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Comment by steve-atx-7600 | Hacker News Reader

I’d be afraid of a treatment like this where you’re sort of different after one treatment. From experience taking ssris, I took one one that worked so well that I had to stop taking it because it removed stress to the extent that I wouldn’t get to class on time or get my homework done before deadlines. Eventually I found a medicine that worked for me. But, if there’s a “before” vs “after” one shot treatment, you have to hope the new you is the one you want assuming you could be stuck there permanently.

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When you have heavy generalized anxiety, you are usually willing to commit to that if it means there is a significant probability of coming out with an improved condition. I had such terrible panic attacks before my treatment with a bunch of different medication that I seriously considered and searched for electroconvulsive therapy and even help from shady religious institutions.

I might have gotten that desperate myself, but I finally found a great physiatrist that gave a shit and was competent. Simply taking Effexor removed my panic attacks without problematic side effects.

Yeah, changing psychiatrists also helped me. Unfortunately, I had to change drugs a couple of times and ended up taking multiple ones to end my panic attacks. Those drugs left me with long lasting tremors, even after I've stopped taking them, but the tremors are 10000x better than the panic attacks.

I think curing GAD will mean changing your personality. There's always going to be a before/after you, that's the whole point. The important part is being able to reliably know what the "after you" will be so you can be sure that you want that change to happen.

Curing anything changes your personality. I stopped biting my nails to the quick after 50 years - that's a difference!

The Ship of Theseus argument should never be used to justify retaining mental dysfunction. "What if I can't paint sunflowers if I stop being suicidal?" is a question; more decades of Van Gogh paintings would inarguably have been better.

Sounds like intended behavior. Instead of keeping working in shitty motivation loop (stress builds up so I will eventually get the stuff done), maybe changing habits a bit around your new me would be a better move, like doing tasks proactively as they come? Triple that if you were being cured for anxiety itself.

You got the chance for a more chill life compared to obviously more stressed one and you threw it away as 'too nice won't bother trying it'.

A good point, but if stress was your motivator, it might be better to work to reframe that and gain motivation through something else that isn't stress.

My experience was similar, with social anxiety suddenly removed it made me a bit of a dick for a while.

People underestimate the long-term impact of pharmacological treatments.

But also I get what you mean, even if its not totally rational.

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