Medication question(Want your experiences too :)

[Skie]

Anyone here have any experiences with antidepressants? I think my doctor is going to try to get me to try them when I go Thursday but I read a study or two that they don't help and are just placebo effect pretty much.

[Kate*]

Hey there, I started my first ever anti-depressant about 3 weeks ago and I've noticed a huge difference. Other than some expected and relatively mild side effects (which lasted about a week), I feel better than I have in years. I was EXTREMELY hesitant to go on something for it, partly because I wanted to try therapy first and because I'm on several other medications for other things and was worried about side effects. They started me on half a dose for the first week since I'd never been on one before and then a full dose after that. Even if they don't work for you it's worth trying them and if they don't work, you can always come off of them. Everyone is different, but I seriously wish I had tried them years ago.

[Skie]

Could it just be a placebo effect in most people or? That's my fear as money for somertjing that works no better than a placebo is risky

[Kate*]

I doubt it. It hasn't been perfect, but it's such a big difference that I know that for me it's not a placebo effect. Supposedly you don't feel a difference right away, but some people do. So, I wasn't expecting to feel any different, but was better within days. I didn't convince myself of that. There are plenty of studies that prove that they work otherwise they wouldn't exist because if it was all placebo effect that would meant that they don't work and the FDA wouldn't have approved them.

If you look hard enough you will be able to find studies that uphold pretty much any belief. So, the studies about the placebo effect might have some accuracy but I also believe that the studies that say that medication has helped people have accuracy as well.

I haven't found medication that really truly works for my depression but I am pretty certain that I am pretty much resistant to medication. I know numerous people who have tried everything in regards to getting better and only medication can help.

If you are uncertain about the medication working you could also talk to the prescribing doctor about the studies you have found. There are a lot of doctors that would love to talk to their patients about that kind of stuff. I know if I brought it up to my doctor he would discuss it with me and tell me the accuracy of the studies etc.

[del677]

My personal experience is, a lot of them don't work, but when you find the one that does work, it's definitely the medication, and not a placebo effect. It's also a game changer, like I finally found something that works better than I ever hoped for, and I'm fine now.

But I did have to try a lot of antidepressant medications before finding the one that worked for me.

And there's unfortunately no way of knowing which antidepressant medication will help any particular individual. Every antidepressant works for some people.

My personal guess is the apparent 'placebo' effect is because for any particular person, many antidepressant medications won't work for them, so the best you get is a placebo effect.

But when I did find the one that did work for me, it was definitely the medication. Every time I stopped it, I slowly felt worse and worse. Every time I restarted it, I slowly started feeling better. Now I just take it. and I never think about it, because I'm fine. The only time I do think about it is when I don't take it, because then I slowly become not fine.

Now I'm all gung-ho positive about antidepressant medication because one of them saved my life.

[¯|_(ツ)_|¯]

Antidepressants can be great once you find the one that works the best for you. Remember that not all of them work for everyone.

I know that my personal experience with antidepressants was that the first one worked for a little while and then stopped working as well as it did and so she switched me to the one I am currently on and it is the best thing that has ever happened. I know it's the medication doing it, but I also had therapy alongside it for a good portion of the time, so I think having a combination of therapy and the medication was important for me because it helped me to learn ways to cope without relying on the medication. Even on the medication people can still have bad days, so it's important to still have ways to cope. However, therapy alone wasn't working for me so the medication gave me that extra boost.