Are there any antidepressants that don't make you feel like ***? (sensitivity to side effects)

There's a lot of people on here offering their own negative personal experiences with antidepressants so I wanted to balance that out with my own positive experience.

To put it simply, I wouldn't be here today if the antidepressants I've been prescribed didn't work. I've been suicidal, I've made plans and started to act on them. It's taken me a while to get to what works best for me, and now with possibly more understanding of why I struggle with things (suspected autism as well as depression and anxiety) I'm hopeful that I'll be in a position soon to be able to start coming off them.

My husband is also on them, and without them he'd be harming himself again, or worse.

We're both examples of the effectiveness of antidepressants, and because of them our son still has two parents, who for the most part are able to go about their normal (for them) lives.

I'm also another vote for not messing with illegal drugs, there may well be some benefits to them and if there are, no doubt a drug company will be doing trials to come up with something they can market and sell, but until that happens you can't guarantee the quality of the drugs, their source or what they might have been cut with.

You can't patent a plant like cannabis. Different strains suit different types of people. That's why the drug companies can't sew it up.

And if they try the usual price gouging, it's a weed, anyone can grow. it!

Best keep it illegal, despite the huge evidence being amassed and presented in it's favour that has finally forced a crack in the wall of ignorance and misinformation.

But, and this is the important thing here, remember "DIversity"?

Unlike some others in this thread I've tried to be very clear about "what suits me may not suit you" whilst presenting the things that have worked for me.. 

I feel quite passionate about "censorship" these days, having watched active censorship occur when a very effective treatment for covid emerged in India...

Cannabis is rarely "cut" with anything, and the illegal market is dominated by a culture of excellence, where the growers clearly take a pride in their product, and compete to produce the most, tasty, or strong, or sedative or psychedelic strains. as in all trades there are bad apples, and my exposure has been limited to evaluating the products and conduct of my personal supplier, but the quality and "knowing what you are getting" thing is really nothing like the media or uninformed bystanders would have you believe, has been my experience, even on the rare occasions I've bought from some I don't know. Rather than shooting each other over turf wars (Which probably does happen in places I'd avoid going, instinctively) the competition, is who can make the best, most perfectly manicured buds, that do exactly what the guy who is selling the says they do.

There's no proffesional pride and ego's involved like when you say to the doctor, "that stuff is crap". Most dealers will take it back and find you one that does work for you. And how many cannabis deaths I've been recorded? 

But before you all rush out and get yourselves a bong, there IS "cannabis psychosis" to beware of..

This can range from simply wishing you hadn't taken the stuff to, ( as I once witnessed a now very respectable and lauded man doing as a youth) hiding under a table throwing wellington boots at anyone who asked him "if he was feeling O.K." and chanting military phrases... He recovered after a couple of hours and vowed never to do it again!

The golden rule with cannabis and other psychedelics if you find the experience not to your taste, is "this is the effects of a drug, and I KNOW it will wear off. All I need to do in order to stay safe is, nothing at all". 

Which if you think about it, is pretty much where Jakey is at (or was) with his legally prescribed drugs. Never met a drug dealer who recommended someone take a different drug if they were having an adverse effect though. Only the legal ones do that.

I THINK I'm within the rules with this post.

I appreciate that the testimony I have given will be hard to accept for some, but I can assure the reader I have no malign intent, I am not stupid, I've spent a lot of time coming to the conclusions I have, and I am providing in some cases a counter point to serious misinformation that is being peddled as "authoritative" or simply what everyone knows.

The truth of the matter is that all drugs can be abused, and all drugs have benefits when correctly used. 

It's simply criminal to use the law to criminalise the people who can benefit from the use of a drug.

I'm glad it's finally changing. 

The BIG LOSERS when they legalise cannabis (and some other currently illegal drugs) will of course, be the companies who host your doctors drug conferences in those nice hotels. they'll lose bigtime...

You are the best arbiter of what a drug does to you, and you need to choose your suppliers whether legal or proscribed, MUCH more carefully than most of you do. 

Please consider all options, and try things other than outsourcing your thinking. that approach, whatever you choose, will get you the win in my experience every time.

Do not discard expert opinion, that would be foolish, but don't outright ignore all dissenting presentation of other people's experiences either.   

It's all about keeping your balance, innit?

I Sperg said:

The truth of the matter is that all drugs can be abused, and all drugs have benefits when correctly used. 

It's simply criminal to use the law to criminalise the people who can benefit from the use of a drug.

I'm glad it's finally changing. 

I agree.

I used to smoke cannabis but gave up when I couldn't find a supplier (I didn't try very hard) and I got a chronic cough (gastric causes).

Also, my sister died of breast cancer and she was a heavy smoker.

I've never been sure if there's a link but it also put me off.

I remember wheeling her out in the hospice to have a smoke and there were cigarettes everywhere on the ground and it all seemed rather sad.

However, I loved smoking pot.

I had a friend when I was young who had a chronic spine condition called ankylosing spondylitis.

He had to get cannabis illegally to get relief from the pain.

It was very effective but turned him into a criminal.

I Sperg said:

The truth of the matter is that all drugs can be abused, and all drugs have benefits when correctly used. 

It's simply criminal to use the law to criminalise the people who can benefit from the use of a drug.

I'm glad it's finally changing. 

I agree.

I used to smoke cannabis but gave up when I couldn't find a supplier (I didn't try very hard) and I got a chronic cough (gastric causes).

Also, my sister died of breast cancer and she was a heavy smoker.

I've never been sure if there's a link but it also put me off.

I remember wheeling her out in the hospice to have a smoke and there were cigarettes everywhere on the ground and it all seemed rather sad.

However, I loved smoking pot.

I had a friend when I was young who had a chronic spine condition called ankylosing spondylitis.

He had to get cannabis illegally to get relief from the pain.

It was very effective but turned him into a criminal.

I really like the phrase drug family! It's made me think about what family members my drugs would be, like my antidepressants/anti-anxiety meds would be siblings, the antihistamines would be the great aunt you only see at certain times of the year, and the anti-tremor medication for my RLS would be the mum that puts you to bed in the evenings. In a grown adult so that last one is a bit weird but it fits.

I will just add to this that I am on Seroxat (Paroxetine) now and it keeps me calm and is a very valuable member of my drug family.