I suspect its not so much the power of the mushies but the relative ineffectiveness of prescription antidepressants that makes the difference
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cumquat may will not be commenting further on the allegations, Tue 24 Jan 2012, 13:17,
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True! Everyone I know that has taken antidepressants is a right miserable fucker.
Those that do drugs all the time are quite happy in their own little world.
(, Tue 24 Jan 2012, 13:32, Reply)
Oooooh.....
...don't know about that pal. I've suffered with depression since I was a kid. About 17 years ago I agreed to go on anti-depressants and was first prescribed Prozac. Did fuck all. Went back and got some 'Efexor' (venlafaxine hydrochloride) and within three weeks I felt like I'd been reborn as a normal person. For the first time in my life I wasn't waking up with a heavy heart and spending the day on a knife-edge. Been on them ever since though for the last three years such a small dose that the doctors say it's not enough to even have an effect. But....your average GP doesn't understand them. They will also tell you that SRIs aren't addictive. Horseshit. Miss taking them for a couple of days and you fucking know about it, trust me. Weird sensations of little electric shocks shooting up your arms and through your head, disorientation, sleeplessness etc. One of the side effects of packing them in is depression though this might not be related to the original clinical condition so often someone will go back to their GP, say "I'm fucking really down again" and get slapped straight back on them. If GPs understood that this might not be related, and a few days toughing it out may be all that is required, then there might be fewer people on them long-term. Rant over :)
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routine has perfected burgers, Tue 24 Jan 2012, 14:02,
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Mushrooms
can also blow your head to pieces though. It all depends on the person taking them. Yes, the visuals and audio weirdness are without compare and I agree that everyone should try them at least once, just to further complete their perception of their surroundings (and to be able to really appreciate what psychedlic culture is/was about) but a bad trip can be like walking into Hell, innit.
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routine has perfected burgers, Tue 24 Jan 2012, 14:46,
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SSRI's - You Can Shove 'Em
They didn't do squit for me. Except a bizzare side-effect when coming off one of them - My eyeballs "swished". Every time I moved my eyeballs - I'd get the sound, and feeling, of my eyes rubbing against my eye-lids. Most unpleasant.
The problem with major, or clinical depression (as opposed to reactive depression - you have a major traumatic event that sends you over the edge - most people eventually recover naturally) is that treatment is very much a hit and miss affair. There's no drug that works for even a significant proportion of the population all of the time. It really is trial and error - with error winning most of the time.
I spent my time in hell. A few in-patient stays at the Napoleon Factory. I went through, probably, about 10 different drug regimes and then they found one that worked - for me. Mirtazapine.
I've been on it for about 10 years now. Tried to reduce the dose or come off it a few times - unsuccessfully. A couple of days without I can handle, or a week of half the dose but that's it. Then my Black Dog symptoms come crashing through my life. Can't sleep, can't eat, can't think. So I go back to my normal dose and all is well in about 24 hours.
I think I'll stick with my drug. The alternative is feeling like it's Sunday afternoon at Gran's house and Songs Of Praise is on the telly. Every. Second. Of. Every. Day.
Cheers
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Legless Mister Stabby - shanks for the memory, Tue 24 Jan 2012, 14:37,
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I was a little put off by the Zispin-branded pen the psychologist wielded, but...
Mirtazapine. Mmm. Have spent about six of the last ten years gobbling the things, on and off. On now of course (curses). Would be wonderful if it weren't for the initial bonkers appetite spike. Goodbye accusations of anorexia, hello pointed remarks about exercise! Woo.
Saw the original story and thought "ooh" before imaginings of bad trips took over. And if there's one thing of which I can be fairly certain, it's that I would be one of those who worries themselves into a bad experience.
Antidepressants would be so much sexier if they made them look like the Bad Drugs. Some kind of preperation/consumption ritual would add to the experience too.
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Karpati Footnote Never knowingly interesting, Tue 24 Jan 2012, 18:53,
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Venlafaxine was the last antidepressant that I tried and
didn't do anything for me apart from causing the most insane
*Including one a bit like the Poseidon Adventure except that instead of escaping, the trapped passengers (several hundred of them) used all of the crap in the bottom of the boat to start a subsistence farming economy. The society needed governing, however, and eventually a crude fascist dictatorship arose to fill the power vacuum. It was my job to go in and free the masses from their evil overlords and ensure fair distribution of the potatoes. Mad, but highly entertaining.
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P-MONKE We're all fucked, Tue 24 Jan 2012, 15:13,
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different for different folk.
as all the responses show. i reckon for most folk anti-Ds aren't that helpful but for some they are life changing in a good way. similar for mushrooms. some folk feel better in every way after them and some folk go bonkers and never come back. and all the shades in between for both anti-Ds and mushies. and most other psychoactive drugs medicinal or otherwise. i can't believe it's taken years of recreational and self medicatish drug taking, misery and mental health training to be this vague.
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tickle I was away, Tue 24 Jan 2012, 16:59,
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I do like the warnings they list on SSI antidepressants as side effects
"May cause depression and suicidal thoughts"
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cumquat may will not be commenting further on the allegations, Tue 24 Jan 2012, 17:28,
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