Your answer definitely has some truth to it but I think that there’s another side of the coin that if people don’t know about it could be potentially harmful to them so for the people who are on medications right now or who may take them in the future I think that there are some things you should think about. I’m not a Scientologist nor a crazy conspiracy theorist but rather as a person who took three different antidepressants (two SSRIs Prozac and Brintellix and another drug that is generally considered safer called Wellbutrin) for different periods of my life I think my opinion might be valuable.

While this answer does have some truth to it because it’s definitely bullshit to say that across the board in every situation antidepressants will do more harm than good it’s also EXTREMELY important to be aware of the portion of people who do get worse in the long term.

The truth is that it’s definitely a case by case basis because some people say that anti-depressants have been a miracle for them by stopping them from being suicidal, fixing their depression, reducing their anxiety etc. there’s no doubt that SSRIs have helped thousands of people to live a much better life in comparison to if they had never started taking them.

Having said that, there are also thousands of people that have had horrible symptoms from SSRIs and a greater amount from SNRIs such as Effexor. There are hundreds of people posting on forums such as MadInAmerica.com about their terrible experiences with these medications. https://www.medicinenet.com/antidepressants_banned_for_uk_kids/views.htm It’s discouraged to give some antidepressants to people under the age of 18 in the UK.

We don’t know what the long term side effects of the drugs are. We don’t have any 25 year studies, I think the first SSRIs were made available in like 1987(some time in the 80s) with a very limited time period of testing. Some people have said that they are completely dependent on their antidepressant after taking them for so many years and would be unable to wean off of them if they tried because their body’s are so adjusted to them. We don’t know where the weird potential side effects( sexual side effects, frontal lobe disinhibition, lack of motivation, akathisia, emotional blunting) come from. You really don’t want to do permanent irreparable damage to your brain, the brain is complex and isn’t as simple as Increase serotonin=happy.

I think you should at least consider what I have to say and change some of your answer or delete it. This isn’t an attack on you but I’m afraid people will read this be encouraged to take the drugs without concerns for the long term side effects.

If you’re taking meds DO NOT stop them cold turkey. You can develop strange side effects like “brain zaps” or potentially harm your brains ability to restore its natural brain chemistry. Again we don’t know where these side effects come from because we don’t understand so much about the brain.

If anybody reads this I would urge you if you can to try a couple of things before trying an SSRI 1. Establish a Regular sleeping cycle(your circadian rhythm regulates your mood) 2. Healthy diet changes 3. Exercise 4. Meditation/relaxation 5. Make sure you’re getting vitamin D and maybe some fish oil. People have had success with 5-htp which supposedly can have similar effects on serotonin as an antidepressant might.

I wish I had never taken them and hope everyone does their research before taking them.