Is medicating mental problems worth it?

[SandyCat]

Sorry for the power level, I tried other places first and concluded I'd probably get less of a gay hug box response here. Or a bunch of shitposts, I'll take those too.

In short OCD and social anxiety hasn't ever let me have a life in the first place. The OCD is mainly "mental OCD" in my case, not the check a stove 20 times to make sure its off OCD although I have that to a lesser extent too. It's all consuming, it takes up 90% of my day every day for almost my whole life. Add social anxiety on top of that for a fun time.

I'm going to see a shrink soon now that I have insurance that will (hopefully) pay for it but based off what I read they usually like to medicate for this stuff.

My concern is I've seen what it can do to people. Wings of Redemption turned into a lexapro zombie, xannies are addictive and fucked Ethan Ralph up and Kanye West no longer hates jews after taking his goy pills.

Are my only options "jew loving horse beating chemical zombie" or "be miserable"?

 

[DumbDude43]

psych meds are good if you have an actual serious mental illness like schizophrenia and the pills keep you from hearing the voices that want you to kill people and set your house on fire

but for generic mickey mouse shit like ocd, depression, anxiety etc it's not worth it, you're gonna fuck yourself up hard in the long run if you try to medicate that shit away instead of working through it properly

 

[KittyGremlin]

Be wary of SSRIs or SNRIs as there is a chance that's what you'll get for OCD. They are good to numb the worst symptoms but won't help you move forward when dealing with root causes as they numb your emotional processing too. I have a similar type of OCD myself and my biggest improvement came after I went off of venlafaxine a few weeks ago (despite horrible withdrawal effects).

If you want a real solution for OCD you'll probably have to go to therapy and medication alone probably won't be too useful. Obsessions are normally caused by certain core fears you have to work on and it's much easier with a decent therapist. Because in some ways OCD treatment is similar to that of phobias It is likely that sooner or later you'll do some type of exposure therapy.

You can help yourself immediately by not blocking or arguing against intrusive thoughts and whatever bodily sensations follow and have the knowledge that having good or bad thoughts doesn't alter reality or the subject of your fears. Slowly, this should help them recede at least a little.

Hope this helps, OP.

 

[Finger Pistols]

I'm going to power level a bit here. I had some issues as a kid. The options that my parents had was to either medicate me or to send me to a psychologist for therapy. They chose the later and it honestly helped me a lot. There I learnt what exactly my problem was and some coping mechanisms to deal with it. While I still have problems from time to time, it's not as bad as it was when I was younger.

Now, I don't know what your situation is and I'm not familiar with what you have. But from my experience, I would suggest trying to talk it out with your chink and avoid medication if possible. Try to treat the problem first before popping those psych meds.

 

[CrazyRandomZyn]

Medication works but it also has be be with whatever coping mechanism you utilize during the day. Usually therapists are more than happy to give you a list of them from TherapistAid.com (sorry, noticed the papers from two therapists)

 

[Shig O'nella]

Medication for the things you are describing is useful in the short term to help you to focus/control/whatever WHILE you fix it. It's an emergency splint on a broken arm, not a cast.

 

[Stoicism Is For Losers]

going to therapy isn't gonna help you, so pills probably will do something

 

[Niggs Monaghan]

If you're barely functioning, meds can (and should) be a temporary help until you get your shit together. Then you should be getting therapy, doing yoga, etc to do the long-term fixing, and eventually get off the meds.
Meds long term will eventually stop working and will do their own damage.
Therapy, if you get a good therapist, does a lot more good than the medical community wants you to believe (gee I wonder why). Also combined with meditation and yoga.

That said I do not have and never had OCD. I had a friend who had at at one point and then took meds for it and it went away. So I guess it can go away. Idk. See what your doc says, and get a good therapist. That's my advice.

 

[Bloitzhole]

Do the therapy, worry about medication when it is prescribed, not before. If you are prescribed SSRIs, which is likely in current times, set a time limit for yourself. I recommend 6-9 months, the latter if you have a longer adjustment period than 6 weeks or medication changes in the first 90 days, which is common because people react differently and may need different combos to manage side effects or modulate the SSRI's (usually lexapro) efficacy.

Keep a journal while you are on the medication (or frankly, the start of therapy) and document your mental state in a manner that will allow you to evaluate whether or not it is having a positive influence on your life, or is merely allowing you to function. The former is a genuine increase in wellbeing, the latter is simply being more capable of performing tasks that earn income - Of course, this can also improve QOL, but whether it makes you more contend overall is another matter.

After this time limit of 6-9 months has elapsed, take stock - is this medication just numbing the peaks and valleys to ensure you are functioning (lexapro zombie) but not improving your overall QOL? If not, which is entirely possible, continue taking it. If so, slowly ween yourself off them over 6 weeks with your therapist - most therapists understand these concerns and are fine if you outline a plan like this with the aforementioned reasoning.
It's important to slowly ween yourself off SSRIs as going off them fully in a short timespan will cause a catastrophic drop in mood that can lead to an heroing for no good reason.

You may instead receive medication that is more short term to manage anxiety attacks when they occur, such as Quetiapine, which would be my preference were I an anxious person or prone to panic attacks, but I do not know which form your OCD takes so I cannot speak to the efficacy of such a routine. Good luck, going to therapy is always a good start, though don't be discouraged if your first therapist isn't the right person for you and you need to switch - happens all the time.

 

[No Memory]

Psych medication is actually a eugenics program by the medical industry to slowly kill people with mental problems, or just make the problem worse. When you look at some antidepressants and the side effects say suicidal thoughts, that should give you pause.

 

[Jewthulhu]

It depends. Medications are usually about balancing the benefits with the drawbacks. Sometimes the side effects are bad enough and the condition is mild enough that not taking meds is fine. Sometimes you need to balance out the concentration so you're getting a therapeutic effect without worsening side effects. Sometimes the side-effects are worth being functional. Sometimes there are no side effects. It depends on the person, and the severity of the condition. It's shit you should work out with professionals, just make sure they respect your experiences and concerns and aren't ignoring your complaints.

I'm going to see a shrink soon now that I have insurance that will (hopefully) pay for it but based off what I read they usually like to medicate for this stuff.

Psychiatrists (MDs) will recommend medication. That's basically their job. Psychologists (therapists) might recommend meds if they feel it'll help, but they can't prescribe them themselves and at best can just recommend you see a doctor. I'm fairly confident what you'll be seeing is a psychologist as psychiatrists are annoying to get into and generally are seen for med management or severe symptoms.

My concern is I've seen what it can do to people. Wings of Redemption turned into a lexapro zombie, xannies are addictive and fucked Ethan Ralph up and Kanye West no longer hates jews after taking his goy pills.

Internet schizos really like to play up that shit more than is realistic tbh. Again, if side-effects seem to be unmanagable or worse than the symptoms, speak to your doctor, and if he doesn't seem to be taking your concerns seriously see a different doctor. And they might be able to influence you mental state, but they're not going to brainwash you or 180 your personality. Psychosis and psychotic delusions might be the exception, that's probably why Kanye doesn't hate jews now if you're being serious about that (don't follow that shit).

but for generic mickey mouse shit like ocd, depression, anxiety etc it's not worth it, you're gonna fuck yourself up hard in the long run if you try to medicate that shit away instead of working through it properly

OCD, depression, anxiety can be crippling. Yeah, a lot of the time it's something that's overplayed and can be worked through, but there's a good number of cases where you really can't just "work it out"
*Edit to add: "Treatment-resistant" depression isn't just depression that doesn't respond to SSRIs. It doesn't respond to lifestyle changes or therapy either.

Meds long term will eventually stop working and will do their own damage.

Depends. I'm not 100% on the mechanisms of SSRI etc. tolerance but it definitely works differently and is less pronounced than general drug tolerance. I also am not sure about long-term damage, but stress and depression can cause long-term physical damage of their own (increased cardiovascular disease is the big one)

Therapy, if you get a good therapist, does a lot more good than the medical community wants you to believe (gee I wonder why).

Most doctors will recommend therapy, even when prescribing medication. It really isn't a big conspiracy.

 

[KittyGremlin]

I should probably add that OCD treatment isn't so much taking control as it is unlearning bad coping mechanisms and REDUCING the amount of exerted conscious control.

 

[Higgs Bonbon]

Meds are a tool to use while you learn to deal with your problem without completely breaking down. It's not like schizophrenia or sexual dysmorphia where there's a serious, incurable imbalance in the brain and the only way to (properly) treat it is respiridone/pimozide.

Anything that isn't adderal should be fine for 6-12 months while you figure things out, and wean off them with the help of your doctor once you're feeling confident.

 

[WE'RE ALL GONNA]

Honest to god advice for social anxiety:

Exercise has been studied as a possible treatment option for anxiety symptoms, both as an extra treatment coupled with medication or psychotherapy, and as a stand-alone treatment. In addition to general health benefits, exercise has also been reported to help poor concentration, fatigue, feelings of depression, muscle tension & pain, irritability, and other general symptoms and feelings of anxiety [1].

 

[No Memory]

Internet schizos really like to play up that shit more than is realistic tbh

I've worked in a secure unit where people are on those medications at high doses, and it turned them into people with a permanent wet dribble mark all down their t shirt, and poor bladder control. Some of the stuff out there, you might as well be dead.

 

[Niggs Monaghan]

A lot of the current ideas on depression/SSRIs seem to be pointing to that the idea that depression comes the serotonin problem is outdated and/or doesn't actually match most people's depressions, so SSRIs aren't actually doing what they're supposed to. They're more just stabilizing your emotions, dampening pretty much everything.
So I guess always be wary about docs pushing pills as a thing that will fix the problem, especially when it comes to mental health.

 

[Jewthulhu]

I've worked in a secure unit where people are on those medications at high doses, and it turned them into people with a permanent wet dribble mark all down their t shirt, and poor bladder control. Some of the stuff out there, you might as well be dead.

Drooling seems to mainly be a side effect of typical antipsychotics, most likely linked to the extrapyramidal symptoms. Antipsychotics are nasty and very biochemically "messy" (as I mentioned, typical antipsychotics basically cause non-degenerative Parkinsons'), but they're used to treat a fairly nasty mental illness with an absolutely horrible QoL if untreated. Incontinence seems to be a known complication that physicians attempt to control when they're aware of it.

A lot of the current ideas on depression/SSRIs seem to be pointing to that the idea that depression comes the serotonin problem is outdated and/or doesn't actually match most people's depressions, so SSRIs aren't actually doing what they're supposed to. They're more just stabilizing your emotions, dampening pretty much everything.
So I guess always be wary about docs pushing pills as a thing that will fix the problem, especially when it comes to mental health.

The "dirty little secret" of neurology is that we really don't understand how most drugs really work. That includes SSRIs. We THINK they work through inhibiting serotonin reuptake, but it's not known for certain. I'm actually pretty sure the serotonin hypothesis came from the observation that antidepressant type drugs seemed to influence serotonin in some way. My general opinion is that they're helpful for some people but the mechanism and general usefulness for most cases is up in the air.
Neuroscience is 90% researchers becoming autistically fixated on one particular "pet" pathological mechanism when realistically even if they're right it's only a small aspect of the overall pathology

 

[Day Drinking]

Have you tried a dependency on alcohol? It'll either make it worse, keep it the same, or help out. Either way, you'll be drunk so who cares? And if you drink enough you'll fast track death and you'll be more focused on the pain of your organs shutting down.

I recommend at least half a fifth a day to really ween into it. And if you end up getting pills, they have an even better effect if you get drunk first, because your liver will be so busy filtering the alcohol the pill will get to take it's time to really do its thing.

 

[Catler]

The OCD is mainly "mental OCD" in my case, not the check a stove 20 times to make sure its off OCD although I have that to a lesser extent too. It's all consuming, it takes up 90% of my day every day for almost my whole life.

I have no suggestions, but hope for your sake it's not Harm OCD, that is a special form of hell.

 

[Niggs Monaghan]

Have you tried a dependency on alcohol? It'll either make it worse, keep it the same, or help out. Either way, you'll be drunk so who cares? And if you drink enough you'll fast track death and you'll be more focused on the pain of your organs shutting down.

I recommend at least half a fifth a day to really ween into it. And if you end up getting pills, they have an even better effect if you get drunk first, because your liver will be so busy filtering the alcohol the pill will get to take it's time to really do its thing.

This reminds me that all the things I thought the antidepressants were doing for me that was "good for me" was actually just alcohol. Quit the antidepressants and I felt the same.