nospam4me

My psychcotherapist recommend that that I talk to my internist about
an SSRI antidressant . I have been researching the popular ones (
Celexa , Lexapro , Prozac ) and was somewhat suprised about the side
effects ( weight gain , loss of libido, withdrawal, tiredness a ) and
am apprehensive about taking these. What about 5-HTP and wondered how
it compares in if effectiveness and whether it is free from side
effects .

witchyway@webtv.net (witchy

lexapro does not cause weight gain

robert lee

YMMV, but I've never had much luck with "natural anti-depressants." I've
heard that they work okay on mild depression, but mine ain't mild.
5-HTP, at least, did just about nothing, as opposed to St. John's Wort,
which I took for a while at a therapist's prompting just before starting
SSRIs. SJW actually caused the blackest, weirdest plunge I can
remember--luckily it only lasted an evening, and I never took the stuff
again.

I think what you have to keep in mind as you read up on any AD meds
(especially if you're currently without treatment of any kind) is that
you're not going to manifest *every* possible side effect. Reading the
list of possibilities, it's easy to have a picture in your mind of
yourself lying in bed jolted awake and trembling by vivid nightmares at
3:30 AM, alone because your genitals don't work anymore, bloated to
Marlon Brando proportions, sweating gallons as you fart spurts of
diarreah in between bouts of vomiting. This isn't realistic, you*
depressive, anxious nutbag.

Personally, I've found the side effects of the SSRIs I've been on to be
extremely limited and manageable. I was nervous--no, to be honest, I was
terrified the first time, after reading all the official lists of
possible side effects and the odd "PROZAC JUST ABOUT FREAKIN' KILLED ME"
horror story on the web. (*Those* I'd just ignore. If you read enough of
them, you'll realize that there are people who will blame *anything* on
the anti-depressant they were taking, on the level of "Yeah, my wife
caught me doing her sister and her mom, so I killed her and the dog and
gave the kids to some Jehovah's Witnesses who knocked at the door and
then went and robbed a Wendy's and they didn't get my order right so I
blew the place up and it's all that 10mg of Zoloft's fault." Yes, a very
few people will have extreme reactions, but no, if you find yourself in
divorce court, I'm not going to believe that you committed adultery
because of your meds.)

If you do find a side effect too much to bear, you can always stop
taking the drug, and the unpleasantness passes pretty quickly.

Now, excuse me, as my SSRI is telling me to have an affair with the mail
carrier and blow up the city council.

--Robert

*Rhetorical "you," not you personally.

--
I don't know who it was, but it probably was fhqwhgads.

david jones

Just felt that I should mention that SSRI's should *not* be stopped
abruptly, because this can cause it's own major problems (as I can
testify, after doing just that when Seroxat was making me nuts).

DJ
--
"If you lose your job, your marriage and your mind all in one week,
try to lose your mind first, because then the other stuff won't matter
that much." -- Jack Handey

chip

"In recent years, a substitute for trytophan, 5-hydroxytryptophan (5-HTP),
has been marketed in the US for the treatment of depression and anxiety.
Over the years, there has been a number of small open and controlled trials
supporting the use of 5-HTP. Most of these trials involved fewer than 20
patients, and definitive studies are lacking".

from: Manual of Clinical Psychopharmacology, 4th Edition (2003),
Schatzberg, Cole, and DeBattista, published by American Psychiatric
Publishing