You know somethings wrong with you when you seek medical advice from PD

[NotPublished]

I've never seen eye-to-eye for taking Meds for depression, but I can release Endorphins with just a thought so I'm not one to attest.

Truly.  I, on the other hand, can bend steel I-beams with my bare, mighty hands.

Yay for strange stuff!

[Faust]

I had a bad experience with them. I was depressed and suicidal. Then I went on some pills and it completely took away the fear of death but not the want to die, I needed that fear to keep me balanced.
As roger said try em out but be wary, if anything seems unusual leave them be.

I'm on pills for chronic (ie, continual) insomnia.  Without them, I will stay awake for 3-4 days.

So far, 2 of the drugs they've given me have fucked me up badly, and I'm not sure about the third, but at least I sleep.

I sometimes consider trying other pills but I never get around to it, besides the black moods have gotten softer over the years. It hasn't been that bad since I was in my teens.

[Doktor Howl]

I forgot the word .. The one where people make themselves they have an issue but they don't? Sorta like a False Positive.

Priapism.

[Pariah]

I forgot the word .. The one where people make themselves they have an issue but they don't? Sorta like a False Positive.

Priapism.

[NotPublished]

  Thats always a worry

Ohhh it was Hypochondria! Thank you for Google!

[Doktor Howl]

I forgot the word .. The one where people make themselves they have an issue but they don't? Sorta like a False Positive.

Priapism.

Doktor Howl:  Now a cure for depression.

[Earthbound Spirit]

So through some research and talking with friends, it seems I may have some form of depression, maybe possibly.
One of my friends had some pretty severe depression went to the doctor got some tiny yelllow pills and now says that they have helped out quite a bit.
Not to jump the gun or anything but has been any of your personal experiences with antidepressants i.e. if it is in fact a chronic thing and I'm not just a mopy bitch should I take them.

Try em out.

Absolutely.

[Juana]

Go to a doctor.  Find one you trust (family doctor?) who is covered by your medical insurance (if you have it).  Your doctor will sit down with you and help you figure out if you're actually depressed or just blue.  If you think you're depressed, you're probably depressed.  But you go to the family doctor first to get a referral.  If you're depressed your doctor should refer you to a psychiatrist.  The psychiatrist will determine whether your depression is due to your environment or a chemical imbalance.  S/he will prescribe happy pills if you need them.  If you do, remember people have different reactions to medication.  Keep your psychiatrist informed about how the medication is affecting you at all times.  We tried 5 or 6 different kinds of pills before we found some that worked for me.  I don't remember which one it was but I definitely started hallucinating with one of them.  Once we found the right pills I was back to my normal self in less than 2 months.

Even if you don't get pills you'll probably be going to some form of therapy for a while.  Some people can get out of their funk just by taking care of themselves(eating healthy, exercising, communicating) but it's always a good idea to get a professional opinion and it never hurts to talk things out with people.  There's no reason to isolate yourself.  Get help if you need it.

I'm actually a little wary of telling you just to go to the doctor. That's what I did and I ended up on zoloft. Which was absolutely not what I needed. Yaaay mania.

Really all this is, pre-emptive advice for if I actually have depression that is serious enough to warrant pills.

If you have serious depression--even if it's not chronic--then go. Take what they give you and figure out what you need to do to make it better if indeed you don't have chronic depression.

[Sir Squid Diddimus]

I had a bad experience with them. I was depressed and suicidal. Then I went on some pills and it completely took away the fear of death but not the want to die, I needed that fear to keep me balanced.
As roger said try em out but be wary, if anything seems unusual leave them be.

i agree with this.
i didn't need pills. it was a bad idea. they didn't help.
stopped taking them, still depressed, usually deep seeded issues.

bleh.

[Cain]

I had a bad experience with them. I was depressed and suicidal. Then I went on some pills and it completely took away the fear of death but not the want to die, I needed that fear to keep me balanced.
As roger said try em out but be wary, if anything seems unusual leave them be.

This.  Sometimes, anti-depressants can be just what you need, but sometimes how you react to them just isn't worth the trouble.  Definitely worth a shot, but if they end up making things worse, shop around for others, only take them occasionally (when the depression is at its worse) or consider leaving them aside entirely.

[P3nT4gR4m]

Protip: If you think you might be depressed look for seemingly physiological symptoms - lethargy, loss of appetite, dizzyness/nausea ... CLICK

Depression is not about feeling a bit down in the dumps so forget trying to measure how pissed off and emo you're feeling and look for something obvious like is your shit coming out solid.

[Triple Zero]

What kind of? I can only speak for the most basic run-of-the-mill Selective Serotonine-Reuptake Inhibitors (SSRIs). In which case I would agree with Doc Howl, try em out.

Especially when you don't get too high of a dosage. They don't really change you, they just allow you to enjoy life better. That's because they work via a sneaky backdoor mechanism:

See, Serotonine = Neurotransmitter-of-Happy. But it doesn't just increase your level of serotonine, that's more like what XTC or MDMA does (correct me if I'm wrong here), which is False Slack. No, it inhibits (slows down) the reuptake (breakdown) of serotonine. This means that you are still responsible for producing your own genuine organically produced Happy-Fun-Serotonine, it just makes it last longer and stops the serotonine-level from dropping way beyond below zero (which is depression), but over the course of some time helps you build up that natural sustainable buffer reserve of Joy-Juice.

Now the deal is, your doctor will tell you, you won't notice a thing until you faithfully take those pills (or drops) every day for at least 4-6 weeks. And in the mean time your serotonine levels will be changing, which, for me, seems to cause hangover-like side effects. But the side effects don't last longer than a week.

Another thing is, everybody's brain is different. What's a good SSRI for one, maybe creates horrible weird feeling for another. Fortunately there are numerous distinctly different SSRIs available, that all work slightly different. Biggest difference is, see apart from serotonine, they often also have an effect on your dopamine* and norepinephrine** levels, except less so. In addition, the different SSRI meds each affect the neurotransmitter levels more or less in different parts of your brain. Neurophysiology is complicated stuff, yo. A good psychiatrist will admit that medical science cannot predict whether an SSRI will be right for someone or not. Instead, they will carefully and on low dosages try a couple of them and see which one works best for you. I just want to say, if you end up using an SSRI and it makes you feel like crap, even after a couple of weeks, don't knock anti-depressants in general, but consult your doc and ask if you can get a different one.

* Is for concentration. "Dope". This is what Ritalin inhibits the reuptake of. ADHD people have less sensitive dopamine receptors, or sometimes break it down too fast. Speed and/or meth directly stimulate the production of dopamine.
** I forgot what this one does.

[Rumckle]

I'd say see a psychiatrist before starting on anti depressants, to  both see if you are really depressed, and to make sure you understand the effects of the medication.
This is not however speaking from first hand experience, but from dealing with friends who have been on anti depressants and other such medication.

[LMNO]

See a doctor. 

However, http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/12/health/12mind.html a new study indicates that meds generally only help severely depressed people; for mild to moderate, they're about as good as placebo.


Also however, see a doctor.  http://pn.psychiatryonline.org/content/42/9/14.1.full Standard cognitive therapy can be quite useful for mild to moderate depression.

[Triple Zero]

I'd say see a psychiatrist before starting on anti depressants, to  both see if you are really depressed, and to make sure you understand the effects of the medication.

Well, anti depressants aren't exactly OTC meds, right? So you'd have to see a psychiatrist anyway to get them prescribed?