SSRI While Cutting for Contest

Nutrition
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SSRI’s do cause weight gain - not in the short term maybe but definitely in the long term. Of course, everyone’s body chemistry is different and it depends on your personal metabolism but the action on the nervous system with effect on the endocrine system is indisputable. I have been on these meds myself and my experience with SSRI’s was this

I felt tired and sleepy all the time.
I was happy but had no motivation to workout. The drive to go balls out was gone. And I felt weak as hell in the gym. And frankly, i didn’t care.
I didn’t have an appetite but the lack of activity from drowsiness and lack of motivation caused the weight to creep up.

I felt a distinct impact on my metabolism. I no longer felt the “heat” from my revved up metabolism. I felt cold all the time. After much research I found that people were having problems with their thyroid after taking these meds. Some as extreme as thyroid cancer. Essentially, SSRI will decrease your BMR. Its like an induced state of hypothyroidism. This shouldn’t be permanent if SSRI’s are taken for a short period of time. And if you can push past the fatigue they cause, you should still be able to lose weight. Your doc will deny all of this of course.

I got off SSRI’s because I am borderline hypthyroid to begin with and I couldn’t handle losing my strength gains. Now I supplement with natural stuff to help with my dysthymia complicated by major depressive episodes. Its tricky but it can be done. It enables me to cope without being numbed out.
I have done research on this for the last 10 years.

The bottom line of any drug is that it can do anything at anytime and scientists don’t know the full effect and potential of these drugs.

Good luck with your journey man, I’m there with you.

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[quote]theBeth wrote:
Now I supplement with natural stuff to help with my dysthymia complicated by major depressive episodes. Its tricky but it can be done. It enables me to cope without being numbed out.
I have done research on this for the last 10 years.

The bottom line of any drug is that it can do anything at anytime and scientists don’t know the full effect and potential of these drugs.

Good luck with your journey man, I’m there with you.[/quote]

What “natural stuff” are you using?

Never had any luck with SSRIs, SNRIs, or anything else they tried. Doing my own research, I used Phosphatidyl Serine with some Bacopa and it helped for awhile, but I’m not quite sure why I stopped using it. Diagnosis has run everywhere from ADHD to dysthymia to major depression to anxiety, with elements of all of them.

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i’ll just list what I take - and I’m still in the experimental phase with all this stuff trying to figure out what works.
L-tyrosine, L-phenylalanine, dopa mucuna, SAM-e, 5HTP, L-tryptophan, and st. johnswort. Supporting this cocktail i take green tea extract which acts as a deoxycarbolase inhibitor, and p-5-p (a form of B6), B-complex, fish oil and GABA.

I have dysthymia and social anxiety.

So far the tyrosine, phenylalanine and dopa mucuna have worked amazingly well to pick me up and decrease SA. I’m still playing with the seratonin stuff to figure out what makes me feel better without making me feel drowsy all the time. I can tell you I sleep like a baby taking L-tryptophan and St Johnswort together. St johnswort works by acting as an MAOI. Other weak MAOI’s are tumeric, caffeine, celery and ginger. I took phosphatydl serine when i was a kid and that worked but it’s expensive. So is SAM-e. Antidepressants are way more expensive than any of these though.

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[quote]theBeth wrote:
i’ll just list what I take - and I’m still in the experimental phase with all this stuff trying to figure out what works.
L-tyrosine, L-phenylalanine, dopa mucuna, SAM-e, 5HTP, L-tryptophan, and st. johnswort. Supporting this cocktail i take green tea extract which acts as a deoxycarbolase inhibitor, and p-5-p (a form of B6), B-complex, fish oil and GABA.

I have dysthymia and social anxiety.

So far the tyrosine, phenylalanine and dopa mucuna have worked amazingly well to pick me up and decrease SA. I’m still playing with the seratonin stuff to figure out what makes me feel better without making me feel drowsy all the time. I can tell you I sleep like a baby taking L-tryptophan and St Johnswort together. St johnswort works by acting as an MAOI. Other weak MAOI’s are tumeric, caffeine, celery and ginger. I took phosphatydl serine when i was a kid and that worked but it’s expensive. So is SAM-e. Antidepressants are way more expensive than any of these though.

[/quote]

Thanks for that list; more things to try :wink:

I’ve tried SAM-e, that made things worse for me. PS made me realize I was more on edge on a daily basis than I realized. (I actually have an idea of what it’s like to be genuinely relaxed now.)

St John’s Wort didn’t really do anything. I had a green tea extract + gaba product I tried, but that didn’t do anything for me either. L-tyrosine I played with in the past and it helped me feel more creative, insightful, focused – but I don’t know if I really was; I had to add in magnesium though because I would also get annoyed a lot easier and the Mg helped.

I’ve never even heard of dopa mucuna or p-5-p. I’ve not tried 5-HTP, L-phenylalanine, nor L-tryptophan.

How long did you trial things before knowing if they helped or not?

With the other meds I was pretty much on them for a minimum of 8 weeks before I was able to genuinely tell my doctor they weren’t doing anything for me. Viibryd was the only drug I tried that did anything, and it just made things worse.

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It took a week to tell a difference with the dopa, tyrosine, and phenylalanine. Sam-e has actually increased my anxiety. L tryptophan helped my sleep within two days, but no cognitive change. St. John’s wort seems to intensify the effects of tryptophan. Effexor worked but I had no energy or emotions.

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Stay on your medication. Talk to a qualified medical professional about these queries of yours, not strangers on internet forums. Weight gain is by no means inevitable on SSRIs. Side effects vary between people. Do not listen to dumb fucks on the internet who think you can cure mental disorders by eating special foods or dietary supplements.

Best of luck with managing your mental disorder.