Recruiting [Worldwide] Share Your Story: Research on Living with SSRI Antidepressants

JGarcia-Martinez

JGarcia-Martinez

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Have you ever felt that your personal experience with antidepressants includes an untold story? What aspects of living with this medication do you feel are rarely discussed?

My name is Javier García Martínez, and I am a PhD student researching the lived experiences of people taking SSRI (selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor) antidepressants. You might know them by common brand names like Prozac, Zoloft, Lexapro, Celexa, or Paxil, or by their generic names like Fluoxetine, Sertraline, Escitalopram, Citalopram, or Paroxetine.

Like many of you, I have my own personal history with these medications. It is this lived experience that drives my research. I feel a strong need to explore the everyday realities of life with SSRIs—from the shifts, whether you experienced them or not, in ourselves, our relationships, or the world around us—which are often missing from research, patient information leaflets, and policies.

This study aims to fill that gap. From changes to your body and mind to your social life and beyond, your story matters.

Who can participate?
The only requirement is that you have taken an SSRI antidepressant at some point in your life; past or present.

What would taking part involve?
We will conduct a confidential, one-on-one interview at a time that suits you, using Discord (my Discord username: javier_gm_).
  • You can choose the format you're most comfortable with: text chat, voice call, or video call.
  • The interview will be a conversation about your experiences, from first hearing about SSRIs to any changes you noticed.
  • You are not obligated to answer any question you do not wish to, and you may end the interview at any time.
If you don't have Discord, please email me at [email protected], and we can arrange another way to talk (e.g., Zoom, Teams, etc.).

What are the possible benefits?
By sharing your story, you will be contributing to a deeper, more human understanding of what it means to use SSRIs. We hope this research will help guide better mental health support and inform more patient-centered pharmaceutical policies in the future.

Researcher & Contact Information:
This research is part of my PhD through a joint program between Monash University (Australia) and the University of Warwick (United Kingdom), funded by a Monash-Warwick Alliance Joint PhD Scholarship.

Principal Researcher: Javier García Martínez
Email: [email protected]

Ethics Approval: This study has been approved by the Humanities & Social Sciences Research Ethics Committee (HSSREC) at the University of Warwick (Application Number: HSSREC 51/23-24).

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact me via email.

Thank you for considering this opportunity to share your experience.

Sincerely,
Javier García Martínez
 
Thanks a lot Javier for sharing this research with our community. I think we have many people here who have had experiences with these medications.

We appreciate your attention to detail in compiling this post too, and the sharing of your own lived experience.

Please support Javier if you fit the criteria!
 
JGarcia-Martinez said:
Have you ever felt that your personal experience with antidepressants includes an untold story? What aspects of living with this medication do you feel are rarely discussed?

My name is Javier García Martínez, and I am a PhD student researching the lived experiences of people taking SSRI (selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor) antidepressants. You might know them by common brand names like Prozac, Zoloft, Lexapro, Celexa, or Paxil, or by their generic names like Fluoxetine, Sertraline, Escitalopram, Citalopram, or Paroxetine.

Like many of you, I have my own personal history with these medications. It is this lived experience that drives my research. I feel a strong need to explore the everyday realities of life with SSRIs—from the shifts, whether you experienced them or not, in ourselves, our relationships, or the world around us—which are often missing from research, patient information leaflets, and policies.

This study aims to fill that gap. From changes to your body and mind to your social life and beyond, your story matters.

Who can participate?
The only requirement is that you have taken an SSRI antidepressant at some point in your life; past or present.

What would taking part involve?
We will conduct a confidential, one-on-one interview at a time that suits you, using Discord (my Discord username: javier_gm_).
  • You can choose the format you're most comfortable with: text chat, voice call, or video call.
  • The interview will be a conversation about your experiences, from first hearing about SSRIs to any changes you noticed.
  • You are not obligated to answer any question you do not wish to, and you may end the interview at any time.
If you don't have Discord, please email me at [email protected], and we can arrange another way to talk (e.g., Zoom, Teams, etc.).

What are the possible benefits?
By sharing your story, you will be contributing to a deeper, more human understanding of what it means to use SSRIs. We hope this research will help guide better mental health support and inform more patient-centered pharmaceutical policies in the future.

Researcher & Contact Information:
This research is part of my PhD through a joint program between Monash University (Australia) and the University of Warwick (United Kingdom), funded by a Monash-Warwick Alliance Joint PhD Scholarship.

Principal Researcher: Javier García Martínez
Email: [email protected]

Ethics Approval: This study has been approved by the Humanities & Social Sciences Research Ethics Committee (HSSREC) at the University of Warwick (Application Number: HSSREC 51/23-24).

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact me via email.

Thank you for considering this opportunity to share your experience.

Sincerely,
Javier García Martínez
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Is it okay if I get in touch next week when I have more time?
I've been on [Sertraline] an SSRI for 15 years so I feel like what I have to say could be useful.
 
I think there over prescribed is there real evidence of them helping with anxiety and depression, mine were drug induced and or I would go to a DR for my anxiety and it was also given to me to stop smoking. After paxil and trazadome Seroquel Suboxone and busbar and hydroxyzine I was just a different kind of detached, worse I think bc the way you go through medicade paid rehab and detox is by far one of the biggest crimes against Americans they use us as guinea pigs and especially if like me your from a town with pill money, ppl selling there scripts from a pill mill Dr that ppl drove here from all over the country for apts. Ppl survived ofc of there scripts and the community became addicts on a fast large and collective scale. All these blockers and brain chemical adjuster's are just testing for research of the final one above all the holy Grail the one they can put in the water supply. Brain zaps suck.
 
My story with SSRI's is I was given the maximum dosage for a middle-aged adult of Zoloft when I was 14 for 2 months before finally being taken off of it entirely once my parents realized the doctor's mistake and the result is that a couple years of my memory from that time period is sort of washed out. The good news though, is that at the age of 37, it doesn't matter much to me and doesn't effect me that much. Just, I remember faces but not names, and there are only a small handful of people from that time period whose faces and names I remember outside of family. My grandmother concerningly told my mother to have me taken off of it because apparently I was so messed up I couldn't seem to tie my shoes, weird thing is that I don't even remember that issue, I only know because my mother told me about it later. So after that horrifying experience, yeah, never again with SSRIs.
 
Fluoxetine hit the news big time here in Northeastern BC in the late 90s. Lots of people who were known to be taking them were also killing themselves. I listened for a month or two before going in and asking for my own script. We didn't have much in the way of psychs up here back then, still don't actually. I was referred to what we laughingly called the 'travelling psychs' and had to wait two months before they returned. They came up from Vancouver every two months or so. I had my appointment, but I was refused the medication, and they gave me something I hadn't heard of then, and haven't since either.
Not one to be deterred, I returned to the local and told him what happened. He wrote me up for 20 mg per day for six months. He told me to take one per day at night. So I started off with two. For myself, I found that they made my sleep problems worse, so I changed it to mornings. I've since found out that this varies from person to person. I specifically asked about negative side effects because of what I'd seen and heard on the news. (The Internet was not really a happening thing at that point). I took those meds for the better part of six years without a single problem healthwise. I stayed at 40 mg daily, and it has to be about the only script I never abused. (Unless, of course, I was also an alcoholic and an IV cocaine user at the time). I tend to forget that part.
Those caps really worked for ME at the time; right up until the morning I woke up and wanted nothing more than to rip my own throat out - it was that fast. I never took another since. No taper, nothing, and no negative withdrawal effects either. But please don't let that fool you: by the time I quit those in 2005, I had already been on my newest script, which included seven different Benzos, since September 2000. They cushioned everything.

My biggest issue with Prozac was the lack of warning from my doctor; I'd almost guarantee a lot of those suicides didn't get one either. Also, most of the time I was taking those, I was working out in camps. The moment anyone found out I was taking "Prozac,' the stigma associated with being on them was very, very high.
I never once felt high or in any way stoned from taking them. I felt normal, I felt almost happy, and I never felt depressed.
 
Yeşil ışık yakarız ama kırmızıya sarıyıda takıp hazır ol komutunu veryansın etmeden mısınla kırıttırıp vur kafasına sorunsalıyla sarmaş solaş olmanın ne ertelemekle dertest olunur?
 
KriptonitXxx said:
Yeşil ışık yakarız ama kırmızıya sarıyıda takıp hazır ol komutunu veryansın etmeden mısınla kırıttırıp vur kafasına sorunsalıyla sarmaş solaş olmanın ne ertelemekle dertest olunur?
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While BL respects your culture and language we are traditionally English speaking and feel that you would benefit from translating into English when participating here.
 
Yeşil, sarı, kırmızı ve ayrıca uykudan bile daha iyi olan güzel bir mavi ışık... yeşil ışık... Sanırım demek istediğim, şüpheci bir şekilde, cezbedici olan tarafta yer alan bir algısal gözlemim vardı :P
 
I also had an experience with Prozac. I was given it to try as a migraine preventative in early 2000. I was 23 at the time. I had never in my life been suicidal until I took that drug. I reported having self harming thoughts to my Dr. He doubled my dose. It didn't help. The next time I went in to the office, I ended up seeing a different provider. He told me to stop taking the Prozac. He didn't tell me to ween off of them, just to stop taking them. So I did. I woke up in the ICU 4 days later on a respirator. I had just filled new meds to try for migraines and ended up taking an entire bottle of amitriptyline and another one of propranolol. I was extremely lucky to have someone come check on me at that time. He was in the room when I stopped breathing. I could not even tell you why I took those pills. I didn't want to die. I got no warning about how Prozac could affect me. I got no warning to taper off of them. If that person had not been in the room that day, I would not be here now.
 
It seems like the Prozac was too heavy of a dose for you. I am so glad that you are better. <3

That is a very strong recovery. I hope that you stay strong and aware as you are now.

Hang in there. That was quite a feat. 💞 I am sorry for the sad emoti 🙁 however, you are so fortunate to be alive

after all of that heavy sedation. Truly awful. 💔

rentedbythehour said:
I also had an experience with Prozac. I was given it to try as a migraine preventative in early 2000. I was 23 at the time. I had never in my life been suicidal until I took that drug. I reported having self harming thoughts to my Dr. He doubled my dose. It didn't help. The next time I went in to the office, I ended up seeing a different provider. He told me to stop taking the Prozac. He didn't tell me to ween off of them, just to stop taking them. So I did. I woke up in the ICU 4 days later on a respirator. I had just filled new meds to try for migraines and ended up taking an entire bottle of amitriptyline and another one of propranolol. I was extremely lucky to have someone come check on me at that time. He was in the room when I stopped breathing. I could not even tell you why I took those pills. I didn't want to die. I got no warning about how Prozac could affect me. I got no warning to taper off of them. If that person had not been in the room that day, I would not be here now.
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Coming off of them sucks -- got weird 'brain zaps' for lack of concise wording. In my personal experience they did less to cheer me up than tripping or rolling once every couple of months.

Of course I do not honestly believe I was ever depressed - I think you may need the medication if you don't find the world and position most of us are in a bit bleak.

Actual chemical brain imbalance -- maybe they are indeed a better idea. ( I think like all the doctors agree on that so I will fold my 'they ain't worth it' speech there )
 
notsmokeymcpot42088 said:
Coming off of them sucks -- got weird 'brain zaps' for lack of concise wording. In my personal experience they did less to cheer me up than tripping or rolling once every couple of months.

Of course I do not honestly believe I was ever depressed - I think you may need the medication if you don't find the world and position most of us are in a bit bleak.

Actual chemical brain imbalance -- maybe they are indeed a better idea. ( I think like all the doctors agree on that so I will fold my 'they ain't worth it' speech there )
Click to expand...

lol^3

Curious - the first physical sign that the first dose of citalopram was taking hold was the brain zaps. Preceded briefly by a notably deepened sense of dread than usual - perhaps the latter just the non placebo effect of the imminency of full realization as to what my future might now well hold, as medico-officially acknowledged major depressive and panicked at the far first thresholds of despair by the inordinate pressures of grief, disappointment, and distraction as I was. Causal or just prescient, I can't say even now.

Interesting how 5 minutes into a first appointment this totally unfamiliar doctor was writing a prescription with refills for an SSRI in the early 2010s as part of a totally inadequate response to greater grief and physical pain.

It's astounding that modern qsar/etc methods can reliably yield pharmaceutical agents that have such incredible and progressively and exceedingly receptor-specific pharmacologies.

But in the same way carfentanyl can't cure physical pain, why should it be otherwise for something so exclusively, sub-exclusively even, serotogenic as citalopram as relates to depression or anxiety? Or how about nowadays, even more absurdly and thus to the point, escitalopram?

To say something as complex as pain or mood is the domain of a singular highly-specific process whilst only beginning to guess at how any of it really works is like diagnosing and describing the rarest genetic disorders using an understanding of biology and human biochemistry of a somewhat limited "the exclufive domainf of the fefeveral humourf of the human body, and their fuppofèd functionf, af reported by the most eminent and leaft very often lethal phyficianf of the timef prior to Hippocratef"-sort.

Mono-monoamine hypothesis bullshit, demonstrated thoroughly and rigorously and profoundly as such, yet how many new prescriptions for old or new SSRIs were written in 2025 anyway.

Ah, that dismissal with something as pharmacologically ludicrous as an SSRI - giving something to someone in need of potentially urgent and/or heroic intervention that comes with a "may take 6-8 weeks to start to notice any benefits" disclaimer and a potential inducement to suicide black box.

If it weren't for a singular summer of ample MDMA and a couple chance profound encounters with ketamine and mushrooms in the years intervening, I'd be less certain I'd still be here right now. SSRIs have certainly always worked in the opposite capacity for me, but especially at that first span of exposure.
 
I'm actually allergic to all SSRI's. Each time I try them they make me Hallucinate that's why I can only take TCA's and Remeron for Antidepressants. SSRI's are actually on my allergy warning list.
 
Last edited:
ind33d said:
lol^3

Curious - the first physical sign that the first dose of citalopram was taking hold was the brain zaps. Preceded briefly by a notably deepened sense of dread than usual - perhaps the latter just the non placebo effect of the imminency of full realization as to what my future might now well hold, as medico-officially acknowledged major depressive and panicked at the far first thresholds of despair by the inordinate pressures of grief, disappointment, and distraction as I was. Causal or just prescient, I can't say even now.

Interesting how 5 minutes into a first appointment this totally unfamiliar doctor was writing a prescription with refills for an SSRI in the early 2010s as part of a totally inadequate response to greater grief and physical pain.

It's astounding that modern qsar/etc methods can reliably yield pharmaceutical agents that have such incredible and progressively and exceedingly receptor-specific pharmacologies.

But in the same way carfentanyl can't cure physical pain, why should it be otherwise for something so exclusively, sub-exclusively even, serotogenic as citalopram as relates to depression or anxiety? Or how about nowadays, even more absurdly and thus to the point, escitalopram?

To say something as complex as pain or mood is the domain of a singular highly-specific process whilst only beginning to guess at how any of it really works is like diagnosing and describing the rarest genetic disorders using an understanding of biology and human biochemistry of a somewhat limited "the exclufive domainf of the fefeveral humourf of the human body, and their fuppofèd functionf, af reported by the most eminent and leaft very often lethal phyficianf of the timef prior to Hippocratef"-sort.

Mono-monoamine hypothesis bullshit, demonstrated thoroughly and rigorously and profoundly as such, yet how many new prescriptions for old or new SSRIs were written in 2025 anyway.

Ah, that dismissal with something as pharmacologically ludicrous as an SSRI - giving something to someone in need of potentially urgent and/or heroic intervention that comes with a "may take 6-8 weeks to start to notice any benefits" disclaimer and a potential inducement to suicide black box.

If it weren't for a singular summer of ample MDMA and a couple chance profound encounters with ketamine and mushrooms in the years intervening, I'd be less certain I'd still be here right now. SSRIs have certainly always worked in the opposite capacity for me, but especially at that first span of exposure.
Click to expand...

Lemme keep it a buck -- this was when I was 17 and smoked a ton of pot than got thrown on probation so couldn't sleep--- I was looking for something for sleep/anxiety and not so much depression. That is just a 'barrier' diagnosis if you will.

The world is a depressing place -- I double down on those that don't see that need the medication.

So I do not think I ever needed it -- therefor it did nothing. A trip can offer some much needed life insight (ocassionally) the SSRI's offered me nothing.
 
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