SSRIs for depression?

[Uvwaex]

TLDR: I have recently started an SSRI regimen, and feel that they have taken effect almost immediately. What does the MMO-Champ community that has experience with SSRI and other medications think? Is this indicative of them not actually working, of a placebo effect, or that they are actually "working" for me?

I have just returned from a stay at a psychiatric institution (a 5 day stay) where I began treatment for depression with SSRIs (celexa is the brand name, drug name is citalopram). While I have had varying degrees of depressive and suicidal tendencies since high school (I am now about to turn 22), having been brought up in a loving family and no history of abuse, I felt that my feelings were wasteful: white-upper-middle-class-20-something-angst that reflected more on me being spoiled than anything else.

The day I went to the institution, I saw a psychiatrist who I had arranged an appointment with for a month after the "depths" of my suicidal feelings. While I never ended up attempting suicide (I felt that this meant I was not feeling bad enough to be considered as actually clinically depressed), I did research and have a plan constructed involving asphyxiation through helium. I live with my family, including my 16 year old brother who I care for deeply. It was the process of imagining the pain he would feel the morning my parents came into his room to tell him I was gone that stopped me from putting my plan into action. This did not, of course, remove the depression or suicidal thoughts, and actually led to feelings of resentment towards him for tying me into a life I felt pointless. Suicide might be selfish, but surely, I felt, living for the benefit of someone else was selfish of them.

Now I am on 10 mg of celexa daily, which I have taken for 5 days. And, really, I feel as though they have worked, almost immediately. I can feel and tell in my thought process, that something, has changed. Thoughts that, six days ago, would have made me obsessively angry or sad, resulting in excessive crying, desire for suicide, or destructive rage (inanimate objects) are now tertiary. They are no where near as deep, and wash over me as water. It is not even that I do not get sad or angry at the same thoughts (or that I don't cry), but the level too which they effect me is no where near as intense. They are now just momentary thoughts with the same priority or importance as other thoughts, and quickly replaced by another. I am able to notice and appreciate things around me that, before, would have been overshadowed or ignored to feed depressive thoughts.

So what happened? I have read that if an SSRI works almost immediately, it can be a bad sign. I am wondering if this is not all just a placebo effect, or if the controlled therapeutic area of the psychiatric institution has removed stressors from regular life, or that the support given by the staff and other patients is what helped my aforementioned white-upper-middle-class-20-something-angst.

[zerocarbs]

Here you go...

http://stosselintheclassroom.org/vid...of_depression/

You're welcome.

[Uvwaex]

Wheres the video of the business of making videos called the business of depression?

[Deleted]

Do you get enough sunshine?

Wheres the video of the business of making videos called the business of depression?

One video i saw recommends to create sockpuppet accounts on internet forums its very elaborate and smart.

[Uvwaex]

Do you get enough sunshine?

Enough? I'm not sure. Though it is summer, in the states, so its pretty sunny. I didn't get any sunshine though in the institution : /

[Deleted]

Enough? I'm not sure. Though it is summer, in the states, so its pretty sunny. I didn't get any sunshine though in the institution : /

30 Minutes of sunshine per day helps to prevent depressions if you move while doing it you get another benefit even if you move slow^^
Choclate in small dosages can help to get you dopamine up to gobble it up is bad of cource
Smiling actually helps too its hard to smile and be depressive

Iif they say that its not enough to be considered actually clinically depressive that might be enough to improof your mood a bit.

But that or the medications wont fix the reasons only the symptoms.
One problem could be that you have no reachable goal that you consider worth striving for?

[Beavis]

Here you go...

http://stosselintheclassroom.org/vid...of_depression/

You're welcome.

Yeah, this guy is kind of full of shit. There's a large and growing body evidence that points towards a mixture of biology and psychological factors. Also, his information about the placebo vs. SSRIs is outdated. http://healthland.time.com/2012/01/1...lacebo-debate/

Anyway, onto the op. I was on SSRIs for a few years. They didn't really help me very much. I switched to something called viibryd and that's helped a ton. But, I've known people who have done really really well on SSRIs. It all depends on your personal biology and the nature of your depression.

[Uvwaex]

30 Minutes of sunshine per day helps to prevent depressions if you move while doing it you get another benefit even if you move slow^^
Choclate in small dosages can help to get you dopamine up to gobble it up is bad of cource
Smiling actually helps too its hard to smile and be depressive

Iif they say that its not enough to be considered actually clinically depressive that might be enough to improof your mood a bit.

But that or the medications wont fix the reasons only the symptoms.
One problem could be that you have no reachable goal that you consider worth striving for?

Well the psychiatrist seemed to think it was enough to consider me as being clinically depressive. And yeah, that "lack of goal" is something I've struggled with for a long time. What I'm contemplating more now though is that the things that would trigger and cause the depressive feelings/symptoms are not causing the same things. My lack of goals, for example, does not bother me nearly as much, and is more of a workable quantity in my mind.

I'm more interested in if this "clarity" is actually because the SSRIs are doing something, or the placebo effect/different perspective after my stay at the institution. It certainly feels that my mind is interpreting differently with little to no conscious effort on my part.

[Reeve]

I was recommended them once by my doctor when I wasn't even really depressed. A mild malaise if anything. After about 2 months of using them, I stopped, and I started having what felt like spasms in my brain, like little jolts of electricity every few seconds all day. I went back to the doctor and suggested to him that it might be withdrawal symptoms, and he swore up and down that this SSRI had no withdrawal symptoms. He then recommended that I spend a bunch of money to get an MRI done on my brain to ensure there were no tumors. I looked it up online, and the SSRI I was taken had well known withdrawal symptoms. I just waited a week and they went away.

I'll never go back to that doctor again, and I doubt I'll ever take an SSRI again. Too freaky messing with my brain chemistry. Maybe if I really did have clinical depression, but I find that unlikely.

[Foosha]

Going by the tldr version of it...

Placebo effect as of right now. SSRI's take a while to kick in, like a month at the earliest.

[Deleted]

having been brought up in a loving family and no history of abuse, I felt that my feelings were wasteful: white-upper-middle-class-20-something-angst that reflected more on me being spoiled than anything else

Absolutely no need to feel bad about that. Psychologically, sometimes the worst kind of hell is absolute grayness; nothing really bad happens, nothing really good happens. It gets worse and worse the more you understand about our existence and universe. It can often drive one to hurt themselves just to feel something, just to have something meaningful happen.

However, there are better ways of changing things than hurting yourself. There are also better people than myself to show you to those better ways, so I'm not going to pretend like I'm one to teach you anything.

If your depression is/was due to actual chemical imbalances; a physiological issue which can be fixed with medication, then it's good that it's working for you. If, however, you suffer from what I would love to call "open eyes syndrome", then I think perhaps the best thing would be to try and in a positive way change your surroundings and your life to suit your needs better. Don't be afraid to say "no, I'm not going to do that", or "hey, this is something I want to do, so I'm going to do it."

Reality is depressing. Anyone who's not depressed about the little we get is lying to themselves on one level or another. The trick is to enjoy as many things as you can, as often as you can.

[Kasierith]

This site does not have the capacity to fully answer medical questions with an absolute degree of certainty; while I emphasize with your problem, you will need to go to either a doctor or a recognized medical forum or other source of legitimate information for questions such as this.

Closed.