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Comment by colechristensen | Hacker News Reader

The first time I took Xanax I cleaned my kitchen and it went from mildly embarrassing to quite presentable in an hour or two. I could actually execute the things I wanted to do without fighting though ridiculous feelings.

I am treated like an addict or ridiculous when I tell doctors I'd rather not "try SSRIs" or a series of strange sedating substances because they're all so afraid of prescribing something with addiction potential (and the regulators trying to stop them).

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I've been on multiple prescriptions for depression/anxiety/panic attacks (had a lot of traumatic events happen in close succession to one another). Combinations of different SSRIs and whatnot but the one thing that had an immediate and hugely beneficial effect was Xanax. I truly felt like my problems were solvable and I could see how to go about making the necessary changes. It was truly life changing for me because up until that point I could no longer believe that sich relief was possible. I haven't ever had a prescription though, and most doctors will refuse if asked. So I just have that one experience where it was given to me during a panic attack emergency, but knowing that it is even possible to feel like things can get better was a huge help to remember what to keep fighting for.

Wouldn't you be afraid? Patients who get addicted to benzodiazepines are likely to end up taking them their whole lives, even in old age, in ever escalating dosages due to tolerance. Elderly patients on these drugs are at higher risk of losing their balance, falling, fracturing a femur and entering a fragile state after losing their functionality and independence. If anything doctors aren't afraid enough. Polypharmacy is one of the geriatric giants and iatrogenic complications are common.

I have a healthy respect for substances and try to understand the things they do with me, but have never had any problems at all with addiction. I'm not saying other people shouldn't make their own assessments for themselves.

> I am treated like an addict or ridiculous when I tell doctors I'd rather not "try SSRIs"

If you’re willing to take Xanax but you’re not willing to try SSRIs, you have probably been severely misled about the relative risks of each.

Seriously, the internet misinformation machine is terrible for SSRIs.

One thing to keep in mind when reading online reports of drugs is that they tend to correlate quite heavily with the liking effect of a drug. Patients will rate drugs with rewarding effects significantly higher because they literally trigger the neurons in your brain that say “this is good and you want it now”.

My primary disinterest with SSRIs is first hand experience with people taking them and going on and off them. I don’t want to go into it or discourage anyone from taking them, but my experiences and reading papers reporting side effects results in a hard no for me.

I don’t recommend SSRIs. I’m just one case but the side effects were bad: memory loss, total lack of emotion, unable to laugh or cry, etc. I ended up stopping them bc I stopped feeling in love with my wife. They were giving me a half life. I tried them again, this time with much worse memory loss, I don’t remember what it was like that time. I just remember sitting around people laughing with a dazed out smile, unable to join them. I felt fundamentally separated from the highs and lows of human life. First time was 50mg Zoloft, second time was 100mg Zoloft. I cannot recommend except in extreme cases

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