This leads to people saying that those lifestyle interventions are more effective in general, but that's due to them being appropriate for more patients, while there's a smaller population for which these interventions won't work well. Good doctors/psychologists will identify which patients are which over time.
SSRIs frequently create their own problems. They are sometimes effective because of their effect on the neuroactive steroids:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neuroactive_steroid#Role_in_an...
Depressed people frequently have a metabolic problem, where they don't make enough ATP. This is caused by thyroid imbalances, poisoning with excess Omega-6 polyunsaturated oils, etc.
Prior to that, I'd been depressed since I could remember. In hindsight, I may have had mild aspergers like symptoms, mostly related to reading social cues. This wasn't "just growing up" despite shrinks for years telling me it was.
Finding the right anti-depressant changed my life for the better. Absolutely changed my life. After college, I went off them for a year just to see if I "needed them" any more. Within 6 months, I noticed my thoughts slip into old patterns of hopelessness, counterproductivity, loneliness, and general loops of existential pain, and this outlook effected everything and everyone around me. I do need them, it turns out.
So I wish people around me hadn't been so against drugs. In my case, they should have tried them earlier in treatment. That would have saved me some years of suffering.
Also, I tried prosac, lexapro, and effexor before buproprion. If I'd listened to the many drug critics, I'd have stopped looking after prosac (side effects there included sexual disfunction and mania). I notice no notable side effects with my current cocktail.
Also, I've exercised and been in good shape both pre and post taking anti-depressants. I feel better if I'm exercising than not, but it's not even in the same ballpark as what the drugs do for me. Everyone should exercise, not everyone benefits from anti-depressants. No exaggeration, I'd be dead without them.
I guess Wellbutrin has mild stimulating properties. SSRI drugs were approved on the basis of fraudulent science. The MAOIs were reasonably effective, but caused high blood pressure when the patient also ate fine cheese.
I will say some weird side effects have been cigarettes taste like shit and aren't addictive, cocaine doesn't work quite right, and MDMA doesn't work at all. Something about Wellbutrin binding strongly to the same receptors and blocking the others. Probably for the best though...
Certainly. Well-said, thanks.
> cigarettes taste like shit and aren't addictive
I learned from a hacker news comment that current thinking is that tobacco is addictive because of the combination of nicotine and chemicals that have an MAOI effect.
timrpeterson@wustl.edu