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Comment by splatt | Hacker News Reader

I've always worried that an ssri would decrease my mental performance. Maybe worth revisiting. Can the help you learn better / focus more by blunting depression / stress?

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Biochemistry and pharmacology are very, very, very complex. Psychopharmacology is very, very, very complex raised to the power of Knuth on an acid trip channeling the ghost of HP Lovecraft.

The practical upshot of which is that the various drugs affect various people quite differently. I have trialled various pharmaceuticals over the years for my assortment of mental health issues. Some I will never take again. Some I take only if I really need to. Some I take every day. Some work great for me but suck for people I know. Some suck for me but have changed others' lives.

The only way to know how a given medicine will affect you is to try it yourself under medical supervision.

Not sure about SSRI’s, but bupropion can definitely have positive effects on your performance.

Or the opposite. The ramp-up period (4-8 weeks before the brain rebalances its chemistry in response to the drug) is hell, and cessation of the drug (or running out without access to a pharmacy) causes near-total loss of cognitive ability for a few days (with brain zaps to boot).

That's why I'm not using my bupropion. I got a prescription last month to treat seasonal affective disorder, and my psychiatrist wants me to use it every winter then cycle off in the spring, but the side effects both coming on and off seem awful.

Why not just stay on it indefinitely?

Note, person above you is talking about Bupropion which does not have the same ramp-up and ramp-down side-effects as SSRIs.

I was talking about bupropion. There are still ramp-up and ramp-down side effects with bupropion.

Buproprion isn't an SSRI.

Never said it was. It has startup and withdrawal side effects regardless.

Could've fooled me. I tapered off it over like 2 days without any issue at all.

Depression and anxiety can result in a rather wide range of cognitive symptoms. For many people, that's what eventually convinces them to seriously pursue treatment. Yes, there are risks that side effects of SSRI's can affect cognition, but there are many alternatives. Ultimately you're trying to optimize your wellness, whatever that may look like.

Depression is not healthy for the brain. It raises inflammation in the brain, and could possibly cause irreversible damage. It seems like ssri protects against this.[0]

[0] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29496589

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