[BeachChick3]

Anyone on anti depressants? Do you feel like they take away your brilliance? I might go try to get some help, but I don't want to if I have to lose my everything (my mind.)

[LMo]

I wouldn't say that it 'takes away my brilliance' because I can focus better, as Ozzie pointed out. However, I went from a motivated and **** overachiever to not caring quite so much... which is both good and bad at the same time.

Totally worth it, if your doctor things you could benefit from them.

[obsids]

</font><blockquote><div id="quote"><font class="small">Quote:</font>
Anyone on anti depressants? Do you feel like they take away your brilliance? I might go try to get some help, but I don't want to if I have to lose my everything (my mind.)

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The way I see it, I am non-functional without the meds. I sink into clinical depression to the point where I cannot even take care of myself properly. Different meds do different things to different people. Zoloft made me spacey at high doses. Paxil works wonderfully. Wellbutrin works great at low doses but makes me 'detatched' emotionally at high doses. I don't think that any of them made me less 'brilliant'... just a lot less obsessive, depressed... I am less of a perfectionist on the meds.

[BeachChick3]

I feel depressed a lot, but I can control my behaivour. its just that when i control myself, its so physically draining, to the point where I will be exhausted from just trying to not wallow in misery. In this state, however, I have brilliant ideas and thoughts, I can write so clearly and I get revelations and epiphanies, everything just comes into place. I wonder if I were to take some drug if it would zone me out to the point where I lost my creativity.

[adieuolivaw]

BEACHCHICK3: I know just what you mean. My creativity is also very precious to me. So for most of my life I've taken no meds. When I would fall into an especially bad depression I'd go to the doc, get antidepressants, and quit taking them as soon as I felt better. That was my pattern.

I thought my brain was my best buddy, and I wanted to take good care of it and remain clearheaded. Over the years the docs kept telling me gently that obviously my plan wasn't working, that I needed to take antidepressants permanently. I didn't want to hear that.

So my story is that I had a tiger by the tail, an uncontrolled mood disorder, which galloped through my life, leaving it looking like a war zone.

You might want to consider medicating your mood disorder before it turns on you.



Adieu

[jmo531]

I agree with what Lmo said. I was an **** overacheiver before I started taking my meds as well. I think that it has made me less uptight and calm so I can gain perspective on each issue that arises. I had a hard time coming to grips with the fact that I had to use meds to be "normal", however, I don't know what I would do without them. They truely did save me.

[Sabrina_saw]

A typical side effect of a mood stabliser that I took was, ummm, stupidity. And I got this in large doses.

I became thicker than 10 planks stacked together. Thoughts and ideas became like a sludge puppy and any brilliance if there ever was any, vanished.

It took weeks to return to some semblance of myself after I tapered.

My family enjoyed it at my expense though. So someone benefited!!

[adieuolivaw]

</font><blockquote><div id="quote"><font class="small">Quote:</font>
A typical side effect of a mood stabliser that I took was, ummm, stupidity. And I got this in large doses. I became thicker than 10 planks stacked together. Thoughts and ideas became like a sludge puppy and any brilliance if there ever was any, vanished.

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SABRINA: I hear you loud and clear! Once I took a popular AD on the advice of my physician. It immediately threw me into psychosis, with homicidal and suicidal ideation.

On the other hand, with my present AD my mind is sharper than usual. you had a bad experience with ADs, Sabrina. Can your doc help you try again, with a different one?

Adieu

<font color="red"> Don't quit before you get lucky! </font>

[Sabrina_saw]

I'm taking Cymbalta at the moment but my weight is continuing to pack on an dmy husband says I have changed and not in a nice way, even though my depression has lifted. So back to the drawing board.

There is just about nothing left for me to try

[cat_eye]

I can relate - yes, I do feel like antidepressants make me numb and I always have this "airy" feeling in my mind. It's annoying, but we've gotta keep trying.

[ickydog2006]

I love my meds. They help me function and tolerate people. For everyone it is different I believe and there are ups and downs to taking them. I think you will never know unless you try and i hope that whatever you decide works well for you

[Genevieve]

You know, I used to think that I was particularly clear-headed and brilliant when I was depressed and restricting, but then when I got more stabilized on meds and had some weight restoration going on, I found that I had been kidding myself. I had certainly had a fair few good thoughts, and I had more or less been able to express them, but in terms of functional intelligence -- I've got to say that I've got more of it now and I am much less depressed too.

I'd say that's a win-win proposition, wouldn't you?