Well, I guess it’s the intended effect- to stop being so miserable and self-conscious and anxious you’re trapped inside your own head.
Yes, so, for the first time in my life I’ve found a medication that makes me feel normal and happy. And for the first time in my life I’m funny, which is something I’ve desperately wanted. I was always too scared to crack jokes, worrying that I was going to look like an idiot or no one would laugh. Most of the time, I’d think of something funny but the 5 seconds it took to carefully plan my execution and get up the nerve to do it, the conversation would have moved on. The rare occasions I would make someone laugh, it was usually unintended.
But now I’m getting laughs all the time. My friends have noticed I joke more, too. And that makes me feel pretty good.
So, there’s some mundane and pointless information sharing for ya.
Nah, SSRIs have the unintended side effect of making me burst out in violent bits of temper over silly things like losing board games. It’s actually an anti-seizure drug they use as a mood stabilizer.
Random fact of the day - according to the nurse practitioner doing our med education, all of the mood stabilizers are actually anti-seizure drugs being used off-label. Err, except that I think that maybe Lamictal might have actually been tested for both since it’s the newest.
I was once on an MAO inhibitor that made me giddy with laughter. For the first time, I really realized what “inappropriate” in the pyschiatric sense meant. I heard a news story about a bomb going off on the Metro (French underground) and how people’s feet were blown off etc. Instead of thinking “how awful”, I immediately started riffing endlessly on their injuries–bad puns, especially (can’t remember any of them now, sorry). I shared them all with my sister (and she did laugh) That made me stop for a minute and think–whoa… should I be reacting to this news in this way? It was way over the top of even dark humor.
I’m NOT saying this is what is happening with you–it sounds to me like these pills have relieved your anxiety and allowed your natural self to come through. That was not the case with me and the MAO-I. Congrats on your success!
Great-Aunt Edie was 85, and decided to celebrate by taking an ocean cruise. After stowing her gear in her stateroom, whe went onto an upper deck.
The wind began to blow harder. A steward ran up to her. “Madam, your skirts are blowing up around your waist!” She held them down with both hands.
After a while, the winds began to blow even harder. She grabbed the deck chair with one hand and held the other to her head. The same steward ran back up to her. “Madam, your skirts are blowing…”
“Yes, yes, young man,” she interupted, “but what’s down there has been there for 85 years, and I bought this hat last week!”
