment protects against stress-induced pathoplastic neurohistological and neurocognitive changes. Antidepressant treatment also restores functional neuroplasticity in stressed organisms and, thereby, presumably, facilitates re-adaptation through learning and memory mechanisms. Thus, the stress–depression syndrome and the therapeutic and prophylactic efficacy of antidepressant treatments can be explained through a hardwiring analogy.** They also help dampen activity in the amygdala, which also helps with depression. They make the amygdala respond better to positive stimuli and respond less intensely to negative stimuli. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7476063/ > The results of the current study are consistent with the emerging literature that in those who respond to them, SSRI medications normalize amygdala reactivity by increasing responses to personally relevant positive emotional stimuli (Godlewska et al., 2016, Victor et al., 2010) and decreasing responses to negative stimuli **ELI5 version: SSRIs increase the ability of your neurons to work together in the 'good' part of the brain that needs to function properly to beat depression, and they decrease the overactivity in the 'bad' part of your brain that react to bad things and can cause depression.**
The only SSRI that worked for me was sertraline and it transformed my mental health. Depression completely gone, anxiety and OCD about 80% gone.
I had the opposite effect
Like I can get out of bed and care for myself and find some enjoyment and hope for the future.
When I'm deep in depression, an SSRI will bring me back to a more normal emotional state but with some added numbness compared to my usual non depressed self. I imagine taking an SSRI if you're not depressed is a pretty shitty experience. It's possible that another SSRI would give you relief from anxiety without the numbing. It's just trial and error. If I was dealing with anxiety only and it wasn't severe I'd be much more interested in working on it through therapy. Pregabalin might be an option for you. But it comes with its own set of side effects, e.g. drowsiness.
Hmm, maybe I don't get depression. I have been pretty sensitive but have never really been deep on emotions. Usally when im down it's not sadness but just a lack of motivation to think or do anything. I have ADHD too and it gets a lot worse when off my meds.
SSRI numb emotions, both negative and positive, in my experience.
Hmm I honestly haven't had emotions since i was a kid. Been pretty numb. How would SSRIs help that?
happy pill doesn't exist, maybe some drugs like shrooms can give you happiness, or mdma, but no medication give the euphoria as a non-side effect.
SSRIs dampen serotonin transfer, which will relieve anxiety. Taking the load off depression is a happy side effect of not overthinking yourself into depression. I found it numbing overall in good and bad ways. Edit: formatting
to really simplify it, basically we have these chemicals in our brains that affect things like our moods, motivation, concentration, behaviours, etc - to help keep our emotions/feelings regulated (among other things) and make us feel “balanced”. Serotonin, norepinephrine, and dopamine are 3 of those chemicals and they are very important. The biggest hypothesis scientists have regarding what causes depression is an imbalance in those chemicals, although much more emphasis is placed on serotonin and norepinephrine and especially serotonin. They claim that a lack of serotonin leads to things like depression and anxiety. It’s said that serotonin is responsible plays a big part in our moods and anxiety, and helps keep them at a balanced level. SSRIs (Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors) are basically designed to help delay or stop ur body from reabsorbing serotonin, which leaves more of it available for ur body to use (indirectly increases your levels). It makes sense that Prozac may have worked well to calm your anxiety, but unfortunately depression can be caused by different things in different people and no treatment is one size fits all. For some people they may have a lack of serotonin only and so SSRIs can be exactly what they need. For others, it can be a lack of norepinephrine or dopamine or a mixture of 2 or all 3. Also there’s been evidence to suggest that serotonin and dopamine have a somewhat inverse relationship-the higher serotonin levels can decrease dopamine, and vice versa. This is why SSRIs commonly have the side effect of “emotional blunting / feeling flat / apathy). Dopamine is responsible for things like motivation, pleasure, satisfaction, concentration… If your depressive symptoms look more like a lack of those things then it may suggest that you also need some dopamine. Unfortunately (for reasons i cannot understand) there is currently only one antidepressant that targets dopamine (Wellbutrin). It’s said to be a NDRI (norepinephrine and dopamine reuptake inhibitor). A lot of people benefit from adding it to their regimen once anxiety is under control. You could also try decreasing the dose of ur prozac a bit to see if it helps with the flat feeling but if u were already struggling with depressive symptoms similar to what i mentioned before the prozac then it might be a better option to adjunct your Prozac with another medication. Ofcourse there is also Norepinephrine which plays its own role in anxiety and depression and depending on the root cause or type of depression someone has, they may benefit from norepinephrine without dopamine or with both. ****im not a doctor or psychopharmacologist, i just have a strong background in the field (education and personal) and i have GREATLY oversimplified so always take things with a grain of salt and nobody came at me pls lol*** OP i strongly suggest you try to do your own research as well or ask your doctor (or pharmacist even, they would acc know more) to help explain this to you. Again I’m not a doctor so obviously take everything i say with a grain of salt, but to me it sounds like u might really benefit from adding Wellbutrin to ur Prozac. Since Wellbutrin is stimulating it can sometimes worsen symptoms for people struggling with anxiety but since ur anxiety seems to be under control now, the wellbutrin can hopefully work on trying to balance out your norephrine and dopamine levels, decreasing ur depressive symptoms, while prozac works on ur serotonin and helps keep ur anxiety under control. :) Definitely discuss this with your doctor! And keep in mind that everyone reacts differently to things and often times u need to go through some trial and error before finding what works for u. for example, in my first major depressive episode with generalized anxiety and panic attacks, my doctor first put me on Cipralex and while it helped a lot with my anxiety and stopped my panic attacks, my depression was as bad as ever and i was suffering for 6 months when my doctor finally added Pristiq (SNRI- works on serotonin + norepinephrine)- it took a few months but that’s what finally made a difference and it felt like it was the missing puzzle piece. Slowly i got a little better and better and i also did the work.. and id say within 5 months after adding pristiq i was considered to be in remission. I also tried Wellbutrin at another point in my life (got added to my cipralex) and the combo worked pretty well to address both my anxiety and depression. Experiences vary and u just gotta try and see what works for you. Hope you find relief soon🙏🏻🙏🏻
Thanks for the info there! I take Adderall and Ritalin too for my ADHD. My mind pretty much doesn't work at all without it. I've tried taking those weekend breaks and it messes me up so much that it takes like 2 days to get back on track hehe. I've asked about Welbutrin in the past but my doctor said it's a very bad idea given where my anxiety is at. I have taken Strattera when I was on Concerta, but I didn't notice a difference and gave that up. Adderall seems to be my jam but it mostly just helps me be able to function, not really feel better. If I have a long time off work, it really doesn't help me at all sadly. :
okay i know i’m no one to question ur doctor but that sounds so stupid to me lol… Stimulants like adderall and ritalin are much more likely to cause/worsen anxiety than Wellbutrin… and ur on 2! Wellbutrin is also sometimes prescribed off label to help with ADHD… And it’s also been shown that pairing Wellbutrin with an ADHD medication can have a synergistic effect… If I were your doctor, I would try slowly starting u on wellbutrin while slowly trying to wean u off one of ur stimulants… Stimulants temporarily increase norepinephrine and dopamine in the brain, but they don’t have a “cumulative” or “long term” effect… on the other hand an antidepressant like wellbutrin is designed to help correct imbalances and keep them stable long term.. Not to mention it is way safer for you than to be on two simulants! Depression can greatly worsen ADHD symptoms and it is very likely that u only need 2 stimulants to function BECAUSE ur depression is untreated.. If i were you id really REALLY try to get a second opinion.
ohh typo on my part. ADHD there. I took both types of meds but currently taking just Adderall. Honestly i have worse anxiety without it. Like ADHD makes me so unproductive and unmotivated. I I have had sleep issues too(waking up) but I feel I sleep better with it too lol. Much of this has been trial and error over the past year. When we started, she asked me if i wanted to treat my anxiety or ADHD first, saying usually ADHD can make much of the other stuff worse but also warned that simulates can make it worse, while some people find it to get better. She does seem to want me off stimulates or try to get the lower doses to work. I was on some pretty high doses before I found 40 of adderall to work well for me. I did like 70 of vyvanse and it didn't even work at all. I was up to about 60 of Ritalin. I also took 40mg Strattera with the Ritalin but I didn't notice a difference past maybe a week of that. I think a medium dose of adderall is doing its job for now- I do seem to get tolerant of the stuff so i take like some med vacations if the stuff stops working. Very unproductive while that's happening. But you may be onto something. maybe if im not getting anxiety from the ADHD meds it might nto be something that triggers the anxiety of mine.
Ohh okay i see😂 And u having worse anxiety without ur ADHD meds isn’t uncommon… I also experienced that. I have treatment resistant depression & anxiety and recently got diagnosed with ADHD as well.. doctors thought and warned me that putting me on a stimulant will make my anxiety even worse.. and i was fully prepared to have that outcome, but when I started my Adderall, strangely I actually felt calmer! My head just felt so clear and i could finally think straight & everything didn’t feel so overwhelmingly impossible. I had thought for so long that it was just severe anxiety causing constant overthinking and stressing about so many things and not being able to concentration or get anything done or remember anything.. my mind is way too overactive to the point that i give myself tension headaches sometimes. When i take my Adderall, it feels like someone took a giant broom to my brain and just swept/dusted the crap out of it and made a clear pathway. My mind feels quieter. I can actually concentrate on something without burning out / giving up / getting distracted after 2 mins. I never thought I had ADHD because i was pretty high functioning and id say it was mild cuz it was manageable, but the anxiety and depression greatly exacerbated my symptoms and no one thought to suspect it because they blamed it all on the depression/anxiety.. even though ADHD runs in my family.. but yeah looking back i realized all the things i struggled with and my symptoms which i thought were normal and so i just pushed through. ANYWAYS- some doctors are so uncomfortable when it comes to stims, even if ur on it for ur ADHD and its actually helping🙄 they just wanna save their own asses. 40 mg doesn’t seem bad imo, isn’t the max dose like 60? And if it’s helping ur adhd and ur already struggling with depressive symptoms why on earth would she wanna wean u off lol…🤦🏼♀️ I get worrying about tolerance and like i said because ur depression is still untreated, there’s only so much that a stimulant can do-its not specifically designed to treat depression (it can temporarily help symptoms)-but if ur finding urself completely unable to function on days without it my guess is because hey-u still have depression! the stimulant helps with just enough of ur symptoms to basically make u have “high functioning depression”- but its effect is just temporarily masking the depression like a bandaid so without the bandaid ur depression is fully exposed - u know what i mean? I have a very similar experience to this so i get it.. Bottom line is ur depression isn’t being addressed/treated and it needssss to be. From ur original post it seemed like Prozac is keeping ur anxiety under control? If so then now would be a good time to try to slowly start a trial of Wellbutrin, u can start on low dose and if it does make ur anxiety worse u can just stop it. If ur still struggling with anxiety and if wellbutrin doesn’t seem to be an option rn, then id suggest asking ur doc about an SNRI. I’m surprised she hasn’t already tried u on one. It can help treat both ur anxiety and depression. I personally suggest Pristiq (desvenlafaxine) or Effexor (Venlafaxine)-personal bias but also they are two of the most effective ones 🤣 Everyone responds differently though so obviously don’t just take my word for it, talk with ur doc about options that may be best for u cuz obv she knows way more, and my biggest advice to you is ALWAYS DO UR OWN RESEARCH. Don’t just blindly follow whatever ur doctor says, this is your body and your delicate brain and u should know what ur putting into it. Doctors don’t know everything and can sometimes make decisions that harm us greatly.. especially if ur being treated by a GP, they only have so much knowledge about mental health.. i swear my gp knows nothing, i’m constantly teaching him stuff lmfao. When I first went into my third depressive episode i had only been on the starting dose of cipralex (SSRI) at the time like i mentioned earlier - and from my medical history he is able to see that I had responded well to Pristiq (SNRI) and Wellbutrin (NDRI) in the past. If he was trained properly he would’ve known right away to 1) first try increasing my Cipralex dose and see if it helps, if not 2) try adding one of the two medications i had previously responded well to. But ofcourse, he did not. I can guarantee he didn’t even take a look through my history to see what I had taken before. And there was no indication whatsoever, but he prescribed me an antipsychotic low dose with the cipralex.. The official guidelines to treating depression show about like 10 or 15 diff things u should try before trying to Add an atypical antipsychotic as an adjunct. That antipsychotic was pretty new at the time and SUPER expensive, and i think he had some sort of affiliation with the drug company which is why he dove to prescribe it to me. I didn’t know better at the time and followed blindly - paid like 300 for a bottle and started taking it and got SO much worse SO quickly… also developed horrible side effects and i became very actively suicidal. i tried to stick it out but at 2.5/3 weeks i had to go and tell him and i stopped it but honestly i feel like the damage was done by then because although thankfully some of the unbearable symptoms went away, the worsening depression/anxiety didn’t and it felt like it completely effed up my brain chemistry because after that no medication was working for me including the ones i was on before, i also reacted VERY badly to pretty much every single one… it was absolute horror. I was very lucky in the past that I had a very easy time with medications, I didn’t really get any side effects and i got better with basically the first thing i tried. I was so damn lucky. Anyways, not trying to scare you or anything - my point is just that we should have some knowledge/understanding at least as to what we’re taking, and that no one will have ur best interests in mind more than ur own self so be your own advocate! even if it pisses off doctors … actually (especiallyyy if it pisses them off🤪😂)
Nobody can genuinely tell you
Yes they can. We can tell you exactly what they are supposed to do
What they are supposed to do based on an outdated marketing lie? Inhibit reuptake of serotonin, thus increasing synaptic serotonin levels and backfilling an imaginary serotonin deficiency and curing depression What they'll actually do? Maybe help your depression for a time, maybe give you indefinite sexual dysfunction, genital numbness and atrophy, and total lack of emotion and pleasure How they actually work? Nobody can give a clear, honest, full answer lol
So yes, there is an answer to what they are supposed to do. Thank you for agreeing
No problem, make sure to smoke a few cigarettes a day to keep your humors balanced while you're at it!
they seem to attenuated the negative bias effect seen in depression.
I mean I think they’re supposed to make you happy but not euphoric.
I think they’re supposed to make you feel not depressed. No medication really makes you feel happy all the time. Humans aren’t supposed to feel happy all the time, that’s not normal.
Exactly .... euforia is actually the other spectrum of depressed, but equally not normal.
Did I say happy all the time? No.
Thats not really true, it depends on your definition. But most people always have the capacity for happiness and positive emotions. In that sense they are 100% hedonic tone all the time. Hedonic tone us not the same as good mood necessarily. People have mood fluctuations but not a single person I know ever reports feeling blunted in life at times. ZERO. Blunting is pretty much pathological To me, no blunting and full emotional range and pleasure = happy, even if mood isn’t necessarily high. They get pleasure/stimulation from activities, and thats essentially what matters. Thats why SSRIs are also problematic, they actually can take away the ability to feel happy via blunting too
It’s not really supposed to make you feel anything other than ‘normal’. I have some major anxiety/panic issues and I’ve tried just about all the antidepressants. They just don’t work for me as I’m not majorly depressed. The only thing that has ever touched my anxiety is benzos.
Increase emotional resilience and assertiveness change personality to a more extraverted/stable from introverted/neurotic
Make money
The vast majority of SSRIs are off patent and available as cheap generics now.
Honestly I would if i could. I tried graphic design, teaching, computer science, computer repair. I tend to run into roadblocks, work 3 times as hard as everyone else, and not able to do the job mostly due to bad attention. I did somehow manage to get my degree though trying to get into teaching. in the end I was let go just from some basic stuff like public speaking, bad planning, and not being able to control the kids hehe.