Hey y’all, I might have some anecdotal information on this topic. For my entire life, I was anti-psychiatric medicine. After reading Richard’s writings I realized that I had beliefs in this area. I had made a judgement about SSRIs based on beliefs and factoids. It was this quote in particular:
I am more happy to go direct to the chemist. Researchers have sorted them all out and synthesised what is in the herbs. Live herbs – or dried herbs – are imprecise. It depends upon the growing season, climatic conditions, environmental factors and so forth, for the strength of the herb. There are many incidences of people taking herbs and finding them too strong – or too weak – for their illness … with deleterious effects. Chemists are precise and one can be assured of the correct dosage. I have nothing against herbs per se, of course they have medicinal properties; it is just that the whole business is imprecise and it is easy to over-dose or under-dose.
Western medicine is not perfect, but it is not as bad as those people who object to it make it out to be. What I find interesting is that those rich people who live in countries like China or India who get some particular disease have this remarkable habit of flying to the US or the UK to get the best medicine, the best surgery that Western medicine can provide. They know that that is where they can find a cure. I find that quite indicative. They do not rely upon the traditional healing of their own country – that ‘healing’ that is so revered by those reactionary and disgruntled persons brought up in this land of plenty.
A Lot Of Nonsense Passes For Sagacity
As you can see, this isn’t an endorsement of psychiatric medicine. However, it did cause me to reflect on my attitudes regarding medicine and illuminated that I had beliefs in homeopathic remedies that were unexamined. These manifested as a preference for “natural” remedies and an avoidance of chemical remedies.
This lead me to be open enough to trying an SSRI. The reason being was because for my entire life, as far as I can remember (I think the age of 5), I would wake up with an incredibly intense sense of longing best described as depression. As the day went on, it would subside, but no matter how good I felt at the end of the day, I would wake up in the depths of sadness and longing. This sadness and longing intuitively seemed to have something to do with existential matters - but I could never navigate to the root of the issue. I have theories, and I think I have found out why - - but I mostly want to focus on my experience with SSRIs.
They worked. I stopped waking up incredibly sad. I wasn’t “numb” as some people describe. I still had a full range of emotions and I could still get incredibly sad with the right triggers. But I didn’t start my day in that space. And since I was doing the actualism method at the time, I was able to leverage this space to make progress more rapidly.
I didn’t go in blind, however. I researched my options thoroughly, and I tried to understand how SSRIs work. It helped me have an intelligent relationship with my doctor. I had to try a few different ones, and one in particular, did make me feel “numb.” Side effects of some were more pronounced than others. The side effects of some SSRIs toned down, while other SSRIs did not. But in the end, I found something that was effective.
My current opinion is this: if someone wanted to get the most out of an SSRI, it needs to be combined with CBT, or better yet, the actualism method. They will not, however, “cure” the human condition. It would be nice if we had a somatic answer, and maybe we will one day, but as of now that is wishful thinking.
I don’t recommend Benzodiazepines and I do not think they have much to offer other than a rapid sedative effect - so their usefulness is limited to panic attacks at best. It’s easy to become dependent on them and the withdrawal can be life threatening. They will absolutely make you feel “numb” and “foggy” and “out of it.”
I personally recommend SSRIs with long half-lifes. If you miss a dose you likely won’t notice, and they are much easier to taper off of in my experience. By example, a drug like effexor has a half-life of ~10hrs, so if you miss your morning dose, you may find yourself wanting to puke by the end of the day. Prozac has a half-life of 4-6 days so you could miss doses for weeks before withdrawal symptoms appear.
I currently take 20mg of Prozac and 300mg of Bupropion (a dopamine reuptake inhibitor). I’ve quit both of these cold turkey at one point - and symptoms were easily managed by taking a dose whenever I noticed withdrawal symptoms (vertigo, weakness, nausea). It was a cakewalk to manage compared to coming off Benzodiazepines in my 20s. (also cold-turkey)
I also believe that this combination has helped me learn more rapidly than I ever have. Though if you’re of a normal disposition, I cannot recommend using them for this purpose. And it’s entirely likely that being able to learn more quickly is due to the clarity that the actualism method affords. (It’s much easier to read, listen, observe, reflect…)
I’d be happy to elaborate more in a separate thread if there be interest. For now, I wanted to offer a perspective from personal experience.
Fundamentally, however, medication cannot resolve issues with the human condition. And I often wonder if I was somehow born deficient, or if my existential sadness was caused by my upbringing in the Christian faith as that will retard someone’s development in my opinion.
I just got back from a long flight, so apologies for any grammatical errors as I do not have the energy at the moment to re-read this.