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  • BDD Moderators: Keif’ Richards

Why Serotonin?

SNR

SNR

Bluelighter
Joined
Apr 20, 2011
Messages
140
Not really sure where this belongs, feel free to move it.

I (and I'm sure everyone who has ever turned on a television or browsed the internet) has seen countless articles on serotonin being THE neurotransmitter involved in depression. Statements like "xx works by increasing the levels of serotonin in the brain, the hormone that relieves depression" are incredibly twisted.
Sure, it is true that serotonin is released when a person is happy. However, this is the logical fallacy of many people: Serotonin released when a person is happy does NOT mean serotonin makes a person happy.

Contradictory to the public's "information", there are many reasons that show that 5-HT does NOT equal "happiness". Serotonin antagonists such as mirtazapine, the tricyclics, and antipsychotics like aripiprazole are classified as antidepressants, and they are effective. It is also worth noting that initial effects of SSRI's increase depressive and anxious thoughts and behaviors, and that many people find that the time that the therapeutic effects of SSRI's start to occur is also the theoretical time when 5-HT receptors would start to down regulate from increased serotonin.

So with all this put on the table, WHY is serotonin the neurotransmitter that is focused most on in antidepressant drugs and is for the most part still taught in many textbooks to be the "hormone/neurotransmitter that relieves depression"?
 
These emotions you feel are no more then ratio's of chemicals in the brain, mainly seratonin. SSRI's come close to replicating this. Seratonin is one of the oldest hormones in the world and the development of the entire brain revolves around it.

The satisfaction is not there, but you are in a sense, mildly creating happiness.

This entire conversation is kind of off from a confusion of definition. No drug can create happiness. Think of the "Pursuit of happiness" for example, its just this feeling of accomplishment and steadiness one achieves in life. Pleasure != happiness, and drugs only create pleasure.

IDK if i answered your question, but just food for thought.

The logic IMO is no different then this:
A dope addict feels alot of pleasure in his life, but very little happiness.
Dope is not so far different from SSRI's in terms of emotion. When your off it, life sucks. This is why many are against anti-depressants
 
I can't offer sources/citations due to current obligations, but I can give you a pointer in a certain direction.

I remember reading that serotonin is one of the original nervous system transmitters that came about through evolution, and as such has a huge amount of power. It is used in regulating a lot of different aspects of the biological organism our consciousness inhabits.

So the "why"... well... it's use is so ingrained into our being, and it's effects so wide spread, that it could have effects on many systems including happiness. And it's not as addicting as giving opiates to provoke the dopamine system. Opiates cure depression too technically, but that's generally unwise course of treatment.
 
SSRI's and other "Anti-depressants" that stop or slow down the re-uptake of serotonin do not make anyone happy...

They are Thymoanesthetics...

They dull the sensation of emotion. They are not "happy" but instead "don't matter"... Sometimes nothing matters too much, that people commit very unorthodox types of suicide. (Secluding themselves to where no one can find the body for long periods, etc...)

SSRI's tend to cause very "impassive" type behavior. Users sometimes feel awkward towards their own emotion. So much so, that they are not expressed in some cases.

While they may not be depressed, they become "dull" and "lifeless." Affection is destroyed so much at times where the user often will not respond to very erotic notions from the significant other.

There is simply no good way to be on an anti-depressant... Why be out of tune with your emotions and turn into a complete mess?

Why tamper with such ineffective drugs?
 
Psychedelic Jay said:
They dull the sensation of emotion. They are not "happy" but instead "don't matter"... <snip>

SSRI's tend to cause very "impassive" type behavior. Users sometimes feel awkward towards their own emotion. So much so, that they are not expressed in some cases.

While they may not be depressed, they become "dull" and "lifeless."?
Click to expand...

This is why I quit taking my medication after I graduated from college. I didn't hate my life, but didn't love my life either. I just existed.

I'd rather have the mood swings and rely on self-discipline of the mind to temper my emotions, than using the current psychiatric pharmacological cocktails approved by the FDA.
 
Since taking varying doses of MDAI which is a highly selective serotonin releasing agent and nothing else, I've come as close as reasonably possible to knowing what serotonin specifically feels like on its own. And to be perfectly honest, it's not really what you'd class as 'euphoric'. You feel very tired, very zoned out. I found it made me restless and unable to settle, since your body feels uncomfortable in its own skin. There's the heightened sense of touch that comes with MDMA, but instead of making the body feel like molten gold to touch, I found my skin crawled and left me feeling even weirder/slightly ill.

I suspect dopamine is a rave on its own though. And noradrenaline shots, from what I've been told by a friend who carries an epipen of it in case of severe allergic reactions, most closely resemble the feeling you get when you walk down the stairs and miss a step.
 
I have been on every ssri in the book including Paxil (the worst IME) the one I took for the longest time, it did make me emotionally numb, but when most of your emotions are negative it can be helpful. Paxil was the worst WD I've ever gone through - compared to Opiates (mostly OC), Benzo's, other ssri's and nicotine, 3 straight weeks of vomiting, brain zaps, and an emotional roller coaster. Kratom has been the only thing that will cure my depressive symptoms 100% of the time, and my physical pain without the side effects of ssri's or opiates. Ill stand by kratom forever- its been the best thing for me. I hope to god people dont get out of hand with it and make it become illegal, it has so many medicinal purposes.
 
Psychedelic Jay said:
SSRI's and other "Anti-depressants" that stop or slow down the re-uptake of serotonin do not make anyone happy...

They are Thymoanesthetics...

They dull the sensation of emotion. They are not "happy" but instead "don't matter"... Sometimes nothing matters too much, that people commit very unorthodox types of suicide. (Secluding themselves to where no one can find the body for long periods, etc...)

SSRI's tend to cause very "impassive" type behavior. Users sometimes feel awkward towards their own emotion. So much so, that they are not expressed in some cases.

While they may not be depressed, they become "dull" and "lifeless." Affection is destroyed so much at times where the user often will not respond to very erotic notions from the significant other.

There is simply no good way to be on an anti-depressant... Why be out of tune with your emotions and turn into a complete mess?

Why tamper with such ineffective drugs?
Click to expand...

Exactly the point I'm trying to get at.
 
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