Howdy, I was recently prescribed (and stopped taking within a week) two different antidepressants by a university psychiatrist. He started me on 20mg of citalopram (generic for celexa) per day. The first couple of days I felt wired and noticed mild hallucinations similar to LSD or Mushrooms - the kind where red and blue disigns and patterns overlay whatever you're seeing. These were a little unique in that they looked like lots of concentric circular designs, sort of like fingerprints. By the third day I was really starting to feel sick. I would kind of get a feeling like I was really hungry and really full at the same time, and whenever I ate it felt like my stomach wasn't big enough to fit what I was swallowing. The fourth day I woke up with strange delirius hallucinations. I can't really describe them very well, but it was very similar to experiences I had as a child with a high fever when trying to sleep - really strange thoughts that would bludgeon my consciousness with their force, as though they were really important or meaningful. But its very unpleasant also. The only specific example I can recall is sitting at a table with a stack of books on each end. One of them already had a rock sitting on top of it, and i proceeded to place another rock on top of the other pile. When I was fully awake I tried to eat some soup but it made my stomach feel awful. I decided to walk to the gas station to get some coke to ease my stomach. I didn't get 100 feet from my house before my limbs started to go cold and I felt dizzy and faint. I was freaking out a little, feeling like maybe I was going to die or pass out in the road. I managed to make it back to my house and throw up. It seemed like nothing but pure stomach acid came out. I then stood up and paced back and forth around the downstairs part of the house for a good hour because I was incredibly anxious and the constant movement distracted me a bit. It's probably notable to mention that I hadn't slept more than 4 hours a night since I started taking the drug- sleep was just impossible. I was also having severe chest pains and my heart was beating very hard while I was taking the drug. Some other symptoms I experienced during the course of taking citalopram were: tremors, excessive sweating, and panic attacks. Needless to say I stopped taking it. Next the psych put me on 25mg of sertraline (generic zoloft), equivalent to half the citalopram dose I was taking - however he directed me to up the dose to the full 50mg after a week. I felt mostly ok while taking the 25mg dose, though still had soem sleep problems and felt unusually energetic/wired. The first day that I upped the dose I didn't really have any trouble, but by the second I was getting problems pretty similar to the ones I had with the citalopram. The last day I was taking it I was sitting in my rudiments of music class and suddenly I felt very spaced out and kind of panicky, just in time for the teacher to call me up to the board to work out a problem. I stumbled to the board and basically said I couldn't do it and she pretty much had to do it for me. By the time the class was over I was feeling mostly ok again (though extremely wired and with a little chest pain). later that night my friend decided to send me a youtube clip of a scene from some french movie (I think it was called irreversible?) where one guy smashes another's head open with a fire extinguisher. "Eh, no big deal," I thought - I've seen enough movies that this kind of thing doesn't get to me that much. But then I thought about somethign I'd heard about antidepressants causing psychosis and a sleep disorder taht "causes you to act out your worst nightmares," and thought that I was feeling a little out of control and didnt' know what might happen when I went to sleep. Suddenly I was hit by this horrible feeling like nothing I've experienced before. It wasn't a panic atack, which is normally the cause of my suddenly being beset by such a horrible feeling. The emotion wasn't fear, and really there WAS no emotion. Just a feeling like I was going insane, like I needed to get out of my skin IMMEDIATELY. I had a really strong impulse to just go crazy, just smash my computer moniter and throw things off my desk, etc. but I managed to hold control of myself. I stood up slowly and just paced around my room a few times, but the feeling wouldn't go away until I picked up my guitar and distracted myself with it for a few minutes. I don't know what the hell happened to me for those couple minutes but it convinced me never to take another SSRI again as long as I live, and I hope to god I never experience anything like that again. Has anyone else had bad experiences with antidepressants? It really pisses me off because I have horrible social problems and depression that is preventing me from making or maintaining any social life beyond a tiny circle of friends, having any kind of relationship with the opposite sex, and having any motivation to do anything. I'm behind in class and even though I want to catch up its like my brain doesn't care enough to make it happen. I try to study but nothing registers. Another reason I decided to stop taking the pills was some information I came accross that suggested, among other things, that the entire basis on which the pills are supposed to work is flawed (that is, depression is not caused by a lack of seratonin). Also I heard that something like 5-7% of people lack the necessary enzymes to metabolize SSRIs yet doctors dont' bother to do any kind of test to see if this is the case before they write a prescription for you. Perhaps I'm one of this 5-7%? Seratonin syndrome?
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- There are other physiological correlations that may cause visual alterations. Reduced 5HT2a stimulation, due to disrupted serotonin tracts, may underlie complex visual phenomena reported after midbrain lesions (5,10). Analogous action mechanism presents in particular situations when hallucinogens like lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) and drugs that are agonistic with serotonin receptors are involved. Visual phenomena resembling hallucinogen persisting perception disorder (HPPD) can occur with risperidone (that is a drug used as antipsychotic) treatment in patients with histories of previous LSD exposure (11). Risperidone blocks serotonin 5HT2 receptor as an antagonist. But a case was reported after which there is reason to believe that 5HT2a blockade by risperidone can lead to visual illusions even without previous LSD use (12). As we know, LSD is considered to exert its psychic affects primarily through the 5HT2a receptors. Besides, LSD destroys cortical GABAergic interneurons, thereby reducing GABAergic inhibition on visual circuits and presumably leading to palinopsia (13). Visual perceptual disturbances in users of LSD have been reported with the serotonin 5-HT2/dopamine D2 antagonist risperidone. Hallucinogens such as LSD act as serotonin 5HT2a and 5HT2c receptor agonists. Relatively reduced 5HT2a and 5HT2c receptor stimulation after ceasing hallucinogen use is therefore likely, possibly relating to post-hallucinogen perceptual phenomena. Visual hallucinations present even after a lot of time, with a casual distribution. So, if people with histories of LSD use are administrated with risperidone, they report hallucinations, due to the fact that risperidone blocks 5-HT2a receptors, producing an effect that overlaps to the reduced stimulation of the same receptors - which are damaged by LSD use. In Lauterbach and others' (12) case, the visual illusions experienced by their patient after risperidone administration may relate to an increasing serotonin 5HT2a receptor blockade. Although a history of hallucinogen exposure was absent in their patient, acute increases in 5HT2a receptor blockade, after the three consecutive dose increases of risperidone, may nevertheless have led to the visual phenomena. Contemporary administration of other drugs could have increased the same phenomenon too via the stimulation of cortical 5-HT2c receptors for a contemporary increase of the serotonin availability. Summarizing, a modulation between drugs and serotonin receptors had led the patient to see "streams of light" projecting from the metallic beads on her blouse while awake and fully alert. She described these "streamers" as "3 inch long lines of light", the same metallic colour as the beads, in rays shining downward and forward at right angles. These visual illusions resolved within 48 hours. Resolution of the palinoptic visual illusions several days following their onset cannot be explained but may relate to habituation, physiological accommodation, or some other mechanism. Involvement of sub cortical structures and suspect involvement of neurotransmitters during CE4 phenomena was looked on by some Authors in the field. Visions, problems during sleep, beams of light that are seen make us consider that midbrain structures are involved during the contact. Serotonin 5-TH2a receptors seem to be the most probable candidates to supply a physiologic target for (internal or external?) stimuli that reveal as fundamental to re-create the characteristic environment that the subjects refer. In a way or another, the blockage of those receptors supply the neurophysiologic basis to make evident the phenomenon. i POSTED THIS A WEEK AGO..
Well that's interesting and all but I was not taking risperidone and the VISUAL hallucination part was pretty much limited to the first couple days after starting the medications, and actually didn't bother me all that much. I'm not sure what you're trying to say - that my having taken hallucinogenic drugs in the past caused me to have a horrible reaction to antidepressants? Its entirely possible but that doesn't really seem to be specifically what this information you posted is saying.
It's a shame that we know more of less nothing about mental illness therefore it's a vigorous trial and error to find the right drug or combination of drugs to tame the unbalanced chemicals of the brain. It's a painful and frightening journey for someone unable to properly function in everyday life due to their illness. Everyone is different, while some are successfully treated with a steady does of prozac, some will never find relief but there is no reason to give up hope. Keep a close record of behavioral activities and be as detailed as possible when explaining your issues. Doctors know what drugs have been known to help what symptom and they will find that right combination to help you out. I wish you good luck and I know how frustrating it is. Don't give up hope.
The post was intended to show that SSRI And LSD work in the same area of the brain.. What the post above me says these doctors are soppose to know how to balance your brain chemistry with trying different combinations of these compounds.. While all these SSRI do is manipulate your mind in the same way as lsd... SO in fact youll eventually love the world you live in... Just like you love the world you live in while under the influence of LSD...
All SSRI medications manipulate your mind in the same way as LSD... So in fact youll eventually love the world you live in... Just like you love the world you live in while under the influence of LSD... I had to post it again...
I did not love the world when I was under the influence of LSD. Well, thats not quite true, I had a pretty good time the first time I tried it but that was a very small dose so I didn't trip all that hard. The second (and last) time I took one geltab and a few hours into the trip I had a headache, felt like somebody was drilling into my forehead and I also felt really, really bad in a way I can't describe. It was a strange trip actually, there wasn't much in the way of visuals. I've tripped on mushrooms a few times and never had a bad experience like this (though i one had a strange one where I felt completely neutral and emotionless - I was tripping for sure but it was like it didn't affect me at all - I was neither terrified nor euphoric - I was just there with hallucinations. It was kind of a disappointment. And I'm aware that hallucinogenic drugs like LSD and Mushrooms work on seratonin, which is why I wasn't terribly surprised by the hallucinations I had with the SSRIs. However the SSRI feeling was different, it felt almost. . . evil. I didn't feel like my emotions became stronger like with acid or mushrooms - I didn't really feel emotions at all.
yes the SSRI TRIP is eerriee... really really retarded.....and I like the way you say evil... But LSD and all the psyc drugs they use today cant seem to find a happy medium one is up the other down. And the human race is still trying to figure out what that happy medium is. Sort of what life is about,, Im no expert but I do work in the mental health profession.. Im not a psycologist.... Our bodies need chemicals to sustaine life ... Your brain chemistry needs life... So something is out of balance if you need to take things like lsd or SSRI.. But most ppl dont know chemistry... And all the chemical you take in drugs are just as available in everyday things you do. Unfortunately we dont know our bodies.. or these chemicls personally... You know you need oxygen to live or is it something else inside you that knows it needs oxygen to live. I would take this out of text... just keep on doing what is good for you..You might not like the world you live in that was a metifor. All conscience beings have a choice keep doing whats good for you. But the truth is we still know very little on that.. So balanceing your brains chemistry is just as complex.. Its all a trial... Sort of..You try weed see if it makes you feel better... but did it? nothing is going to really make you happy but yourself.. no magic pill or pot... Only you...
Eno you're right medicating depression requires 1) find one that you like 2) try and stick with it 3) change yourself Also I'm not too pleased with the new antidepressants I was on Prozac for a week and I did not like now I'm on elavil (tricyclic) and excercising and ive never been better
