alt Hacker NewsEvery time I have a yearly physical, my GP will ask if I have feelings of depression.
I know this road leads to SSRIs at the very least, so I always reply in the negative.
The parent comment hints to me that this might be a mistake. I do not want to become accustomed to an antidepressant, so perhaps my course of action was correct.
I was measured low on Vitamin D, which I've hopefully corrected, and I haven't always eaten fish regularly. Perhaps I should pay more attention to that.
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You really should give some modern SSRI like Escitalopram a chance. It has made my life so much better, and that of a lot of friends, too. The two most common complaints I have heard are:
1.) It's killing my libido 2.) It's too strong
For 1.) - yes, this is a very very common side effect. And it's logical - you simply get "triggered" less. Applies for me, too.
And 2.) is the same that a lot of people fail to understand: Then try a lower dosage!
Unlike most anti-depressants, where you have to constantly increase the dose because your brain just generates more receptors to fight back, SSRIs hardly wear off.
Also, relax about the "become accustomed" part. Should your Serotonin levels be too low, then they are too low. Just think about it like you think about table salt. It would be just as unhealthy to try to "get off" salt.
All of this being said: There are tons of different kinds of root causes for depression. A good rule of thumb is: Are you depressed because bad things happened to you? Then seek psychological therapy, and potentially combine this with medication in case it would be too painful to uncover the dark things. Are you depressed on a regular basis, but can not name any valid logical reason? Then your brain has a chemical problem, so stop treating it like this is an illness, but do what you would do if your car would turn on the "oil warning" lamp. You can not replace oil with therapy or willpower.
There are also SNRIs, which don't have the sexual side effects. I've done mostly SSRIs but in the last few years I've been on an SNRI called Pristiq and it's the best by far.
> I know this road leads to SSRIs at the very least, so I always reply in the negative.
Seems odd. Your doctor can't force you to take anything. If they say "do you want to try X?" just say "No". Not giving your doctor full medical context seems like a mistake - for example, maybe depression would be indicative of another issue, or maybe people who are depressed really shouldn't take a specific medication.
To each their own, and perhaps you have other reasons, but this seems like a less than ideal solution to a very trivial problem if the goal is just to not take an SSRI.