and antidepressants

Antidepressants just make it worse.
Smoke weed instead.

Also, a depressed ENTP? WTF?

I'm on an antidepressant. Celexa. But it's not fro depression. It's for OCD. And it hasn't affected my creativity. Just make sure to find the antidepressant that works for you. Some people experience side effects from tham that others don't. Calexa hasn't brought any side effects for me except for benign muscle twitches.

That being said, depression results from giving in to negative thoughts. Thinking patterns are habits just like washing your hands after taking a piss. Your mood is directly related to your thoughts and your actions. So, while you can't control your mood, you can control your thoughts and your actions. By controlling your thoughts I mean purposely thinking positively about yourself and your environment/experiences. So if you do that then you will feel positive as a result. And eventually it will become habit.

But go talk to a psychiatrist. What's the worst that can happen? If you've got health insurance why not use it?

I was on Zoloft for about 3 years. It takes about 2 weeks to kick in for most people. When it did I suddenly could think straight and get most of the work done that I had procrastinated on for so long. It was like a psychic painkiller. It didn't feel bad to be me anymore. It did feel a bit numb and quiet, though not in an unpleasant way at all.

The good things it did were to allow me to do things for myself I had denied myself for so long. I felt worthy of them all of the sudden. This led to some serious changes. I can basically trace the end of my first marriage to the changes that came out of my Zoloft experience, though I don't regret anything.

The change that allowed me to go cold-turkey on the Zoloft was that I finally allowed myself to ride motorcycles, which had been a life-long dream. Three weeks after buying my first bike I quit the antidepressants and never looked back.

Oh, and be ready for it to affect your sex life. I found that suddenly I couldn't orgasm. Thing was, I really didn't care. Your results will vary depending on your personal chemistry and which drug they put you on, but this seems to be a very common side-effect.

Thanks for this thread. It's something I have been thinking about too, recently, and I'm interested in the responses. Keep them coming.....

I am not sure if MBTI type has a correlation with how medication would influence you, but here is record of my own experiences with them. The first one I took for a couple of months just made me flatline. I wasn't feeling good, I wasn't feeling bad, all my feelings were boxed into this very narrow range and I had zero motivation to do anything. My then bf said they reduced my creativity and he really didn't like it when I was on them because my responses to everything were just really flat. Due to being unable to make myself do any homework or pass any tests I had to stop taking them. Second type of pill didn't do anything for me except give me occasional sharp headaches so was dropped after a few weeks. That's all experience I've had so far.

So my opinion on antidepressants ...
- They can provide that temporary peace of mind that you just might need to get over your problems. When I was drinking the first type of pill I became more open to certain possibilities to which I wasn't open before. This ultimately changed my life in a positive way. In altered state of mind you can find yourself viewing/doing some things differently and thus being able to break yourself out of the rut you are in, but no guarantee of this happening.
- I think most people need to try several different pills. I knew one girl who went through about 5 or 6 different medications before she found the right one for her. I tried 2 and neither really worked for me.
- Side effects can be nasty. Some very small percentage of people gets suicidal when drinking antidepressants. Then there may be headaches, nosebleeds, increase in hours you need to sleep, lack of libido, etc. And these are just short-term effects. A lot of this kind of medication has not been tested long-term on people so long-term effects from prolonged usage are unknown.
- Ultimately one needs to learn to "get high on your own supply" like in that Apollo 440 song. There is just no way around it. This is so before you go on pills and will be so after you go off them. The only reason I see to take antidepressants is like I mentioned they may alter your state of mind just enough for you to get over whatever was causing you to be depressed in the first place.

vel said:

- Ultimately one needs to learn to "get high on your own supply" like in that Apollo 440 song. There is just no way around it. This is so before you go on pills and will be so after you go off them. The only reason I see to take antidepressants is like I mentioned they may alter your state of mind just enough for you to get over whatever was causing you to be depressed in the first place.

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This is a very good.

I believe brain chemistry can be altered by external circumstances and reinforced by habits of mind so that eventually one just physicially can't pull themselves out of whatever rut they are in. The antidepressants open up "breathing room" allowing you to change something about the circumstances. You can stop staying "no" long enough to say "yes" to something that allows you to move on.

SlowPoke68 said:

This is a very good.

I believe brain chemistry can be altered by external circumstances and reinforced by habits of mind so that eventually one just physicially can't pull themselves out of whatever rut they are in. The antidepressants open up "breathing room" allowing you to change something about the circumstances. You can stop staying "no" long enough to say "yes" to something that allows you to move on.

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Exactly what this poster says. Although as an ENTP it will be to your advantage. There are different reasons people get depressed. Nihilism, being self centered, having a chemical imbalance, bad habits, limiting views(I had a little of all of them). I finally overcame my pride and took the dive. It requires a lot of work, but the medicine really does put you in a spot to actually have the reserves to deal with deeply rooted problems, while allowing for your life(work, family, school) to stay together. Be your own advocate and don't take what the doctor says for granted. Make sure they understand what you are feeling and they don't pigeonhole you and give you too high of a dose. They encouraged me to take 10 mg of citalopram and exercise. I got rid of the meds and kept the exercise after 3 months (exercise gave the best feeling). Really you need to ask yourself if you are ready to change and have some painful realizations because the meds will only cover up (like an anesthetic) the issues/habits causing depression. If you do not change getting off of them will only cause the problems to come back. However, my depression was mild and dealt more with anxiety so this is probably only true if your doctor believes you have mild depression. Major/Severe depression is a totally different animal and I do not believe that this approach would work in that case. If you have that my heart goes out to you.

SlowPoke68 said:

Oh, and be ready for it to affect your sex life. I found that suddenly I couldn't orgasm. Thing was, I really didn't care. Your results will vary depending on your personal chemistry and which drug they put you on, but this seems to be a very common side-effect.

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No offense, but fuck that! That, in itself, is cause for depression.

I've been depressed only a few times in my life, but I have had serious anger issues for the majority of it. I never took any drugs for it, but I did go to counseling and those fucking people made it worse. The thing that worked for me was giving it to God and bible study fellowship. I know, I know...a lot of my fellow ENTP brothers and sisters are self-proclaimed agnostics/atheists and therefore think it's total bullshit, but the truth of the matter is there is no other way. You can medicate, you can hope for change, you can wish upon a star or whatever else you may think will make you better, but until you give it to Him and ask Him to help you....you will be hopelessly fucked.

Am I healed? Obviously not! I'll probably have some form of this affliction until the day I die. However I can honestly say that because of my faith...my anger is more manageable and that I care more about myself and people. Yes, I even care about you freaks, but don't let it go to your head.

One last thing...having faith and asking God for help isn't some checkbox. You can't just show up at some church and expect a miracle. You have to put into it what you want out of it. Sermon over.

Every now and then I hit a dark spot, it usually took a week or more to snap back, but I've been trying "mood enhancers" or what not and it seems to help, kind of like Keynesian economics tho. I pop a 5-htp and/or a St. Johns Wort, and I can snap back within a day or two. It takes it from #$%@!!!!!!! to a ah, damn, which is just enough for me to pull myself out. It could be a placebo, but it helps me out at times. I don't feel really happy when I take it, but it allows me to start shifting to positive. Especially, when I get what I guess OCD like urges it helps numb that and lift me up a bit. I'm still depressed, still not there but, it turns a bad day into a bad day and not a week and keeps me from doing something stupid to snap back.

I'm not sure what my problem is but I think it's mainly a chemical imbalance. It's never related to anything I usually feel great for a week or two and then for god know's how long I feel negative about crap that I usually don't care about when I feel good.

I typically just ride it out. Recently i've taken St. John's Wart when it became too much . It used to make me feel worse when I first took the full dose. For some reason though I can now take a full capsule and it lifts my mood a little bit. I'm actually more creative when on it than off.

Have you ever looked into cyclothymia, ray? It sounds like we have about the same problem and that's my best guess for it. It's interesting we found about the same solution.

I find the best way to get out of a shitty mood is to first come to the realization that I don't like my current state, and then to tell myself that I am the only one in control of my mood and that it is up to me whether I feel positive or not, and then to go against the depressive urges, such as just lying in bed all day, and instead to go do something I enjoy.

Quin Sabe said:

Have you ever looked into cyclothymia, ray? It sounds like we have about the same problem and that's my best guess for it. It's interesting we found about the same solution.

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Actually no I have to look into that. I just briefly brought up a site talking about it. I remember identifying somewhat with Bipolar II disorder years ago but I never really gave it too much thought after that.

I found St. John's wart basically because my mom has always been into supplements to some extent. I used to take multi-vitamins and didn't really know whether supplements worked or not but after taking other supplements and observing their effects on my mood (and sometimes energy levels) I looked into them more. [Side note: If you are too check out http://www.acu-cell.com] it's fascinating]

I tried serotonin and originally it made me angry and irritable when I first took it perhaps because I overdosed. I eventually bought St. John's wart years and years later. I had known about it previously but didn't buy it before. I can't remember whether it deals with uptake of serotonin or increases serotonin production but at first when I took it it created the same effect in me so I lower my dosage and then stopped it when I felt better.

Lately when i'm on the depressed side of it I can't create, can't enjoy music or much else (I still can deal though oddly enough)...the only thing that distracts me now is other people. So I tried it again in full dosage and it is helping now. I'd imagine 5-HTP supplement MIGHT have the same effect.

Yeah definitely just smoke weed, that's what I do and it makes it better.