Yes and no. It’s incredibly useful for certain subsets of people. For others, it seems to be an added cost for little to no utility. In many cases, the effect is not too significantly different from placebo.

I have taken various types of psych meds, and I was actually disappointed that I didn’t feel dramatic reactions like some people claimed. With antidepressants in particular, a lot of people talk about feeling “emotionally blunted” on them. As someone who was suffering with emotional intensity, it was a side effect that I actually desired and was disappointed when I didn’t get it. I never felt controlled or altered in much of any way outside of some initial fatigue.

So I think a lot of the negative effects of these meds might also have some basis in placebo. The meds are not all bad.

After a while of trying different meds over a year, I’ve “settled” on one particular med and been very stable since. Is the med helping? I still have no idea. But it isn’t doing anything negative that I can tell and you cannot deny the objective reality of my improvement. My improvement is no doubt multifactorial, but if it’s doing good for me, then why not just continue? I still feel like me. I am just happy and functioning.

If you want my two cents…forget the labels for “man” or “woman” or whatever you’re thinking about. Just express yourself in ways that you like. Want to wear a dress one day with an elaborate long hairdo? Do it. Want to wear a suit the next day and buzz your hair short? Fucking do it. We are all just random living beings making shit up as we go.

I guess that’s why I never understood the concept of being “trans” or “cis”. Just be. Exist. Express yourself. Don’t get caught up in these labels. There are no rules.

Imo, those labels are important for healthcare because it tells them what parts we have and what diseases we may or may not have. Beyond that, who cares?

Goddamn man. I hope you find out something that helps you eventually. Some of my friends swear by magnesium supplements. Although I think it’s only a particular kind of magnesium supplement maybe?

Haha yes, mine is an antipsychotic! I’m on Seroquel, altho a pretty low dose. I’m not given it for sleep, but I see why it’s used as such! Sorry you had a rough go with antipsychotics! How has your sleep been nowadays?

Not a helpful answer, but I started taking a psych medication and I guess some people use it off label as a sleep aid. Soooo suffice to say I definitely sleep like a rock nowadays lol. Trouble is that I have to actually be disciplined enough to get into bed first!

BUT what has always helped me actually fall asleep is to actually use my phone in bed. I know people say not to, but it helps me fall asleep every night. What I do is put on a lengthy YouTube video that is not too interesting and not too boring. I fall asleep to them.

I used to love this as a kid.

Now as an adult, I found a fun substitute. Slice some cucumber. Then add cinnamon, salt, and whatever sugar substitute you like. It’s not quite the same as the real thing, obviously. But I haven’t had the “real” version since I was a kid. It’s a nice throwback that satisfies the want for a desert-like item with few calories.

I think the real issue is simply that excess calories (and sugary foods are highly dense in calories) leads to obesity. And obesity in childhood lends itself to continued obesity through adulthood, thus higher rates of things like diabetes and high blood pressure.

I think the whole argument about sugar itself is a bit of a moot point. It all comes down to whether or not you let your child become obese while you are still under their care.

I grew up in a household with a lot of sugar. I turned out just fine. Two of my siblings struggle a lot with obesity, and one has been overweight since childhood.

I tried this, but it heavily backfired on me. My confused half asleep brain wouldn’t understand the mystery symbols on my screen and I would end up holding down the power button and falling back asleep…

Why is this “disturbing”? Odd headline.

It’s really hard to parse these sorts of things. All of these before and after shots for any of these procedures are done by the people advertising them to you. Of course they are going to pick and choose things that work out well. Would be nice if there was a less biased way to research these sorts of things tbh. Interesting technique, though.

This person’s whole account is filled with bizarre stuff, really

Love the shot! Whatcha drinking?

I don’t know. That’s the problem. I have never felt like anything had much of an effect beyond some obvious intitial negative side effects. I think because mental health medications are so slowly acting that I just cannot for the life of me me tell anything.

Here are my experiences:

DAILY MED TRIALS:

Escitalopram (Lexapro), an SSRI, 10 mg - Initial intense fatigue that sucked major ass. After about 1-2 months, the fatigue faded and my mood got a bit elevated and my anxiety lessened a little bit…but I’m not sure how much of that was the medication versus natural mood cycles. A major life stressor happened though and my mood and reactivity started to go all over the goddamn place again, but even worse than before because of the greater stressor. I discontinued the medication after several months.

Lamotrigine (Lamictal), an anticonvulsant, 200 mg - The titration process is incredibly, painfully slow so you don’t have a dangerous reaction to it. I experienced very intense itching almost every time I would step up the titration process, but after a while on any given dose, it went away. And then when I had bigger step ups near the end, I didn’t get the itching side effect any more. I was in the depths of my major life stressor and found that it didn’t seem to help a ton with my mood fluctuations and reactivity. It is really hard for me to tell what sort of effects it may have had if at all…sometimes I would think that I felt a lot calmer, but other times not at all. I was on it for much longer than escitalopram, and am almost off of it. The step down from this takes a while too, but not as long as the step up.

Quetiapine XR (Seroquel XR), an antipsychotic, 50 mg - This one scares me and I don’t like the idea of being on it long term. I am on a very low dose… generally at this level it is only used for sleep and anxiety, so the negative long term effects are mitigated a bunch. Like escitalopram, I noticed initial fatigue on this which really sucks, but it went away after a while. I also experienced intense hunger initially (which is how many gain weight on it), which again seems to have gone down after a while. I have been on it since late January and I have been objectively way more stable than I have been in the past year. I am less reactive and am baseline a bit more chilled out and less anxious about some things. But I’m not sure if that has to do with more distance between the life stressor and having gone through more intensive therapy while on it. Needless to say, I guess I’ll be sticking with it for a while, even if I’m not sure about the long run.

Many people comment on sexual dysfunction with SSRIs and antipsychotics. I had sexual dysfunction before these meds, so this has not impacted me to my knowledge, but it’s something to think about. Lamotrigine does not affect sexual function.

“AS NEEDED” (NOT DAILY) MED TRIALS (taken for anxiety and acute distress):

Propranolol, a beta blocker/high blood pressure medication, 10 mg - I found it useful before a job interview once, but otherwise I did not find it of much benefit or noticeable effect.

Hydroxyzine (Atarax, Vistaril), an antihistamine - I was initially given 25 mg but found it way too sedating. I now have 10 mg pills which aren’t very sedating, but I’m not sure how helpful they are.

Clonidine (Catapress), an alpha agonist/high blood pressure medication, 0.1 mg - This is incredibly sedating. I split the pills in half to 0.05 mg, but it still can be pretty sedating. I found the sedative effect a bit desired when I have been freaking out, but other times it makes me more depressed when I am already not feeling good.

Overall, I have not found “as needed”/prn medications too useful to me. If I am having an acute anxiety attack, they take too long to “kick in” to have much benefit. (Can be like an hour to start noticing an effect). And if I take one at the wrong time, I can get depressed from them tbh. They are useful if you can anticipate when you are going to be anxious (like the job interview I said).

Good luck out there.

I do think it looks pretty cool…but what about washing your hands? That’s the main issue with it I’d think.

OP, are you sure you are actually dehydrated? Are you getting kidney stones?

Most people don’t need to actively concentrate on drinking liquids. Your body will tell you when you’re thirsty. It’s a weird internet fad where people try to drink like a gallon of water a day. It’s not necessary. Your body tells you when it’s hungry and it tells you when you need to drink liquids. You’re not going to die from failure of the body signaling you to eat or drink.

Now, if you’ve had kidney stones, your doctor may tell you that you need to be drinking more water.

Beyond that, excessive water drinking is just the latest fad right now. It’s not necessary.

Thank you. That’s very kind of you, but I think if I wasn’t going to figure out anything at this point in my life that it’s just not going to happen. To describe things to people, I describe any sort of sensation that I feel in my crotch region as no different than if you were to touch your own elbow. You can touch or rub or lick or suck your elbow any which way you want, but it’s not going to feel at all pleasurable (I’m sure there are some people but that’s not really the point of my analogy).

It won’t necessarily feel uncomfortable, just won’t have any pleasure associated with it. If it’s so complicated that I can’t even figure out where to begin with finding even mild pleasure, then I don’t think there’s hope. It’s likely broken. Idk. I’m 32 btw.

As someone with a clitoris, sadly a (likely rather small) population of us still will never know. Mine seems to have come out nonfunctional from the factory. Sometimes I wish I could feel sexual pleasure like how a majority of the planet seems to.

Huh? Hasn’t this been known for years and years already? This isn’t groundbreaking. I was taught this in school many years ago.

Right??? I feel like I’m taking crazy pills here that no one else is noticing the problem with that comment.

I’m not advocating on tolerating the intolerant. I’m simply not pro-eugenics…