Re: No reason for depression
thanks for sharing. I go through phases of being in the same place without Effexor. :-0
I was on Zoloft for a while and it got quite weird. So I weaned myself off of it with the assistance of a doctor, and switched to therapy, talking, developing coping skills and such things from scratch essentially. Doh!
If you ever decide to stop the meds, The Key is to do it very very very slowly. There are a few strange days during the journey, but it is manageable. As far as during the transition and afterwards (and BEFORE) it is very important to get your diet back in order, get enough hydration, sleep, exercise(VERY HELPFUL TO ALLIEVIATE ZOMBINESS!) I have also found that staying mineralized seems to help. It sounds weird, but there have been times when I was feeling zombified and a big glass of sea-salted water has helped! There seems to be something to all that 'alkalinity' stuff..
I also try to eat food with L-Tryptophan in it since this is the amino acid which builds serotonin in the brain. IF YOU ARE EVER OFF anti-depressents, you can buy some of the capsules too. It is hard to find the pure amino in the states, but 5-HTP is available. It is very unsafe to take L-Tryptophan and 5HTP when you are on anti-depressants though. You must wait until you are off. And if they are not effective, there are other herbs which work great like St. Johns Wort. (once you are off)
Zoloft seemed to help me a little but overall it was too freaky. I started to have really weird dreams and such thing.. very unfamiliar as if from another person. And felt weird and anxious during the day too.
If you decided to stop, give it some time. It takes a little while but eventually you are as you were before you started, back inside your own body! Then hit the nutritional side hard, take care of yourself and more often than not, the interests all start to rematerialize.
I cannot stress enough exercise! Make yourself get out there again! It can do wonders to kick us back into a healthy schedule. :)
But most of us on this journey need to get some healthy tools in place to deal with Life. Talking to someone, getting a good workbook, reading, we must take a PROACTIVE role in balancing ourselves out and coping. When you have all the nutritional and health stuff going on and then supplement it with the proactive mental/emotional stuff, you are GOLDEN! Life still has its ups and down but they are not so difficult anymore.
You are GOLDEN anyway, GOLDEN exactly as you are, of course, but you can become even more GOLDEN. :)
Wishing You Well.