Antidepressants and your intuition.

Anyankah

Fudugazi said:
I'm surprised to see this thread become a "meds vs therapy" or a "meds and therapy" thread

How come no one has mentioned tarot? Tarot can be a way of learning about oneself, of grounding, and another things helpful to emotional health...

Fudugazi said:
I find it chilling to read things like - "they have negative side-effects while you adjust to them"

I wonder how chilling you would find descriptions of what depression is like...
 

Sophie

Anyankah said:
I wonder how chilling you would find descriptions of what depression is like...
I don't need a description. Depression has visited my life too, and it is chilling, numbing and very painful. What disturbs me is the assumption that without long-term meds (or any meds), depression cannot be overcome. For many people, it can - only they need the information.
 

StellarMyst

Intuition ect...

Hi,

I hope this helps, but I have gone through many years of changing my Depression meds because they were making me sick and/or not working. In the middle of all this I found that some of them increased (not sure how) my sensitivity to being able to tune in to things, and others suppressed this. I felt like I was being intentionally drugged-out all the time. Give some thought to any other aspects of the drug: other side-effects and such... sometimes I find that if this is the only problem, I can research certain herbs and spices that I'd be able to incorporate into my diet. This helped for me, but only when I was not on a heavy drug.

I hope you are able to get things where they need to be.

Yours,

StellarMyst
 

Anyankah

Fudugazi said:
I don't need a description. Depression has visited my life too, and it is chilling, numbing and very painful. What disturbs me is the assumption that without long-term meds (or any meds), depression cannot be overcome. For many people, it can - only they need the information.

I hope that I didn't give the impression that I thought that. I don't. I only think that for some people at some times it is the best option available, and those people should not be scared away from them by people who think they know the answers for everyone. I also think that they are never the whole solution, they are very wrong for some people, and they should never be taken lightly.
 

StellarMyst

Anyankah said:
How come no one has mentioned tarot? Tarot can be a way of learning about oneself, of grounding, and another things helpful to emotional health...

Good one! I had not thought of this and yet I usually think to go after a herbal change-up which usually works for me. I have a feeling that it will work wonders for anyone stuck in the rut in question :) !

There's a 9-card body mind spirit spread that is on this site (posted by: Trogon; Spread Name: 9-card combined spread) that shows the reader PPF of body mind and spirit issues. This might help to start with....?

StellarMyst
 

Sophie

Anyankah said:
I also think that they are never the whole solution, they are very wrong for some people, and they should never be taken lightly.
I agree. As I said in my first post, they should be the last, not the first, resort. But sometimes, they are right.

As for tarot helping depression - I think it depends on how we approach tarot, and at what stage of depression we are at. Once we have begun to heal, Tarot can help. But before that, we either might be too lethargic, or too confused, or too panicky, or sometimes even too despairing, to be able to read tarot in any coherent or useful way. That's also when intuition is all over the place too - during an acute phase of depression.

Perhaps, though, picking one tarot card and staying with it - as a kind of talisman or focus for healing - can help? Temperance or The Star are two cards that can be very helpful in those stages of depressive pain.
 

Miren

sharpchick said:
During the times when I've needed my antidepressants, they have actually helped me. One of the worst initial symptoms of my depression is not being able to order my thoughts - thoughts tumble over one another and I can't concentrate at all.

So for me, it helped.

Indeed. Lots of dangerous thought flying around my head. Oh...my memory of those days is painful.

I agree, bigcaat. Therapy is essential. I was in therapy for a bit before they decided to use medication too. And even now I still see a psychologist periodically. She's taught me a lot of self-care, which is great, so as long as I do it I only have to report in once a month. And my fiance helps me do it. Fortunately, too, I know enough to know that I should go to her if things start to feel really really bad. (now, this isn't Freudian therapy or Jungian, it's cognitive behavioral therapy. I don't know how well the others work, if at all. the goal of this one is that the client become self-sufficient).

One thing which helps with self-care is David Burns's book Feeling Good, which is a part of the cognitive therapy method. We worked through it this fall and I think it helps me way more than the meds. Or even than going to see her. It's actually similar to some things I've found in Buddhism. Not identical, but I do know a Buddhist psychologist who uses cognitive therapy and mindfulness. They work well together. As does Tarot, or some ways of reading Tarot. I find it quite comforting, actually.
 

*morwenna*

Thankyou for your advice & opinions.

Thankyou for all the replies, I have been unable to get to the internet for a few days. I mainly started this thread as I have been depressed in the past however now I am pretty much stable in that sense. I have done some courses on depression so I am all equipped with dealing with my depression early with non drug methods ( meditation, breathing, moving, having a schedule etc). I am fairly confident I can stop my meds safely now I am more aware and know what to do. I have found for me personally that when I do not take my meds I can tune in a lot to others around me, I get feelings of knowing etc. I thought perhaps practicing tarot would help me to direct those feelings of intuition in a positive way as opposed to negatively, letting it get to you etc. I feel like I can finally be who I really am instead of relying on medication for the rest of my life, and I now know how to keep it balanced in a sense.
 

Miren

It's great that you can have that kind of confidence! :) The work you've put into it is paying off.

I'm really happy for you. Just remember to touch base with someone, even just a good friend, about your mental state in case things ever slip back a bit. But it sounds like you're in a better place.
 

sharpchick

And if you are going to stop taking your medication, please do it under the direction of your doctor who prescribed it. Abruptly stopping some of these drugs can make you feel as bad as you were before you started them.