Anonymous
- Date posted
- 3y
GoneHikingGoneHiking
- Date posted
- 3y
I understand your hesitation; generally SSRIs have fewer side effects than other, earlier forms of antidepressants, but it seems like in select situations SSRI side effects can pose more problems for quality of life. Unfortunately, it can be difficult to know if they are right for you until you begin taking them. A family friend of mine found no benefit and later developed a dependency, but an acquaintance brought up that his antidepressant was very effective at reducing his anxiety and that he wished he had started taking it sooner. I imagine a lot of the efficacy has to do with where the depression/anxiety is coming from. If you really have a lack of circulating serotonin in your brain, then a selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) may help with this. However, not everyone responds optimally...some develop dependencies and others experience side effects that make the benefits not worth it. It's for that reason that I almost always recommend therapy first, since it usually does not have side effects. For many individuals, medication is an absolutely critical part of their treatment, and there's nothing problematic about that. However, if you don't want to contend with potential side effects and you have the resources to pursue therapy, I would do that first and see how it goes - you can always start a regimen if it seems necessary.
Teresa1Teresa1
- Date posted
- 3y
I'm scared of them too. I don't want to have to deal with their side effects on top of everything else... I want to try everything else there is and leave medication as my last resort.. I finally went to see a psychotherapist recently and explicitly told her I don't want meds for my anxiety and OCD but rather ERP or atleast tips regarding lifestyle or supplements or smth.. And it's like she didn't even hear me and prescribed meds anyways. I was pretty frustrated.
AnonymousAnonymous
- Date posted
- 3y
As someone who is currently on them it helped me lots! I tried going down on dosage and it was way too hard and my ocd got really bad so I went back up. I do notice some side affects but for me it’s worth it! My side affects are I sweat really easily, get sick if I don’t drink water with it(almost throwing up), and I my throat gets dry quickly! The worst part is going off of it. I felt like crap while just lowering the dosage(missed work a few days), as well as bad anxiety! The medicine helped me be able to live a functioning life!
AnonymousAnonymous
- Date posted
- 3y
@Anonymous Also it helped a lot with intrusive thoughts
Teresa1Teresa1
- Date posted
- 3y
@Anonymous Do you have fewer intrusive thoughts since taking the meds or do the meds help stop the fear response you have to the intrusive thoughts? I'm curious about what it's like to be on meds..
AnonymousAnonymous
- Date posted
- 3y
@Teresa1 Ask all the questions you want about it! I know it’s hard! For me personally it helped both. I have had a lot less intrusive thoughts since going on it! Also it helped me stop having as intense responses to a lot of the thoughts! I still will have intense responses occasionally, but nowhere near as bad! For example, before going on medication I wasn’t able to function well. I couldn’t stay in school the whole day, would have multiple panic attacks a day, and it was just a disaster! But now I can do all those things and can do things everyone else does! I still have l anxiety and ocd but it’s much better! It’s not perfect(still bad) but 1000x better then it was!
Teresa1Teresa1
- Date posted
- 3y
@Anonymous Thanks for the info! I'm glad to hear you're doing much better than before. That's really great that the meds help you function. That's neat that they help reduce the intrusive thoughts and your response to them.. Did your doctor create some sort of plan regarding how long you'll be on them? I'd like to find a doctor who doesn't want to just keep me on meds but rather plans to wean me off of them once Im better at managing ocd with erp strategies.. I guess I'm scared of becoming too dependent on medication..
AnonymousAnonymous
- Date posted
- 3y
@Teresa1 I have been on them for probably 12 years but if I wanted to get off my doctor would let me. If you are on it then you can definitely talk to your doctor and figure out a plan for you!
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