Paxil can make you lose your gun.

Yeah, that is a potential side effect of SSRI anti-depressants.

eric - did you say that you were taking low doses of paxil given to you by a friend?! if the answer is that yes you are taking unprescribed paxil, you MUST see a psychiatrist and take the medication with proper monitoring. SSRIs, and all the rest (beloved lithium) are NOT recreational drugs. you heard it, the affects can be seriously toxic to your system, in addition you need to have blood drawn regularly to make sure that your internal organs are not shutting down. the bottom line is NEVER EVER EVER take this stuff unless its prescribed for you (after you have a full work up and diagnosis). Never miss a psychiatry appointment, never miss an appointment for blood to be drawn, and take the medication as part of a routine. these drugs are serious business in addition to being big business. be careful and listen to your gut. meditation and yoga are medicinally recognized as being healing both mentally and physically. so if you are seriously distrustful of "pusher" type of doctor, or are lucky enough to live in the US without insurance give yoga and meditation a serious chance. the end.

I think that's the key Eric. No one thing works for everyone and that's a little hard for people to accept. They get prescribed a drug, take it for a while and it doesn't make them any better, or they might feel worse. They start thinking, well Doc, you don't know what you are doing. Physicians need to be more up front with patients and tell them, "Hey, this might not work, but there are many others we can try if it doesn't." The hard part is, most people don't see improvement for several weeks and that's a long time to wait when you are feeling bad. But, I know quite a few people who have had good results from SSRIs. When you look at the studies, the drugs are not real effective for mild depression. With more severe cases of anxiety and depression, there is improvement, but it's variable person to person. Treatment may involve shopping around to find one that works for you.

Eric,
Thanks for this post. Mental Illness is still not well understood in this country.
Sorry if I sound like Sanjay Gupta, but I feel compelled to comment on these medically related posts.

Contrary to the implication of the video, Major Depressive Illness is quite common. The life-time risk of having an episode is about 10% for men and 15-20% for women. My internal medicine buddies tell me they think about 1/3 of the patients they see every day in their office are having symptoms related to depression. Pain is very common, and it's not imagined, it's real. (We don't fully understand why depression intensifies pain) About 80% of patients with depression experience significant anxiety as well.

Antidepressant medications are marginally effective. SSRIs provoked mania in this lady, just like they did in me. My family tree is full of depression, and when mine hit at age 40 I went on SSRIs. MAJOR anxiety, racing thoughts, and insomnia ensued.
We were more likely to have this reaction because we weren't suffering from typical unipolar depression, we had bipolar illness. Many people with bipolar illness don't have much in the way of manic spells. Many times the illness is primarily depressive. So many times the diagnosis is not made because the illness is atypical. I consider this a real risk of SSRIs.

Interestingly, the only pharmacist I personally know who developed major depression declined antidepressants based on what she knew about their side-effects and efficacy.

So what does work? If it's a mild case, I would be hesitant about antidepressants, just eat right, get sleep, exercise out in the sun, and quit obsessing about conflict.
If it's a bad major depression, you need help and you need to see a professional. The normal course of a major depression is 6 to 9 months. That's a long time to be in the crapper, believe you me. Don't let people scare you away from getting treatment. There are options other than meds.

I've had most every drug around, and SSRIs take the cake.

Kicking heroin, nicotine, alcohol, benzos (valium)... they can be pretty bad, but even the horribly taboo heroin is just a "really bad flu" for a while.

SSRIs gave me the worst headaches, messed up vision and balance, all kinds of bad stress and mental mess... they are by far the worst withdrawl I've ever had.

But... they are considered "non-addictive" because they don't touch dopamine. What idiocy.

Oh... anybody stopping SSRIs should switch to prosac - the 9.4 day halflife makes for a MUCH smoother withdrawl.