/lit/ - Literature

>>16567046
nope

>>16567046
I just finished my first week of lexapro
I think it makes me drowsy, but I take it at night so whatever
so far no discernible difference in quality of life, but effects are expected within 4-6 weeks so I'm still very hopeful

>healthier

Ehhhhhhhh

>>16567105
Gf says lexapro worked miracles for her anon, good luck.

>>16567046
>Some great writers were alcoholics
>Therefore if I drink (or do drugs) I can pretend to be a great writer

>>16567046
the modern replacement is antidepressants AND alcohol
it isn't healthier though

>>16567046
I make a living writing novels and I take Prozac and Xanax daily, I write my best when I have a mental breakdown from going cold turkey on these meds (which I do once a month) I suffer seizures and extreme terror and spend an entire week awake writing like a mad man. My wife knows to leave me alone during this period. That's when I turn into a Chinese Nike writing sweatshop and write 10k words a day.

I then go back to my meds, that's when my depression and anxiety dissolve and I begin the dull editing process alongside my editors...

>>16567188
Are you lying on the internet anon? Aren't there like 100 people in the world currently making a living as novelists?

But that sounds really brutal man, do you think you can sustain that without it blowing up in your face?

>>16567240
There are far more than a hundred novelists who are able to support themselves. You don’t have to be known by everybody on the street to make decent money

>>16567046
> "depression"
Holy cow you are one dumb cuckold.

Fuck SSRIs but I am pro other meds as long as you don't take as diagnosed and put it to your own purposes. I skip 1-2 days between doses of my pregablin and on those days I'm using it's a huge boost to my writing and reading.

I took sertraline/zoloft 100mg for a few months before, and it completely kills your libido, and you will never be in a creative mood.
I was writing less back then, and was more into music production - electronic stuff, etc and I couldn't get in the right mind frame to do anything.
So the original reason I took it was because of panic attacks about death and the passage of time and all sorts of things that were crippling my day to day life - it stops those thoughts, but it also stopped any creative/sexual flow, which led to depression more than anxiety ironically.
I really doubt you could write with this in your system.

Oh and I kicked them after CBT, and never have gone back to drugs for anything since.

>>16567495
Pregabalin is great stuff in high dosis, I felt like I was writing faster than I could think.
It damages your stomach though and tapering off is a terrible long process. I started drinking to mute the withdrawal symptoms.

I'm glad I quit everything, though. Drugs are bad desu. I do drink a lot of coffee now when I write though.

>>16567046
Gonna ask this, but with Xanax and Amitriptyline

>>16567519

Yeah I've never taken longer than three days at a time so never seen the therapeutic side of it. But man do I feel it when I stop after two weeks of using every other day or so. I usually have to go into hyper self improvement mode and do a ton of exercise and taking supplements to get my shit unfucked which takes around a week or two. There's a dangerous level of perversity in the enjoyment of this process. Going from highs to crushing lows over and over for years. I'm 28 now though so I need to start cutting everything out I've done so many different drugs at this point its not funny and I worry about long term damage.

If you take benzodiazepines or SSRI's you're a literal fucking brainlet.

>>16567046
Antidepressants are 80%+ placebo. A psychiatrist even told me this.

>>16567647
How can something be a percentage of a placebo? It even is, or isn't.

>>16567712
Sorry i formulated it badly. 80%+ of the effect of antidepessants is caused by placebo effect. So less than 20% of the effect is caused by the actual substance.

I pop a lorazepam whenever the spooks get too real, but I don't take my zoloft/abilify because I don't like being fundamentally reshaped by zogg drugs that do nothing to solve the root of the issue anyway.

But sometimes holding a whole chicken feels distinctly like holding a child's corpse and... you gotta pop the lorazepam

>>16567046
Nope it has to be alcohol

>>16567128
The great writers were merely pretending too

They just pretended in a way that others enjoyed

>>16567046
If you take meds you're a fucking idiot

>>16567046
>Are antidepressants a modern, healthier replacement to this
No but barbiturates are

>>16567046
NO
categorically no, absolutely fuck no, DO NOT touch SSRIs with a fucking barge pole, that shit is POISON, I reacted negatively to citalopram, and instead of using their fucking brains and listening to my requests for further assessment and consideration of other medications, the psychs put me on sertraline.
They caused PERMANENT DAMAGE to me. I wasn't quite right in the head for years before the SSRIs, but SSRIs caused me to drop out of college, triggered earlier onset of tourette's, and left me with pervasive and life disrupting panic disorder which means I'm now completely NEET and on disability welfare.
Maybe that sounds good to you, freeloading off the taxpayer with plenty of time to dedicate to your "art", but it's NOT healthy, they ruined my fucking life.
Like others have said, if you can't write for shit off drugs, they aren't going to help you. But if you really want to augment yourself with substances, from personal experience:
1) Alcohol is shit tier. If you drink only enough to get a light buzz, it's a motivation killer. If you drink a whole bottle of vodka, you might get your second wind and write heaps in your drunken state, but the next morning when you wake up feeling rough and read over what you read, most of it will be shit.
2) Weed is also a motivation killer and I wouldn't smoke the stuff before a writing session, but generally I found it helped as a stress relief valve and allowed me to be more focused and productive when sober.
3) Tobacco is a shit tier drug. You deal with bad breath and an increased cancer risk for hardly any gain, but as a lot of pseuds on here will tell you, it's the classic writers' choice (they'll post a bunch of photos of some of the most notable authors with a pipe).
4) A small amount of psilocybe mushrooms no more than once a week works wonders for your creativity while you're on them. They're fucking amazing.

BUT DON'T TOUCH SSRIs

>>16567240
There are probably more than 100 active novelists who are millionaires.

>>16567967
102 to be precise

>>16567647
Kek, you post this in every fucking thread. But the info is basically true. It's 50% placebo, 25% random improvement, 25% actual specific effects of the drug.

>>16567957
Yeah I'm this guy >>16567795
and I should mention that long term use of either abilify or Zoloft(not sure which) has given me a permanent twitch in my right eyelid that has worsened over time. I'm still depressed, I'm still alone, I'm still unable to hold a conversation with a stranger without the world around me going full alice in wonderland.... But now I have a twitch that won't ever go away unless I get a prescription for it.

Don't bother with this shit unless you have seriously debilitating mental health issues, and not just "im gonna kill myself aaaaaaahhh".

Have you guys tried just fucking getting over it?

Unmedicated schizophrenia here, going strong

>>16567046
Antidepressants are the closest thing to literal brainwashing technologies that we've come up in modern times. Don't take them. They turn you into a mindless drone(although experientially you might feel quite the opposite)

>>16567986
I had non-pervasive motor tics from about the age of 10-13, that's usual for people with tourette's, but it usually comes out full force due to stressful life events, which is why so many middle aged guys suddenly develop it if they have trouble with employment, if their wives divorce them and claim custody over their kids etc. I went from mild motor tics to more severe full body motor ticks, verbal tics, the lot.

>>16567647
Most psychiatrists are full of shit. I told you this.
Apart from the aforementioned episodes of multiple psychiatrists just blanking me and ignoring my requests for more thorough assessment before putting me on more SSRIs without even knowing what they were treating, I had another psychiatrist patronise me for self medding with buspirone and tianeptine, neither of which he'd heard about and phoned his assistant to do a contraindication check, his assistant told him both were serotonergic, he admonished me for risking serotonin syndrome. I'm not a fucking retard, I know what causes serotonin syndrome and tianeptine ain't it, cause it clears out excess serotonin from the synapses. plus both drugs have an extremely short half life, requiring multiple daily doses, so if I were gonna develop serotonin syndrome it would've happened a lot sooner. I had another psychiatrist try to screen me for borderline PD, and when I told her no, I'm not borderline I'm anankastic, she looked up the diagnosis criteria in front of me and a trainee, on fucking wikipedia. I had to find a private psych who would prescribe me drugs I'd researched for myself (ropinirole and buspirone) to fix some of the damage the SSRIs did to me and lo and behold, half a year on them cut out the rapid cycling depression they left me with, stabilised me, and allowed me to live with some semblance of normalcy.
What the fuck are their medical degrees worth if some NEET can hit up PubMed, youtube and diagnostic manuals, and can assess their own medical history to determine contraindications, and do a better job than the professionals?
Most psychiatrists are fucking clueless cunts and bullshit merchants.

I am a coffee and beer addict. I need help bros.

I am on the caffeine and alcohol train.

>>16567046
Alcohol is a naturally occurring toxin, benzodiazepines are not

Eat opium nigga

>>16567105
Imagine taking jewish drugs and calling yourself a man. Youre s bitchmade loser

>>16567957
> DO NOT touch SSRIs with a fucking barge pole

Seconding this. I took SSRIs for obsessive compulsive disorder. Stay as far away from them as you can. You should consider every other option before resorting to medication: cognitive behavior therapy, meditation, exercise, etc.

Anti-depressants aren't going to help your creativity. They don't make you happy or creative, they just make you not depressed, as in you won't be feeling anything in either direction. The only reason I was able to be even at all productive while taking SSRIs is because I was in school and had to produce. If you're trying to be disciplined and work on your own projects, your motivation may be enervated by the medication(s).

>I am a coffee and beer addict.

Pick days during the week that you'll commit to not using either and then pick some days where you'll allow yourself to indulge in them.

>>16567188
If you're randomly stopping the Prozac, aren't you getting brain zaps?

>>16567240
If you write smut it’s much easier

>>16569773
Great mental health advice honestly and I agree. Indulge your habits on the weekends perhaps and allow yourself to suffer a bit during the week. It will get easier over time

>>16567046
Just smoke hella weed at night after a great day of writing. Allows your brain to rest and you formulate new ideas

>>16567046
No, that's what benzos and ketamine are for

>>16567105
how were the first couple of days? i tried some antidepressants once out of curiosity (single dose, got it off a friend). what a fucking ride. never again

>>16567530
Really struggling on nortiptyline desu but amitriptyline was alright I think

>>16567188
Have you considered not doing drugs?

>tfw had heart palpitations for the whole of 2018, slowly getting worse
>turned out my university GP several years previously had prescribed me a combo of meds she didn't realise would gradually raise serotonin to serotonin-syndrome levels over time
Literally spent a year gradually poisoning myself, was scary shit, I think I had a focal seizure of some sort at one point

>>16567957
>tfw always wanted to try shrooms
>but I have severe IBS

>>16567046
Try this first you can drink it as tea or get tablets https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypericum_perforatum?wprov=sfla1

>>16567499
why should i give a shit if i am an autistic khv sperg who is incapable of interpersonal relationships because I am insecure?

>>16567957
i am on 100mg zoloft because i would kill myself otherwise.

>>16567046
First of all alcohol is a depressant. While short term use of it can boost your mood over time it worsens depression. Writers drink probably for other reasons than just to treat their depression: to loosen up their minds, to relax, to get their mind off things. This is not the same as self-treating depression.

Secondly, typical anti-depressants are serotonergic (serotonin-affecting) which is based on an outdated and incorrect model of depression. The real fix for depression is stimulants, which are dopaminergic (dopamine-affecting). Since the 1950s when pharmacological psychiatry first took off, depression has been misunderstood. It is thought of as a mood disorder, when in reality it is a motivational disorder. It is a systematic defectiveness in the ability to find one's circumstances rewarding. The severe unhappiness that results from this is a side-effect of abulia -- the absence of willpower and motivation, not the cause.

The problem is there are few known drugs that can boost dopamine levels to a large extent without risking potentially dangerous or unhealthy side-effects such as mania, insomnia, impulsivity, hyper-sexuality, stress, and attention deficits.

>>16570363
Interesting. I'm naturally of a somewhat melancholic disposition and smoke cigarettes and drink coffee but if I have too much coffee I become anxious at an existential level.

>>16570317
and I would have killed myself had I not managed to find a psychiatrist who would prescribe the meds that fixed the damage SSRIs did to me.
inb4 you pedal the myth that "only people who aren't actually depressed react negatively to SSRIs".
I hit the lowest fuckin low in my life and SSRIs managed to redefine that low to a whole other level.

>>16570103
Sounds like placebo, they’re not exactly profound

>>16567188
Based and retarded so extra based

JBP almost died because of what you're suggesting

>>16570409
Coffee is a very limited substance. As a general rule, if it's legal and widely accessible, it means its value and use is limited.
Substances that are controlled are so not because they are potentially dangerous but because the government wants to manage and shepherd its biopower and human capital.

anticonvulsants are where it’s at boys

>>16571663
you're mixing up SSRIs and benzodiazepines. JBP had a negative reaction to the latter, OP was considering the former.

>>16567046
give me that Z
O, L, O, F, T
give me a grip, make me love me

>>16571759
Doctors will often prescribe both SSRIs and benzos to the same patient. The benzo is the one that will typically kill you, yes; typically if it's mixed with drinking alcohol.

>>16567046
These pills may take the pain away but alcohol turns the pain into pleasure.

>>16571778
maybe in the US, or Northern Ireland. in the rest of the UK, benzos are hardly ever prescribed because most doctors are scared of their patients developing a dependency.

DFW was on antidepressants

I’m on Lexapro. I have all sorts of great ideas pop into my head all the time for stories. The problem is I can’t be arsed to write a damn thing

>>16571827

>>16571827
He an hero'd after he stopped taking them.

>>16571886
He switched off his old anti-depressant (Nardil) to a newer one, which didn't work, then he switched back to the older one and it didn't work. He may have still been taking Nardil when he died, but its efficacy had been affected for whatever reason.

>>16567046
>altering your mind state
you're not a writer. You're a faggot.

>>16571670
Also despite the clinically supported evidence that psychostimulants vastly improve depressive symptoms in the short term, they tend to set one up for a devastating crash afterward. Attempts to find a happy medium between fast acting stimulants (Dextroamphetamine) which provide immediate relief and slower acting variants is an ongoing challenge. For whatever reasons, the dopamine system is very knee-jerk. Almost by design it is built for sudden, sharp spikes (Look! There's a tree full of fruit!) which rapidly boosts mood. It is structured to respond to unexpected reward signals which provide an immediate, powerful motivational boost. Therefore attempts to create a drug which constantly boosts this sense of reward is flawed from the get go. You cannot keep that elevated, boosted spike of excitement forever without crashing. But depression is essentially a pathology in the inability to experience this boost in any circumstance.
Hence stimulants create devastating crashes in ways that typical anti-depressants never do.

>>16567105
it takes like 1-2 months of daily use for you to see the difference

>>16570103
one dose isn't gonna do shit to you lmfao

>>16567957
ignore this retard

>>16567957
Actual retard

>>16567046
Anything but alcohol and opiates are not /lit/ drugs.

>>16572581
Forgot tobacco. On that note, gonna have a smoke now.

>>16569783
>Prozac
Not really, really large half life. Don't ever do that with stuff like Efexor though.

>>16567975
>>16567647
I believe the actual statistic is that, of those who benefit from an anti-depressant, 60% of THAT number would have benefited from placebo. So, it's a bit different.

>>16567051
fpbp