# If you take antidepressants when you are not clinically depressed. **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [February 20, 2012, 12:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-take-antidepressants-when-you-are-not-clinically-depressed/613376 "2012-02-20T00:59:31Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Leo\_Bloom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leo_bloom/32/10377_2.png) [@Leo\_Bloom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leo_Bloom)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2012, 11:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-take-antidepressants-when-you-are-not-clinically-depressed/613376/21 "2012-10-16T23:33:55Z")
> [@Annie-Xmas](#): > > When I was (involuntarily and falsely) locked up because someone stated I was suicidal with no evidence whatsoever, I was forced to take an antidepressant. A half hour later, I was offered a sedative because I was bouncing off the walls. > > Hey, you forced me to take an upper, then you want me to take a downer? You trying to get me hooked or something? Something sounds a little off in your presentation of the events. An antidepressant regimen won’t do squat therapeutically for at least two weeks. You may have been offered a sedative (which I would not characterize as a downer), but more probably an anti-anxiety medication, which is effective in short order, and which may have sedative effects, particularly when first administered. If you were indeed bouncing off the walls, it was not from any antidepressant, and the subsequent medicine would have been on the money. ---
**Author:** ![thelurkinghorror](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7c8e57/32.png) [@thelurkinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thelurkinghorror)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2012, 2:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-take-antidepressants-when-you-are-not-clinically-depressed/613376/22 "2012-10-17T02:04:02Z")
> [@AHunter3](#): > > Depression is not a serotonin-deficiency disease. That was a strong hypothesis that has not, in fact, been supported by the evidence. > > [Cite](http://www.bettyphillipspsychology.com/id138.html) > > For depression patients and nonpatients alike, serotonin reuptake inhibitors do what their name suggests; and then the brain gradually compensates (if you keep taking it) by releasing less serotonin or reducing the density of receptors for serotonin. I’d like to see a cite better than some random website. [scientology.org](http://scientology.org) will say that only they can fix it, but it’s more likely they’re wrong, and not credible. Also, someone with a PhD is not in the business to prescribe medication; you need an MD in most places, and would be a psychiatrist not a psychologist. The fact is, it’s not serotonin for _everybody_ which is why they make SNRIs and NRIs to adjust norepinephrine levels. Also, SSRIs increase serotonin through reuptake inhibition, but other antidepressants may agonize serotonin through other means. And yes, your body adapts to serotonin. This is why withdrawal to meds happens if you go cold turkey instead of weaning off. It doesn’t mean that antidepressants aren’t a viable long term solution, often in conjunction with psychotherapy. ---
**Author:** ![Dana\_Scully](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/5daacb/32.png) [@Dana\_Scully](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dana_Scully)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2012, 3:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-take-antidepressants-when-you-are-not-clinically-depressed/613376/23 "2012-10-17T03:08:53Z")
> [@Mdcastle](#): > > It won’t make you happy. The theory is that clinical depression is a result of a lack of serotonin. The brain can only make use of a certain amount so If you have “enough” than “more than that” isn’t going to have any effect. > > You’d still get the side effects. Most SSRIs don’t have any that are desirable, but tetracyclics and tricyclics can make people sleepy, so they’re sometime prescribed for that purpose. Cymbalta also has a different on-label use, for chronic pain. So antidepressants are used a bit in people that aren’t depressed, and it doesn’t make them all happy happy.. I take more than one anti-depressant and wish I didn’t have to (but I do). The side effects can be nasty and take some getting used to. And when you want to stop taking them, you have to wean yourself off very, very gradually or you’ll get some really nasty side effects from that too. I can’t imagine why anyone would want to take this stuff if they don’t have to. ---
**Author:** ![Dana\_Scully](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/5daacb/32.png) [@Dana\_Scully](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dana_Scully)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2012, 3:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-take-antidepressants-when-you-are-not-clinically-depressed/613376/24 "2012-10-17T03:11:05Z")
> [@Tamex](#): > > I was given that as well. The major side effect I remember was constipation. Yep, those things can bind you up tighter than a drum. A lot of people have to take a stool softener or else their inner plumbing will turn to concrete. ---
**Author:** ![Dana\_Scully](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/5daacb/32.png) [@Dana\_Scully](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dana_Scully)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2012, 3:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-take-antidepressants-when-you-are-not-clinically-depressed/613376/25 "2012-10-17T03:14:29Z")
\>\>i] started tripping out in meetings, jumping around in my chair, feeling like I was upside-down on Planet Zog, not able to speak because I was so spaced out. The worst thing was they were my meetings - I was the boss! Then during lunch I just had to get outside - and ended up walking around the city aimlessly in a state of high agitation until I came to my senses and found myself going up and down an escalator in a shopping mall, flapping my hands and laughing to myself. Crazy shit! Never ever again. \<\< You’re Tom Cruise, aren’t you? ---
**Author:** ![AHunter3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ahunter3/32/368_2.png) [@AHunter3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AHunter3)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2012, 6:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-take-antidepressants-when-you-are-not-clinically-depressed/613376/26 "2012-10-17T06:49:06Z")
> [@thelurkinghorror](#): > > I’d like to see a cite better than some random website. [scientology.org](http://scientology.org) will say that only they can fix it, but it’s more likely they’re wrong, and not credible. Also, someone with a PhD is not in the business to prescribe medication; you need an MD in most places, and would be a psychiatrist not a psychologist. > > The fact is, it’s not serotonin for _everybody_ which is why they make SNRIs and NRIs to adjust norepinephrine levels. Also, SSRIs increase serotonin through reuptake inhibition, but other antidepressants may agonize serotonin through other means. > > And yes, your body adapts to serotonin. This is why withdrawal to meds happens if you go cold turkey instead of weaning off. It doesn’t mean that antidepressants aren’t a viable long term solution, often in conjunction with psychotherapy. Read Robert Whitaker’s _Anatomy of an Epidemic_. The link I provided above is a concurring opinion written by someone citing Whitaker’s investigative research. I do not believe that person (Betty Phillips) is affiliated with scientology. I know for damn sure that Whitaker isn’t. Antidepressants are not a good long range solution for a great many people for whom they mostly seem to foster a dependency on the mental health system with very little in the way of positive tradeoff. ---
**Author:** ![skdo23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a5b964/32.png) [@skdo23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/skdo23)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2012, 4:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-take-antidepressants-when-you-are-not-clinically-depressed/613376/27 "2012-10-17T16:50:24Z")
I have been on a combination of 2-3 various antidepressants at any given time over the past 15 years. While, unlike the OP’s question, I AM clinically depressed, there have been numerous times where it was discovered that my blood levels for at least one of the medications I was on at the time was higher than recommended due to things such as weight loss, being on a new med, dehydration, etc., which I suppose could be analogous. When this happened I would notice things such as fatigue, dry mouth, rapid heartbeat, hypertension, weight gain (due to increased hunger), but I was never excessively happy or nonchalant, or anything else that would be considered the “opposite” of my depression symptoms. ---
**Author:** ![JustFeelingMeh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e56c9b/32.png) [@JustFeelingMeh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JustFeelingMeh)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2017, 2:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-take-antidepressants-when-you-are-not-clinically-depressed/613376/28 "2017-07-06T14:02:05Z")
I have zero interest in sex, at all. Its really negatively effected my relationship. My doctor put me on an anti-depressant, not because he thought I was depressed, but to ‘cure’ my lack of interest in sex. If I stop taking it cold turkey, can it make me depressed, even if I wasnt depressed when I started taking it? ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2017, 2:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-take-antidepressants-when-you-are-not-clinically-depressed/613376/29 "2017-07-06T14:16:36Z")
When I was finally diagnosed with “situational depression” I was told to take drugs to help me tolerate my intolerable situation! At that point I cut off all contact with the “experts” and worked at changing the damn situation. Any drug that could make me happy in that situation is a drug I do NOT want to experience! ---
**Author:** ![AHunter3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ahunter3/32/368_2.png) [@AHunter3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AHunter3)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2017, 2:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-take-antidepressants-when-you-are-not-clinically-depressed/613376/30 "2017-07-06T14:47:55Z")
> [@Annie-Xmas](#): > > When I was finally diagnosed with “situational depression” I was told to take drugs to help me tolerate my intolerable situation! At that point I cut off all contact with the “experts” and worked at changing the damn situation. > > Any drug that could make me happy in that situation is a drug I do NOT want to experience! QFT and then some. PS: zombie alert ---
**Author:** ![FinsToTheLeft](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/finstotheleft/32/2930_2.png) [@FinsToTheLeft](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FinsToTheLeft)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2017, 4:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-take-antidepressants-when-you-are-not-clinically-depressed/613376/31 "2017-07-06T16:29:17Z")
> [@JustFeelingMeh](#): > > I have zero interest in sex, at all. Its really negatively effected my relationship. My doctor put me on an anti-depressant, not because he thought I was depressed, but to ‘cure’ my lack of interest in sex. If I stop taking it cold turkey, can it make me depressed, even if I wasnt depressed when I started taking it? I can’t speak to anti-depressants, but has your doctor checked your prolactin levels and if you are male, your testosterone? High prolactin inhibits testosterone and luteinizing and follicle stimulating hormone (LH and FSH). I have a benign pituitary tumour called a prolactinoma. Before treatment I had the hormones of a 10 year old girl, now it is more like a 17 year old boy 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2017, 4:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-take-antidepressants-when-you-are-not-clinically-depressed/613376/32 "2017-07-06T16:35:37Z")
When I told an “expert” that drinking coffee and taking walks outside every day helps me feel less depressed, she said (direct quote): You’re self-medicating. You have a serious problem! ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2017, 5:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-take-antidepressants-when-you-are-not-clinically-depressed/613376/33 "2017-07-06T17:25:44Z")
> [@Leo\_Bloom](#): > > Something sounds a little off in your presentation of the events. An antidepressant regimen won’t do squat therapeutically for at least two weeks. You may have been offered a sedative (which I would not characterize as a downer), but more probably an anti-anxiety medication, which is effective in short order, and which may have sedative effects, particularly when first administered. If you were indeed bouncing off the walls, it was not from any antidepressant, and the subsequent medicine would have been on the money. Gee, my reaction to the anti-depressant must have been a psychological one. And those don’t count, do they?:rolleyes: And you KNOW I wouldn’t have had a negative psychological effect from the subsequent medicine? I take no meds now, and I work and support myself I did NOT go on disability for my psychological problems, as 13 “experts” told me, along with the fact that they “knew” I could never get and keep a job. They were wrong. ---
**Author:** ![anomalous1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e56c9b/32.png) [@anomalous1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/anomalous1)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2017, 5:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-take-antidepressants-when-you-are-not-clinically-depressed/613376/34 "2017-07-06T17:42:01Z")
> [@Ferret\_Herder](#): > > “Antidepressant” and “antipsychotic” are clever names but they’re not magic bullets for those conditions only; they’re also blanket terms for a variety of drug categories. They have chemical effects in the brain which may affect other conditions too. I took an antidepressant for migraine prevention and didn’t notice any other effects; I have been depressed in the past so I know what it’s like to feel that emotional blunting lifting off of you when an antidepressant drug does work. I’ve had friends take seroquel for hardcore bi-polar disorder, and it pretty much acts as a sedative/sleep-aid it seems, more so than any anti-psychotic effect. ---
**Author:** ![anomalous1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e56c9b/32.png) [@anomalous1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/anomalous1)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2017, 5:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-take-antidepressants-when-you-are-not-clinically-depressed/613376/35 "2017-07-06T17:45:18Z")
> [@JustFeelingMeh](#): > > I have zero interest in sex, at all. Its really negatively effected my relationship. My doctor put me on an anti-depressant, not because he thought I was depressed, but to ‘cure’ my lack of interest in sex. If I stop taking it cold turkey, can it make me depressed, even if I wasnt depressed when I started taking it? I’ve also had this situation, wondering why I’m not out trying to get some like everyone else, but the right mix of anti-depressants fixed it up for me. Voracious at times, but it worked after some experimentation with different A-D’s. I dealt mostly with anxiety though. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2017, 6:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-take-antidepressants-when-you-are-not-clinically-depressed/613376/36 "2017-07-06T18:29:43Z")
My Doc wanted to find a sub to Ambien, so we tried QUETIAPINE. It had no side effects for “happiness” but I wasnt depressed to start with. It did work for sleep as well as Ambien, but the Quetiapine made me groggy in the morning. Other than the groggyness, it was fine. ---
**Author:** ![buddha\_david](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ee7513/32.png) [@buddha\_david](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/buddha_david)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2017, 7:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-take-antidepressants-when-you-are-not-clinically-depressed/613376/37 "2017-07-06T19:24:54Z")
> [@Leo\_Bloom](#): > > An antidepressant regimen won’t do squat therapeutically for at least two weeks. You may have been offered a sedative (which I would not characterize as a downer), but more probably an anti-anxiety medication, which is effective in short order, and which may have sedative effects, particularly when first administered. If you were indeed bouncing off the walls, it was not from any antidepressant, and the subsequent medicine would have been on the money. Antidepressive effects may take time to kick in, but the _side effects_ show up almost immediately. It’s a brain-altering chemical, after all. I had a doctor who tried prescribing fish oil tablets, based on his frustration that I should be taking some kind of antidepressant (other than med. marijuana) and the traditional treatments weren’t doing squat. Not only did it give me lingering fish-breath, but after two weeks, I began waking up in a mood of bleak, black despair, far worse than anything I’d felt before, until I took my morning pill. So in that case at least, a medication was making the symptoms worse, not better. > [@anomalous1](#): > > I’ve had friends take seroquel for hardcore bi-polar disorder, and it pretty much acts as a sedative/sleep-aid it seems, more so than any anti-psychotic effect. A sleeping aid that can cause [neuroleptic malignant syndrome](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neuroleptic_malignant_syndrome) or [tardive dyskinesia.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tardive_Dyskinesia) Hooray for modern medicine! ---
**Author:** ![squidfood](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a87d85/32.png) [@squidfood](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/squidfood)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2017, 10:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-take-antidepressants-when-you-are-not-clinically-depressed/613376/38 "2017-07-06T22:29:37Z")
> [@Mitchconner](#): > > …seriously considering moving to a state that will allow me to use medical marijuana. It doesn’t have death listed as a side effect, or as a withdrawal symptom. Careful here. Not medical advice, but I’ve been on SSRIs and a few anti-anxiety drugs over the years. I did medical marijuana for back pain (while not on any of the other meds), and it _really_ amped up my anxiety, to the point that my psych and I had to work through another round of anti-anxiety meds after I stopped the marijuana, in order to stabilize. I’m very grateful that the mj made me functional during the peak back pain, at a time when the more traditional docs would have had me on a lot of scary opiates - but for the mental issues, it was not for me (though I didn’t experiment much with strains or dosages, so maybe there would have been methods that worked). ---
**Author:** ![Ambivalid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/a5b964/32.png) [@Ambivalid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ambivalid)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2017, 1:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-take-antidepressants-when-you-are-not-clinically-depressed/613376/39 "2017-07-07T01:00:58Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > My Doc wanted to find a sub to Ambien, so we tried QUETIAPINE. It had no side effects for “happiness” but I wasnt depressed to start with. It did work for sleep as well as Ambien, but the Quetiapine made me groggy in the morning. Other than the groggyness, it was fine. Did you notice your appetite increased? ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2017, 5:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-take-antidepressants-when-you-are-not-clinically-depressed/613376/40 "2017-07-07T17:48:37Z")
> [@Ambivalid](#): > > Did you notice your appetite increased? No, not really. But it could have, I just didnt notice it. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-take-antidepressants-when-you-are-not-clinically-depressed/613376.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-take-antidepressants-when-you-are-not-clinically-depressed/613376.md?page=3)