Antidepressants work by balancing chemicals in your brain called neurotransmitters that affect mood and emotions. These depression medicines can help improve your mood, help you sleep better, and increase your appetite and concentration.
Antidepressants are medications prescribed to treat depression as well as other mood disorders like anxiety, obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), panic disorder, and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). They work by increasing the levels of feel-good chemicals serotonin and noradrenaline in the brain.
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.
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.
SSRIs are considered first-choice medications for treating depression. These medications are believed to work by raising the amount of serotonin — a hormone that helps regulate mood — in the brain.
On antidepressant medication, it is possible that you might experience a sense of feeling numb and less like yourself. 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 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.
If you take an antidepressant for 4 weeks without feeling any benefit, speak to your GP or mental health specialist. They may recommend increasing your dose or trying an alternative medication. A course of treatment usually lasts for 6 months.
For most people, sertraline is safe to take for a long time. A few people may get sexual side effects, such as problems getting an erection or a lower sex drive. In some cases these can continue even after stopping the medicine. Speak to your doctor if you are worried.
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.
Emotional blunting is a commonly reported side effect of taking antidepressants for depression and other mental health issues. It affects 46% of people taking antidepressants for depression. That's according to a three-country survey by the University of Oxford.
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.
(Health.com) -- People who take antidepressants such as Paxil often say they feel less stressed and more outgoing, lively, and confident.
Without antidepressants: About 20 to 40 out of 100 people who took a placebo noticed an improvement in their symptoms within six to eight weeks. With antidepressants: About 40 to 60 out of 100 people who took an antidepressant noticed an improvement in their symptoms within six to eight weeks.
The Evidence for Personality Changes
Study authors suggested that the SSRI may have altered two key personality traits linked to depression—neuroticism and extroversion—independently of their effect on depression symptoms.
Do I have to take antidepressants forever is a question that some ask as they struggle with depression. This is one of the more common myths associated with the condition. You do not need to take antidepressants forever nor do you need to get a prescription from a counselor or therapist.
There also can be other reasons an antidepressant is no longer working for you, such as: Worsening depression. It's common for depression symptoms to return or worsen at some point, despite treatment. Called breakthrough depression, symptoms may be triggered by stress or appear with no apparent cause.
Reservations about antidepressants
Some people are bothered by the idea that they might not be able to beat depression without medication. They think of antidepressants as a kind of crutch, and think they would see themselves as being weak and helpless if they had to rely on them.
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.
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. Some people may become suicidal or violent.
Antidepressants. In addition to relieving depression, these drugs can reduce fatigue and muscle tension, and improve sleep.
SSRIs are usually the first choice medicine for depression because they generally have fewer side effects than most other types of antidepressant.
Fatigue and drowsiness are common, especially during early weeks of treatment with an antidepressant. Consider these strategies: Take a brief nap during the day. Get some physical activity, such as walking.