Oral use - Can SSRI's Be Used Recreationally?

[jb2008]

Antidepressants are not recreational drugs. SWIM has a lot of experience of them and although he felt the "f***ing brilliant" rush of energy in the first day, it went away within 3 seconds SWIM would say. Within that time, however, SWIM did naively wonder whether it would make SWIM feel this wonderful all the time, and SWIM was only on 37 mg at the time. Other than that, SSRIs and the like are meant to restore your brain chemistry to a healthy state, and no this doesn't include the first month because you're obviously new to it, your brain is changing somewhat, and that is no easy task. Often you will find yourself sleeping the whole day, feeling the most bizarre urges and headaches. It certainly is not recreational, but if you are TRULY depressed, and when SWIM says depressed he means that physical symptoms are caused by neurological shortcircuits or whatnot (i.e. unexplained aches, bolts of pain down the limbs, no energy, a 'listless', 'empty' inside etc.) which could NOT be cured by anything other than medication. Severe clinical depression stretches to an out-and-out, fully fledged physical ailment. Antidepressants do not cure sadness, nor do they cure the depression itself; they simply give the absolutely worn, down and outs a second lifeline to get up with energy, drive and a positive attitude to fix their lives. It's not the capsule for a quick high SWIM is afraid.

[MountainDeW]

SWIM has taken SSRI's to test their recreational value. The results of the experiments fall in line with the negative reports of other posts. Chronic SSRI use is the only way to feel the positive antidepressant effects. Neurogenesis is believed to be mechanism causing antidepressant benefits. Check this link.

http://mentalhealth.about.com/cs/psy...urogenesis.htm

Epigenetic modification of gene expression could also be a mode of action for chronic SSRI treatment.

http://www.drugs-forum.com/forum/showthread.php?t=62839

[cruel.intentions]

Swim know from swim's Personal experience that wellbutrin and/or effexor are amazing when smoked with weed. Much easier to get high much less is required and its very powerful if smoked to much you will have very vived hallucinations be careful!!! Swim confirmed that he needs much much less weed to get high while on this two antideprressents. Also Paxil Lexapro has very similar effects...

[Richi]

I've come across several posts by very knowledgeable people who all share the same opinion of SSRI's: That they have no recreational value.

How could this be true if the herb Kanna (Sceletium tortuosum) has been used as a recreational substance in South Africa in the past?

[Nacho]

Originally Posted by Richi

I've come across several posts by very knowledgeable people who all share the same opinion of SSRI's: That they have no recreational value.

How could this be true if the herb Kanna (Sceletium tortuosum) has been used as a recreational substance in South Africa in the past?

Maybe the sedative euphoric effects of it?

Why the hell would someone abuse SSRI's? That can't do any good, ESPECIALLY if you have depression. If you don't have depression, take MDMA like everyone else.

[Richi]

Originally Posted by Nacho

Why the hell would someone abuse SSRI's? That can't do any good, ESPECIALLY if you have depression.

Why the hell would anyone abuse anything? Abuse of anything never did anyone any good.

[Nacho]

Originally Posted by Richi

Why the hell would anyone abuse anything? Abuse of anything never did anyone any good.

My friend Steve tried diphenhydramine which ended up being about 6-13 times the recommended dose of 1-2. I guess that'd be considered "abuse", but he was sure he'd trip. SSRI's are for regualting an abnormality of serotonin uptake in the brain, not recreation like cannabis or something. Maybe I just take it a little personal as I take depression meds.

[Jatelka]

OK, SWIMer's, Kittlings and Flamingos: Let's keep it all peachy and lovey yes?

Criticise (?sp) ideas not people. Lets keep the insults out of it and debate things like grown ups.

One of the reasons I like it here (and have posted consistently for the last three years) is the general civility and lack of flaming/dick-sizing and bullshit that sadly overruns and diminishes other forums.

Peace and Love and all sorts of other good things

PS: Flaming WILL result in infractions and Bans (Not so peace and lovey)

[Nacho]

^That's about Kanna?

I thought we were talking about SSRI's like prescriptions? (sorry if that comment is stupid as i don't know anything about kanna. i've only read a little bit from erowid (it interested me like kava, damiana, and wild lettuce)


If there is recreational value to SSRI's, my friend Steve might be selling some to the idiots in his town. ...That is of course after he reads up a lot on Serotonin Syndrome.

[Panthers007]

No. There is no recreational values to SSRI's. Whether Prozac or Saint John's Wort - they will not get you high. And many can cause very nasty long-term side-effects if taken by people who are not under a physician's guidance. Even then - they can cause a hell of a lot of trouble. Period.

Anyone who would palm those drugs off to the kids in town deserves to be run over by a Mack Truck.

[Richi]

Originally Posted by Panthers007

No. There is no recreational values to SSRI's. Whether Prozac or Saint John's Wort - they will not get you high.

Some South Africans would disagree:

The plant has been used by South African pastoralists and hunter-gatherers as a mood-altering substance from prehistoric times.

Originally Posted by Panthers007

And many can cause very nasty long-term side-effects if taken by people who are not under a physician's guidance. Even then - they can cause a hell of a lot of trouble. Period.

Anyone who would palm those drugs off to the kids in town deserves to be run over by a Mack Truck.

I don't doubt any of this. I am simply stating that in fact it can be used recreationally. So can gasoline, or Jenkem. I wouldn't, but someone out there would.

[Panthers007]

Kanna has effects far different than someone's boosted Prozac 'script. I'm not infering Kanna in this. But, rather, pharmacological materials en masse. And I rather doubt anyone is talking about opening a Kanna Shoppe in East Bumfuck.

Tell me if I'm wrong?

[Richi]

Originally Posted by Panthers007

Kanna has effects far different than someone's boosted Prozac 'script. I'm not infering Kanna in this. But, rather, pharmacological materials en masse. And I rather doubt anyone is talking about opening a Kanna Shoppe in East Bumfuck.

Tell me if I'm wrong?

Well... not anymore...

I understand, thanks for the clarification Panthers.

[Nacho]

Originally Posted by Richi

I am simply stating that in fact it can be used recreationally. So can gasoline, or Jenkem. I wouldn't, but someone out there would.

Oh okay. I thought you were trying to say that SSRI's could be used like MDMA or LSD or whatever.

Originally Posted by Panthers007

And I rather doubt anyone is talking about opening a Kanna Shoppe in East Bumfuck.

That made me giggle like a school girl.

[fiveleggedrat]

Swim's first opioid was tramadol. It has a lot of uncomfortable peripheral side effects. Swim is aware tramadol has SSRI/SNRI effects. Tramadol has a much greater chance to make Swim vomit than any other opioid he has ever consumed. It also is much more stimulating physically and the mood boost has a unique feel to it.



Swim says some people could use SSRI's for a mood boost, but not hedonistic recreation.

[analogger]

SSRIs change the function of the lymbic system (most basic parts of the brain) by slowly changing it on a physical, chemical, and molecular level. that's why they usually take weeks to kick in, and why the withdrawal is so unbelievably terrible and can last years and years.

analogger added 2 Minutes and 41 Seconds later...

that's also why there's news out there lately about how SSRIs stimualte growth of brain cells. in actuality as far as anyone can tell, this "growth" morphs the brain to require SSRIs to function, almost as if it were a new neurotransmitter.

[Richi]

Originally Posted by analogger

that's why they usually take weeks to kick in, and why the withdrawal is so unbelievably terrible and can last years and years.

The effects can sometimes last a lifetime.

That is why they also have a great medical potential to "re-wire" the brain and ease mental disorders such as depression, in the all too well known example of Prozac.

It wouldn't do much good if the patient returned to their depressed state after they stopped taking the medicine.

[analogger]

yea, but no one ever told me i was going to get my brain "rewired", if i had known that i never would have even thought about taking that first pill.

[salviablue]

They wouldn`t would they? One would be far less likely to accept them (SSRI`s) and how else would the doctor be able to justify/ get his/her bonus/incentive from the pharm company?

Sceptical I know, but the more actual facts I find out over the whole doctor - pharm co. - government relationship, the less I trust them. (Now I am sounding like a conspiracist!)

I wouldn`t recommend not going to the doctors or listening to their advice, but just be aware they MAY have ulterior motives for perscribing one thing over another. Pound them with questions on side effects etc. and alternatives.

[Richi]

Originally Posted by salviablue

They wouldn`t would they? One would be far less likely to accept them (SSRI`s) and how else would the doctor be able to justify/ get his/her bonus/incentive from the pharm company?

Really? Where do you live that doctor's get paid by the pharmaceutical companies per pill they hand out?

[salviablue]

<Off-topic> I never said they get paid per pill, but you are suggesting they get no incentives from the pharms?
Look, I know it may sound like BS but once you start getting to know an industry from the inside (pharmaceutrical company`s are an industry, working most of the time purely for profits) it assaults your whole sense of who to trust. There is no industry I am aware of that doesn`t do what most would call underhanded tactics for business. I have plenty of examples from industries I have worked within that most people just assume that they are honest, just and fairly cosher, that really are not. Often the more there is to lose (meant in a business sense i.e loss is often equalled to `not gained` and not actual loss) in either money or `power` the more there is what most would consider corruption and under handedness. The health industry is definately no different. If food companies can get away with very bad conduct, and I don`t just mean what they get caught for, or are likely to get caught for (and even when they do, the change is often only temporary) - and they supply a lot of our basic requirement for healthy life - then why not the pharm companies and health officials (doctors, hospitals, surgeries etc.) because from people I have known in the industry, it does certainly effect them also.

I am not trying to say they are all like that, many dont even realise the extent of pure `product marketing` or exactly how `selective` the `evidences` are, or to mistrust doctors etc., as money/power hungry commercial syphons, but to be aware that this kind of conduct indeed does go on in the health industry. Dont forget it can be easier to fool an `intelligent` person than a `proletariat` (and I may be the one fooled here, but I dont think so).

There are actually many historical evidence of these actions, they wouldn`t take too much effort to find, although, history is often written by the victor, and the pharm co.`s/doctors boards/governments rarely lose!

I`ll have to stop as I may be rambling, in the space of the 15 min or so writing this, I have become rather pissed (legally so) and my ability to comprehend what i am doing has been somewhat debilitated!

Reputation Comments on this post:

great defence

[Richi]

You bring up some very good points. I was always under the impression that doctor's get paid by the hour or by the patient, but I don't know nearly enough about this topic to hold an opinion I would like to defend.

Back to the topic though, as also as you said, doctor's probably don't inform their patients exactly what will happen to them once they begin to take a certain medication, but this spans beyond the psychoactive ones.

Who's to blame? The patients don't ask, the doctor's don't tell. I'm sure a lot of it has to do with the complicated nature of certain medications. I know when I get sick, go to the doc, and get an antibiotic, I sure as hell don't inquire as to how they work and how they do what they do, whatever that may be. I, the average citizen, don't care. Even if I did, would the doctor spend the next 30 minutes explaining how antibiotics work? Could they - since I have no background whatsoever in biology or medicine, do I have any chance in understanding what will happen in my body?

Wait - that wasn't the topic.

SSRI's, recreational use, got it...

[Boca Bitch]

SSRIs (Selective Serotonin Re-uptake Inhibitors) are prescription drugs commonly used to treat anxiety disorders. They work by preventing serotonin from being re-uptaken into the synapse, leaving an elevated amount to continuously stimulate the cell. MDMA is also a serotonin re-uptake inhibitior.

So I have to ask, why is it that these drugs are not abused? I have to imagine that it's the "Selective" component that makes the difference, but I've been unable to find anything online... so I was wondering if anyone would happen to know.

[msmogadon]

SSRI's can take up to 6 weeks to work. That means taking the SSRI everyday at the same time for 6 weeks. This can be frustating if a person is experiencing depression and just wants to feel better as quickly as possible.
eCSTACY works SLIGHTLY DIFFERENT on the serotonin part of the brain than an SSRI. Ecstacy causes a flood of the chemical so feelings are much more pronounced.
At the end of the day its not worth it also many side effects can come from SSRIs and they are also not suitable for everyone and a patient may have to try several different types before finding the one that is right for them

oh yea never mix SSRIs and ecstacy/mdma and other drugs which work on serotonin

[RaverHippie]

Go read the antidepressant forums. There is absolutely NOTHING recreational about an SSRI. They make you stop feeling. So in the eyes of the doctors who prescribe them, they treat depression very well. Because you can't feel depressed. But you also cannot feel happy.