Psychiatrist Julie Holland explains how antidepressants can medicate away important feelings and experiences in a video for Big Think.
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This is an average video. Some good ideas tucked in there but overall it sounds like this woman has never been on an ssri. The video got better when she described mania. She has a good handle on that but other than that an average presentation. Psychiatrists in general are completely full of s**t so I’m not surprised.
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The early comments she makes are actually quite significant. Loss of pleasure, loss of empathy, loss of the ability to emote. Seem like things that would be associated with an increase in suicide or violence. Very important observations.
—- Steve
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Wow, I didn’t think I could learn MORE terrible things, and from yet more perspectives, about these drugs. The list is endless. It’s alarming and shocking, and a kind of companion piece to this MIA post (link below) that blew me away when I read it last spring:
http://www.madinamerica.com/2016/04/beneath-the-fog/
Liz Sydney
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Thanks, Liz, for providing that link. Blew me away too. I think we need to make all the legislators read it.
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You got to call the drugs “medicines” (at 7seconds in to the video), if you don’t, you might discover we are just legal drug dealers.
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Steve I agree with your post as I usually do. But all that stuff about making it easier to “push forward” is nonsense. But I agree it does make it harder to climax. And they don’t even work better than placebo. So what is their purpose besides making money?
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I think what they do is make people care less about stuff than they would. I think they make people more emotionally numb. I believe some people find this beneficial – for instance, if you’re constantly worrying what your mom will think if you refuse to come to the expected Sunday dinner every week, it might feel good to take a drug that makes you not care so much. But it’s pure anesthetization. And supposing you’re being kept from killing yourself by thinking how hard it would be on your kids, or you refrain from shooting someone because you’re worried about the consequences? A “what the f*&k” attitude can be and is very dangerous!
I’ve talked to a number of people who took SSRIs, one for a migrane, and all have reported similar effects – it simply made them less engaged in or concerned about the feelings or experiences of other people. One woman even had a term for it – she called it “Zolofting.”
I suppose it might be easier to “push forward” in some circumstances if you are immune to caring how others think about you. But it’s hardly a medical treatment to make a person less empathetic and more apathetic! How is it different from getting drunk to “drown your sorrows?” Seems exactly the same to me.
—- Steve
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Her description fits my experience pretty well, except it was in a way even worse because I had an initial period (a year or two, maybe even less) when life really did feel better, and then all the bad things crept up on me and I couldn’t get off the stuff. It took me five years of trying, maybe 6 or 7 attempts, until as a last ditch effort I tried MDMA therapy, which opened enough of an emotional window (e.g., I could actually feel sadness at my father’s death a few years prior) to give me enough hope to get over the hump. Interestingly, Julie Holland is a medical supervisor for research on MDMA therapy for trauma–so in my view, she is getting everything right! (Except maybe the description of serotonin theory, which from what I’m reading here maybe simplistic.)
