Anti depressants

[BigRedLondonBus]

I am depressed. I have never taken anti depressenats before as I was worried about being judge for it and didn’t want it on my doctors records but I don’t think I can cope anymore. I just don’t understand how they work though? Will they stop me from feeling upset? Could someone explain to me how they make you feel better. Sorry if it sounds silly.

Your mood is a result of the levels of different chemicals in your brain. Serotonin is the chemical that makes you feel happier/more positive in mindset. Clinical Depression occurs when levels of Serotonin in the brain are to low. Antidepressants prevent the reuptake of serotonin and cause levels in the brain to rise. This increase means that your moods become more stable. They do not prevent you from feeling any emotion, if you feel that they do then you need to change to a different one as that is not the intended effect. They also can't make you falsely happy, they just provide a stabilising influence.

There are a few types of antidepressants and they all work differently and I'm massively simplifying it, I don't understand the ins and outs of it myself but that's the basic gist of it.

SSRIs (selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors) are the most common ones to be prescribed as they are relatively gentle, with few side effect and most widely tolerated. If you find them to not be helpful or the side effects too much then your GP will work with you to find one you can tolerate. I cannot handle SSRIs myself and ironically the type I can deal with are widely known for having severe side effects and being difficult to tolerate. I have no problems with them. fucking awkward, me

They're very much trial and error but do work.