Serotonin - The 'chemical imbalance' myth

[pulisa]

Despite all the detailed research, fancy language and eminent names behind the studies, they just don't know, do they?

It's all just trial and error.

[snowghost57]

I had good success in treating my anxiety with Prozac, a SSRI. I took 20 ml per day for about a year.
I got off it because I was feeling better, and I couldn't deal with the side effects: weight gain, loss of sex drive, overly vivid and disturbing dreams.
I guess I thought I was just going through a rough patch after my son was born, and needed something to help me for a little while.
But now that I'm off it, My anxiety is back full force. :(

Hi Glass, I'm on Zoloft for 18 days now. I feel ok sometimes and then other days like today, I'm back to crying and no motivation. I don't know if the medication is helping or not. I'm scared to go off of them as I don't want the uncontrollable thoughts of "what if" and worry. I really want to get out this darkness in my life. There is a lot of suggestions, just no solutions.

[panic_down_under]

I'm on Zoloft for 18 days now. I feel ok sometimes and then other days like today, I'm back to crying and no motivation. I don't know if the medication is helping or not.

Antidepressants have no direct effect on anxiety, or depression in the way say aspirin has on a headache. They work by stimulating the growth of new brain cells (neurogenesis) to replace cells killed, or prevented from growing by high brain stress hormone levels. The therapeutic response is produced by these new cells and the stronger interconnections they forge, not the meds directly, and they take time to bud, grow and mature which is why antidepressants typically take 3-12 weeks to become effective.