When you're on antidepressants do u feel emotions normally?

When you're on antidepressant medication, do you feel your emotions as you would naturally or normally? Or do they feel any different in some way?

Speaking generally, the idea of an antidepressant is that it should make a person feel less depressed, so if it doesn't change how you feel then it wouldn't be working...

I can't speak to other people's experiences of taking antidepressants but in my experience, they made me feel the depression less extremely. So I felt like lows were less low. This made it harder for me to identify my emotions generally because it seemed like everything was a bit more "muted". For me personally, this made it harder to do my therapy because I couldn't work out as easily what I was feeling because emotions seemed a bit less extreme. Eventually after 7 years I came off of them.

What has spurred your question? Are you considering taking antidepressants?

it depends on the medication your given,

some are designed to activate various receptors to make you feel giddy
others are designed to turn down diferant receptors to make you less effected by various hormones

then there are meds designed as supplements, to increase dopamine,serratonin
or other hormone/brain chemistry levels

so, no, they are intended to alter your mood, therefore you should be in a differant state of mind
however, the emotions you feel and express, should in theory be the same as if you were
naturally in the state the meds place you in.

jenna1997 wrote:When you're on antidepressant medication, do you feel your emotions as you would naturally or normally? Or do they feel any different in some way?

They make me feel numb which isn't much different from my usual state of depression (anhedonia)

If you have email notification and see this, Jenna, how have they done for you?

Yes. My emotions on or off meds have been moving in waves or bouts/surges. I'm calm and feel safe for a long stretch, then I wind up like a clock and go nuts.

This is an old thread, but a very good question. My way of fixing things wasn't working, so I entered detox and rehab to 'break the chains' and learn new coping skills.
It was intensive therapy at first and trying different meds to find one that worked the best. I was inpatient for 60 days, so I was off the streets and in a controlled, safe setting.

It would be irresponsible for me to give a yes or no answer to this question as we are all different and react to different meds, stimuli and therapies differently.
Some don't react favorably to chemicals and they may try alternatives like ECT with success. I asked my doctor about hypnotism and acupuncture, but those are questions outside of the medical realm and she was not qualified to give an answer. I respected that.

I began on Buspar and Imipramine about 30 years ago. I am on Sertraline (Zoloft) now. Attending therapy while undergoing medication is very important. You can't just take a pill and hope for a better place.
Monitoring moods and adjusting meds is part of the therapist/doctor job. I was asked if I felt any desire to self-harm or harm others at every session. I didn't, but I think they have to ask that if it is listed as a possible side-effect of the med. There are so many different meds nowadays, the suffering must have been horrible in the old days without them. You would just be locked away in some (in)sanatorium somewhere and the family would try to forget about you.

I didn't notice a change in myself as much as those around me did. It was heartening that they saw and heard an improvement, where I really didn't feel much different.
The Zoloft keeps the incessant self-chatter inside my head to a minimum. This helps me to focus and concentrate on what I need to do. I still write myself lists on priorities and keep it with me. I cross them off as they get done and transfer some to a new list as the paper wears out.
Before, I was all over the map and clueless on what I had to do next.

It takes time, but it should get better. Dreams may be intense at first, but I was told to think of it as my brain getting better. I didn't remember or care about dreams much before. It was as if I didn't even have dreams.

Best of luck to you.

Wally58 wrote:Dreams may be intense at first, but I was told to think of it as my brain getting better. I didn't remember or care about dreams much before. It was as if I didn't even have dreams.

I'm not actually sleeping more because I keep terrible sleep habits, but I notice taking half a Trazodone when I do drag my sorry self to bed, that I wake up with more um... realisation that I've been dreaming right before waking.

I don't remember the dreams but I know I have been. Also if I do manage over six hours I'm not even waking up to go pee.

Well I'm kinda curious as to what, if anything, Lexapro is going to do for me. Or to me.

Wally58 wrote:I was asked if I felt any desire to self-harm or harm others at every session. I didn't, but I think they have to ask that if it is listed as a possible side-effect of the med.

I was asked when I was prescribed the Lexapro and the doctor said by law he had to ask. I left the Harm OCD/OCD-typical suicide ideation out of it and just said 'no'. He's a GP and an older guy he seemed to know his stuff but as far as OCD goes I don't know that I trust talking that kinda stuff unless I know someone knows a lot about it. It's like with Harm OCD I get intrusive thoughts of harming myself or others free with my breakfast cereal. Pretty sure if I haven't killed myself or someone else after over forty years of that crap, I'm not going to. I mean when I was eleven I was convinced I was going to shoot my cat and drink transmission fluid, in that order, because my brain was screaming at me to do it. Didn't do it. I was probably 50 before I finally figured out hey my thoughts have never made me do something I don't really wanna do, how 'bout that!

So I answered, 'certainly not'.

The chances of wanting to do harm is infinitesimal. Those that have this problem probably have other issues going on as well. Like I said, we are all different. Depression and anxiety can't be cured, but we can hope to manage it.
I was assured that BuSpar and imipramine had been around since the 1950's and I was on a mild dose. If I wanted to take more than prescribed or attempt an overdose, it would likely be unsuccessful. The chemical takes a while to build up in the system and takes a while to leave. There is little danger of the 'instant gratification' that makes some drugs very addictive.
You have to realize that about 11% of the U.S. population is taking antidepressants and a very small fraction have any noteworthy problems with it. I had dry mouth as a side-effect. The statistics are on Google. Many of the meds used to treat depression are also used to treat anxiety. It is almost if one is the flip-side of the other.
Due to liability, doctors must ask this. Lawyers would love to go after entities with money.
It is prudent to ask as well, I would feel awful if someone snapped while under my care. The doctor has to recognize a problem and hopefully prevent it for the sake of the profession, the pharmaceutical industry, the patient and the family.

Well the drug literature talks about thoughts increasing in children and young adults, and I'm like, 'well I'm too old for that crap then', although I'll be very observant for any adverse changes