Antidepressants and your intuition.

If you need to take antidepressants and feel it is interfereing with your intuition... don't stop taking your medication. But do talk to your doctor about it, because intuition and good judgement go hand in hand, so you might bring up your concerns that the medication might interfere with your ability to make sound judgements (rather than telling him it's messing with your ability to read tarot)

If you need antidepressants, they can make your life better. They work best in combination with counseling with a live human being who is a trained counselor.

I found that the intuition came back after a few months, and it is better than it was before. Some antidepressants can lead to more vivid and memorable dreaming, which can be an additional event for receiving information, so I would recommend starting a dream journal to take advantge of that.

Alissa said:

When you medicate your emotions to a flat line and live that way consistently in your life, you're removing all emotional feedback that comes from your soul. That includes intuition, empathic awareness, and in the worst cases, it removes compassion from the drug-taker (they feel "nothing").

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I've been on Prozac, Zoloft and Effexor (which is a SNRI rather than an SSRI) all had that effect on me. I was a zombie, especially on the Zoloft, and I hurt and caused a lot of worry to people who mean a great deal to me.

I would never say they didn't help at all, but I felt a lot of guilt after the effects had worn off and I'm lucky some of my friends will still have anything to do with me.

I think I've also been lucky in that so far I've managed to avoid needing to take them again by making changes in my life- when I felt I was headed that way again because of my work situation I was able to discuss it with my boyfriend and quit my job without finding another one first. Turned out to be one of the best things I ever did & I now work for a mental health charity in a job I love.

All just my opinion. I would never advise anyone not to take them because of my experience, and I recognise that they really help some people. Unfortunately mental health services are generally under-funded in the UK and prescribing anti-depressants is the easy option.

*morwenna* said:

I am just wondering if anyone has found that their intuition is a lot better when not taking antidepressents.

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I can't tell that there is a difference in my intuition. I still have intuition and I still read tarot cards. I've been on an anti-depressant since November. I will be going back to the doctor near the six month mark to see if I should continue taking them or not. For 3 or 4 times, I also went to a therapist that my doctor recommended.

My doctor did mention that it might give me more dreams. I can't really tell. I know I had dreams before and I am still having dreams while on the anti-depressant, too.

I have chronic episodic depression. I've had these bouts run for as a few months to as long as 2+ years. I've been on antidepresant therapy several times.

From my personal experience, the meds DO affect intuitive abilities, the stronger the dose, the bigger the effect. This is especially true when transitioning on or off them. Depression itself can also affect one's intuition from drasticlly enhancing it to a complete shut down.


LadyMedusa

Quite frankly, the prescription medication business/drug cartel doesn't want you to find any other ways to deal with these issues either. It doesn't pad their pocket if you find alternative ways to deal with personal chemical imbalances besides taking their medication every day of your life.

They (the drug companies) also don't bother much with telling you about long term effects on your body (like your liver in particular).

I absolutely hated being on antidepressants for the short while I was on them - the one and only time in my life - last September. But in that instance, I know that I could not have done otherwise. I was disappearing - physically, mentally and emotionally. A month on anti-depressants gave me some breathing space and the opportunity to step back and start eating again too. But they made me dizzy, and they gave me a totally detached flat feeling. So I discussed it with my doctor and as soon as possible (after a month), I went onto St John's Wort. I did feel a dip for about a week - cried a lot, was not very useful - then things evened out and I've not looked back. Currently on half-doses of St John's Wort and will be coming off them.

I would say that anti-depressants should really be the last stop. They are useful at certain times for certain people. Unfortunately, they are all too often the first stop, and there is no doubt strong economic incentive for that (as Alissa alludes to above).

I believe it does affect our intuition - it affects anything to do with our brain. It affects imagination and empathy too, not to mention memory. But there are times when the crash is so great that intuition is affected badly anyway. If you use anti-depressants as the last resort, and for a specific time, to give yourself the necessary lift in order to sort out your life and make a fresh start, then good. If it becomes habitual (I've heard of people on Prozac for a year, two years, five years ), then I believe you are being abused.

This is separate, of course, from discussions of bipolar (manic depressive) conditions, which unfortunately generally necessitate chemical balancing with drugs.

Alissa said:

Quite frankly, the prescription medication business/drug cartel doesn't want you to find any other ways to deal with these issues either. It doesn't pad their pocket if you find alternative ways to deal with personal chemical imbalances besides taking their medication every day of your life.

They (the drug companies) also don't bother much with telling you about long term effects on your body (like your liver in particular).

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Isn't it a scary notion to think that depression is becoming like diabetes and antidepressants are becoming like insulin... just another lifestyle disease to biochemically manage on a lifelong basis.

i think this is an important and beautiful topic, morwenna.

it wasn't so long ago that people felt reluctant to talk about the issue of depression, which increased the toll of this terrible disease. i think it's amazing everyone here shares so positively!

my mother has been bi-polar all her life. she is a very artistic person: writing, watercolors, collages, etc. in the mid-70s she was finally diagnosed and then the treatment options were mostly all bad.

the drugs then were really nearly as debilitating as the disease itself, but she continued teaching in the local school as best she could.

nowadays, the treatments are better, altho' she had to try many different medicines at a wide range of doses to find what worked. that was hard and time-consuming.

treatment for this is very individual. and i agree you need to ensure you get therapy and not just drugs.

with this context, let me say that my mother's intuition and judgement were largely ruined when she was ill or the treatment wasn't working for her yet. she believed she was great, she would say she felt great, that she had great insight -- when she was manic -- but of course objectively she wasn't. the disease was fooling her.

only when after a long, sad time and the medicine and therapy had begun to work for her did her real intuition and judgement return. and so this is my reply to your question morwenna.

sadly sometimes you have to work very hard to make sure the doctors -- if you are female -- pay adequate attention to you. if the medicine makes you feel weird or numb or something and not "better," then please work or get a friend of loved one to work to make sure the doctors change your treatment to help you feel right. this can take months sometimes.

but i think once a person is "better," then they will find their "real" self again and their "real" intuition. at least it has been so with my mother's example.

i hope this helps you.

frelkins said:

if the medicine makes you feel weird or numb or something

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I'd like to add "in the long run" to this. Some of the side effects of anti-depressants are temporary while you adjust to them. For a little while before it started working right, zoloft made me completely apathetic. After that it had the effect of changing my default state to a fairly normal one. I took it for two years, which was a little longer than it took me to figure out what the underlying issues were (therapists were useless with this for me, though they are helpful to many other people so I won't advise against them, just suggest that if they're not helping don't stop looking for things that are.) What matters is that you are looking for better solutions, not the length of time that you happen to take it. I think that it was the right thing for me.