The Dark Side of SSRIs

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I've started taking SSRIs a month ago, and I will say I feel like something is different. My anxiety certainly isn't as bad, which is nice, but the depression is still there. Overall, it is better than nothing. Having less anxiety certainly makes life a lot less difficult.

Had I not been prescribed an SSRI, I 100% would not be here.

I've been on an SSRI since 2019, and it does personally help me. Before, I rarely, if ever, felt real happiness and would be completely debilitated by negative emotions. Now, my problems are still there, but it's easier to deal with. My depression is situational now rather than all-encompassing. I'd consider myself a happier person than I was before. Then again, I've never known life without depression, even as a young child, so I don't really have anything to compare it to. I just know it's better than it used to be!

SSRIs saved my life twice. Lexapro has been going great for me. I feel so sorry for those who have had bad experiences.

SSRI's must be prescribed carefully! For me, they have let me be stable enough to engage in therapy and lessen suicidal ideation, literally a lifesaver. But I also have a friend whose mental health was permanently worsened from trying an SSRI. This is a fascinating area of research going forward, and I hope we get better treatments for EVERYONE with depression and mental illness.

Medication doesn't necessairly solve the problems which caused depression

Psychedelics are just an exceptional mental health breakthrough. It's quite fascinating how effective they are against depression and anxiety. Saved my life.

Im 34 now and was diagnosed with severe panic disorder and depression at 17. Within month of taking SSRI all my panic attacks vanished and I was able to continue my life as any other happy teenager

As a medical researcher i would like to amend that the suicidal tendencies in the first two month of severe depressed people come from the uptake of serotonin by the auto-receptors, which leads to increased energy, which is then used by the still severely depressed person to follow up on their suicidal thoughts

I was prescribed an SSRI and honestly i can't say i relate to any of this. Being on an SSRI has allowed me to feel both happy and sad without spiralling downward into depression, before i was on the SSRI i could barely even register emotion. Thankful that it also hasn't affected my sex life! Of course, i can only speak for myself but I'm very grateful for the drug.

I like the numbing effect. The best part is being calm while everyone else is freaking out.

A fucked up childhood and years of SSRI use rendered me impotent at 19. It is so embarrassing and humiliating to tell every potential sex partners that you're pretty much non functional and can't make them happy. It doesn't even lower your sex drive, just makes you impotent. So it's like having an itch on your back but your arms are paralyzed.

SSRIs and SNRIs have saved my life, but I have extreme depression and anxiety. I still feel that enough research has not been done on people like me. Something worked. I am alive today and can thank almost 30 years of medication.

Been taking SSRIs for 20 years for MDD. Greatly helped, never dulled my emotions, never caused any sexual problems.

Thank God we have SSRI’s. My life before them was hell, now I can live a healthier life.

I felt so awful on any SSRIs. Either felt worse or like a shell of a person. I tried lamotrigine too for my eating disorder but it gave me awful nightmares. I've been off meds for about a year and a half now, making small changes in my daily routine, going to family therapy and gym and finally starting to feel like myself again mentally and physically. I attempted 3 times in my life and i'm so blessed to still be here. My heart is breaking for people who had their lives taken by depression and anxiety. It's a uphill battle.

I’ve been taking SSRIs for 8-9 years (Prozac until about a year ago, Zoloft since then), and while they have always done the job, I could always tell that something wasn’t quite right. I don’t have that extreme numbing because I can still feel pretty happy and sad at times, but I never felt like the actual problem was being attacked by the meds… I really hope this new research finds some real solutions, because depression has been ruining my life for far too long now :( If science can make me go back to when life was happy, I would do/give anything to get it!

I think really the biggest problem here is that one cannot categorize all depression as having the same cause or same treatment. As someone with severe MDD I do find that I think about suicide a lot less when I'm on a good medication that works for me. There are so many different meds out there too that one can't just try 1 of them and then discount all SSRIs. I think doctors are also too eager to simplify the symptoms into a single condition (or even 2 or 3). The general population is severely uninformed about clinical depression vs natural reactions to bad stuff happening in your life, and about meds. I am afraid of the implications of people overreacting to the umbrella study, if I'm perfectly honest. But I do think science is lacking in understanding depressive symptoms and causes.

I was diagnosed with depression, GAD and panic attacks after I was sent to a mental facility at 14 over a s**cide attempt. They prescribed me SSRIs, and the months that followed were absolute hell. I came to find out a year later what was actually causing my depressive symptoms was undiagnosed borderline. I was put on cocktail of SSRIs and sedatives at that young age, and experienced severe manic and depressive episodes, random dissociative breaks from reality, and exhibited worse self harm behavoirs. After I threw up and passed out during a severe panic attack at 16, my mom decided to take me off the cocktail of meds that were clearly making things worse. Best decision ever – at 17, I experimented with psychedlics, and cried tears of joy for hours during my trip in my sister's arms because all the intrusive negative thoughts that plagued me were gone. They've never been that severe since, and once I was an adult I was able to seek a more suiting, holistic treatment that I believe has saved my life. I've never thought of ending my life or hurting myself since, but moral of the story is it's fucking terrifying how quick doctors are to put kids on SSRIs and SSNIs. It's almost like they're used as this giant flimsy bandage doctors are quick to slap onto a patient's mental health issues without further investigating their symptoms. Bandaids dont fix bullet holes; these medications don't magically make things better for most people. We need a MUCH better system for people struggling with mental health conditions.