Generic Prozac costs me $4 a month. It has improved my mood greatly over the course of two months. I was afraid of side effects at first. Then, during one bad period, I remembered what exactly it was I was trying to cure and decided all the side effects that regularly come with and more are worth not going through that anymore. So is taking this stuff for the rest of my life.
SSRIs have varying levels of withdrawal symptoms (Prozac’s is low, Paxil’s high).One study on SSRIs shows that for many people they are not more effective than a placebo, but for the most depressed people they are extremely effective. If your girlfriend has sever chronic depression, there’s a good chance the condition is genetic, and there’s no very good way to fix that aside from medicine.
Dependence on a drug that is cheap, has few side effects, and can almost completely cure chronic depression is a very small price to pay for never feeling as worthless as depression can make you feel. I’m sure you can find many, many more such testimonials. If the side effects bother her, she can change drugs—there are a lot of alternatives.
I’m not the parent poster, but chiming in for crazymeds.us. They’ll tell you in detail about the withdrawal symptoms, side effect, half-lives, etc.
I’ve been on venlafaxine (Effexor) for a few years. If I miss my morning dose (rare), by 1600 I’ll feel pretty wonky (e.g. dizzy when I move my head). My shrink says if I’m to go off of it I can titrate the dose down to something low, then go on Prozac concurrently, reduce the venlafaxine to zero then come off the Prozac.
But that’s pretty much the worst of antidepressant dependence, and others are easier to stop taking (though you would likely still need to work your way down).
As others have pointed out, they don’t make you artificially happy, they “clear the fog” of sadness. There’s evidence for this—antidepressants have no “street” value as a drug of abuse.
I personally started (with both meds and therapy) upon realizing I needed help, after spending a weekend interested in neither food nor sex. The meds have made a huge difference (not least in employability). Therapy is also a big help, as I can realize what’s going on before getting too far down a depressive spiral.
Generic Prozac costs me $4 a month. It has improved my mood greatly over the course of two months. I was afraid of side effects at first. Then, during one bad period, I remembered what exactly it was I was trying to cure and decided all the side effects that regularly come with and more are worth not going through that anymore. So is taking this stuff for the rest of my life.
SSRIs have varying levels of withdrawal symptoms (Prozac’s is low, Paxil’s high).One study on SSRIs shows that for many people they are not more effective than a placebo, but for the most depressed people they are extremely effective. If your girlfriend has sever chronic depression, there’s a good chance the condition is genetic, and there’s no very good way to fix that aside from medicine.
Dependence on a drug that is cheap, has few side effects, and can almost completely cure chronic depression is a very small price to pay for never feeling as worthless as depression can make you feel. I’m sure you can find many, many more such testimonials. If the side effects bother her, she can change drugs—there are a lot of alternatives.
Thank you. What convinced you to take the drug? And where can you inform yourself about the withdrawal symptoms and the effectiveness?
I’m not the parent poster, but chiming in for crazymeds.us. They’ll tell you in detail about the withdrawal symptoms, side effect, half-lives, etc.
I’ve been on venlafaxine (Effexor) for a few years. If I miss my morning dose (rare), by 1600 I’ll feel pretty wonky (e.g. dizzy when I move my head). My shrink says if I’m to go off of it I can titrate the dose down to something low, then go on Prozac concurrently, reduce the venlafaxine to zero then come off the Prozac.
But that’s pretty much the worst of antidepressant dependence, and others are easier to stop taking (though you would likely still need to work your way down).
As others have pointed out, they don’t make you artificially happy, they “clear the fog” of sadness. There’s evidence for this—antidepressants have no “street” value as a drug of abuse.
I personally started (with both meds and therapy) upon realizing I needed help, after spending a weekend interested in neither food nor sex. The meds have made a huge difference (not least in employability). Therapy is also a big help, as I can realize what’s going on before getting too far down a depressive spiral.