Medicines to relieve anxiety and depression

Currently, there are no specific drugs that can completely cure anxiety and depression once taken. The core functions of clinically approved prescription anti-anxiety and depression drugs are to symptomatically regulate neurotransmitter levels and relieve pathological emotional symptoms. The final efficacy is directly related to medication compliance, cooperation with psychological intervention, and social support environment. Nearly 30% of patients do not respond well to conventional drugs. In addition, many over-the-counter "generalized drugs" can also play a clear role in relieving mild to moderate anxiety and depression.

When I was an intern at a psychiatric outpatient clinic two years ago, I met a 28-year-old Internet operator. His shoulders were shaking when he entered the clinic. He said that he could not fall asleep at 3 a.m. every day for three months in a row. He shed tears for no reason while sitting at his work station. He did not even have the courage to open a work group. He was diagnosed with severe anxiety and moderate depression. At that time, the doctor prescribed sertraline, and specifically warned that she might experience nausea and poor appetite in the first two weeks, which were normal reactions. As a result, she felt queasy after taking it for three days, so she secretly stopped the medicine. She almost fainted at home after taking it for half a month. Later, she was sent back to the hospital by a friend. The doctor adjusted the dosage and added some vitamin B6 to alleviate the adverse reactions. When she came for a follow-up visit in the third week, she said that she no longer felt like she was pressing a piece of water-soaked cotton on her chest every day.

Speaking of this, some people will definitely ask, will taking medicine cause dependence, and will it make people stupid? This is also the most commonly encountered controversy in clinical practice. Most psychiatrists who hold a "drug first" view will tell you: At the moderate to severe pathological stage, the levels of serotonin and dopamine in the brain are so low that they cannot be replenished by self-regulation. Just like a high fever caused by pneumonia cannot be sustained by willpower, taking medicine is the best option. The quickest way to pull you out of your emotional quagmire is that the new SSRI drugs do not contain hormones at all. The so-called "dullness" and "gain" are mostly transient reactions in the first two weeks. Long-term medication is much safer than enduring it until you have thoughts of self-harm. But many humanistic psychological counselors will also put forward another perspective: Pills can only help you lower your emotional level, but will not help you solve the leaky roof - which is the root cause of your anxiety and depression. It may be unprocessed childhood trauma, it may be a work environment that continues to squeeze you, it may be a bad intimate relationship. You cannot be soaked in water every day and rely on taking pills to support it.

Both statements are correct. I have seen people who took the medicine for half a year and regained their health and returned to work and were promoted all the way. I have also seen people who took the medicine for two years and then immediately relapsed as soon as they returned to their original family environment. There is no standard answer.

There is also an interesting phenomenon. Many people would rather spend thousands of yuan on imported soothing health products and melatonin gummies than take dozens of yuan of antidepressants prescribed by doctors. They always feel that "taking psychotropic drugs means you are sick and hypocritical." A college student visited me before and complained to me that her mother knew that she was taking sertraline. She cried and said that "a good child should take crazy drugs" and then sent her three large boxes of calming and brain-replenishing liquid. In fact, to put it bluntly, anxiety and depression are essentially a small cold in the brain. Taking medicine will help you relieve the symptoms of headache and brain fever. It is no different from taking ibuprofen when you have a fever. It is really not shameful.

Of course, this does not mean that you need to prescribe medicine as long as you are in a bad mood. Mild to moderate anxiety and depression can often be relieved without prescription pills. A study published in The Lancet Psychiatry last year found that 45 minutes of moderate-intensity aerobic exercise three times a week was almost as effective in improving mild to moderate depression as low-dose sertraline. I had a designer come to visit me before. I didn’t want to take medicine, so I walked around the community for forty minutes every day after get off work. I didn’t think about anything. I just watched the aunts on the roadside dancing square dances, stray cats digging through trash cans, and children chasing each other. After a month of walking, my score on the anxiety scale dropped by 18 points. As an aside, I also met a girl who used knitting to relieve anxiety. She knitted five scarves and three hats in three months. She said that as soon as the needle started moving, all the messy thoughts in her mind followed the thread. Do you think knitting is medicine? In that scenario, it is.

I worked on a project for a month last year, and I was restless and unable to eat. I asked a psychiatrist friend for help. He said it wasn’t enough to take medicine, so he gave me a “recipe”: eat an iced orange every day, soak my feet for ten minutes before going to bed, and don’t bring computers and mobile phones to bed. I did this for a week and really got better. Do you think oranges are medicine? Is foot soaking medicine? As long as it can make you feel better without harming yourself or others, then it is the right medicine for you.

A few days ago, I met the Internet operation girl from before in the coffee shop downstairs. She changed her job to a job that did not require 996 calls. She held a newly adopted orange cat in her arms. She said that she still feels a little anxious when occasionally rushing to catch up on projects, but she no longer needs to take medicine. She can just pet the cat for ten minutes. You see, there is no unified standard answer. Medicine can be a small white tablet, it can be the wind blowing through the neighborhood in the evening, it can be a hug from a friend without saying anything, or even a cat that can step on milk. Whatever suits you is the best. If you really feel unbearable, don't hold on, go see a professional doctor, it's really not a big deal to take some medicine.