[CantExplain]

Hi guys!

Emotions are supposed to tell us what is real, what is important.
But I'm grumpy tonight largely because I forgot to take my Prozac this morning.

So do feelings matter, or do they merely indicate a chemical imbalance? If the latter, I should ignore my (unpleasant) feelings and just medicate them away.

What do you think?

[Altered Moment]

Missing doses can mess you up. I am sure that is why you got grumpy.

I think of course feeling are important. The problem is that when in a bad depression our feelings are way out of proportion with reality. For me I am numb and have no feelings basically when depressed.

I have never found for me personally that meds take my feelings away. Quite the opposite. My current meds which have been working really well so far allow me to feel a far wider range of feelings compared to when I am depressed. I can actually cry now. Mostly about little sentimental things and I get a feeling of gratitude and joy and some tears. That feels good.

All feelings matter even negative ones. It is when they get all out of whack and over ride reality and our rational mind that we have problems. But even then they still matter very much. They might be indicating that something is wrong and we should pay attention to them. Even total fear that causes anxiety or the total hopelessness that can come with depression matter and are valid. How we deal with them is what is important.

[healingme4me]

I didn't find myself without emotions, on Celexa. I was better able to process the emotions without being crippled up with overwhelming anxiety and depression. Feelings aren't designed to go away. What is happening to our bodies during anxiety and depression is. Found myself, getting to the core of emotions through the combination of an AD and therapy and hard work on self.
Anger and irritability are just as needed in this life, as joy and happiness.
I don't personally believe the intent is to eradicate sadness, anger, irritability from our souls via medication. Negative emotions are so we can fix what's being unmet in our lives.

[-jimi-]

I really doubt missing a dosage is the same as being unmedicated for a while. If you miss, you can get withdrawal symptoms, and those are very different from the mere being unmedicated.

If it was me, I would actually not see those feelings as valid.

[BadWolf]

Your emotions have to be messed up in the first place. Meds just change the chemical make up a bit. That bit can make a huge difference in someone's quality of life.

Acceptance and commitment therapy is all about accepting strong emotions. You might like it. Acbs.org

[Hellion]

If prozac causes you to be unable to feel emotions, perhaps it is a good idea to talk to your doctor/psychatirst prescribing it about it and see what they recommend, maybe there is something that would work better. Though even if that is not the right medication, if you've been taking it long enough for the body to develop some dependence it would still make you grumpy and possibly cause a headache and other things if you miss a dose. Of course its very possible other things aside from that contributed to the grumpiness as well, was anything bothering you?

But feelings are valid, the purpose of medications should not be to devalue emotions or prevent them all, but rather help the debilitating symptoms so one is in a better place mentally which would include being able to have a normal range of emotions...of course medications/drugs can numb things, or too high of a dose it is a rather complex issue I guess, or they can help one feel more emotions or maybe cope with difficult emotions better it all depends.

I have tried and quite multiple psych meds due to them not working, having nasty side effects or enhancing the numb/empty/detached feeling I get rather often due to PTSD.....though I don't mind feeling comfortably numb at times but that is a hard state to achieve usually when I feel numb it is quite uncomfortable.

[Altered Moment]

The anti psychotics are known to numb emotions but I have never had that experience with anti depressants.

[gayleggg]

I take the top limit of Prozac and it sure isn't dulling my feeling. Right now I'm a mess of emotions and they are not good ones.

[splitimage]

I find antidepressants don't numb my feelings - they just get and mostly keep me out of the place of black suicidal despair so that I can work on dealing with my emotions. I still feel sad sometimes, but I also feel angry, happy, joy occassionally, and other emotions.

I am on antipsychotics which do tend to dull or flatten my emotions, so I know I'm not getting the full range, or maybe not the full intensity, but I still experience emotions.

And I'm glad.

splitimage