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antidepressants as happy pills

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rhere123456

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Apr 17, 2011
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Does Prozac / fluoxetine elevate mood after prolonged use (after at least one month of regular consumption)? I.e. is it really a ‘happy pill’ it is sometimes called? If there is not much to say about fluoxetine, then I would be equally interested in the psychological effects of other SSRIs, or even any anti-depressants.

More specifically, is there a sustained positive subjective effect that is distinct from lack of negative feelings; and that is not talking about strong euphoria, but weakish yet noticeable pleasant sense of being? Or maybe not an increase in background affect, but greater enjoyability of positive stimuli such as liking music more when on the drug… Obviously, a drug may be ‘cure’ or ‘poison’ depending on dose, and here I am primarily asking about clinical doses, rather than say insufflating / snorting high doses for recreational effects.

Here is what I have found so far, suggesting that there may only be transient / inconsistent positive mood effects?

"There was no significant change in visual analogue mood scale scores over the course of the trial (table 1). Four subjects deviated by more than two standard deviations at specific time points but inconsistently." "Fifteen healthy volunteers received placebo for 2 weeks; fluoxetine, 10 mg/day, for 1 week; fluoxetine, 20 mg/day, for 5 weeks; and then an additional 2 weeks of placebo in the context of a single-blind study."
http://ajp.psychiatryonline.org/cgi/content/abstract/155/2/290

"Week 3: The mood effects are comming in full swing. I feel like my brain is inside a warm fuzzy blanket - a bit like an extended E trip. " "Week 4: Concentration returns nearly all the way but doing homework still takes longer. The intial warm fuzzy high of the Prozac also sadly wore off."
http://www.erowid.org/experiences/exp.php?ID=46356

“brighten the episodically ‘down’ moods of those who are not clinically depressed, without causing euphoria or the side effects that have accompanied the mood elevators of abuse. Fluoxetine is a significant step in that direction, he argued […]”
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/1788369
 
Prozac stopped helping me 2 weeks after I started taking it. Even upping the dosage didn't help much. After that it didn't really help at all and I was stuck with some lousy side-effects. It wasn't even great to start with. Honestly the only anti-depressant with somewhat of a euphoric feeling is Wellbutrin. Taking a few of those gives you an amphetamine-like high.
 
Even opiates aren't happy pills... you can feel euphoric on a bunch of percocets, but do you feel "happy"? Not really... that's not happiness, IMO. Happiness is more or less contentment... not wanting and not fearing.
 
Dedbeet I beg to differ, opiates bring you to the point of euphoria, which is exaggerated happiness. It's happiness to the point where it's almost impossible to achieve without drugs.
 
thanks for the replies!

maybe i should have not used the word 'happiness' as it is a very broad multi-meaning concept.. I didnt mean contentment by it in this case, more like sustainable positive emotion or pleasant mood.

in the case of Wellbutrin / buproprion, do you know if the pleasant mood effect lasts for more than a few weeks after starting?
 
Do you happen to know if the effect with Prozac lasted? i.e. was what i presume to be a positive mood effect still noticeable after a month?

thanks!
 
This certainly isn't appropriate for OD. Let's try it in HL and if the HL mods would like to try it elsewhere, feel free.

OD>>>HL
 
HeroInMyVeins said:
Dedbeet I beg to differ, opiates bring you to the point of euphoria, which is exaggerated happiness. It's happiness to the point where it's almost impossible to achieve without drugs.
Click to expand...
Fwiw, I'm just saying i don't define happiness to be pleasure, not that there's something wrong with pleasure. To me happiness is something lasting, not something that comes and goes. You can't get it from a pill. Nothing wrong with what you can get from a pill tho... it just isn't lasting happiness.
 
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I am on Zoloft 100 mg. I started off with 50 mg, then 75, now currently at 100. My doctor tells me that this achieves exactly what you are describing. More of a positive outlook and what not. I still have yet to experience this as I became negative after years of chronic weed smoking and separation from many aspects of life. He explains that everyone has "there magical dose" and that I will know when I achieve it as I will be more positive and happy. I have been Zoloft for about 2-3 months now and still have yet to experience this. Every time I go back to the doctor, my script is upped 25 mg and NOTHING. This is why I still abuse Xanax and benzos because it puts a disguise on the negativity and makes me feel euphoric and positive. I do hope to achieve that positivity and "happy" feeling with the Zoloft as I will not abuse benzos any longer.
 
The only AD that I would say actually has a "euphoric push" would be tianeptine (not prescribed in the U.S.) although long term use I do not think it retains all of it's efficacy; buproprion (Wellbutrin) is almost there, but not really, but it is a pretty decent AD, I take it. My advice would be to avoid SSRI's like the plague, they are the ne plus ultra of pharmaceutical companies marketing questionable and potentially deleterious drugs.
 
Happiness is fine but its momentary
A momentary lapse of reality
Reality is fine, but for the moment it can wait
I'm addicted to the chase of my Happiness
 
I remembered my psychology teacher saying Prozac only takes the edge off from depression, allowing you to carry on with your daily life. but it doesn't make you happy like the way opiates does.

for example I used to know this girl in my high school who was very depressed, she never talked to anybody, she would wear the same thing every single day. we once had a project With her, she wouldn't even reply to us. the next year she was put on Prozac, and she started talking to people , and she started dressing better. and she was no longer all spaced out when we look at her..
she didn't become the life of the party, but her symptoms did improve a little bit..

I have heard some people say that after a month Prozac stops working.
but I also know people who have been on it for years. I am guessing for everyone its different, or maybe for the people who have been on it for a long time, it's just a placebo effect, or they are just following their doctor's orders, thinking if the doctor has prescribed it I have to take it.

I remember my friend who took it for a long time, said it's only helping her a little bit, iv heard if you stop taking them you actually feel worse than before


but I have also read articles which states Prozac is nothing more than a placebo.
 
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when I was on prozac my mood felt better

but then I found it difficult to get an erection and ejaculate..... this made me sad

so prozac flopped it as an anti depressant

Im currently on Mirtazapine 15mg didnt help, 30mg helped a little still severely depressed though so now im going to try 45mg see if that helps.

Personally I have known people who have been on anti depressants for years and years and they are still depressed.

Its all in the mind at the end of the day, what ever you put in your mind (negative thoughts = negative mood= depression) happy thoughts= happy mood= peace of mind.

Who knows the secret to happiness all I know is negative thinking is the route of all destruction and the mind is the most powerful thing in the world and its down to you to navigate your mind into a better place.
 
If one is in a major depressive episode, Prozac or another SSRI/SNRI/NRI/etc can absolutely make their mood better for a decent period of time (IE months or longer). If someone has minor depression, I doubt it will do much, but for me when an anti-depressant works I can definitely feel it improving my mood, since otherwise my mood is really, really shitty. So it might be more subtle for someone without somewhat serious depression... IMO they are certainly not 'happy pills' but sometimes I'll realize that I'm not thinking of suicide constantly and that my mood is better even if it's still pretty crappy.

When I first started taking bupropion/wellbutrin I thought I was having a manic episode. Turns out I just had a 'normal' amount of energy after years of close to none. In other words, for me at least, when an anti-depressant works it helps me get rid of negative shit more than actually contributing anything positive in and of itself.
 
They can give you mania/hypomania, but not the pleasant kind. On top of that, they make you emotionally detached, so it feels like your cognition is disconnected from your actions and emotions, and you feel like a passenger in your own brain. Can you see why there's so many SSRI suicide scare stories? There's a reason for that.
 
the only "happy" I got from any antidepressant was a false happy, I felt like a zombie stuck on shitfacedgrinhappy, and I knew it wasn't me. I couldn't stand the feeling that I was being altered by some shitty chemical that made me unable to feel emotions other than OMGHAIIMHAPPY, so I quit taking them. Years ago.
 
Dedbeet said:
Even opiates aren't happy pills... you can feel euphoric on a bunch of percocets, but do you feel "happy"? Not really... that's not happiness, IMO. Happiness is more or less contentment... not wanting and not fearing.
Click to expand...

QFT opiates are THE DEFINITION of "happy pills".
 
i currently take 10mg. of Lexapro daily for OCD/GAD (i have also been diagnosed MDD but it doesn't flare up all that often; 4 times in my life). i have taken it for a little over 8 years now. i never experience/d any sort of "happy pill" sort of thing. for me, it reduces the severity of my OCD/GAD symptoms from about 6.5/10 to about 2/10 thus making my OCD/GAD much-much more manageable. it's also does a phenomenal job of preventing anxiety spikes and such. in my case, i haven't experienced any noticeable positive subjective effects. Lexapro pretty much just pulls the anxiety disorder thorn out of my side; eliminates the negative feelings but does not directly produce any positive feelings. switching gears a little, over the past 2 years i have taken 2 breaks from Lexapro to pretty much see if i still needed it. they consisted of 5 months and 3 months. although i ended up back on Lexapro, it was a good experience as i got to see/remember what life was like without it for a while. mostly, the only psychological effect of being on Lexapro (that isn't symptom related) is a slight muting of the full spectrum of my emotions. happiness, anger, fear, sadness, joy, etc.; most of the time i sense i am not feeling them to their full capacity. a pretty common side effect with SSRIs and, it would seem, among posters in this thread. other than that, all the same.
 
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