Anecdata, but I was often depressed for most of my adjust life. Around 5-6 years ago (age 33 at the time), I started taking 20mg Citalopram. I have experienced almost no depression since I started taking this medication, I'm far more focused and productive than I have ever been. It could be a factor of age and getting married as well, and just settling into my life. But my depression felt like something out of my control.
Same here, but with Fluoxetine (Prozac).
However, I don’t think exactly that fluoxetine made me less depressed. It only made me more „aggressive“ and more risk taking, and the antidepressing effect came from the positive results of taking such risks. I just „don’t care“ about failures as much as I used to.
E.g. I finally started talking to girls, because I wouldn’t care about rejection that much. => Got into my first relationship and was happy.
Also, I started working on my passion project full time and I recently registered a company for it. Two years ago I would have not thought about doing this, as working for an employer is way „safer“.
I have ADHD, frequently exhibited risky behaviour, ADHD medication (MPH) reduced this effect for me, I'm more conscious and think things through before they happen.
Sertraline has almost entirely fixed my panic disorder.
It had no obvious cause and months of therapy had no impact. Within a few days of taking sertraline, it was essentially cured. I still get anxious from time to time but I'm able to live a completely normal life again. I had a few side effects (GI especially) for a few weeks but now the only side effect I have is I yawn a lot more, which is pretty tame.
I'm a big believer in the gut-brain connection and wonder if maybe it was something to do with the drug's GI effects that helped, but ultimately I have no idea and it doesn't really matter.
It's not just anecdotal evidence, the whole anti-antidepressant hype seems to re-emerge every few years, like a plague.
After trying a few different anti-depressant the vast majority of people do improve.
And the people bashing antidepressants fail to come up with any proven alternatives.
Is there a conspiracy shutting down depression curing alternatives all around the world?
