The world needs less tears and more love

Do anti-depressants make you feel happy?

Please.

Not really, no.

"Had Mother Nature been a real parent, she would have been in jail for child abuse and murder." -Nick Bostrom

Damn. Maybe one day eh?

Please.

They're more there to stabilize you, but last I checked, that's the closest thing you'll find to a medical drug that makes you "happy". Anyway, LH, just from some of your posts around the forum that I've seen, you show a good number of common symptoms for someone who's on antidepressants, not all good, but I'll refrain from sharing them here.

Also, for the record, the street drugs like crack and such? Those don't make you happy either, that's a just an emotional high a few times and after that, it just becomes temporary relief from an addiction. Marijuana, while not necessarily being addicting, carries similar problems as it just distorts perception and does a bunch of wonky stuff with your brain. You can take it and deprive some level of pleasure from it, sure, but it's not a happiness drug and has a rather long list of problematic side effects that aren't desirable.

The emotions of others can seem like such well guarded mysteries, people 8egin to 8elieve that's how their own emotions should 8e treated.

Double damn. Is there nothing I can ingest to make me happy?

Please.

Hmm. That makes me curious what you are talking about...

"Had Mother Nature been a real parent, she would have been in jail for child abuse and murder." -Nick Bostrom

The closest thing you'll find to making you happy medically is a normalized cycle of sleep, a proper level of blood sugar (eat healthy in other words), and a hobby you enjoy. Well and that basic physical and emotional needs are met. It helps if you try to take an optimistic outlook on life.

edited 5th Jul '11 2:21:15 AM by Ramus

The emotions of others can seem like such well guarded mysteries, people 8egin to 8elieve that's how their own emotions should 8e treated.

Well according to Ray Kurzweil in couple of decades we'll have indigestible superintelligent nanobots-networks that will merge with our minds and give us perfect mind control.

"Had Mother Nature been a real parent, she would have been in jail for child abuse and murder." -Nick Bostrom

That sounds scary as hell

"Take your (...) hippy dream world, I'll take reality and earning my happiness with my own efforts" - Barkey

I wouldn't mind being a mindslave. Then again I root for big brother and always wanted to be a faceless mook.

Please.

Yes, except that people are still mapping out the human brain, nanobots are still extensively being developed and researched, and I'm still willing to bet that you'll only get an emotional high out of it, not actual happiness. Now, if you don't mind me mentioning, people have a tendency to predict that things are going to happen sooner than they actually do, like cars that run on and output air, intergalactic space travel, and the apocalypse. Chalk it up to people being impatient, this sort of stuff takes time. In the meantime, it's better to live in a practical manner instead of constantly placing hopes on tomorrow. Instead, just be pleasantly surprised when the next major revelation occurs, so that way you don't have to be disappointed by what you have today.

edited 5th Jul '11 2:32:44 AM by Ramus

The emotions of others can seem like such well guarded mysteries, people 8egin to 8elieve that's how their own emotions should 8e treated.

I will take my un-augmented body and mind over that any day, thank you very much. Are these nanobots going to make me feel the way I do when I ace my exams? When I spent an evening playing cards with friends? I highly doubt it.

A part of happiness is how much time you spend anticipating it and trying to make it happen. If I got straight As just for turning up to uni, they wouldn't make me happy anymore.

Be not afraid...

If I had the choice between seeing the world as it is (which is not a pretty sight, mind you) and being blissfully happy for eternity, I'd rather choose the former.

And frankly, people who need drugs to be at least a bit happy in any way, could just as well jump from a bridge.

People aren't as awful as the internet makes them out to be.

What words of kindness you have towards all severely depressed people.

"Had Mother Nature been a real parent, she would have been in jail for child abuse and murder." -Nick Bostrom

Probably projecting.

Please.

Acting as hobby psychologist over the internet is fun, huh?

People aren't as awful as the internet makes them out to be.

Yes. Now tell me about your mother. Slowly

Please.

Okay, for the record, antidepressants aren't without their place, after all, there are various conditions and forms of depression that can arise in an individual that can't be fixed without at least some medicine helping them. That isn't to say the antidepressant will suddenly fix them up like new, but it can sometimes be quite necessary as part of the treatment.

The emotions of others can seem like such well guarded mysteries, people 8egin to 8elieve that's how their own emotions should 8e treated.

I've got a decent amount of insight on this I suppose..

I blame Paxil for my fathers death, my mom and him were talking about getting a divorce and he was depressed, so he got put on Paxil. 3 weeks later he hung himself.

My mom is a nurse, I've got a Psych degree. We go back and forth about the merits of both drugs and therapy as treatment, but even my mom will admit that anti-depressants aren't meant to be any form of long term solution, you should never be on anti-depressants for years, that's just sick. Anti-Depressants numb the psyche, you don't feel sad, but you don't necessarily feel happy either. The proper use of these drugs is to give someone a buffer period to get through the rough patch and then stop taking the anti-depressants. My mom took anti-depressants for about 5 months after my dad died, and then when her last prescription ran out she stopped taking them and focused more on moving on.

If your doctor prescribes you anti-depressants for more than a year, he needs to have his right to practice medicine removed. This prevailing attitude in the US of just chucking drugs at everything is so unhealthy and must stop.

edited 5th Jul '11 3:43:27 AM by Barkey

Lost a friend today. Was an ace with the pencil where it came to drawing, a great writer and a fantastic beta-reader. Everyone on our forum was hit hard. But there was something that left us speechless: his family knew about our scifi&writing forum, called some of us on our phones and asked to come say a few words this friday. So, yep, we would really have needed less tears, but still, you know You Are Not Alone when every old member of our community called each other to make sure everything was right.

My advice to everyone here: be cautious out there, accidents do happen, and don't wait too long when you have something to say to some friends.

As the size of an explosion increases, the number of social situations it is incapable of solving approaches zero.

It's quite funny that the same nation that pretty much is at fault for recreational drugs being banned worldwide chucks therapeutic drugs at problems with reckless abandon.

You exist because we allow it and you will end because we demand it.

Sorry to hear that Rufus... its hard to sympathise with people over the internet but... well good luck dude.

Are you going to speak at the funeral? From experience I can say that it helps a bit.

(seems less important but: @ramus I started off with quite a lot I still appreciate all the stuff that I have. Suffering is not neccesarily required to enjoy where you get to afterall.)

Yep, that's what suprised us all: the family knew about his friends on this forum. Damn, hearing her mom telling me that he spoke to her about me and a few others... it makes the whole thing harder. I'm going with two other people, and I'm grateful, especially for the two others, who are devastated, since they'll have some closure.

As the size of an explosion increases, the number of social situations it is incapable of solving approaches zero.

Did he post on the forum?

And well... good luck.

There is a level of irony present, but that's an oversimplification, Savage. Most street drugs are very addictive and physically harmful; even pot is habit-forming *

...while medical science has proven many uses for therapeutic drugs.

Put simply, 90% of people aren't smart enough to self-medicate. That's why doctors go to school for so long.

Another irony; Ecstasy was originally developed for psychiatric work. At the doses intended, it does pretty well at it. Problem is the street dose is several dozen times that, and the reason it was scheduled instead of approved was because people started selling it illegally.

If I were to write some of the strange things that come under my eyes they would not be believed. ~Cora M. Strayer~