# do SSRI's really work!?!?!?! what do they do!!?!?!?!



## ruinMYlife (Nov 23, 2008)

what do they make you feel like, does it do nothing!?!?!??! is it not worth going to the doctor and explaining him my life story for these things and them not working!?!?!


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## DontTrustheGov't (Jun 5, 2008)

Well Mr. Ruinmylife, I have been on several SSRI's. They include Paxil, Lexapro, Zoloft, and Celexa. 

For Paxil through Zoloft I drank heavily and it rendered the pills ineffective. I went to the max dose on each pill. I got boner loss, diarrhea, appetite gain on the pills. When you drink heavily on SSRI's you feel real bad the next day cause it messes with the neurotransmitters. 

I recently started Celexa and I don't drink nearly as much as I used to and I think it does work. I was on 20mg for 6 weeks and got tolerant at aboot 7 weeks. Then I upped the dose to 40mg and it seems to be working. 

When it works, you may notice that friends/family seem to think you are less anxious. I find it hard to feel but I must admit that I have done some pretty amazing things in the last several weeks. 

I have many disorders in addition to SA such as Panic Dis, Agoraphobia, OCPD, and one other that I cant remember. 

I have been able to do things such as make phone calls and talk to some people whilst on the SSRI Celexa.


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## kev (Jan 28, 2005)

From my experience, antidepressants are much more effective for depression than for anxiety. But even for depression, they have their limitations. If you are in a moderate to severe depression, chances are than an SSRI will provide some relief... emphasis on some. They make life more tolerable, but they won't necessarily make you happy (unless you happen to be on the bipolar spectrum). They also take a while to work, which is another downside.

SSRI's are probably not the best choice for "low-grade" depression. I put that in quotes because it is obviously subjective. You can't reasonably quantify the "amount" of depression someone has. 

SSRI's lessen painful emotional responses, but they don't actually change your personality or turn you into a "zombie". They can sometimes dampen positive emotions as, but if you are depressed, then you probably don't have many positive emotions to begin with, so it's not really a problem. If your main problem is social anxiety and not depression, I wouldn't necessarily recommend an antidepressant. That's just my opinion though from personal experience. May not apply to everyone.


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## euphoria (Jan 21, 2009)

DontTrustheGov't said:


> I got boner loss


Hahaa.

This is unfortunately the case with most unselective serotonin drugs, whether it be MAOIs, SSRIs, or even serotonin precursors. However, it might be possible to negate these side-effects by adding mirtazapine. The jury's still out on that one.


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## trashpalace (May 11, 2009)

Yeah they never made my anxiety less. 

They did make me consider hurting myself.


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## Jrock (Dec 16, 2008)

kev said:


> They make life more tolerable, but they won't necessarily make you happy.........
> 
> ........SSRI's lessen painful emotional responses, but they don't actually change your personality or turn you into a "zombie". .......


That is in deed the problem with SSRI's. I wonder how many people try them hoping to feel happy or control there introversion symptoms.



DontTrustheGov't said:


> I got boner loss


I've always wondered why that is the case


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## Maiketh (May 7, 2009)

It's either no boner with the SSRI's or it's no loss of boner with Lexapro but you get the loss of ejaculating, at least in my experience. I've heard other people don't get boners with that either though.


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## xboxfreak (Jul 22, 2008)

I have been on Celexa for about 8 months. It has helped me some. I still get anxious but am more relaxed around people. I still get really nervous around people I don't know but this is something I think only alcohol or a benzo or therapy could fix. You can read my review on Celexa in the reviews section. At first on Celexa, I noticed a decreased sex drive and it took much longer to ejaculate. After a few months this is gone. My sex drive is back really high where it used to be.


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## radiohead (Dec 15, 2008)

I have only been on Lexapro for 3 weeks but I can tell it's been a positive medicine for me to take. It's good to know that some of the effects might not be in full swing either as they say wait 4 full weeks before you decide to quit using it(if it doesn't help or whatever). Taking 10mg for 1 week i started to feel a bit calmder(after the initial week of some side effects that were annoying but bearable), and around week 2 I started to actually realize the Lexapro was helping.

Overall, my sleeping has gotten better(and I sleep throughout the night), I am more relaxed than usual overall(but not so tired I want to sleep, which is good), I have been a little more outgoing, and even more comfortable going out and doing things.

With all that said, it's not like I am mr social by any means. I am just saying it has sort of knocked down my GAD scale from like what was a 7/10 before to now a 5/10 or something.....my general anxiety is less, which is good because that's how I am 24 hours a day.....so being more relaxed/content is a great thing, even if it's not full relief. I haven't had a major down episode either, but it's only been 3 weeks, haha.

All in all, I would say to give Lexapro(or an SSRI) a try. I put it off for years, trying hard to not try one again; I even made my way onto Lamictal before trying Lexapro, but finally biting the bullet I took lexapro and am glad i decided to do so. good luclk.


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## beaches09 (Feb 1, 2009)

DontTrustheGov't said:


> When you drink heavily on SSRI's you feel real bad the next day cause it messes with the neurotransmitters.


Just one thing I'll add. When I took SSRI's the next day after drinking I felt freakin great. Hangover free, positive thoughts remained, everything. Much much better than how I feel drinking when not taking SSRI's. Not only that when taking SSRI's I don't get tired from drinking. Where many people drink a lot and get tired, I was able to keep on goin like a rockstar. And also the whole buzzed experience was much much better.

So to the poster, everyone is diff just keep in that mind.


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## UltraShy (Nov 8, 2003)

My experience is that SSRIs are worse than useless. Useless would be a sugar pill, but SSRIs have side effects so they're a sugar pill with side effects thus worse than useless.

Even clinical trials done by drug makers who have very strong & obvious financial incentives to come up with the most positive results possible (and bury any study that produces bad results) can't come up with anything all that impressive. You'll typically see studies that show around 60-70% are helped by an SSRIs, but the control group taking a placebo reports improvement about 30-35% of the time!

It's not truly accurate to say SSRIs help 60-70% of patients. It's technically accurate, though misleading. It doesn't lie; it just leaves out the truth. You must subtract improvement in that control group to find out how many are actually helped by an SSRI and when you do that you find it's more like 1/3. Then there is still the question of how much does it help and what are the side effects. Doesn't really matter if a drug helps if you can't stand taking it as the side effects are worse than the problem you were trying to correct.

The fact that SAS and similar sites exist is I think a testament to the fact that SSRIs fail most of the time. If they almost universally worked we'd take them, solve our SA problem, and SAS would quickly become a ghost town. Most of the people on this Meds section have tried SSRIs and I doubt they'd still be here if that SSRI solved their SA issues.


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## beaches09 (Feb 1, 2009)

To the poster, to help us understand you better you could tell us what symptoms you are experiencing exactly and how you are looking to improve yourself. There are many knowledgable guys here to give recommendations of certain meds based on what you say that way if you do go to a doc you have a general idea about how to target the conversation.


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## Medline (Sep 23, 2008)

UltraShy has tried most of the modern ADs and drugs to treat anxiety/depression and only a very high dosage of Xanax (10mg/day) takes the edge off his SA. With a MAOI he would probably have a 50:50 chance to significantly improve his condition, but he made the decision to not take that chance.


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## beaches09 (Feb 1, 2009)

Medline said:


> UltraShy has tried most of the modern ADs and drugs to treat anxiety/depression and only a very high dosage of Xanax (10mg/day) takes the edge off his SA. With a MAOI he would probably have a 50:50 chance to significantly improve his condition, but he made the decision to not take that chance.


I finally made that decision the other day bro. My parnate is on the way I'll be starting late next week. Was hoping it wouldn't come to that at least for now, but for me at this point in time hell there is only one way to go and that's up so it's worth any chance.  I'm actually excited


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## Medline (Sep 23, 2008)

Best wishes. Parnate is a very good drug.


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## beaches09 (Feb 1, 2009)

I am so curious you have no idea, well yeah ya do LoL. After all the good things I read it has me wondering big time.


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## Medline (Sep 23, 2008)

Some do, after several other treatments failed.


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## UltraShy (Nov 8, 2003)

Freesix88 said:


> Do doctors prescribe MAOI'S?


Ask. Don't even waste your time making an appointment with a doctor unless you know up front if s/he is willing to prescribe an MAOI is such treatment is indicated (like if you're tried lots of other meds and failed them all). If you want an MAOI there is no point in going to a doc that isn't willing to prescribe them to anybody.

To get an MAOI you will almost certainly need a psychiatrist. I'd guess about 99% of GPs have never prescribed an MAOI in their entire career. Even psychiatrists don't tend to use Nardil & Parnate often. There are only an estimated 80,000 Nardil users in the entire world, so it's not at all common.


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## ruinMYlife (Nov 23, 2008)

boner loss? fuuuckk that then, whats the point of takin it, sure it might help you pick up a chick then you cant do jack!


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## UltraShy (Nov 8, 2003)

rocknroll714 said:


> *TCAs* and MAOIs *are highly effective at treating* depression and *anxiety.* They're much worse in the side effects department but it is very likely they'll provide substantial relief from your problems.


I'd have to question the part about TCAs being so effective for anxiety. This is an anxiety forum, specifically SA, yet I can't think of anyone here who's taking a TCA for SA. Actually, I can't think of anybody who's reported success using a TCA for their SA.

Is there anybody reading this who is using a TCA successfully on their SA or personally know of anybody who is or can give us any link to a study of TCAs being used to treat SA?

I guess your statement is technically accurate since OCD is an anxiety disorder and Anafranil is used to treat it and that's a TCA, but when it comes to SA it's a different story.


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## Medline (Sep 23, 2008)

TCAs seem pretty useless for SA and have many side effects.



> Social phobia: Biology and pharmacology
> 
> Andrew P. Levin, Franklin R. Schneierand, Michael R. Liebowitz
> 
> ...


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## SAgirl (Nov 15, 2003)

I kicked a hole in my parents wall. Great side effect! switching from Effexor to Paxil within 48 hours. I felt really sensitive to noise and spent 48 hours in bed due to the fact that I felt so dizzy and had brain zaps. This was the scariest medication experience that I have had. Dumb doctor never told me to wean off. He said it would be safe to switch. Argh!


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## windmill (May 6, 2009)

SSRI's did nothing for my social anxiety. Only thing that's worked to this point is a stimulant, in my case Adderall XR.


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## Medline (Sep 23, 2008)

> I kicked a hole in my parents wall. Great side effect! switching from Effexor to Paxil within 48 hours. I felt really sensitive to noise and spent 48 hours in bed due to the fact that I felt so dizzy and had brain zaps. This was the scariest medication experience that I have had. Dumb doctor never told me to wean off. He said it would be safe to switch. Argh!


From which dose of Effexor did you switch to which dose of Paxil? The drug manufacturer didn't list "kicking holes in walls" as a potential side effect of the medication. You may sue him and get millions, living on an island for the rest of your life.


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## UltraShy (Nov 8, 2003)

Medline said:


> The drug manufacturer didn't list "kicking holes in walls" as a potential side effect of the medication.


To list it they'd first have to come up with a real fancy clinical term for it.


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## Medline (Sep 23, 2008)

acute kickaholowallism


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## Skaz (Jul 26, 2004)

The growing consensus in the medical and psychological community is that the efficacy and benefits of SRI & NRI drugs has been vastly overstated. And that this is a combination of excessive funding of and publishing of articles that show ONLY benefits of those drugs disregarding any that showed negative results. The FAA has now been forced to release ALL studies that they got from the drug companies and that data seems to be pointing towards the fact that the ONLY patients that can expect to benefit from SSRI & SNRI drugs are people with MAJOR depressive episodes. 

That might also exlpain the suicide risk believed by people that are diagnosed with mild depression. They're not getting effective meds and despair going for the final "solution" unfortunately.

These studies also show that compared to placebo these drugs hardly even fullfill the criteria set up by the FAA of a new drug to receive a patent has to show SIGNIFCANT effect over placebo.

SSRI & SNRI showed not more than 20% more effectiveness than placebo, and that's not what the standards of those procedures call significant.

I myself spent 7 years of my life on drugs that did nothing except keep me in some sort of limbo, intellectually sad but not emotionally. Paxil caused me mild psychotic suicidal episodes

So try SSRI's but only if you're clinically depressed....

Those drugs have no business in the treatment of people with anxiety unless depression has been diagnosed as a comorbidity.


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## Medline (Sep 23, 2008)

> So try SSRI's but only if you're clinically depressed....
> 
> Those drugs have no business in the treatment of people with anxiety unless depression has been diagnosed as a comorbidity.


I think this statement is clearly wrong and experts in the field of anxiety disorders would agree that an SSRI/SNRI drug should be the first line treatment. What would the alternative be? Beginning with MAOIs or Benzodiazepines?


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## euphoria (Jan 21, 2009)

I think the first-line treatment should be moclobemide. Its efficacy rates are about the same as SSRIs but it reaches steady-state quickly and doesn't take as long to start working, and is relatively safe. Second drug trial, possibly mirtazapine + SSRI/SNRI (maybe with pindolol too if proven safe with mirtazapine), but never ever SSRIs/SNRIs on their own.


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## Medline (Sep 23, 2008)

Moclobemide sounds nice in theory, but sucks in reality. It never had real success on the drug market, not because SSRIs are great, just because Moclobemide is no way better. It has much more dangerous drug interactions. IMHO first line treatment for SA should be SSRIs, 2nd line treatment SNRIs. Mirtazapine is a potent antidepressant, but it can cause massive weight gain, sedation and has never shown to be effective for SA in randomized, double-blind, controlled studies and is therefor not approved for SA. There exists no evidence that a combination of SSRIs/SNRIs + Mirtazapine is safe and effective treatment for patients with SA or that it is significantly more effective than SSRIs/SNRIs alone with a good side effect profile. Throwing in pindolol too makes a "good" drug cocktail for a person who had just one failed response to an SSRI.


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## euphoria (Jan 21, 2009)

Medline said:


> Moclobemide sounds nice in theory, but sucks in reality. It never had real success on the drug market, not because SSRIs are great, just because Moclobemide is no way better. It has much more dangerous drug interactions. IMHO first line treatment for SA should be SSRIs, 2nd line treatment SNRIs. Mirtazapine is a potent antidepressant, but it can cause massive weight gain, sedation and has never shown to be effective for SA in randomized, double-blind, controlled studies and is therefor not approved for SA. There exists no evidence that a combination of SSRIs/SNRIs + Mirtazapine is safe and effective treatment for patients with SA or that it is significantly more effective than SSRIs/SNRIs alone with a good side effect profile. Throwing in pindolol too makes a "good" drug cocktail for a person who had just one failed response to an SSRI.


There are quite a lot of studies on venlafaxine + mirtazapine, which produces a potent response in depression (dunno about SA):

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18330778

There was no control group there, but placebo response is usually about 40% -- this indicates >40% response rate, which beats SSRIs by 10-20%.


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## Medline (Sep 23, 2008)

This gives hope for patients with treatment resistant depression, but says nothing about the effectiveness of this combo for SA or anxiety disorders in general.

Could you give me the links to the venlafaxine + mirtazapine studies? Controlled, double-blind studies only please, the other ones are pretty useless for me.


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## euphoria (Jan 21, 2009)

I just think that anxiety and depression are very closely connected -- antidepressants typically work for anxiety too, so I'd expect this combo to. I haven't seen much conclusive evidence, aside from a few like the one I posted. Here's one in Portuguese:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18833439

Also, here the combination compares to Parnate:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16946177


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## LostPancake (Apr 8, 2009)

ruinMYlife said:


> boner loss? fuuuckk that then, whats the point of takin it, sure it might help you pick up a chick then you cant do jack!


Um, actually it's the opposite - you just can't reach orgasm. Which for the girl, is kind of a positive. 

Although the effect of this does slowly wear off after a while. But it's pretty annoying at first.


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## Medline (Sep 23, 2008)

There's no abstract available for the first one and the remission rate in the 2nd study was just 6.9% for tranylcypromine and 13.7% for the venlafaxine plus mirtazapine combo, but thanks anyway.


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## UltraShy (Nov 8, 2003)

Skaz said:


> The growing consensus in the medical and psychological community is that the efficacy and benefits of SRI & NRI drugs has been vastly overstated.


As evidenced by the existence of SAS and similar anxiety forums. If SSRIs were all that great everyone would just pop their Zoloft (or other SSRI) and SAS would be a barren wasteland. Problem solved, so nothing left to discuss. The fact that you can so easily find so many people who've tried and failed on so many SSRIs & SNRIs would tend to suggest they are far from utopian drugs. About all they really do well is produce big profits for big pharma.


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## Mooncalf (May 11, 2009)

This whole thread has me wondering if I should stop taking my Zoloft. :blank


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## beaches09 (Feb 1, 2009)

Mooncalf said:


> This whole thread has me wondering if I should stop taking my Zoloft. :blank


It's a toss up man. The only way you'll know is to go by your own trial. Because everyone's results are going to be different. There are guys like me that get fabulous results from them even by themselves, but it seems I may be one of the rarer cases. While guys that report no effects at all good or bad are also rarer cases. I think you may get a good idea by reading all the middle ground reported by people.


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## Black_Widow (May 23, 2008)

Have to admit, though I've just started taking Citolopram I can't help feeling somewhat skeptical that it's going to work as well as my GP seems to think it will - and especially after reading through this thread. Still, I'm really hoping it will as it appears right now I've got a long wait yet till I receive the therapy treatment I'm currently waiting for - and if it can get the extent of my anxiety to calm down enough for me to be able to at least function ok in a work environment again then I'll be be satisfied. Still, I guess only time will tell.


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## Kanes (May 10, 2009)

I can only speak from my own experience about these drugs. I have taken Celexa (SSRI), Cymbalta (SNRI), and I'm now on Lexapro (SSRI). My experiences have been the following:

Cymbalta: I didn't notice any big changes. I didn't seem to be quite as depressed maybe. I wasn't crying randomly like I had been. There was no effect on my anxiety though. I was still sweating profusely in certain social situations perhaps even moreso than normal. As far as side effects, I felt it was slightly harder to achieve orgasm but that my orgasms were somewhat stronger than usual. Overall a failure for anxiety treatment.

Celexa/Lexapro: Well these are really the same drug. Lexapro is just Celexa repackaged as the single active enantiomer of Celexa so I'm not sure why my doc is even giving it to me. My guess is he doesn't even realize and is just going through the motions of whatever free samples he has lying around. I have had the same experience on both of them so I'll just explain them both together. They do help my depression for sure. It's not that they make me feel happy but they seem to take away a lot of the excessive sadness. I feel sort of "neutral" on them. The side effects are mainly two things. First, it is very difficult to get aroused sexually or have an orgasm. I can still do it, but it is sometimes a lot of work. I normally have this problem even without meds so you can imagine how much tougher it is on these meds. What's possibly a worse side effect is that I feel excessively sleepy all the time. It's like I can never get enough sleep. They don't seem to do much for my anxiety aside from the fact that I have slightly less anxiety when I'm falling asleep all the time. Still, I don't consider them a real solution to my SA or even close to a solution.

Oh one more thing, all of these meds have given me much more vivid dreams. I remember my dreams much more completely and they seem more real somehow.

Overall I remain somewhat skeptical of these drugs and would love to just try out Nardil instead.


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## Black_Widow (May 23, 2008)

Kanes said:


> Oh one more thing, all of these meds have given me much more vivid dreams. I remember my dreams much more completely and they seem more real somehow.


Funnily enough, I seem to have noticed that kind of thing happening to me over the last few days or so. I do seem to be remembering my dreams more completely than usual, and at the time they were pretty vivid. Hmm...I do wonder if it is to do with the drug though then again it could just be co-incidence...


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## euphoria (Jan 21, 2009)

Kanes said:


> I can only speak from my own experience about these drugs. I have taken Celexa (SSRI), Cymbalta (SNRI), and I'm now on Lexapro (SSRI). My experiences have been the following:
> 
> Cymbalta: I didn't notice any big changes. I didn't seem to be quite as depressed maybe. I wasn't crying randomly like I had been. There was no effect on my anxiety though. I was still sweating profusely in certain social situations perhaps even moreso than normal. As far as side effects, I felt it was slightly harder to achieve orgasm but that my orgasms were somewhat stronger than usual. Overall a failure for anxiety treatment.
> 
> ...


Try adding Wellbutrin to your SSRI of choice.


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## zeusko87 (Sep 30, 2014)

SSRI"s are useless. including venlafaxine.
and yes, they work... if you want to feel worse 
than before you started taking them


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## twitchy666 (Apr 21, 2013)

startled by friend and his anorexic girlfriend who've had medical troubles... ENT, heart failure, slipped disc... who have SSRIs which got me thinking of SAS. I have nothing with a SSRI label. We label things as antidepressants which I don't like. I mentioned SSRI and he heard of that too. My Keppra, phenytoin have a serotonin component... of glee?


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## User5 (Jun 22, 2010)

Had an amazing response from Paxil, but became hypomanic and kinda obnoxious. Still, made lots of friends. Dont regret it.


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## CopingStrong (Jan 14, 2013)

SSRIs have typically worked more for mood stabilization and anxiety over depression in my case. Wellbutrin is my answer for depression and motivation.


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