Jim Carrey: Depression Expert

[TheDaver]

Meanwhile, Carrey's girlfriend Jenny McCarthy is claiming that she's using vitamins to treat her son's autism.

That's it, I think they've joined the “Church” Of Scientology.

 

[orpheus]

I've taken Effexor for probably 8 years now. The quality of my life has vastly improved because of it. I've had bouts of depression since early childhood. Now, I don't break down crying uncontrollably on Monday mornings or have unexplained anxiety attacks for no reason. I've tried weaning myself off Effexor a few times, and I get the same symptoms back.

Effexor may be "dangerous" if improperly prescribed, but it has literally saved my life.

And for me Effexor did nothing much. A combination of Lamictal and Cymbalta does the trick for me. Which goes to show that sweeping statements about antidepressants are to be taken with a huge grain of salt. The science of psychopharmacology (at least with regard to depression) is still in its infancy, and is more of an art at this point. Finding the right med or combination of meds can take a while, and it helps to have an experienced, expert psychopharmacologist.

 

[luchog]

And for me Effexor did nothing much. A combination of Lamictal and Cymbalta does the trick for me. Which goes to show that sweeping statements about antidepressants are to be taken with a huge grain of salt. The science of psychopharmacology (at least with regard to depression) is still in its infancy, and is more of an art at this point. Finding the right med or combination of meds can take a while, and it helps to have an experienced, expert psychopharmacologist.

Effexor gave me a particularly bad reaction, but nothing I couldn't easily recover from when I quit.

In about 5 years of searching, not a single doctor has managed to figure out exactly what's wrong with me, or even come up with a reasonable short-term palliative.

Of course, that's not nearly as bad a track record as it looks. My parents were religious adherents to alternative medicine, and all the medical woo in the world couldn't come up with anything even remotely effective after nearly 20 years of "treatment". In fact, I have good reason to believe that all that "alternative" medical crap may even have exacerbated some of my problems. It certainly left a lot of others (such as my Asperger's) undiagnosed until I was an adult.