I think there’s an entire generation of men who were told to take these pills at some point, and finally stopped after just a few months.
Whenever people see guys screaming about the dangers of these pills, it’s because we have it on good authority.
Let me tell you about my experience with Zoloft since it drove me to the brink of insanity and almost killed me. After a couple of months of use, I started feeling very strange in my body. It felt like it was no longer me directly operating it, but I was controlling it like in a first-person game. It sort of felt like I was floating and everything that was happening. I was watching it more than experiencing it. This was the easy part.
Three months in it started getting worse. I'd suddenly want to be destructive. I threw a plate into the kitchen because I felt like I needed to. Not out of anger, but my brain just told me I needed to. These urges got worse and started involving hurting myself. I was opening up a package, and for some reason, all I wanted to do was drag the knife up my entire wrist and see what was inside. I wanted to dig and pull everything out. Mind you, I'd never had this kind of thing happen before. I was walking outside and kept looking at trees, and all I could picture was me hanging by my neck from every tree, smiling ear to ear. The messed up part is that it wasn't scary. My brain wasn't processing it as strange. I'd be driving on the road and picture myself swerving into the other lane into a truck and envisioning myself just burning in the car peacefully.
These urges got worse, and it sort of became normal. I'd grab a gun, hold it, and put it in my mouth. Not in a depressed state, but my brain just felt like I had to see what happened if I pulled the trigger. Was using a large bandsaw, and all I could picture was me climbing onto it and cutting myself in half. I'd be drinking something and want to chew and swallow the broken glass. I'd be having a conversation with someone and want to take a knife and repeatedly stab myself in the neck and cut my own head off. The urges were much stronger, and it wasn't triggering a response that this was bad.
In a moment of lucidity, I made a doctors appointment and told him I was feeling weird and mentioned casually that sometimes I'd want to drive 100 mph into oncoming traffic. I was off the meds. That didn't stop there.
For a couple of months, these urges were still there but were getting less extreme. They were replaced by what can only be described as my brain being electrocuted at random. I'd be totally fine, then just feel like someone took a stun gun to my head. Oh, and the entire time taking the medication and coming off, I had zero sex drive, none.
I took this medicine because I trusted my doctor. I wasn't suicidal, I wasn't extremely depressed, I was just kind of blue. It drove me insane and almost killed me. It took months to feel normal and human again. I never had anything like that happen in my life before or after, only during my nightmarish SSRI era. When I was off, I was back to normal.
People prescribe these meds like candy. They prescribe them like our brain chemistry is all the same. What might work for one may make another want to drive into a big rig at 100 mph.
So pardon me, American Psychiatric Association, you can GFY.