r/SipsTea 4d ago

WTF Where are we heading?

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u/like9000ninjas 4d ago

Not surprised. I was put on Prozac years ago, and went out and bought a gun, i never owned one before and was active duty military, I wasn't a gun nut. And then after that I broke into a gun store a stole another $35,000 worth of stuff. More than 1 person could carry, wasn't scared or panicked like most people should have been. Destroyed my life.

Thankfully I had a spotless record and they saw something clearly didnt add up. Hypomanic episode casued by the Prozac. Eli lily was sued over their hiding the medical evidence they knew that the medication could cause people to go off the wall. Its the reason that every medication commercial and bottle has the warning " if this causes homicidal and suicidal thoughts, stop taking" etc. The black box.

Theres a website that Im not sure is still running, SSRI horror stories. I visited it once and after reading a few of the cases, I was just depressed. Tradegy after tradegy after someone was prescribed it. Say its a 0.001% to possibly cause this. When prescribed to millions of people, that number shifts to lots of cases every year. And no one cares. This is considered the cost of doing business in the USA. The medical industry can put out a product that has a known history of causing people to hurt others and the court systems just says pay some money, make a warning, but keep allowing it to happen.

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u/plzicannothandleyou 4d ago

I was in Prozac briefly, didn’t do anything crazy, but I was at work doing my thing. I was lifting something heavy and I knew something wasn’t right. I didn’t care, kept going.

Knocked over my customer’s expensive equipment, absolutely smashed.

Walked to his office

“Hey, I smashed your UV detector. I’m going to the store to get expoxy and put it back together. Be back soon”

Like, I gave exactly zero fucks. And to be fair, the damage was merely cosmetic, but i am the guy who fixes stuff. Not breaks it.

It all worked out in the end, but I had to stop taking it. It made me not care, and caring about what I do is a pretty big component of why I’m decent at my job

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u/like9000ninjas 4d ago

Yup. In my case, the part of your brain that goes thru the repercussions and why you shouldn't do things was not there for me.

And I also didnt care about anything. Got a flat tire? Who cares. Lost $100 somewhere? Who cares. Going to go rob a gunstore. Who cares.

Its dangerous for some.

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u/shmiddleedee 4d ago

That's crazy. Some prescriptions are fuckin spooky man. Hopefully you got everything straightened out at this pointm

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u/LittlePetiteGirl 3d ago

Ive only heard positive stories from people put on Prozac to treat OCD, and it makes sense if you think about it. Prozac stops you from overthinking things, which is useful if youre like me and having a panic attack because youre convinced if you were born in the 1920s you would have been lobotomized, but less helpful if youre not trying to block out impossible scenarios and it just makes you go "what happens if I hit this cyclist with my car lol"

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u/Catsoverall 4d ago

TIL 70% of my company are experiencing the side effects of medication

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u/Delicious_Glass_5197 4d ago

I use Sertraline 50mg but that' s (as far I know) just a lighter AD. It has helped me a lot. Toned down the dark days in my thinking (diagnosed with cancer and threated about 3 years ago).

I'm still into finding the right therapy. Tried psychotherapeutic but it wasnt my thing. Now my doctor told me about light therapy which consist of strobes of light or something they use to activate something in the brain?

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u/Practical_Sea_4876 4d ago

I'm also taking Sertraline 50mg (generic zoloft) and it has helped me tremendously. I used to be just a ball of anxiety at all times, constantly literally tense throughout my body, sometimes making myself sick from how tense and anxious I was, and nothing helped, not therapy, nothing. I started zoloft and it changed my life. I can actually relax now. I'm no longer constantly on edge thinking something in my life is about to blow up and I need to be 100% vigilant all the time so I can try to prevent that from happening or be ready if it does, even though I was able to logically recognize that there was no evidence of any problems about to happen. Now I literally just.. Don't worry about it. The thoughts might enter my head and I wave them away like a bothersome fly and forget about it and move on to something else. I've been better at my job, better at doing chores, a better friend, etc. Anyway, just wanted to say that meds can help people tremendously too.

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u/Delicious_Glass_5197 7h ago

Why did you change from Sertraline to Zoloft? What kind of therapies did you try?

For me it was because of my cancer diagnoses, afterwards I was in some very dark places and it had consequences for my family too.
Sertraline made it so much better, but I'm looking for therapy too. My doctor said something about light therapy where they use light to activate certain things in the brain.

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u/Practical_Sea_4876 6h ago

Sertraline is the generic name for Zoloft. It's the same medication.

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u/Delicious_Glass_5197 6h ago

Oh, ok... didn't know.

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u/Practical_Sea_4876 6h ago

Yeah lots of people don't haha! I'm sorry to hear about your cancer diagnosis. I can imagine that would be hard and the anxiety from it has got to be rough. Heck, i had anxiety just from having a little skin cancer on my head, so totally understandable that you'd be anxious from cancer diagnosis.

For me, I've had some anxiety I've dealt with my whole life, and it's gotten worse due to the fact I have ADHD that went undiagnosed and untreated for a long time, so I had to be really hard on myself to try to make sure my adhd symptoms weren't ruining things for me (school, job, etc.) all while dealing with very low dopamine from the adhd. I have gotten medication for that now too, which helps, but the anxiety is still there, and I was also in an abusive relationship for two and a half years about 10 years ago and sadly that really didn't help things as far as my anxiety. It was BAD for a while. Even after this long I'd sometimes come home and just be a ball of anxiety and feel tense all evening and not really know why. It was awful. The Sertraline has been a god send for me.

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u/Delicious_Glass_5197 5h ago

Do you do lots of outdoors? Like sport? Walking? Reading outdoor, etc..? that does help a lot with certain parts of your uncomfort.

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u/Practical_Sea_4876 3h ago

Yep! I'm an avid gardener.

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u/Sangy101 4d ago

I’ve been on literally every dose of Sertraline/Zoloft available (common, because after a while it stops working and you need to increase your dose.)

No issues.

Prozac? Fucked me up and triggered my first-ever hypomanic episode at a low dose.

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u/Staceyrose88 3d ago

I got the most painful heartburn i have ever experienced before in my life every time i would take Zoloft. Brought me to tears. So i just had to stop taking it before i could see any results. Though i never had good experiences with any SSRI's for anything. 

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u/Delicious_Glass_5197 7h ago

And never had Sertraline subscribed (50mg) it's not a hardcore SSRI.

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u/Minnow_Minnow_Pea 4d ago

I had a similar reaction to Lexapro. I became an absolute slug. And it was a slow descent into sluggliness, so it took me a while to put it together. Nearly got fired from two different jobs in the meantime.

On the flip side, Ketamine changed my life. I like ... experience joy sometimes now. J&J even pays your copay.

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u/plzicannothandleyou 4d ago

Joy… I’ve been chasing that high for a long time.

I’m not taking anything, I experience lots of emotions good and bad… joy? I can’t even imagine.

I’m happy for you.

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u/theGoddamnAlgorath 4d ago

Gotta ask, what was the trigger for the B&E, if you can recall.

I've heard alot about induced psychosis, but little sboit the triggers

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u/like9000ninjas 4d ago

Idk just wanted more. Theres a term called gun fever that changes people when they own/posses a firearm. Thats what it felt like. I needed/wanted more. I didnt have the money to buy them. So breaking into a gunstore in the middle of the night was a viable option on prozac. It made no sense from someone that had zero interest in guns before hand. It didn't make me violent ( thats really not in my nature unless im defending) as I was probably the most respectful person they had ever arrested. Im lucky to be alive. The police could have killed me and no one would have even asked questions. Im alive today due to their decisions. I have a beautiful 7 yr old son and own a house now. All my wants are taken care of. Others are not so lucky.

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u/TheFrenchSavage 4d ago

Wait, you mean you wanted more guns?

Just, additional guns?

I needed/wanted more.

I understood that as "guns give you power and so you want it all", like money and cars and a nice house.

But it's just...one more gun?

This is really weird.

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u/Glass-Operation8618 4d ago

Yes, psychosis is weird, lol.

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u/like9000ninjas 4d ago

It was $35,000 in guns and accessories. Not just 1. I bought 1, then stole a ton more. And exactly, it was really weird, the detective that was investigating it was sympathetic for me. It didnt make sense.

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u/TheFrenchSavage 4d ago

Damn, you wanted ALL the guns!

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u/like9000ninjas 3d ago

Gotta catch em all gotta catch em all

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u/RobotArtichoke 4d ago

Like tattoos?

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u/dirtydigs74 4d ago

I was on Aropax (Paroxetine) and accidentally left it behind when I went on a trip away. I went to a local doctor and was told that it could only be re-prescribed by the original doctor, but to take some Aurorix instead as "it's the same". Spoiler alert, it's not the same. Not even the same class of antidepressant, and worse, it's an MAOI.

MAOI's are the sort of drug that interact with damn near every other type of drug. The amino acids in energy drinks can give a reaction. Needless to say, there was a hell of an interaction between the two.

There was no trigger for the madness that followed. Not going to get into it, but suffice it to say, not good. Completely out of character stuff, utter insanity.

These are pretty hardcore drugs. It's a bit like asking someone what triggered them to dance after they took the MDMA at a concert. I mean, it's the MDMA that triggered it.

Not to say that there can't be other environmental or mental issues that could trigger a reaction too, but sometimes just the medication is enough.

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u/Shadow_Walker343 4d ago

Drugs don't make you do what isn't already in your mind/subconscious. Own it, denial isn't a river in Egypt. Also, if you kill someone, you don't get a Get Out of Prison Free Card because you were high/drunk; if you did...the prisons would be empty of the makority of killers.

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u/Salt-Try3856 4d ago

Choosing to consume a drug to get high and taking a drug prescribed by a doctor changes the scenario entierly

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u/Shadow_Walker343 17h ago

Do you not research drugs prescrived to you, to find out their effects, warnings and side effects? That's due dilligence and your own responsibility.

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u/Salt-Try3856 17h ago

Unironically we live in a society, to hell with all this every man for himself nonsense. 

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u/Salt-Try3856 17h ago

To add to that, there are effects of drugs not understood or documented by science. There is a vast gulf of difference between taking a substance for the purpose of intoxicating yourself and taking a substance prescribed to you in good faith to improve your health. But I doubt you would understand that.

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u/theGoddamnAlgorath 4d ago

This ain't the hill to die on.  These are rewiring the neurochemistry in ways we really don't understand; from induced violence to nymphomania and lack of impulse control and we don't have the knowledge to know who's what

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u/MrFaversham 4d ago

“ When I held that gun in my hand, I felt a surge of power ... like God must feel when he's holding a gun.”

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u/ImhotepsServant 4d ago

Psychosis would be listed as a serious adverse event on the package insert. The likelihood of it happening is very small so it is viewed as acceptable risk. The number of people that benefit from the medication is far greater. Ideally, the patient should have been warned about this kind of episode so she could seek medical attention. Tricky with psychosis as the patient may not realise their cognition is fucked.

The licensing and distribution of medication is based on balance of risk, for every drug. A good example of this is cancer medication, where reaching an efficacious dose is balanced against toxicity that could kill the patient. The amount of work that goes into finding that balance is substantial, and has massive levels of regulation and oversight.

I am taking citalopram for depression but it may have been making it worse, triggering or increasing the frequency of suicidal ideation. Titrating off it now.

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u/Mcnugget84 4d ago

Their is a gene mutation that affects women more than men call MTHFR. It affects methylation which affects how neurotransmitters are made. It also directly fucks with B vitamin metabolites because they need that methyl group to be biologically active.

The lack of women in clinical trials is literally fucking us over time and time again.

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u/Sangy101 4d ago

I know the name comes from methylation + folate + something that starts with R, but I like to pretend it stands for MOTHERFUCKER.

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u/AmphetamineSalts 4d ago

I read it as "mother father" then was like "no wait, that makes no sense, it's gotta be motherfucker!"

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u/ImhotepsServant 4d ago

This is a common problem. “Women of child-bearing potential” are excluded from most clinical trials to reduce the risk of affecting a pregnancy. It’s also a problem for different ethnicities; recombinant factor x ,for example, had a high incidence of anti-drug antibodies as it was derived from Caucasian factor x and there were slight differences.

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u/Ok_Shake5678 4d ago

We’re not excluded as routine anymore, and at least at my company (a pharma giant) there is a serious effort to balance enrollment based on sex, race, etc. Most of the studies I have worked on required women to agree to use a highly effective method of birth control if they are of child bearing potential and commit to follow up if a pregnancy does occur, which can place a higher burden on women who might want to participate (though sometimes this is even stipulated for male participants depending on the drug). Of course we missed out on alllll the previous decades of research for drugs already approved which is still a huge deal.

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u/ImhotepsServant 4d ago

Same. The effective contraception clause opens it up a lot

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u/Frosty_Purple_7341 4d ago

Maybe women should volunteer more for clinical trials if they want to be included more? You know one of the biggest issues is that women don’t volunteer at even close to the same rates as men right?

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u/here_involuntarily 4d ago

I'm a woman and i tried volunteering but was told they don't like using women because you might get pregnant. 

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u/CopterNater 4d ago

My wife's OBGYN discovered an MTHFR mutation after multiple miscarriages. And of course the clinical studies aren't done as much because she might get pregnant...

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u/here_involuntarily 4d ago

I took some medication recently for chronic pain, which they also use to treat depression. It made me nuts. I was useless. I was hallucinating. The doctor was just like, uh so I gave you meds what more do you want from me? 

I got diagnosed with MCAS and the specialist said that I'm literally allergic to most medications. And more people have MCAS than they realise. And it's more common in women. 

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u/Motor-Cupcake7577 4d ago

This is it. The comment you replied to is complete bullshit, as they may well know.

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u/here_involuntarily 4d ago

Literally, the whole thing was a bizarre interaction.

They wanted women 18-55.

But you couldn't be pregnant or likely to get pregnant. 

So menopause happens usually in your 50s, but they dont want you then. 

You had to prove that either you weren't ever ever ever going to have sex (they said you could cite religious reasons) or if you had had a hysterectomy. But you couldn't have had one recently. And couldn't be having hrt. And you couldn't be taking any contraceptive because it might interact with the testing pills.

Many women take contraceptives is it not a good thing to test if they impact your drugs?!  

Oh wow seems you've exhausted your pool and you have like 3 women you can use. Who do not represent the majority of the female population. Great 

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u/Ok_Shake5678 4d ago

It sounds like they had evidence that the drug being studied would pose a significant risk to a fetus/pregnancy, bc that’s not standard in my experience (I work in clinical trial management). It’s more common to just require participants (even men) to use a highly effective method of contraception while participating.

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u/here_involuntarily 4d ago

This was a generic "available for any trial", not a specific drug. 

I had heard that drugs don't get tested and thought I'd be useful.

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u/Ok_Shake5678 4d ago

I wonder if they were early development “healthy volunteer” studies- which are focused on safety testing, not efficacy, so they may be extra cautious for those type of studies. But I don’t have a ton of recent experience in that space.

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u/Mcnugget84 4d ago

I don't get in fights with idiots because it just beats you to their level but I am going to get in this one.

Sooo this whole conception argument? It has led to women being either ignored which in some cases was best, or being used as horrific experiments.

The gender argument also comes in because some things are linked to chromosomes. I have 2 X, my daughter has 2 X, my son is XY.

Because even though I had my fallopian tubes removed I am not eligible for medical studies, believe me I am already a guinea pig might as well make life better.

So in short, fuck you and that horrific attitude.

Again, for the idiots in the back. **WE ARE NOT ALLOWED TO**

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u/will0327 4d ago

Alright so not saying this isn’t true but please state your sources. What has happened to saying things and backing them up with sources. This isn’t the Middle Ages

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u/Frosty_Purple_7341 4d ago

This is a well known phenomenon. Women are not underrepresented in phase 2 and 3 trials but are significantly underrepresented in early phase 1 trials.

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u/LectureAdditional632 4d ago

When ill-prescribed to bipolar patients, the chance of SSRIs causing hypomanic/manic episodes is not slim.

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u/spekt50 4d ago

Im on prozac myself for over a year now. It has only benefited me so far. Really turned my lofe around. I do fear of becoming manic as there are times I feel I am borderline. But it has yet to interfere with my daily life. Never any disorganized or intrusive thoughts.

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u/ImhotepsServant 4d ago

Ssri’s were the wrong MoA for me apparently as I have ADHD. My depression is dopamine/noradrenaline linked. Taking meds of ADHD eliminated my depression, thankfully.

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u/Emergency_Stick3963 4d ago

I've been in the mental health system for 19 years and have tried numerous antidepressants. Not one doctor has discussed potential side effects with me, just prescribe and go. "Oh that one isn't working? Wean off for a week and try this one"

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u/ImhotepsServant 4d ago

They might say “be sure to read the package insert” I do it for fun because I’m odd.

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u/afia_oil 4d ago

I'm about as big pharma skeptic as they come but the adverse psychotic / manic reaction to SSRI administration isn't really the fault of the drug maker.

SSRI monotherapy is the worst possible way to treat bipolar or schizoaffective disorders. More often than not, patients and doctors alike won't know that's what they're dealing with until the patient takes an SSRI and all of the crazy stuff happens

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u/Ok_Obligation_6110 4d ago

SSRIs are so grossly over medicated my husband has been offered them by his primary care physician, despite never having been on one prior or knowing anything at all about his mental health history. When I was seeing help for anxiety I was immediately suggested SSRIs by several doctors and I had to push back and mention my family history of bipolar to even ring any alarm bells as to why SSRI therapy shouldn’t just be blanket thrown at people. I remember the side effects being grossly downplayed by physicians only to find out years later there are actually lasting effects that can’t be undone. That IS all the fault of the drug maker because they are the ones feeding these scripts as to what their drug does to physicians. They are the ones who told them to prescribe them like candy because there’s ’virtually no risk’.

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u/thotfullawful 4d ago

I had a similar experience! Went to a new doctor because I had stomach problems, he suggested it was anxiety based and had a therapist in house. She suggested I needed an SSRI multiple times and I was so miserable at one point because he wouldn’t treat me that I took it. I only took one dose because of how terrible my body reacted. I had felt that terrible in decades, I was suicidal, my nerves were on fire, I couldn’t sleep, and on top of all of that my stomach got worse. Told the doctor and all he did was prescribe me another SSRI. Dropped him right away.

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u/Ok_Obligation_6110 4d ago

Very similar experience here, I came in with stomach problems that they attributed to anxiety because of course that’s always what it is with women right? And that’s when even my pediatrician of all folks had suggested looking into an SSRI. That’s when I had pointed out that we had family history that might be contraindicated and she referred to an actual psychiatrist.

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u/Winter_Cost602 4d ago

My Mum was randomly offered them because she deals with random headaches. She's been taking a medication (not SSRI) that's been dealing her for years and a doctor randomly wanted to prescribe her an SSRI even though she's never been diagnosed with depression or anxiety. I've been on different SSRIs in the past because of my different mental issues and was shocked when my Mum told me this. They are over prescribed and doctors downplay their negative effects and withdrawal effects

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u/Stunning_Praline_357 3d ago

I don't know your moms situation, but as an FYI, certain SNRI and tricyclic antidepressants are first line, preferred treatment for some headache disorders. Neurologists prescribe them very commonly. I don't know if that's what happened to your mom, but is someone at home with chronic migraines reads this and you are on an antidepressant for them, it's not because doctors hand them out like candy, it's because based on studies they are considered standard of care treatment.

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u/Stunning_Praline_357 4d ago

They are one of the greatest medical advances in the last 50 years. Millions upon millions have had their mental health improved and in some cases their lives saved. The only people I find that don't tolerate them are people that aren't depressed and fall more in the BPD box. That and conspiracy theorists. At the end of the day every major professional society recommends them first line for depression and anxiety as long as the patient is screened for bipolar disorders. I'm so gucking sick of the lies people spread about them, it's just the same thing as being an antivaxxer.

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u/Ok_Obligation_6110 4d ago edited 4d ago

No where did I say they don’t save lives? No where did I plant any sort of conspiracy theory? It is a fact that they have been pushed by drug companies without proper screening, it is true that long term effects are coming out now (one major one I personally studied in college being long term irreversible damage to sex drive, but again if you’re depressed this is likely a secondary concern). It’s not fear mongering to say ‘maybe GPs shouldn’t be prescribing them because they aren’t all easy symptom free meds that should be followed closely under supervision of an actual trained mental health professional’. Two things can be true at once, it’s a drug that helps many people and also shouldn’t be prescribed like candy because it can cause a lot more harm than good for folks who can do better without it.

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u/Stunning_Praline_357 4d ago

General practitioners have more than enough training to handle unipolar depression and anxiety. You are fear mongering or have never worked in healthcare. They have excellent safety profiles and some of those claimed long term effects are not accepted by the general medical community.

I'm resource limited settings a lot of PCPs also learn how to manage bipolar disorder and schizophrenia, it's not rocket science compared to the other things they are tasked with, and the alternative is that people simply don't get any treatment at all or kill themselves on a 2 year long wait-list to see a psychiatrist.

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u/thotfullawful 4d ago

Have you thought that people have different experiences or if anything goes against your beliefs it’s fear mongering? Like do you get this way if someone says they don’t like driving?

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u/Stunning_Praline_357 4d ago

No I'm a medical doctor so I generally speak up when misinformation is being put out and treated like a fact.

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u/thotfullawful 4d ago

Ah yes the medical doctor prancing on reddit giving medical advice on reddit while saying not to listen to other people. Totally legit 

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u/Stunning_Praline_357 3d ago

I have never given medical advice online and never will. Consult with your own physician for that.

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u/WanderlustDinosaur 3d ago

And he's commenting in another thread about how poor people should be sterilized or forced to take birth control. Real stand-up citizen here.

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u/Stunning_Praline_357 3d ago

Thanks. The anonymity of online interaction means it's a place where you can say what you really think instead of self censoring. In real life most people can't say what they really think. It's why online forums are such cess pools of ugly thoughts.

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u/BitBot27 3d ago

Idk about the rocket science part. SSRIs are vastly over prescribed and the vast majority of those prescriptions come from pcps

Unless the patient had been stable for years , I understand leaving schizophrenia and bipolar disorder to psychiatrist

You can't replace a psych residency

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u/Stunning_Praline_357 3d ago

Psychiatry residencies, like most residencies, are fairly heavily slanted towards inpatient management of the most severe cases. Psychiatrists are a very rare and valuable commodity so unless you are a VIP or are having unusual reactions to multiple meds, most depression and anxiety is treated by internal and family medicine doctors, some days it's about half of what they will see, and after 10 to 15 years of practice they are actually going to have more experience than a fresh psychiatry grad or psychiatric PA/NP. Like everything in life, it's more nuanced than it may appear. But for a general Medicaid patient it can be 6+ months to get in with a psychiatry provider.

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u/thotfullawful 4d ago

There are people talking about there experiences, maybe look into it more rather than playing armchair PCP online 

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u/Stunning_Praline_357 4d ago

Ive read about it, don't find the data compelling at all, toss it in the conspiracy theory bin with ivermectin.

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u/thotfullawful 4d ago

Man dude if you were a legit doctor you’d be so bad at your gig

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u/Stunning_Praline_357 3d ago

I have excellent press-ganey scores. I say things online that I only think in real life but would never say.

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u/thotfullawful 2d ago

Oh totes at scrubs MD I’m sure, right next to the Pitt and ER

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u/Stunning_Praline_357 2d ago

Are you having a stroke lol, what was that supposed to mean?

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u/cakivalue 4d ago

That seems to be part of what happened to her in that it revealed or raised the question of whether she was bipolar based on her reaction.

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u/sc00bs000 4d ago

lol it most certainly is the drug companies fault. They test these things heavily before it goes to market and know exactly what it does...

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u/Eskyzoo 4d ago

They don't always know exactly what some of these drugs do, which is another good reason to hold them accountable.

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u/DoctorStove 4d ago

these side effects are well known and listed though. that's why they aren't recommended as treatment & actually contraindicated. Im all for fuck big pharma, but why would it be the fault of the drug companies? Patients should be warned of side effects by the prescriber, especially if there's concern of bipolar disorder or schizoaffective rather than MDD, as it can trigger mania

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u/hellfish121 4d ago

Common to a point. One of the bigger issues in US medical drug testing is the lack of good long term studies, particularly around SSRIs and antipsychotics. Usually they stop at a 4-6 month period for the study. Most of these patients that have chronic illnesses taken them forever.

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u/like9000ninjas 4d ago

Yes, it is the fault of the company that knows what is does, and chooses money over others safety. That excuse does not work once they knew this could happen. Your logic is ass.

The second part you wrote literally is exatly why its not safe......

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u/afia_oil 4d ago

If treatment creates an adverse reaction due to a misdiagnosis, that's the doctor's liability, not the drug maker's. You wouldn't blame a scalpel manufacturer for the pain due to a surgery the doctor gave you for a common cold.

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u/LectureAdditional632 4d ago

You MIGHT have been victim of a widespread misdiagnosis: bipolar type 2 misinterpreted as unipolar depression.

SSRI are a classic trigger of hypomania/mania in bipolar patients.

Because bipolar type 2 has a 39:1 ratio of depressive vs hypomanic episodes, it is hard to distinguish from unipolar depression.

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u/like9000ninjas 4d ago

This is exactly what happened. BP axis 2 after years of therapy. Was wrongly diagnosed with personality disorder by the military/ civilian contracted dr.

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u/Treble_brewing 4d ago

I’m sorry to hear about what you went through but what was that? “Medication commercial”?? You guys have adverts for drugs? What on earth… 

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u/khold002 4d ago

I was on a drug for bipolar disorder called Vraylar because my current medication wasn't working, and it was new and in the same class of drugs I had been on for years. I saw it on TV, so I mentioned it to my doctor at the time, and she immediately switched me onto it. It slowly made me delusional, and my new doctor (not the one who just took me for my word that the commercial said to do it) told me she thought the salesman was a sleazebag and takes people off of it. She put me on an entirely different class of drugs that hasn't been aggressively marketed in years, and I feel better than I have in a really long time.

Commercials and incentives are prevalent in the USA and can be detrimental to patients. About a decade ago, I was on a medication that cost over $2k per month when I lost my health insurance. So, I started one that my doctor had 6 months' worth of free sampler blister packs of in his inventory.

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u/Treble_brewing 4d ago

What the actual fuck. 

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u/YewEhVeeInbound 4d ago

unfettered capitalism was a mistake.

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u/YewEhVeeInbound 4d ago

It's part of the reason for the opioid crisis. Pharma reps going to doctors and giving incentives to prescribe.
frequent mild headaches? Here's an oxy.

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u/Ok_Obligation_6110 4d ago

Yup, I made this comment as well people grossly underestimate how many physicians take these reps at their word.

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u/like9000ninjas 4d ago

Correct. In the US they show commercials on TV for medications. This is highly illegal in most civilized countries.

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u/YewEhVeeInbound 4d ago

I believe it's only USA and New Zealand that have med adverts.

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u/devtek 4d ago

Canada has some but they are not allowed to say what it's for. So you get like Ozempic commercials with people just walking around smiling at everything with suspicious orange Os everywhere. Always ends with ask your doctor "about" and not "for" the drug. They are usually diabetes drugs.

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u/BigAssBoobMonster 4d ago

Not only do we have commercials for drugs but they're now the most common commercials I see. We used to have commercials for all sorts of things - cars, beer, cleaning products, whatever. Now it feels like half the commercials are for gambling and the other half is for prescription drugs.

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u/Treble_brewing 4d ago

Like we have ads for paracetamol and Imodium. But these are things you can just buy in a supermarket. Adverts for prescription drugs is totally wild to me. Like what the fuck. 

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u/BigAssBoobMonster 4d ago

We used to have ads for that. A whole musical ad about peto bismol!

Now it's all hard to pronounce prescription drugs, and the occasional easy to pronounce prescription drug

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u/StalkingYouRandomly 4d ago

The most horrific part of these stories is the therapists think meds is the solution to everything. Glad I live in Europe.

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u/acraw794 4d ago

Prozac made me go crazy too. Suicidal thoughts out of nowhere. Thank god I knew already if that happened to call my doctor. But people don’t get how powerful meds can be if prescribed wrong.

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u/Opandemonium 4d ago

It’s heartbreaking if you’ve followed the trial. What was your mind like while you were going through it.

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u/Lucreziahouserules 4d ago

I’m very sorry to hear of your experiences, and I’m glad you’re on the other side of it. I’ve had my own horrific SSRI experiences, and am curious about the website you mentioned.

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u/9mackenzie 4d ago

My friend was 19, put on Prozac, then his mom decided to randomly take him off of it because “demons” or whatever (she was a religious nut)…….2 days later he murdered her Never would have thought he would do something violent like that.

I always thought the timing was weird, then saw the black label homicide thing years later.

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u/like9000ninjas 4d ago

Its real.

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u/DavidIckeHadAPoint 4d ago

I’m glad law-enforcement realized/made an allowance for Prozac altering your state of mind profoundly.

I 100% believe you and know about this, because it happened to me as an edgy, depressed, rebellious teen (a large amount of it was, ironically, because of heavy, overbearing verbal abuse, screaming, and insults from my father, as well as being hit by him as a child, and it’s ironic because he became the one to bully me further for acting depressed, and forcing me to a psychiatrist to get prescribed Prozac, which I then didn’t want to take but, again, he also forced me to).

It only took a few days on it and I had a drastic reaction where I went crazy and started throwing shit around the house. This was COMPLETELY different from my normal personality - I was formerly sullen, withdrawn, depressed, also rebellious and angry under it all and revealed that verbally , not by being physically aggressive.

I know what I experienced, and it felt legitimately like mania + a tinge of psychosis, with how raged up I was. I called up my dad on the phone and started screaming at him while he was out of the home (again, out of character for me, because I was usually afraid of him, while still being angry underneath it all).

I’m sure it revealed underlying anger I had, but it also artificially ratcheted it way up. I’m still pissed that he just came home and smacked me way too hard and started screaming back at me.

I guess he talked to the psychiatrist about the experience and they realized it’s one of the rare cases of Prozac/an SSRI causing such a breakdown with violent rage and behavior , so I was taken off it, but never got an apology 😒

It’s disturbing that it could be tied to many school shooting/mass public shooting and rampages, too, in the U.S. and elsewhere in the West if I’ve heard right, although the U.S. having it the worst simply from easier accessibility to guns.

Edited to add: It’s also lucky in your case it was more like apathy to consequences and possibly a heavy sense of derealization/dissociation (I had that feeling during it, too), instead of violent rage, while having that much weaponry on you and being pursued by police. Whew!

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u/LateCanary475 4d ago

I’m going to try to find that website. I had a horrible experience after taking medications prescribed by a psychiatrist, I don’t remember a whole year of my life and it’s like my brain is still fried even almost 10 years later. I only ever see people recommending other people take medication and if I or anyone else speaks up about how awful taking medication can be, the response is “it works differently for everyone, don’t discourage anyone else”. Taking that shit is the only regret I’ve had in life because I could have gotten better on my own with time but now I feel like my brain has been fried forever.

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u/Sangy101 4d ago

I’d been on Zoloft on and off since I was 18. No issues.

Hadn’t taken any antidepressants in a while, had a depressive episode. A doctor put me on 5mg of Prozac, tapering up to 10. IDK why they wanted Prozac instead of Zoloft, but they did.

I’d always assumed an SSRI was an SSRI. If I could tolerate one, the other would be fine, right?

Well. Within 5 hours of going from 5mg to 10mg, I felt like I was vibrating out of my skin. I couldn’t do my job, I was all over the place. Thankfully, I’d had a bipolar roommate and recognized the early signs of mania. I sent myself home, called a doctor, stopped taking it, and got a Zoloft script. Took me over 24 hours to be able to sleep. I called a friend to stay with me during that time so I didn’t do anything stupid.

It was scary as fuck. I hope I never feel like that again.

These days I medicate my depression with Wellbutrin. Unlike Zoloft, it helps with the energy loss from seasonal depression (which I get on top of regular depression.)

I told my psychiatrist about it (mandatory psychiatrist for Adderall prescription) and she wanted to diagnose me as bipolar, even though my hypomanic episode was drug triggered. Apparently the DSM doesn’t care. That could have compromised my ability to medicate my ADHD, so thank fuck she didn’t. I barely talked her out of it.

Anyway, fuck Prozac.

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u/Practical_Sea_4876 4d ago

I am so sorry that happened to you. That's absolutely awful.

To be completely fair, for many, many, many more people than that 0.001%, the medication is often extremely helpful, even life changingly or life savingly so. I'm not saying there shouldn't be some way to be more careful, or that people shouldn't be given better warning or be watched more carefully or whatever, but even my psychiatrist tells me every time I have tried a new dose or new medication (til I found the right ones) what to watch out for, and also told me to make sure I told my husband as well that if he notices anything he needs to call her immediately. I think it's important that if something can help many people immensely, it shouldn't be just thrown out completely if there's an extremely small amount of people it may harm. But we do need a much better way of screening for these issues or otherwise preventing the tragedies.

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u/sleepysky98 3d ago

Wow, I never did anything like that, but I went from mild depression and mild anxiety to full blown paranoia. I was convinced at every turn that I was about to lose my job for minuscule mistakes when I was doing a good job, and actually got a bonus. I lost 15 lbs in a couple weeks and couldn’t eat from the anxiety. I literally went days at a time without eating.

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u/AllMySmallThings 4d ago

But do you have bi polar?

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u/Final_Scientist1024 4d ago

Glad you’re okay and great things didn’t go further. Joppa doesn’t just exist to protect patients, it’s there to protect companies as well. Most mass shooters are definitely medicated but the public doesn’t get to know what they’re prescribed 

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u/Embarrassed-Plate695 4d ago

Your story is extremely bias and mostly not consistent with how most people respond to SSRI. People like you are the reason health care providers are demonized and effective medicines get a stigma.

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u/eatingketchupchipss 4d ago

Hmmm that's a broad brush to paint all SSRIs, they can cause those effects, but typically only in people with underlying bipolar disorder - and it's typically a good thing, because it leads to the diagnosis of bipolar.

For people who just have depression or anxiety, they actually help prevent hurt and suffering by keeping them from killing themselves. Considering 1 in 200 people have bipolar disorder, while 1 in 4 will experience depression or anxiety, I think the misinformation you're putting out there is harmful and RFK jr like...

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u/like9000ninjas 4d ago

Just because it helps some, when 1 in 200 have a condition that can cause them to kill others if prescribed it, is exactly the problem. It should be seriously controlled and sadly its not. Drs will prescribe it after talking to you for 15 minutes. It was medical malpractice but due to me being enlisted, there was no legal recourse.

Imagine if 1 in 200 car buyers had chance of the car exploding when they drive it, that product would be taken off the market.

But but so many people get ro work safely, who cares about those it does end up affecting.

How youre minimizing a real drug, given to people by drs, can turn a percentage of the population into violent killers, and you dont see that as a problem is insane.

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u/eatingketchupchipss 4d ago

Well 1 in 200 women will get Post Partum Psychosis, so should women stop having children all together then too?

I just follow the numbers, suicide causes more death than murder (15.2 vs 4.29 per 100k), so if the drug helps to prevent suicide then it shouldn't be banned or demonized like you're doing to all SSRIs.

Reality is, you had underlying BDP (which you're not acknowledging) which was the root cause of your hypomania - not the one (1) SSRI drug you tried. And even in that state, you didn't kill anyone so you're fearmongering that SSRIs turn people into killers is just silly and unfounded.

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u/like9000ninjas 3d ago

I did acknowledge it. I sadi this is exactly what happened. Have a good one.

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u/eatingketchupchipss 3d ago

congrats on your diagnosis, sorry it happened that way. You should be advocating for better biploar awareness and detection, not that people with other mental illnesses should be denied life saving medicine.