They will help you feel like yourself again and return to your previous level of functioning. (If a person who isn't depressed takes antidepressants, they do not improve that person's mood or functioning - it's not a "happy pill.") Rarely, people experience apathy or loss of emotions while on certain antidepressants.
When you're benefiting from antidepressants, you should feel: A mood that is less depressed, less irritable, happier, and more content. Excitement for and pleasure in everyday activities and events. An ability to regulate your eating patterns without eating too much or too little.
About half of users who take selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) report a sense of emotional blunting, a psychic flatness that limits their emotional range, particularly their ability to experience positive feelings like pleasure and joy.
In terms of how they make a person feel, antidepressants may have a number of positive effects. “The person taking the antidepressant has increased energy and is calmer,” Dr. McGee says. “They have improved motivation and their sleep and appetite are better regulated.
It's thought that antidepressants work by increasing neurotransmitters. These are chemicals in the brain like serotonin and noradrenaline. They can improve mood and emotion, although this process isn't fully understood. Increasing levels of neurotransmitters can also disrupt pain signals sent by nerves.
Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs)
SSRIs are a type of medication people may use as a treatment for depression. People may also use SSRIs to treat mental health conditions that can cause intrusive thoughts, such as: OCD.
The main aim of treatment with antidepressants is to relieve the symptoms of severe depression, such as feeling very down and exhausted, and prevent them from coming back. They are meant to make you feel emotionally stable again and help you to follow a normal daily routine.
1 Day – On the first day of taking an antidepressant medication, most people will feel nothing at all. Some will notice side effects like nausea or vomiting that could be mild. 1 Week – One week in, people are more likely to note some other side effects like sleeping problems, diarrhea, dry mouth, and sexual problems.
Although this is beneficial for someone who's depressed, for someone who does not have depression, taking antidepressant medication can cause serotonin to build up in the body, resulting in serotonin syndrome. When serotonin levels are too high, the person may experience symptoms like: Agitation or restlessness.
Perhaps the fundamental reason why antidepressants are so widely prescribed and used is that they fit with the 'medical model' of mental illness, which has become the standard view in western culture. This model sees depression as a medical condition which can be “fixed” in the same way as a physical injury or illness.
When first starting antidepressants, you may not feel like yourself. Though your depression symptoms might have improved, feelings of extreme sadness can sometimes be replaced by an emotional numbness in which you are neither able to cry nor enjoy a real belly laugh.
These drugs target serotonin, a chemical that carries messages between nerve cells in the brain and has been dubbed the 'pleasure chemical'. One of the widely-reported side effects of SSRIs is 'blunting', where patients report feeling emotionally dull and no longer finding things as pleasurable as they used to.
Along with psychotherapy, antidepressants are a common treatment for depression. Four out of 10 people treated with antidepressants improve with the first one they try. If the first antidepressant medication doesn't help, the second or third often will. Most people eventually find one that works for them.
“Even though they say your meds are 'non-habit forming,' you can still have serious, debilitating withdrawals when you try to get off of them, and there's no telling how long they will last.” — Matthew A. 3. “I didn't know antidepressants could affect your libido.
It can take up to 2 months before they reach their full effect. If you do notice an improvement in your symptoms in those first couple of weeks, this can be a sign that your antidepressant is a good fit for you. On the other hand, if you haven't noticed any benefits in the first month, don't give up.
This is because antidepressants can increase your energy and motivation levels, which may be very low while you are depressed. Early in your treatment, you may experience more energy and motivation before your feelings of depression have started to lift. This might mean you have enough energy act on suicidal urges.
In the case of SSRIs, SNRIs, and related medications, the effects of taking antidepressants when not depressed can include developing a condition known as serotonin syndrome. Symptoms of this condition include the following: Confusion. Agitation.
There is new reason to be cautious about using popular antidepressants in people who are not really depressed. For the first time, research has shown that a widely used antidepressant may cause subtle changes in brain structure and function when taken by those who are not depressed.
In other words, antidepressants may give some people the energy to act on their suicidal thoughts. Some antidepressants can also cause feelings of agitation, restlessness and detachment. These feelings may resemble symptoms of anxiety and may add to, rather than relieve, feelings of hopelessness and despair.
Signs and symptoms such as nausea, weight gain or sleep problems can be common initially. For many people, these improve within weeks of starting an antidepressant. In some cases, however, antidepressants cause side effects that don't go away.
SSRIs release two chemicals in the brain that kick in at different times, causing a period of negative effects on mental health, the authors report. The first chemical is serotonin, which is released very soon after an SSRI is taken but might not lessen depressive symptoms until after a couple of weeks.
Antidepressants Are Effective
Any benefits of medication have to surpass that of the “placebo effect” to be declared effective. Antidepressants are proven to be more effective than a placebo with respect to relieving depressive symptoms and shortening the length of a depressive episode.
However, the rate of treatment response from baseline symptoms following first-line treatment with SSRIs is moderate, varying from 40 to 60 percent; remission rates vary from 30 to 45 percent.
What are the most common antidepressant medications? Sertraline, also known by the brand name Zoloft, used for multiple mental health and mood disorders, is the most prescribed antidepressant dispensed to U.S.
It's usually recommended that a course of antidepressants continues for at least 6 months after you feel better, to prevent your condition recurring when you stop. Some people with recurrent illness are advised to carry on taking medicine indefinitely.