someone i know wants to take medication

[LazyHermitCrab]

I'm sorry.. I already wrote a thread today but yeah :: I believe i'm judgemental sometimes.. but i have to ask does antidepressents make you lose feeling? I'm afraid this person will change. Not only that but he wants to take a medication for something else. Not sure what to think? Someone who's on it.... does it make a huge difference? I've had anxiety meds before a operation and it didn't really change "me" but what about antidepressents?

 

[Section_31]

If it DOES make you lose feeling, your probably on the wrong one for you. Thats why doctors are so adament, or supposed to be anyway, that if you feel strange, or dont feel anything, or feel more depressed, to let them know.

I went on citalopram, and let me tell you, that one f'd me up. Any kind of decision making, no matter how small, was suddenly super overwhelming to me. and it became extremely hard to think straight.

Then i got put on wellbutrin, and i felt way more like myself, but more peaceful. and at ease. But i still have all the emotions a human being would normally have, i still love my wife with the passion of 17. I still feel terribly upset at normal life events like a death in the family.

Can anti-depressants make you feel numb?. Absolutely. But thats why its important to take note of how they make you feel, and dont quickly jump to conclusions of wanting to get off them al because one didnt work.

Once the right one is found it CAN help.

 

[EasySkanking]

It makes you "drunk" - it's the closest thing I can use to describe it. It makes you "lag" as well... as in you're so "high" that it's hard to pay close attention to *everything* that's going on - it makes you numb.

The thing is bro, medication doesn't "cure" you - it just treats the symptoms. Sort of like cough medicine, except that your body doesn't have immunization against Social Anxiety. This causes problems in different ways - first your problem is still there, the meds just relief it. Second, a lot of people report the medication wearing off... so it could be that our bodies get used to it and the dosage needs to be "upped" (and it can only be "upped" so much.) On top of that, medication has some pretty nasty side-effects, in my opinion. I remember almost crashing sometimes while driving because it does have that "lagging" effect I mentioned. I gained like 20+ pounds without eating more. And, sometimes there are more serious side-effects, such as birth defects for females that took paxil (which I took, but am male thankfully).

I took paxil and prozac for a few months each. Sure it helped to make me feel better for a while... But, look at me now (I'm getting paper lol kidding) I still have SA.

You know, one thing that meds did help me with is to *see* how life really is... you see that people don't judge you like you think, etc. They numb the symptoms of SA for you to see how the world really is. This inspired me to believe that it is possible to live without SA.

For this, and only this reason, I would recommend it. But don't expect it to "cure" you, cause you'll probably only be let down.

 

[Section_31]

I have to agree with easy,

It wont cure S/A. Just make it more manageable. You will still occasionally feel the symptoms. but they may be way less intense.

I also had weight gain happen to me. And with Citalopram, i had 0 sex drive. To each their own, but for me, i took issue with that.

 

[Aletheia]

Anti-depressants make me gain feeling, since they wake me from the deadness of depression.

Can take a long time to find the right one though.

 

[LazyHermitCrab]

oh no .............

 

[Aletheia]

infinite jest

Tangent about meds and what works:

David Foster Wallace was one of my favourite authors. He was very private, and this wasn't public knowledge, but he'd been depressive for years. He'd been on phenelzine which allowed him to write, but when he started suffering side effects, he stopped taking it on his doctor's advice. The depression returned, and when he went back to the phenelzine, it had lost its effectiveness. His depression became severe and he hanged himself.

I was absolutely gutted, but it seems obvious in retrospect that he'd been suffering from depression, since he'd written some of the most agonizingly accurate descriptions of it I've ever read.

 

[LazyHermitCrab]

Anti-depressants make me gain feeling, since they wake me from the deadness of depression.

Can take a long time to find the right one though.

he just doesn't seem "dead feeling to me" if he did i would understand more. It's just odd because he's outgoing, makes jokes, has way more friends than me.... okay he's a little sensitive then others but really that's not enough. I just don't understand how he could need them. I'm the one who acts anxious, with a low voice, and can barely feel my heart beating in public since it goes so fast.... just don't understand.... i feel like this psychologist he went to is a joke and im really pissed about it..

 

[LazyHermitCrab]

Re: infinite jest

Tangent about meds and what works:

David Foster Wallace was one of my favourite authors. He was very private, and this wasn't public knowledge, but he'd been depressive for years. He'd been on phenelzine which allowed him to write, but when he started suffering side effects, he stopped taking it on his doctor's advice. The depression returned, and when he went back to the phenelzine, it had lost its effectiveness. His depression became severe and he hanged himself.

I was absolutely gutted, but it seems obvious in retrospect that he'd been suffering from depression, since he'd written some of the most agonizingly accurate descriptions of it I've ever read.

Wow i'll check this out....

 

[LazyHermitCrab]

It makes you "drunk" - it's the closest thing I can use to describe it. It makes you "lag" as well... as in you're so "high" that it's hard to pay close attention to *everything* that's going on - it makes you numb.

The thing is bro, medication doesn't "cure" you - it just treats the symptoms. Sort of like cough medicine, except that your body doesn't have immunization against Social Anxiety. This causes problems in different ways - first your problem is still there, the meds just relief it. Second, a lot of people report the medication wearing off... so it could be that our bodies get used to it and the dosage needs to be "upped" (and it can only be "upped" so much.) On top of that, medication has some pretty nasty side-effects, in my opinion. I remember almost crashing sometimes while driving because it does have that "lagging" effect I mentioned. I gained like 20+ pounds without eating more. And, sometimes there are more serious side-effects, such as birth defects for females that took paxil (which I took, but am male thankfully).

I took paxil and prozac for a few months each. Sure it helped to make me feel better for a while... But, look at me now (I'm getting paper lol kidding) I still have SA.

You know, one thing that meds did help me with is to *see* how life really is... you see that people don't judge you like you think, etc. They numb the symptoms of SA for you to see how the world really is. This inspired me to believe that it is possible to live without SA.

For this, and only this reason, I would recommend it. But don't expect it to "cure" you, cause you'll probably only be let down.

This was very insightful, thanks

 

[LazyHermitCrab]

If it DOES make you lose feeling, your probably on the wrong one for you. Thats why doctors are so adament, or supposed to be anyway, that if you feel strange, or dont feel anything, or feel more depressed, to let them know.

I went on citalopram, and let me tell you, that one f'd me up. Any kind of decision making, no matter how small, was suddenly super overwhelming to me. and it became extremely hard to think straight.

Then i got put on wellbutrin, and i felt way more like myself, but more peaceful. and at ease. But i still have all the emotions a human being would normally have, i still love my wife with the passion of 17. I still feel terribly upset at normal life events like a death in the family.

Can anti-depressants make you feel numb?. Absolutely. But thats why its important to take note of how they make you feel, and dont quickly jump to conclusions of wanting to get off them al because one didnt work.

Once the right one is found it CAN help.

Oh man sounds like a long journey....

 

[Aletheia]

I just don't understand how he could need them

Well, you can be depressed without being anxious (and vice versa).

But most people work pretty hard to keep uncomfortable feelings to themselves. It doesn't always show. He could be completely suicidal, but unless he tells you about it, you won't necessarily know.

I have a social facade which I can keep up for limited amounts of time even if I'm feeling like complete death.

Plus the nadir for a lot of people is at 3am when they're all alone.

 

[LazyHermitCrab]

He said hes taking the meds for anxiety? Also he has two roomates and one shares a room with him