Antidepressant Found to Alter Personality

I was prescribed Seroxat (Paxil) about 9 years ago and yes it did change my personality but it changed me into a zombie! I didn't 'feel' anything - no happiness, no sadness, nothing. However, I went through the motions of what I should be 'feeling' and outwardly gave the appearance that I was 'cured' - I knew when I should smile and laugh and when I should be sad so I went through the motions but I didn't actually feel anything.

It was quite frightening to not feel any emotions at all and I even thought about how easy it would be to just simply end it all - no feelings of guilt or worry about those I'd be leaving behind.

The most frightening bit was when I tried to stop the Seroxat. I'd been told the new SSRIs weren't addictive which I assumed meant I could stop them when I felt better. I then found out that medically, something is only considered addictive if you need to keep increasing the dose and if you need to stay on the drug forever it's not considered addictive!

I ended up having blood tests, seeing a neurologist, an MRI scan, more tests...... Not one doctor associated my symptoms with stopping the Seroxat. I eventually realised that was what it was and told my GP who told me it couldn't possibly be that because it didn't cause the withdrawal symptoms that I had. Eventually I weaned myself off and made contact, via the internet, with many, many other people that had the same withdrawal symptoms that I had - the ones that don't happen coming off this drug!

Sorry, I mean to stick to the change of personality and how it just made me numb but it still makes me angry how my whole family suffered so much when I tried to stop the anti-depressant. We thought I had a brain tumour or something and was going to die! My left side was numb - like a stroke. My eye ball jumped as it scrolled to the side and that affected my balance so I could hardly walk.

I still have depression sometimes and some days it is very hard to control and deal with but I will never, ever, take a prescribed drug for it, ever again. I spent 2 years never leaving the house because of my depression so it's not easy to live with and there have been times when its been so bad that I've considered going to see my GP for a prescription but so far I haven't and I really hope I never do.

At the moment I feel I have a little control over my depression and hope I never return to how I felt during those 2 years of being a hermit - I don't go outside on my own much but do venture out if I have my husband or one of my kids with me. I stopped going out because I forgot how to feel - if that makes sense. I didn't know how to relate to people when I came off Seroxat because I'd spent so long just going through the motions. I did extremes of happy and sad but didn't seem to have any appropriate in between feelings. Almost 10 years down the line I still don't trust my own feelings because I don't know if they're real or learned.

Conclusion - yes I suppose they did change my personality but most definitely not for the better while I was taking them or when I came off them.

reply to post by skunknuts


This will never happen because TPTB are too busy making it legal for food companies to put chemicals into our food that causes us to be lethargic, depressed, unproductive, thoughtless drones.

My suggestion: Take Vitamins B, C, D, Calcium and Omega's to combat depression. Get 15 minutes a day of natural sunlight. The govt hasn't completely ruined this for us . . . yet.

Originally posted by Maya00a
I was prescribed Seroxat (Paxil) about 9 years ago and yes it did change my personality but it changed me into a zombie! I didn't 'feel' anything - no happiness, no sadness, nothing. However, I went through the motions of what I should be 'feeling' and outwardly gave the appearance that I was 'cured' - I knew when I should smile and laugh and when I should be sad so I went through the motions but I didn't actually feel anything.

Maya,

I can totally relate to what you are saying about how antidepressants changed you into an un-feeling zombie, I had a similar experience a few years ago, and like you, I have vowed never ever to take them again.

It was without doubt, the worst year of my life.

I was working as a Funeral Arranger, until this time I had mostly enjoyed my job, it was stressful, but very interesting, and rewarding.

After about 4 years doing this job, I started to get more and more stressed and anxious about going into work, i would wake up in the early hours worrying about certain things.

I was finding it more, and more difficult to cope with seeing dead babies, children, and teenagers-who had taken their own lives.
I don't care what anyone says, some things you never get conditioned to(well not me anyway).

I decided to see my Doctor, as these feelings were starting to affect my life a great deal.

My Doctor told me I was suffering from depression, and that the quickest way to get better was to take these tablets called Fluoxitine (which is essentially prozac).
She signed me off work for two weeks, and gave me a prescription for some pills.
Well, I trusted my Doctor, they only do what's right for us don't they?

I didn't feel depressed, but I trusted her and took the pills.
I would say for the first month I barely ate a thing, I felt so nauseous all the time, i barely slept, and I started having panic attacks, something I had never had before.

Also for the whole year that I was on the pills every single night I had the most horrific nightmares.

The most disturbing aspect of taking the medication was that my personality totally changed too, the feelings of anxiety slowly melted away over the months, but so did my emotions too, I felt like a zombie or a robot or something.
I had a new found confidence too, but it wasn't confidence, it was arrogance, I was behaving imperiously.
I was changing into a horrible person, in my opinion.

I'm not sure what woke me up to the fact that these pills were no good for me, maybe I didn't recognise myself anymore, but I slowly weaned myself off them.

I discovered that by eating healthily, and doing some exercise worked wonders for me, and I managed to get myself better.

I will never, ever take medication like that again, and i just know i will never need to anyway.

I'm not saying that all antidepressants are evil, and that people don't need them, just that for me they made me a million times worse, and I definitely don't need them ever again.

Originally posted by TrueTruth
Thanks for the reply. I think there's a degree of truth in what you're saying, but also that there are limits to that kind of neurological plasticity, and definitely stuff that we are born with. For example, what could be more instinctual than when we snap into 'fight or flight' mode in response to a physical threat?

Well, exactly, that's the firmware, which is updated generation-after-generation. Talking about 7 million years of programming, that's some pretty complex coding. Those instinctive moments assure me that the coding is intact and strong.

But I think there are other instincts and genetic anomalies that have yet to surface in our time... I mean, our genetic ancestors survived not just climate change but ice ages over hundreds of thousands of years. Our ancestors came through several near-extinctions, according to what the paleontologists and archaeologists tell us. Only a handful of humanity walked out the door on extinction, in each instance.

What do you think those survivors brought with them?

We've been living pretty comfortably for the past 10,000 years, climate-wise, with ice ages long in our past. But I wonder if we have hidden instincts and hidden abilities left over from the Ice Ages? Maybe we'll see an emergence of these innate survival characteristics as our climate changes in the future.

Originally posted by TrueTruth
We know a few things about how that mechanism works...just as there is variability in things like height and muscle mass, why not variability in subtler mechanisms employed in our survival? What if my progenitors survived by their heightened sensitivity?

On the other hand, what if our tampering with the gene pool, sustaining the weakest of our species — rather than following the rule of the jungle — has produced a heavy population of weak, indolent, overly-sensitive oysters?

Not Survival's finest moment.

Originally posted by TrueTruth
I admire your optimism, but I don't believe in the unlimited ability of the brain to reorganize itself. It is demonstrably true that rewiring does happen with learning and whatnot, but 'consciousness' is slave to biology in much the same manner as is a sculptor to stone, or a musician to his instrument.

Well, yeah, if you think that consciousness is all biologic, a collection of neurochemical impulses, then the capacity for self-correction is undeniably finite. I mean, there are only so many neurons in a bucket of brains.

But, um, I happen to think (know) that consciousness is universal. The Universe itself is a consciousness, and, yes, we are little knots of that consciousness.

I'm not selling religion here, but I can tell you that Universal Consciousness isn't just a cliché. I think that our brains actually do process information on a quantum level, and thus process information from other dimensions.

That's a legitimate theory, but I know what I know from personal experience.

I do think that an expansive awareness precedes corporeal consciousness, and that it can overwrite negative experiences. Baby, I'm living proof.

— Doc Velocity

reply to post by Doc Velocity


Hidden traits in dormant genes? Maybe. But I don't see what that has to do with the way we where shaped by the forces of nature over time, or the simple observation, supported by vast quantities of research, that our brains play a critical role in the experience known as consciousness. We might all have one spiritual home, but we aren't doing that right now. I seriously doubt you know anything I don't know about who we are, our 'true natures', etc.

All of that doesn't change the fact that right now, we are bound up in this physical body, and are playing according to certain rules - another form of restriction that allows definition...

I never said 'all' consciousness boils down to biology - I simply stated that you can't have an artist without a medium. Without a structure called a 'brain' to begin with, there'd be nothing for all those happy thoughts to try to reconstruct. We have a lot to learn about the brain, but we know enough to be certain that interruption of the physical brain can cause profound personality changes. Even something as simple as a sugar crash, like Devo mentioned, can cause a person to swing from feeling good to feeling tired, angry, and confused in a matter of minutes.

It's hubris to imagine that we have some kind of greater control over the forces which shaped us.

And it's BIG hubris to call other people "indolent oversensitive oysters" - I mean, what kind of person stoops so low so fast? Are you perhaps one of those very oysters? Ever heard of this thing called 'projection'?

Seriously man. Save the sunshine suppository for someone who's interested.

I've heard enough of this 'mind over matter' crap to last me a lifetime. I'm educated in the functions of the brain, and trained in the science of behavior modification. I've seen through years of experience the possibilities and limits of 'rewiring' the brain - and suffice to say, between your personal happy thoughts and the forces of the universe that led to your creation, I wouldn't bet on your own personal fancy being the the more dominant of the two.


The next time somebody tells you that they take meds, don't presume to tell them how they ought to look at the situation, as if you have some kind of special insight, or a right to dispense pithy, pop-psych new-age advice. Not only are you not in a position to know anything about that other person, but you're not in a position to know if your your own ideas are anything other than fantasy.

I know how eager everyone is here to be insightful and enlightened, but you're really just not.






[edit on 9-12-2009 by TrueTruth]

Geez, for a truth-seeker, you come off as an anal-retentive snipe. Chill, oh Luminous One, and next time try breaking the pill in half.



— Doc Velocity





[edit on 12/9/2009 by Doc Velocity]

reply to post by Doc Velocity


Right. My reaction to you has nothing to do with your own behavior, and dispensing unsolicited oversimplifications of other people's lives isn't presumptuous and condescending.

People love be talked to like a child by a self appointed guru. It never ticks them off.

For someone with the inside scoop on the nature of consciousness, you have a remarkable lack of awareness of how your actions might be perceived by others.








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Good thing im getting off mine as of today. Bad thing its gonna take 8 months to taper off...

Look up Effexor Side effects..

broader thought -


there is not such thing as a personality. It's a mental construct we devise in our own heads in order to classify our encounters with people - to predict behaviors.

therefore to suggest we are altering our 'true' personality, is essentially meaningless.

these things all change over time, and according to experience as well.

Originally posted by TrueTruth
For someone with the inside scoop on the nature of consciousness, you have a remarkable lack of awareness of how your actions might be perceived by others.

Oh, no, I am not lacking in awareness of how my razor-edged words inflict agony upon the many raw and heavily-medicated nerves out there.

Oh no.

Who says that "expanded awareness" equates to blissful benevolence and political-correctness?

I mean, that's what this is... You're calling me down because something I said offended you. Let's nevermind that you misinterpreted it from the word go, that you went off on a reactionary tirade based on your misunderstanding of my meaning,

But that cat is outta the bag and there's no going back.

Let me tell you something... Expanded awareness includes the visceral. Includes the bawdy. Includes the sarcastic and the grotesque. "Expanded awareness" is a lot grittier than you might suppose.

Carlos Castaneda, one of my favorite thinking authors, discussed expanded awareness at great length over many volumes; and one of the topics he addressed was a "warrior" technique called controlled folly.

An individual of expanded awareness, who is able to see reality as it really is, knows that he must be able to engage with the carnal world, and he does so impeccably.

God, that's a good word, "impeccably"... Haven't brought that one out in years.

To engage the world impeccably, you gotta break some eggs, and somebody's feelings are going to get hurt. If you do it right. But an individual of expanded awareness controls his folly, he rhymes with the poets, he drinks with the barflies, he rocks and rolls and punches buttons.

And it's all folly.

— Doc Velocity

reply to post by TrueTruth


holy crap - you're still lecturing me about the nature of the universe?

seriously?




you just don't know how you sound man - how profoundly grandiose. You honestly think you're so enlightened that you act impeccably, or that you're the only person who read carlos castaneda? this all makes your awareness so expanded I can't imagine it?

you're so advanced, that you think you are in a position to actually judge my personal medical decisions? you think you know the first thing about my life, whatsover?

I've seen your act a thousand times. I've spent a lot of time in this life around things like ashrams, alternative health centers, etc... I've met many a person who thinks they 'really get it', and so finds it perfectly reasonable that they would dispense their godly advice. These people are very good at telling other people what their problem is, and what they need to do about it.
They have an answer for everything - that's the beauty of surrendering the mind to blind faith.




gimmie a break.


don't presume to lecture me about the nature of physical and spiritual reality. and don't cry foul when it's somebody other than you who 'gets carnal'. if you want reality, deal with the slice I served you about your arrogance - own your actions.

until then, I'm not interested in hearing about how special you are.

the egg that needs to break here is your ego.


[edit on 11-12-2009 by TrueTruth]

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Yeah, I gave you a star, droopy... I figured you need all the encouragement you can get, because darn it, you're a mess. But I'll tell you what, hot-shot: You can continue blaming the world and your parents and the babysitter and the doctors and the lawyers for all the screwed-up crap in your life and chase it with an anti-depressant cocktail and then simmer in your own schizophrenic juices until hell freezes over....

Meanwhile, I'm starting off the new year by publishing a great big book about everything you hate.

And I'll make a million bucks on the deal, too, just wait and see!

And I'll be happy 'cuz ya know why?

'Cuz I'm not you.


Seeya!

— Doc Velocity

reply to post by Doc Velocity


At least you can cash in without remorse on being a fraud. It does indeed take a supreme amount of confidence to sell actual piles of bull droppings to people as genuine insight.

It's easy, but it takes a lot of gall.

Just don't be surprised when every once in a while, somebody smells your stink.

Follow the bouncing ball...this is what just happened.

Somebody started a thread about medications.
I shared a personal story.
You chimed in and told me what I should do instead of what I'm doing.
I told you why I disagreed with your theories.
You insulted me because I didn't want your advice.
I told you how rude you were being.
You became defensive, and instead of saying something like, 'sorry' for insulting another person, you got cocky and rationalized your behavior.
I called you on it again.
You become at once grandiose AND insulting.
I called you on it again.

And then I decided to write you this little social story so you can learn how to play nicely with others.



Move along, dung peddler.





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