I understand to a point about serotonin but then I don't , I'm confused .?

Question

my daughter is having a hard time . it seems she is always bothered ,sad or just in general not feeling normal . at least the way she thinks normal is to feel . I have been told about seratonin problems and lots of drugs to take to fix it ,but a more human experience would be nice to hear . I hope to learn from others . thanks

Answer 1

Personally I have used anti depressents that claim to balance out the seratonin in the body and improve mood but I dont think it solved my problems. The best thing would be for your doctor to get a psychiatrist or therapist to talk through her issues causing sadness etc. Being a child/teenager can cause so many feelings, it may help to guide her on the right path and disperse any fears. A doctor may reccomend anti-depressants but try not to have her stay on them too long, it will be better for her in the long run to not develop a habit fora quick fix so young. Take care.

Answer 2

Hmm...I'm not exactly sure of what your asking, so i'll just throw out some stuff:

Different practitioners attribute the cause of depression to different things - I'm assuming you took her to either your primary care physician, or a psychiatrist, but either of these people would look towards a biological cause of depression - which in "popular terms" means abnormal levels of serotonin. (Again, I don't really understand what exactly you want to know, so I won't go into detail on neurotransmitters, but you can email me if you want more.)

However, there isn't "A" cause for depression, so it could be a number of things. Medicine might help, or it might not...but in general, antidepressants will work towards symptom alleviation - but that's all - meaning if you want to get off the medicine, your symptoms are likely to come back (but not all the time), so the ideal situation would be, if you were to go the medical route, to combine psychotrophic drugs with psychotherapy - cognitive/behavioral therapy or interpersonal therapy. A large percentage of people are helped by medicine though, especially in cases of depression.

Antidepressants do have side effects, so if you are worried about them I would try the other methods first, and see if you can get her help without drugs.

Answer 3

I also have had problems with depression, including bouts of social phobia. I am currently on an SSRI named Paxil. It has helped a lot with the depression and social phobia. However, I would not recommend getting on it unless you have EXHAUSTED all other non-narcotic treatment options, because Paxil can be addicting and nearly impossible to taper off of due to, sometimes, severe withdrawal symptoms in some people. I have tried 3 times to taper off, but ended up just going back on to the regular dosage because I felt like I was going out of my mind from the withdrawal effects.

You might want to look into St. John's Wort, some herbal remedy that is supposed to help with depression. However, I urge you before doing anything to check with a doctor first.