Antidepressants - Good or bad

[James73]

Hey Ami, Im glad you get good insight from my posts, I just say what I feel really, which I couldn't and was afraid to do initially on this board and still am sometimes  although I must remind myself to speak my truth as I have learnt from a post a few weeks ago. Regarding emotional independence from my mother, this is not really an issue with me as Im quite sure both my parents are not N's and I can only imagine what it must be like to have a parent as an N, anyone who has one and is seeking to free themselves from their grasp leaves me in awe sometimes at the great strength of character needed, it is very inspirational to here about it on this board. I have however let in and been subjected to intense and hurtful N abuse by various types of N's, I was unfortunately too naive and weak to recognise the fact that I don't need some people as friends, its better to be alone. From very young i realise now I have had N's pretending to be my friend but who've really just manipulated and abused me mentally and physically, overall I count at least 6 to 7 N's that have played significant parts in my life from around the age of 8 or 9. My life up until a few months ago has been a kind of spinning emotional roller-coaster, always thinking I must deserve this treatment and never sticking up for myself as I should. Still I have to also say that some of these N's, if not all, have made me very strong, or potentially so anyway, I was a compressed seed, then a sapling, Im up to a small yet stocky apple tree at the moment (anyone got a fruit basket?  ), then hopefully onto a sturdy willow, an oak and then finally god wiling a Redwood  And as I keep saying this board has been totally key to my awakening 
Love ya
James

[Ami]

Dear Kelly and James,
   Thank you.  You gave me Cyberspace Hugs!                       Love to you Both    Ami
 

[michael]

meds never had too much affect on me...
i guess they didnt know i was an alien
but that was the family belief
meds were the best cure...
mom the n in my book got meds librium and such i think from family doctor
and not from a psychiatrist..
after all she had issues coz of the grief caused her by others...

siblings too favor the med route..
tho one just recently seems to being swayed
by the power of what is generally callled cognitive therapy
by better self understanding to actually change
she said ..either brain chemistry and maybe brain structure too..
geez louise that has what i beens sayin for years...

one med did seem to have  a rather positive effect on me some years ago
celerex  spelling?  celarex?  anyways...
once i sense the mind shift
i felt aware enuf of what it did mentally that i could pretty much recreate it on my own
by thought process.
but then i often interpret my dreams as i am dreaming ..
i think that is considered an aspect of lucid dreaming...
 
i forget why i stopped the celerex...
stopped the therapy?
side effects...
?
one of the most negative was red devils...
a bit of withdrawal gettin off of them
ah tech name was secobarb....

[michael]

oh oh addendum to my previous post...

cognitive therapy is term given by its creator i think   something beck..
and my sibling said that
he did some research to show that cogntive therapy could effect
brain changes similar to meds...
postive changes
and without the negative side effects i assume
except for added responsiblity
for having removed one's old excuses...
ah who took most effectivly took away our excuses for sin
..it is in the bible ...jesus:) did..
but in its place he gave us the holy spirit that can answer all things...
last supper discourse in gospel of john:)

[Overcomer]

 well I think I am going to ween Myself off them.  I have gained weight and it messes with sex!  And I think I will be ok-but the key to me is to do it gradually.

[SilverLining]

well I think I am going to ween Myself off them.  I have gained weight and it messes with sex!  And I think I will be ok-but the key to me is to do it gradually.

Good for you.  When I was taking them, I gained about 40 pounds.  As soon as I cut down the dose, the weight gain stopped.  When I quit completely the weight  came off without any problem.  Haven't had any weight problems since.   I tapered off the dose over about a year before I finally stopped. 

[Hopalong]

Hi OC, TJR...

I wonder if my weight gain is also influenced by the ADs. I hadn't thought of it because when I first go on them, after years off, I always lose weight.

Do you think that turns around the other way after the body gets accustomed?

Hops

[Overcomer]

Could be-I know whet i was on Celexa I kept the weight off but I was at a different age and time-now I got fat!  I think your brain does some tricky things!

[SilverLining]

Hi OC, TJR...

I wonder if my weight gain is also influenced by the ADs. I hadn't thought of it because when I first go on them, after years off, I always lose weight.

Do you think that turns around the other way after the body gets accustomed?

Hops

As I remember my weight was stable for the first months of treatment.  The weight gain came later.  Hard to figure what exactly was going on.  During the first months when the AD's seemed to really work I might have been more active than usual, compared to the previous depression.  But later I seemed to gain weight no matter what.  Then after I dropped the AD's I lost weight without any conscious change in diet or exercise. 

One of the strange effects of quitting the AD's was feeling much less depressed.   At least for me there seems to be something about the change itself which makes the difference.   Taking them cured my depression for awhile, then quitting did the same again.   

[isittoolate]

Black and white thinking

Please tell innocent, naive, 68 year old me, what that means?

Is it bad or good?
Is it N or non-N?

thanks
Izzy

[CB123]

Izzy,

Black and white thinking is the tendency to see things in absolutes.  People are either good or bad.  No shades of gray. 

This kind of thinking isnt necessarity N or nonN.  I think a lot of nonN's are likely to do this--that's how they get duped for so long.  If their N partner does anything good,their black and white thinking categorizes them as good.  They have to filter out the bad stuff in order maintain their "all or nothing thinking". 

Is it bad or good to think this way?  I think it's a case of arrested development.  Young teens are black and white thinkers, just because that's where they are developmentally.  But they usually grow out of it--unless they DON'T!  Then I think that black and white thinking becames shackles around your feet.  Every issue is only right, or only wrong.  People are either enemies or friends.  It's a hard way to make sense of the world.

CB

[isittoolate]

Thank you CB

So I'm pickiing up the B&W thinking can turn out to be more detrimental than leaving an allowance in between?

Izzy

[Hopalong]

I think black and white thinking is a disaster.

Not so when a saber-toothed tiger is running up the driveway toward your toddler, or you're in a war.

But otherwise, it's too unimaginative and leaves no room for compassion, imo.

(Compassion not being the equivalent of accepting abuse; compassion being just a more creative and spacious way to consider what someone is, broken or whole or something in between.)

we can wind up stronger at the broken places,
Hops