[FeelingOpaque]

Do SSRI's change the way your brain works after you come off it, or do you just revert back to how your brain originally functioned?

[gayleggg]

I think you just revert back to the way it was, if it didn't some of our brains would be fixed and mine sure hasn't been.

[FeelingOpaque]

So would it be wise to take them? I have a T right now that is insisting I use it, but I feel that it wouldn't be successful for me. Do the tools that they teach you in therapy when your medicated stick when you get off and you revert back to the state of depression when everything seems hopeless? That's why I'm wary of taking meds because I feel I still won't be able to deal with myself once I get off them.

[gayleggg]

The way I have learned to look at it is do what you have to do be okay now and let the furture take care of it's self. The tools do stay with you, it's just harder to use them when you are depressed. I wouldn't worry about getting off of them since you aren't even taking them yet.

[FeelingOpaque]

Definitely, I am just considering whether I should begin or not. I'm thinking that for the next few months I'm just going to try to tough it out and try to learn the tools while being depressed and see how that works out.

[vans1974]

Hey feelingOpaque- I'd say "re-start your brain." Since depression is a chemical imbalance, not a psychological disorder. Psychotropic meds help balance your chemicals but it's never permanent. They can't "rewire" your brain. You'll probably go back to being depressed when you get off the meds but by then, you'll have learned better coping skills. Best of luck!!

[onionknight]

DO worry about getting off antidepressants before you start them. Some people regardless of dose, time on or the specific drug, experience bad withdrawals/ rebound depression when they discontinue an AD. Your original question is a hard one to answer. For some people, whatever the antidepressant does does seem to kick the brain back into working in a way that prevents another depressive episode.

You should also know, though, that therapy, changing your thought process, interrupting your unconscious reactions, etc can rewire your brain. The neural networks that we activate often become the strong ones that then go on to become dominant

[-jimi-]

Depends on your genetic. The way the med rewires your brain will only work on the med. So people that are very prone to this, will end up with "rewired" brains that do not work without meds at all. Like mine.

[FeelingOpaque]

And that's what I'm scared of.

[sewerrats]

Originally Posted by FeelingOpaque

And that's what I'm scared of.

I take quite a few meds that are life long meds beside shrink meds , I don't worry about them so why worry about staying on meds if they keep you well then no brainer,

[-jimi-]

The problem starts when your brain is "rewired" and the med poops out...

But like I said, it indeed looks like a genetic variant that is not all that common. You have a better chance not ending up in this bad situation.

[sewerrats]

i have a way of looking at my brain what bit is left, I think of 2 rivers running side by side both have the same flow speed. if one side speeds up i get manic, if the other side slows down i get depressed if bipolar the rivers switch from left to right continuosly . so the reason to take a med is to get the rivers running back perfect and all is calm on the river bank. may sound weird but i hope i explained how i see it.

[FeelingOpaque]

You see, although my emotions often distress me, I also enjoy the areas of my psyche they allow me to explore and write about, think about. And I'd hate to give that up by basically changing the way my brain works. I want to be able to control my emotions when they get too overwhelming, not to take them away. I feel that an SSRI changes you state of being and then your T teaches you to cope with a feeling that is produced wile medicated, and not while living through a depressive state. I would not want to be under pharmaceutical medication for the rest of my life, that is something I do not want to happen.

[sewerrats]

Originally Posted by FeelingOpaque

You see, although my emotions often distress me, I also enjoy the areas of my psyche they allow me to explore and write about, think about. And I'd hate to give that up by basically changing the way my brain works. I want to be able to control my emotions when they get too overwhelming, not to take them away. I feel that an SSRI changes you state of being and then your T teaches you to cope with a feeling that is produced wile medicated, and not while living through a depressive state. I would not want to be under pharmaceutical medication for the rest of my life, that is something I do not want to happen.

I understand you, its when the brain becomes over active the trouble starts, mine is in a permanent overactive state. Meds bring my brain into normal control well almost. So overactive or underactive its not normal is it leading to depression problems . if you can get it under control without meds thats great, but a lot of people just cannot even after therapy.

I don't know but I think it's a good question.
POPULAR ANTIDEPRESSANTS BOOST BRAIN GROWTH, HOPKINS SCIENTISTS REPORT

Dec. 19, 2005-- Discovery in rodents may explain why some antidepressants require weeks of use before they workThe beneficial effects of a widely used class of antidepressants might be the result of increased nerve-fiber growth in key parts of the brain, according to a Johns Hopkins study being published in the January 2006 issue of the Journal of Neurochemistry.
The study on rats, led by Vassilis E. Koliatsos, M.D., a neuropathologist at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, found that selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) increase the density of nerve-impulse-carrying axons in the frontal and parietal lobes of the neocortex and part of the limbic brain which control the sense of smell, emotions, motivation, and organs that work reflexively such as the heart, intestines and stomach. “It appears that SSRI antidepressants rewire areas of the brain that are important for thinking and feeling, as well as operating the autonomic nervous system,” said Koliatsos.
Axons are long, filament-shaped extensions of neurons that, together with myelin, are the main constituents of nerves. Axons conduct chemically driven nerve impulses away from the cell body toward a narrow gap known as a synapse. Among the chemicals involved are such monoamines as norepinephrine and serotonin, which, at the synapse, are transferred to another neuron.

More scary things to read
Is it OK to be on antidepressants for years? – The Chart - CNN.com Blogs
https://www.sciencenews.org/article/...e-young-brains

[FeelingOpaque]

Well... that scared the **** out of me, lol.