to want to get off my antidepressants asap after this evening’s Panorama?

[GeraniumGirl]

Anyone else feel the same after watching the programme tonight?

lol - please don't say someone isn't qualified to say it's tosh and crap! People experiencing depression etc can say what they want. Everyone is entitled to their own opinion! Obviously, the OP knows how placebos work!

They can indeed say what they want.

She didn't say "I think" i.e. their opinion in her first post, she said "it's a load of tosh and crap". She hadn't watched the program so based that opinion on what? Please explain to me how she is qualified to say the program was crap when she hadn't watched it.

I'm not talking about the OP knowing about placebos, I'm talking about Arse, who said "For me, they are not a placebo and change my life completely." That doesn't make sense.

@Arse is saying they ( anti depressants) work for her i.e. not a placebo effect in her case.
Maybe the other poster has a doctor in her family for example, so even although she hasn't watched the documentary, she could still be very clued up!
Hope this helps .

How exactly would one know that a medication works in and of itself, rather than because of the placebo effect?

And why would it matter if it was the placebo effect making them work? All that means is the body is responding in the way you want it to. What does it matter what the mechanism is? Just be grateful you’re getting a positive effect!

Oh, and the placebo effect works even when we know it’s a placebo. So Arse doesn’t need to worry they’ll stop working if she were to start thinking it was ‘only’ placebo.

FWIW, i was taking 40mg of Prozac for ED and stopped within a month without any withdrawal symptoms.

I had read lots of horror stories online of people struggling to get off the Prozac but my psychiatrist was really dismissive when I mentioned my concerns to him.
As it happened, I didn’t get any withdrawal symptoms at all.

I’ve just divided (not very evenly!) my 20mg pills into quarters and will try 15mg for a couple of months and see how I go.

@NoLeaveIt ,
Prozac WD symptoms occur later than others as the drug stays in your body for over a month and the metabolites also stay on for a while. Once you have passed the 3-4 months mark you will be home free! If you do get WD symptoms, during that time, a small reinstatement might help.

I’ve finally watched the programme and actually I thought it was good, albeit not at all balanced with only one person really saying how important ADs can be. I don’t think I would be where I am now without them .

One really useful bit of info was about the Royal College of Psychiatrists’ tapering guide which I’m now using although I’m planning to go even slower. I’m dropping 2.5 a month. So far so good having dropped from 20-15mg from the end of last week but I expected that.

Sorry that made no sense I dropped the 5mg initially as I can’t cut the pills small enough to drop 2.5, but have some 10mg prescribed now to make it easier , plus the liquid for when I get to lower doses (citalopram). I won’t be off them until at least next spring which is fine as I want to make sure I stay content and happy anyway and not take them away too quickly.

I watched the programme but cannot come off them as I have a lifelong condition (autism) I can cope with the side effects from my prescription which are thirst and constipation. If I did not take my Lofepramine 140 mg I would only get 4 hours sleep. I need to survive in 7 hours or I go under.

I did not, but it makes sense. It gave me a great appetite and I put on quite a bit of weight.