Are antidepressant drugs really a solution during nofap?

Yes what you are going through is certainly withdrawals. Really the solution here is to stop self medicating with PMO and alcohol and start to face some of your uncomfortable emotions. There is no other way but the more you self medicate then the more you want to escape your life.


Withdrawals can be tough but not impossible to work through.

i would absolutely try to avoid antidepressants at all costs as it may interfere with your rewiring process and potentially make things worse. Look at those as a last resort. I really dont think in your situation that a pill is the way to go

 

Everything is not about withdrawals. If your therapist advise you to go to a psychiatrist, it’s because he thinks you need it.
It’s like if your general practitioner tells you to go to see an oncologist cause you have cancer, you go, even if you heard that chemotherapy sucks.
If you face depression or anxieties, that might be just something your therapist can’t fix, cause it’s an actual physical and chemical problem. The brain is a very complicated organ, but there’s no shame to go to a psychiatric.
Maybe he won’t prescribe you antidepressants maybe he will. Maybe you will heal quickly maybe not.
Porn affect your mental and physical health, but that doesn’t mean that every bad symptoms you experience is because of porn.
It’s important to be balanced when we engaged this process of getting rid of porn. Otherwise you’ll be disappointed and eventually you’ll relapse. Or you can just fight so hard without succeeding because something like depression or anxieties comes to prevent you to give your best.
Don’t worry it takes time but it the end it worth the effort!
Keep up and take care !

 

Well said! Follow your therapists advise, your problem may not be PMO.

 

Sorry to break it to you, but there is no quick fix for your problems. I'd take antidepressants & anxiolytics only as my last result if I was so depressed that I couldn't get out of bed or out of house anymore. You're depressed and anxious, but pills are not the solution in most cases. There are some severe cases of major clinical depression where you have to take SSRIs (or other forms of antidepressants) in order to be able to start functioning (when you literally can't get out of bed anymore, can't change your cloths, do not have a will to eat regardless of hunger…). In these cases antidepressants are a godsent, but this is a minority inside a group of patients diagnosed with severe clinical depression (only up to 20 %). For those people, antidepressants tend to work very well (up to 80% respond positively). But general effectiveness of antidepressants for patients suffering from mild to moderate depression is inside placebo numbers. You can read more about effectiveness of antidepressants here https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK361016/

Antidepressants will NOT help you with alcohol and PMO addiction. The only way you can beat this is by strict abstention and identifying and properly addressing the underlying issues that are causing your discomfort (anxiety/pain), which leads you to self meditate (numb) the pain with PMO and booze. This is much easier said than done, but it's needs to be done for you to get well. I can tell you what steps worked for me, but you have to find your own way as every person is unique. What has worked for me, may not work for you. Btw my "ID" is 20 years of diagnosed chronic depression/social anxiety, 25 years of daily binge (P)MO, 2 years of liquid morphine drops addiction after back surgery (abused prescription drugs until my GP figured it out), heavy drinker on weekends; vomiting and passing out was not uncommon for me. Now to the steps that worked for me:

1. Reading dr. Stephen Ilardi's book The Depression Cure: The 6-Step Program to Beat Depression without Drugs (you can find free pdf if you google for it)
Reading dr. Gabor Mate's In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts: Close Encounters with Addiction
2. Started a writing a journal here based on dr. Illardi's 6-step program and tried to follow the steps on daily basis
3. Found a good psychiatrist specialized in Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), told her about my problems and about 6-steps I try to follow. We agreed to meet once a month (once a week would be much better but social insurance would not cover it and I just couldn't afford to pay for it)
4. I watched all Tim Johnson's videos (at least one a day), write down his advices in my journal and tried to implement them in my daily life. 35 years of living with depression, drugs/alcohol/and other addictions have made him better expert on addictions than any doc I have ever encountered. Becoming clean, healthy and mentally rock stable 60yo man after you've been vomiting blood and waiting to die alone in a dark room just 4 years ago are the best credentials on recovery one could have. No MD or PhD can teach you how to do that.
5. Complete abstention from any sexual activity and abstention from alcohol and refined sugar (I stopped buying anything with added sugar when I noticed that I started binge overeating sweets after started hardmode and alcohol abstention)

All this points demand investing a lot of time and effort, but they do work if one tries to follow them on daily basis. I always write "try" because recovery is a process full of ups and downs. You can't just write down 6 life changing steps + abstention and think you'll manage to execute them perfectly. One has to develop determination, consistency and perseverance (self-discipline basically) in order to succeed following most of this steps on daily basis. The important thing is to follow the steps even when you feel like shit (that's basically every day when you're faced with depression). What helped me in my first 6 months was to put a paper with 6 steps written on it in my pocket. I said to myself, OK you feel miserable, so here's the compromise, you're allowed to go to bed for the rest of the day, when you've eaten your breakfast, drank 2L of fresh water, done an hour long walk in nature, eat a spoon of fish oil/take vitamin B complex/Zn/Mg/Ca/K supplements and visited or called a friend. This way I tricked my mind to strive achieving the steps in order to be able to return to bed, but once I did this steps, especially after exercising, I usually had no want to close myself in a room anymore.

 

Antidepressants are proven to work, or they wouldn't be allowed to be sold. Unlike herbal remedies, they are vigorously tested for safety and efficiency.

Side effects should be discussed, but what's not discussed enough is what happens when they are not taken. Depression is a progressive and sometimes deadly disease, especially among men. It's a major cause of disability. It risks a person's relationship, job, finances and other aspects of health. The last part I can't stress enough; depression might cause early onset of dementia (among other things), hinder your recovery from eventual heart disease and worsen/cause addiction. In your case, the alcohol issue needs to be taken very seriously.

There are a wide variety of antidepressants. Not all of them causes weight gain or have sexual side effects. Ask your doctor and/or pharmacist. Helping you feel stable will indirectly help you tackle other obstacles in your life, such as addiction.

@Fenix Rising has pointed out some excellent tips per usual. The multifaceted approach to tackle your depression is really the best way to go.

 

Tbh, anti deppresant only make the sleep cycle worse.

I consumed anti deppresant 5 months ago. It really does help nofap, and i am now no longer dependant on PMO.

But, the withdrawal effect and side effect can be annoying tho. Like i can't feel anything, even my genital feels numb. Can't sleep, feels like zombie, vomiting, diarrhea, and drowsiness all day.

Right now after 8 weeks off, the withdrawal effect completely gone. The orgasm from M even become more intense, i think i recovered from death grip. i finally can sleep well in night.

But be careful tho. After 7 weeks including tapering. My doctor forbid me to take any anti deppresant or phsycotic drug like benzo, another ssri,snri, and etc. For the rest of my life

 

It could be that your addiction is fueled by an underlying mental disorder. That's definitely my case, I'm bipolar, and honestly, could not function properly without drugs. I'm always in an antidepressant + mood stabilizer combination. Experimented with many drugs throughout the years, feel free to ask me any questions related. Some of my friends have called me the "pharmacopedia", but I'm far from a professional in those regards.

 

The general rule for meds is that what goes up must come down. Psych meds work the same way hormone meds do. They up or downregulate artificially a certain neurotransmitter or hormone. The problem is that the body will adapt to the new levels and as time goes by you will be in the same place as you are today but on top of that the meds are the only thing keeping that level. When you come off the symptoms are likely to be worse.

And yes, there is ssri witthdrawal too, it's a lie ssris do not have withdrawals.

But if you're anxious and have problems sleeping ssris generally make those even worse.

Benzos are for anxiety but they are not a good solution either, especially long term and especially because they are highly addictive.

 

what was your life like before PMO and excessive drinking? Did you have these problems then?

It sounds to me like you are in a bit of a hole right now in your life. You have to find a way through the loneliness and pain in your life. You quit your coping mechanism for life (pmo) and have replaced it with a more destructive one in drinking. The reality is we all have to go through some seriously uncomfortable emotions to get to the other side. Alcohol can definitely make your symptoms a LOT worse, especially depression. Quit those addictions and see if the symptoms ease up before you look at taking meds

 

Definitely see a psychiatrist. They will go through all the information and you can tell them the specific side effects about which you are worried. There are many classes of antidepressants and if they think it is indicated, they will choose one based on your history. Also they could help set you up with someone for CBT or something else.
Alcohol and especially tranquilizers are NOT a solution! It is much better to be on an antidepressant than to be on those. An antidepressant does not have to be permanent. You can come off of it at some point.
In my opinion we have to do whatever it takes to give up an addiction. It is very hard to do, so why take some options off the table?

 

I will let you know then that in my personal journey i suffered no trauma and had a perfect childhood. I got into PMO purely because i liked it, after that it became a coping mechanism. You need to learn what came first. My symptoms began to snowball after i became addicted and the worse they got, the more i needed to escape.

You can beat this my friend, you just need better coping mechanisms. I will also throw in my experience with antidepressants. I took 5 x different types and they all had very negative affects on me, making me basically suicidal in some cases. This was before i knew i had an addiction. They may work for some but i think doctors way overprescribe them. Try them as an absolute last resort in my opinion

 

All antidepressants have potentially serious unwanted side effects and should be avoided unless absolutely required.

Instead my advice for difficult times like this is:

1. INSTALL EVERY PORN BLOCKER, DNS FILTERING, SETTINGS LOCK that you find on ALL YOUR DEVICES and don't keep any passwords. I gave my passwords to my parents, but I don't have the access to it.

2. BLOCK EVERY TRIGGER. This includes Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Twitter, news sites, tinder, in other words BLOCK FU**ING EVERYTHING THAT CAN TRIGGER YOU.
(Would you rather live the rest of your life without social media or without porn? When you think about it, the choice is not that difficult).

3. WHEN YOU FIND A LOOPHOLE IN YOUR BLOCKERS, FILL IT / PREVENT IT ASAP.

I think of porn blocking the same way as of locking my bike in the city. No matter what I do, ultimately I cannot 100% prevent someone stealing it. However, I take every possible measure that the bike is not stolen. I put on the best lock, maybe even more than one. I lock it against something that is stuck to the ground, so that thieves cannot lift the bike. I park it in plain sight, or maybe under a security camera. I don't leave it in just any part of my city. And if I have to, it goes with me to the apartment I'm visiting.

However, no matter how many precautions I take, unfortunately the bike might still get stolen. I have to accept that. However, the more precautions I take, the less likely it is that it will get stolen. Thieves might try to break one lock and give up with the second. They might get chased away by somebody passing by. They might see my bike and decide it's too complicated and go for the one parked in a shady street.

In other words, with every extra precaution that I take, the more likely I am to succeed.

If you truly want porn out of your life, block fu**ing everything with several layers of security. Once you've truly decided you don't want porn, the decision and the necessary steps become obvious. F**k social media, f**k YouTube, and f**k your favourite TV series if it triggers you. You'll find your life is better off without that, than with porn.

Usually I end posts like this with "stay strong." But with this one, I think the better end would be "do everything you can to stay strong!"

 

This is a BIG problem. I cannot emphasize enough how HUGE of a setback this is.

If you don't trust the person, get away. Change your therapist.

Then start considering big decisions. Or maybe try a different sort of therapy. Or even a different sort of medicine.

 

I have a method of inducing serotonin neurotransmission that doesn't have side-effects. PM me if you want me to send you a link.

 

Over a number of years meditation has had a definite positive impact on my mental wellbeing. I would definitely recommend it (try classes local to you to begin with) in conjunction with cbt or continued therapy sessions.

Best of luck with whatever works for you

 

Maybe not for alcohol but if you have a porn addiction it certainly will. There are other causes such as temporal lobe dysfunction.