Posted by Anna Laura on June 16, 2001, at 2:25:14
In reply to ssris...the tip of the iceburg., posted by gilbert on June 13, 2001, at 17:58:01
> > Thought some might be intereszted in this
> >
> > http://www.guardian.co.uk/Archive/Article/0,4273,4201752,00.html#top
>
> NikkiT,
>
> All of my experiences with ssris and I have taken them all have been like 2 days after stopping I find myself jonesing for the feeling that the drug gave me. I also feel way more stoned on any of the ssris versus xanax or klonopin. I can start and stop xanax way easier than any of these drugs. Even prozac gave me some rebound depression and flu like symptoms. I know so many people on this board are helped by these drugs but like any drug including the one I still take (xanax) there is more to it than just what is put out by the phamaceutical co's. I think there has been evidence suppression on side effect profiles since prozac came out, otherwise there would not be such huge discrepencies between the drugs side effect inserts given to you with the drugs and real life. On most drugs the side effect sheets are over exagerated it's like the stuff never happens. The ssri side effect sheets have been under exagerated and are still not properly up to date with what is actually occuring. When is the last time you picked up your script and saw a true desription in percentage terms of anorgasmia on any ssri insert. Or the fact that withdrawal may be tough. My blood presuure meds have realistic side effect profiles my xanax has realistic side effect profiles. The ssri's have sugar coated their side effect profiles so much so that your doctor is shocked when you even incur one of them. He looks at you in disbelief...like wow how can that be happening to you none of the reps and none of the literature even disclose the prevelance of what you are experiencing. When I was first prescribe blood pressure meds my doc gave me Lopressor a beta blocker. I told him it caused me to be somewhat limp. He knew right away said come on in let me switch you....that is a very common side effect for a beta blocker. Now 2 years later I go to the same doc tell him I can't orgasm on prozac and he looks at me like I am some sort of freak. It's like he never heard of this. The sales pitch and the cover up continues....It is so easy for people on antidepressants and the medical community to look at benzo users like junkies it will be a big pill to swallow to realize the ssri's are no better in that situation.
>
> GilGil,
My humble personal opinion is that the more you're depressed the more you're likely to have side effects when you quit AD. It's like rebound effects and depression are somewhat intertwined so that it gets difficult to distinguish wether it' the drug making you sick or it's just you being depressed/anxious. I personally had big time problems with benzos years ago: i was taking a benzo called "prazene" (living in Europe i don't know wether you guys have heard about it or not) : the compound is called "prazepam" or something like that.Well; i had big time problems quitting that drug: i took years to get it off my shoulders.I felt like a jun,kie, felt guilty about it. The point is that i had been undiagnosed, just being given benzos, no AD whatsoever ,so i got more depressed as time went by: that was one of the reasons why it was so hard to quit : the benzos were kind of "concealing" the depression symptoms which showed up every time i was trying to quit. Sure that the benzo was addictive also, but nothing was written on the paper sheet about addiction/cold turkey/rebound and so on. Many years after that they added warnings about addiction on the paper sheet: as a matter of fact, PRAZENE is believed to be a highly addictive benzo, pdocs prescribing thet quite rarely now. One thing i think it's unfair about AD is that they never talk about emotional blunting (the so-called frontal syndrome). If i knew that before i probably wouldn't have taken them; but this is a controversial issue for me since they have been life-savers while i was psychotic. But again, they should be talking about the frontal syndrome thing: i personally prefer to feel more depressed, feeling -the flesh and blood-sort-of-thing rather then feeling numb; i personally prefer to suffer and feeling more lively; this is controversial issue also : the last bout of depression i had i felt like i was dead and AD actually helped me to feel more lively;
Sorry for being so prolix/lenghty.Anna Laura
poster:Anna Laura
thread:66340
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20010612/msgs/66681.html