[selexin]

I don’t usually post here, especially on such personal topics, but feel I should. I’ve been on SSRIs and SNRIs for some time now (Pristiq, and now Zolof), and can definitely attest to the some of the changes described in the article. I clearly remember reading the documentation in full that came with both drugs before starting each, and the mentioned side effects were only mentioned in passing, along with possibly every other side effect imaginable, so it was very easy to dismiss - especially when you are in a place you know you need help out of. There was also no real warning of long term side effects from both doctors that have prescribed me. I guess I don’t have any real point, other than if you are considering anti-depressants do more research than I did before taking what you’ve been prescribed - and if in doubt get answers from your doctor, and failing that find a better doctor (if you can).

[300bps]

When I was in my mid-20s my doctor wanted me to take blood pressure medication because when I went to her office in the morning I had blood pressure of 150/110. I told her I wanted to see what I could do on my own first.

I cut out salt and caffeine, increased potassium and exercised every day. I went back in two months and my blood pressure was 120/80. She took it four times because she didn't believe it. I think the primary thing was the caffeine - it just gives me a temporary but strong spike in blood pressure.

Years later, a doctor prescribed me Lexapro. I actually picked up the prescription. But I never took it. I started exercising every day, started mindful meditation, removed sugar from my diet, read the book Learned Optimism and did the CBT-like work in there. Ended up never taking the SSRI but haven't had anxiety in 7 years. (btw Learned Optimism was recommended to me on HN).

Some people definitely need medication - I worked with a guy in his early 20s that had cholesterol of 400+. I saw him eat oatmeal every day for breakfast and lunch and then saw his cholesterol go up to 420. I'm sure there are people that need SSRIs. But it does seem like doctors at least prescribed it to me when I didn't need it.

[speeder]

Probably eating the oatmeal that made his cholesterol get higher.

There are now tons of research coming out about how cereals (wheat and corn specially) are basically the culprit of a lot of diseases that in the past were blamed on "fat", and also that this past blame was partially due to corruption (for example coca-cola literally gave six digits money to Harvard scientists so they would lie and say sugar was safe and the culprit for people problems was meat).

[matheusmoreira]

Lifestyle changes are the best treatment there is. Shame they can't make a pill out of it. Statistically most people fail to maintain lifestyle changes over the long term. Especially dietary changes.

Pharmacological treatments allow doctors to help those people.

[cwkoss]

Have you heard of white coat syndrome? https://www.healthline.com/health/white-coat-syndrome

Recently learned about it, and based on my own measurements, seems I have it to some extent.

[wara23arish]

I got back from the doctor last week due to some chest pains. He was more worried about my high blood pressure 130/90.

Every time i measure it at home its 110s/70.

[BoiledCabbage]

As a herbal observation, it seems like such a scam that medical pamphlets will list possible side-effects, but not frequencies.

Knowing that one person in one thousand saw some issue is very different from 20% of people. Especially as almost every medication I've ever seen advertised has a list two pages long of possible side effects.

How is a person supposed to make an informed judgment?

[sofixa]

I don't know if it's the law here in France or just nice manufacturers, but I've seen side effects broken down by occurence rate ( 1 in 100,000: X, Y, Z; 1 in 1,000,000: A, B, C, etc.) multiple times.

[s1artibartfast]

All US drugs have to include the rate of side effects in their clinical trials.

Google "Product name prescribing information"

[watwut]

The frequencies are there, they were in all pamphlets I read. It is a law.

[cwkoss]

> herbal observation

What does this mean?

[haolez]

In my case (Pristiq), it was a net positive. My libido decreased (but never desapeared) and I've never had erectile disfuncion so far. Totally worth it for me, with my specific metabolism.

[xattt]

Sertraline (Zoloft) often causes more sexual side effects in males than it does in females. I have seen this used at the max dose to control hypersexual behaviour in a patient with dementia.

[ljm]

I spent about 18 months on sertraline. Even on the 'therapeutic' dose that I started off with, it basically nuked my ability to perform. Could still get an erection easily enough, the frustration was being unable to do anything with it.

It wasn't that much better with fluoxetine, but with that I found that I could at least wait a few days to sort of build up the energy.

As with another poster here, I'm happy being open about this stuff too. The first hurdle is opening up about mental health, I think that already puts you on a good track to take the shame away from the sexual aspect.

[matheusmoreira]

It's also used to treat premature ejaculation. Side effects can be really useful in the right context.