Serotonin, Depression and SSRI Antidepressants

Insights and discussion from the cutting edge with reference to journal articles and other research papers.
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MarcR
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Re: Serotonin, Depression and SSRI Antidepressants

Post by MarcR »

Jafa, I wonder if your anxiety would diminish if you became convinced that your sleep duration objectives are too high. Just in case you missed last fall's Sleep duration and mortality topic, I recommend it and the linked paper to you.

I sleep longer after days with high levels of physical activity. Might be something to experiment with.

Regarding adding citalopram or another SSRI to your stack, as the spouse of someone who is nearly two years into prolonged antidepressant withdrawal syndrome (PAWS), I consider SSRIs and other antidepressants to be much more risky to health and wellbeing than does the medical establishment. A quick search for citalopram on Surviving Antidepressants turned up a number of discussions of harm experienced by those who took it. Here are a few of them:

10 years of Citalopram
Citalopram is the divorce drug
11 months off Citalopram
citalopram has been terrible, need advice
Jafa
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Re: Serotonin, Depression and SSRI Antidepressants

Post by Jafa »

HeatherLst, I found the story of your son’s success with various treatments both interesting and heartwarming. Frankincense with lavender is on my wish list and will now add Vetiver to the list of things to try. Thankyou.

Thanks Marc for weighing in with advice on sleep and on SSRIs. I don’t think my objectives are too high with regard to length of sleep. 7 hours would be my ideal. I have done it maybe 2 or 3 times in the last 6 months but know I feel fine with 6 and even 5 hrs if it is unbroken sleep. Most nights however it’s 2 or 3 hours of deep sleep and the rest is fitful broken sleep so short of buying an Oura ring or Fitbit I can’t be sure how much (or little) sleep I’m getting. Seems from the article between 6 and 7.5 hrs of perceived sleep is optimal for mortality. Thankfully death is not the endpoint Bredesen is measuring, don’t really want to survive longer than my cognition.

Marc I’m so sorry to hear of the difficulties your spouse had coming off the SSRI. Reading of others’ experience I could count myself very lucky. I felt pretty good on 10mg if a little flat emotionally, and had no problem coming off it, just reduced by half for a time, then half again, then alternate days, then every 3rd day for some time.
ChiroWellnessME
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Re: Serotonin, Depression and SSRI Antidepressants

Post by ChiroWellnessME »

Best get up to speed on methylation status before taking SSRIs.
See William Walsh, "Nutrient Power"
If you "overmethylate," taking SSRIs can be a very bad idea.
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