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. If you feel this way, you are definitely not alone.
Though the symptoms of depression have decreased, there may be a sense that other emotional responses – laughing or crying, for example – are more difficult to experience. This is termed “emotional blunting,” which is the experience of dulled emotional states caused by an antidepressant.
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.
Paroxetine had a significant inhibitory effect on crying. During both films, the paroxetine group cried significantly less than the placebo group. In contrast, no effects on mood and only minor effects on the reaction to the IAPS pictures were observed.
The fact that in the present study an inability to cry was associated with a range of SSRIs with differing secondary effects suggests that it is the primary action on increasing synaptic availability of serotonin which mediates the effect.
The inability to cry can have numerous possible causes. Antidepressants, depression, trauma, personality factors, social stigma, and certain medical conditions can all inhibit us from tearing up. Fortunately, many of the reasons we can't cry can be successfully treated and reversed.
It's not an uncommon experience and it's called anhedonia. Simply put, anhedonia is when you lose interest in the social activities and physical sensations that you once enjoyed. It's a symptom of many mental health conditions, including depression, schizophrenia and bipolar disorder.
What is this medication? DEXTROMETHORPHAN; QUINIDINE (dex troe meth OR fan; KWIN i deen) is a combination of two medicines used to treat pseudobulbar affect (PBA), a condition that causes uncontrollable, sudden, and frequent episodes of laughing and/or crying.
There is no specific cure for crying. Crying is a normal response to a wide range of emotionally charged stimuli.
Today, the most commonly used anti-anxiety medication are antidepressants called Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors (SSRI's). Other anti-anxiety medications include Benzodiazepines, Antihistamines, as well as a drug called Buspirone.
The primary effect of SSRIs is reduced processing of negative stimuli rather than increased positive stimuli. Emotional blunting is related to SSRI dose,9,10 and possibly serotonergic effects on the frontal lobes and/or serotonergic modulation of midbrain dopaminergic systems projecting to the prefrontal cortex (PFC).
Antidepressants were lauded back in the 80s as the miracle cure for major depression, but as more and more clinical trials are revealing, as many as 50% of the patients who were prescribed antidepressants did not experience a successful result—on antidepressants but still depressed.
Some people assume that antidepressant drugs are also mood stabilisers. This may be because they can help to lift your mood if you're experiencing depression. But antidepressants are not included in the group of drugs we call mood stabilisers.
This is known as anhedonia. Similar to melancholia, anhedonia can reduce your ability or inclination to express how you feel — including through crying. Reaching that emotional peak might be difficult or impossible for people with depression.
When you start taking an antidepressant, you should begin to function better in your daily life before you start feeling better, says Dr. Michael McGee. In other words, you should begin sleeping better, eating better, and having more energy. “Then you should start feeling better,” he says.
Crying easily can be a symptom of depression, anxiety, or a lot of stress in your life. Since HSPs feel so deeply and can experience sensory overload, we're more susceptible to strong feelings of depression or anxiety. We might feel alone in our sensitivity or isolate ourselves to reduce excess stimuli.
NEXT time a sentimental movie makes you cry, blame your serotonin levels. Differences in the neurotransmitter might explain why some people are more prone to crying in emotional situations than others.
It's also not uncommon to feel like crying before, during, or after an anxiety attack. Many people feel impending doom, as though they are about to die. They respond by crying because that's a natural response to a feeling of intense dread along with the physiological reaction that occurs during a panic episode.
the inhibition of thought, speech, or other responses due to extreme emotion, often associated with extreme fear.
Feeling emotionless can often be a symptom of mental health problems, such as depression, anxiety and post-traumatic disorder so it's not something to dismiss or downplay. In these cases, seeking the help of a professional is crucial. So remember you don't have to work through this alone.
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. Between 40-60% of patients taking SSRIs are believed to experience this side effect.
Emotional blunting—inability to feel positive or negative emotions, detachment, or reduced emotional responsiveness—is common in people with depression. However, there is a paucity of studies comprehensively investigating this symptom and its functional impact.
People who deal with social anxiety may not want others to see them cry, so they may repress it for fear of being judged. According to Joye, perfectionistic or codependent people may suppress tears as well to appear to be in control of their emotions, but it is a fragile façade.