The Anti-Depressant Conspiracy

I have noticed quite a bit of interest in the topic of Anti-Depressants in other threads in recent history and thought that some people might want o hear of my experiences with these drugs. The long and short of it is that I have been on moderate strength Anti-depressants along with mood stabilisers for the last two years. If you are interested this is for the treatment of Bi-polar Disorder. Essentially I became dependant on these drugs and although they masked my symptoms, they have never really treated or changed anything. There has been some nasty side effects as well like massive weight gain, high liver function, lethargy, drowsiness and excess sleeping. Not only this but the prescription charges were costing me £16 each month.

Anyway my treatment has been pretty crappy, I have seen my psychiatrist once in 4 months and the community mental health nurse once in this time also, so I have not had a chance to discuss my options with them. So around two weeks ago I ran out of medicine and did not have any money to buy more so I decided it was time once and for all to stop my medication. I did not consult my doctors with this but I am happy I have done this now. The first week was especially hard and I must admit that there was a time I considered taking a long walk off a short bridge but I got over it eventually. So now I have been off the medicine for 2 weeks and in that 2 weeks I have lost 15kg in weight.

This is the twist though, I had my appointment yesterday, eventually with my Psychiatrist and he went absolutely balisitc that I had stopped and "ORDERED" me to resume my medication. I'm thinking, wait one minute, getting aggresive with me and ordering me to take it is certainly not going to make me do it and come to think of it why are you so concerned that I am not taking it any longer?

If it was another illness then yes, I'd consider stopping your medicine to be bad but this is Bi-Polar - they haven't got a clue how to treat it anyway and all the drugs do is just mask the symptoms, they do not actually treat anything. So the question is, why are the doctors so keep on pushing anti-depressant types of drugs? Are they being back handed by the likes of GSK? or is there a deeper reason as to why they want us all on them, like mind control and such?

What do you guys think is going on?

reply to post by michael1983l


How long have you been treated for Bi-polar, and which type do you have? They always say that the meds take a few weeks to kick in, however, a close family member of mine suffers from bi-polar, and the medication hasn't really changed much for her. She's been on almost every treatment option in the last 10-15 years and nothing makes her completely "normal" But, really, what is "normal" anyways?

The only reason I can think of for your shrink speaking to you like that is because they have no idea how to handle a person with bi-polar. They are taught that while you're experiencing a Manic cycle, you feel fine and so you decide you don't need the meds. But then, your moods cycle again and you go back into the depression phase, which, in their opinion, would have been prevented by the meds. But with Bi-polar, every cycle is different, and as you said, no one really knows how to treat the underlying condition. The sufferer is left still feeling "crappy", albeit less crappy than they were.

I do believe the use of anti-depressants and other "mood drugs" has been running rampant in the last decade or so. But so has incidence of depressive type disorders. It reminds me of the chicken and the egg argument...Which came first?

You do know that stopping a course of anti depressants can cause you to get rebound depression, a recurrence of the depressed feelings as a result of not withdrawing from antidepressants slowly.
Yes ask your doctor to cut them down but to just stop, it can be dangerous. you can also suffer from discontinuation syndrome which can make you sick, vomiting and others.
So talk to your Doctor If you wish to get off them and he/she will help you decide if it is the right thing to do and/ or cut the anti depressants down slowly.
Take care dude and think positively, It does help.

Oh just a question How did you feel before you took them? Apart from the side effects do they work for you?

They put people on those drugs to keep the masses docile, emotionless. They don't want you to feel emotions that will make you act out , and stand up for your rights.

reply to post by Saphira


Bi-polar type 1 - Rapid Cycle

reply to post by boymonkey74


They have taken the edge of certain aspects like have stopped me snapping so easily and they stop me from feeling really low when the lows happen. But they don't stop this from happening completely just less servere. I am not sure that using medication is helping me, I feel I would be better treated with education and CBT.

I will tell you this, i am bi polar and it is something i have sufferd with for a long time. The depression side of my problem is debilitating. I have been hospitalised for it more than once! After quite a few years i have finally found a medication that works for me. I am not trying to say that everyone needs to be medicated just because they are not happy with thier jobs or life has handed them a bad wrap! Please dont judge everyone, i am very greatful for the help i have recieved. I have two beautiful daughters that i now can live every day for, just because i take medication for a real diagnosis does not mean that i am a risk to the public, i am a very social person with lots of friends!!!

reply to post by michael1983l


Look, ATS is really not the place to be asking this type of question, talk to professionals in the field of mental health, I know a little bit about Bi-polar because I worked in the field but I'm no doctor and just know the basics.
It does sound by your last post that they do work but you do not like the side effects which is understandable.
You are right about education BTW.
Please goto a forum like www.mentalhealthforum.net... or www.mentalhealth-world.org.uk... because you will talk to people who are going through the same thing as you.
They will help more than anyone on here will.
Once again dude take care, think positive and I wish you the best for the future.

What were people with "bi-polar disorder" doing 100 years ago? 1000? 10,000? Or did these disorders simply start springing up when drugs had to be given a use?

reply to post by michael1983l
If you feel like the medications have not helped you and your current psychiatrist insists that you take them without discussing alternatives why not seek the opinion of another professional?

I am happy that you made it through going "cold turkey" without really bad repercussions. If you stop taking some medications without slowly weening off of them you could experience seizures, stroke or heart attack, or even organ shut down. You were very fortunate! But since you are already past the danger zone if you feel strongly about not taking meds try to find another professional who is more open to alternative methods of treatment such as nutritional changes, herbs and supplements, even accupuncture.

Everyone's quest to find what works for them is different. Good luck on your journey!

I had some issues a few years ago, basically everything was going wrong for a couple of years, so the doc put me on Celexa. After a couple of weeks of a mellowed mood, I decided I didn't need them, so I stopped taking them.

I started getting what felt like electrical shocks inside my brain. :shk:
It hurt.

I went to the doctor about it and told him I had stopped taking the meds, and he told me the shocks might have been from stopping suddenly, and that they (doctors, big pharma) don't yet know how these pills work! Everyone's brain is different.
It was nice that he admitted that.

He put me back on them, and told me to cut up the pills smaller and smaller, to wean off them slowly. We weaned me off them in 2 weeks of time. The brain shocks went away for good.

Originally posted by Putyournamehere
They put people on those drugs to keep the masses docile, emotionless. They don't want you to feel emotions that will make you act out , and stand up for your rights.

edit on 15-12-2012 by Putyournamehere because: (no reason given)

I agree, but i believe it is more than just for those reasons. We are also a profit centre, a cash cow. They can make much more from you if they keep you from getting well. It's also done for reasons of scientific research. It's a data centre. They collate the effects of all medicines as they continue their research into us, both physically and mentally. We're one big petrie dish.

OP please be careful. Please take the good advice you have already been given here by other members. I fear that some time in the near future you could expericience a chemical crash, when your body realises what's happening.

Originally posted by snowspirit

I started getting what felt like electrical shocks inside my brain. :shk:

I get something similar to this, but they don't hurt. It's really wierd. It's like a shock followed by a firework with a big bang thrown in for good measure. They jolt me and I recoil for a split second then it's over. They're also cyclic and currently i'm in a low activity period.

Yeah, don't just "stop" taking them. That's bad. Talk to your doctors and discuss the best way of weaning you off the medication. If your doctors aren't willing to explore that option, fire them--they're obviously motivated by factors other than your health. I'm not suggesting that you shop for a doctor until you find one who tells you only what you want to hear, but one who recognizes the inadequacies of the predominantly reactive nature of modern medicine and all the misdiagnoses and needless drug prescriptions that result from it.

reply to post by michael1983l


I was diagnosed with Bipolar Disorder in 2008. At the time, I was severely depressed, and taking Prozac.
As it turns out, taking 'normal' anti-depressants is REALLY bad for people experiencing the manic side of Bipolar Disorder.
It make me worse. I thought every day that I wanted to kill myself. I tried taking a butt load of Tramadol at lunch time, just sitting in front of my other half.

I was sleeping all day (if I could - or at least taking 1-2 hour naps in the middle of the day), I was constantly paranoid, I severed many friendships because I was afraid they were talking about me, or fancied my other half. I experienced such rapid cycling between my emotions, when the psychiatrist asked me to make a note in this little booklet of my emotions each day, he couldn't make head nor tails of it. It was that up and down. Normally rapid cycling of mood is like a day or two of one emotion up to a month or so, and then switching to another. I was flipping all day long. Happy, sad. Tears, laughter.
I considered sectioning myself.

When the psychiatrist gave me a prescription for Depakote, I got the pills, took one and spoke to my friend about it.
Her partner gained so much weight, was always tired, was lying all the time, and I thought to myself, "I don't want that to be me."
And like that, I stopped taking them.

Don't get me wrong, it wasn't easy.
I suffered the same as you for those first couple of weeks.
I eventually reprogrammed myself to avoid dwelling on negative things. I joined a gym.
I've been off medication for at least two years now, and I'm the most emotionally stable I've ever been.

Getting off the meds was the best step I've made, and I've spoken to others who have done the same as me and everyone has said the same thing.
The pills make you worse.

My mum considers herself to be a 'manic depressive' which is the old term for Bipolar, she's had all sorts of things thrown at her in the last few years. She's going through a really bad patch right now, and it's just horrible to see her suffer. She takes her pills every day, if she's even an hour late taking them, she gets tearful and anxious for the rest of the day.

It's a problem that can be properly managed, if you find out what works for you. Unfortunately, I don't think she's bothering finding out for herself how she can help herself She's 53 and she will self harm if she doesn't take them. Really upsetting that people consider self harming to be a "young people's" thing.

There's a lot of conspiracy surrounding these types of medication, and for good reason. Because if you actually look up anti-depressants, specifically SSRI's in a medical index it literally says that they don't even know how the pills work. In short, they're using chemicals that are known to block receptors in the brain causing flatness of emotions as a symptom. That's really all they know. I'm sure it does have a lot to do with the serotonin receptors, but they have no way of really knowing exactly whats going on.


I was on SSRI's at 2 different times, once for about 3 months when I first started getting panic attacks and paranoia. And again about 2 years later, I stayed on them for 10 months, after going to the hospital for a severe anxiety/panic attack. The doctor told me that I HAD to go back on them and stay on them for exactly 9 months at the least to "reset my brain". Or else it would "change the way I work and bring on schizophrenia". These are the exact words told to me by a legit ER doctor.

I hated being on them, I felt like a stone emotionally. That's obviously not healthy for you at all, there's that right off the bat.

Anyways, I tried stopping cold turkey once but after like 3 days my body had this weird electric pulse feeling. Firing from my head to my finger tips and legs. It made me physically ill and when I would stand up it was like I was getting out of my body and trying to catch up to myself if that makes sense.

Tapering off of them slowly is key. There's definately something really wrong with the picture, when it comes to anti-depressants.

Sorry if I ranted too much lol, I have a lot to say when it comes to this.

2 opinions/observations about these drugs (SSRI-inhibitors)

1 - the drugs were designed so you can't just STOP taking them without serious side-effects ie. Heroin
2 - side affects are unpredictable which is why each of those commercials you see takes 3/4 of air-time to describe possible effects.

I'm sure if you were to research the recent mass-tragedies of the past 10 years you'll find a common theme - these perps were taking some kind of SSRI drug or recently Stopped taking it.

reply to post by TXRabbit


I also remember reading a study showing that they don't work, it's only a placebo effect. There's a brand of SSRIs in France that does the opposite to your serotonine levels and it has the same results! Mood is influenced by more than one neurotransmitter or hormone.

reply to post by sebHFX


As much as I'd like to think it's all a placebo effect, you can't discount the physical side effects. I mean, me feeling electric waves going through my body, and wanting to throw up after stopping my medication shows that there is definately something in those pills other than just sugar. I mean, I was not predisposed to those issues being a possibility.

Originally posted by sebHFX
reply to post by TXRabbit

 

I also remember reading a study showing that they don't work, it's only a placebo effect. There's a brand of SSRIs in France that does the opposite to your serotonine levels and it has the same results! Mood is influenced by more than one neurotransmitter or hormone.

I'm sure in some cases, that can be true. My wife takes Cymbalta for neuropathy (degenerative nerve condition - very painful) as it's somehow been shown to help with the pain associated with it. It works for her as there have been times where we couldn't get a refill due to finances or doctor-required visit before refills and she's noticed the pain starting to build. I guess you can't say that it's definitely working for her because the only way to prove it would be to substitute a plecebo but I'm not about to do that.

Don't get me wrong though - I would (and she would) love to get rid of that crap. Hopefully soon a more efficient drug will be developed for treatment of her condition.
And YES - she has seen some side-effects of it. Mostly constipation and decreased libido.