u/KingMakerMan

I know that Bupropion is weight neutral. But I have major depression with anxiety so Bupropion didn't suit me well. It made me irritable and on the edge. My depression has caused me to gain weight from before starting treatment.

Currently I am on Venlafaxine and Amoxapine. They are partially working, but, then have caused me to gain weight. I don't feel like continuing with this combo. Also, it is giving me severe constipation.

I want to hear about med choices and opinions from people who had this type of depression where instead of losing weight you gain weight. Which meds worked for you?

I understand that the meds that successfully cures my depression will also probably make me more interested in life and activities and stop the cravings and will eventually push me to a more active lifestyle and hence help in maintaining a healthy weight.

I am under treatment for major depression currently with Venlafaxine and Amoxapine (combined) for the past 5 months. It was the first combo that has started to put a dent on my symptoms. But the weight gain was bothering me, so my psych put me on topiramate. I titrated up to 200mg. Remained there for 2 months. But I was having flashbacks (past traumatic incident related) and other anxiety symptoms although my appetite was kind of suppressed. My psych decided that to find out if I am having true flashbacks (for PTSD like disorder) or just topiramate induced flashbacks, I should taper off the drug. So I tapered from 200mg in gradual decrements within one month under advise.

1 week after withdrawal I was having some unstable mood that resolved gradually. But, after the 2 week mark I feel immense fatigue, tiredness, dehydrated kind of feeling. The flashbacks which were gone during tapering has again come back now. Maybe they were true flashbacks afterall. Will have to run through the withdrawal phase. But how long does it last?

My question is, I know the fatigue can be a withdrawal symptom. But, can withdrawals have delayed onset like mine? I am sleeping 9 hours still tired. This is going on for the past week.

I have heard that depression when it occurs with a significant anxiety component takes longer to treat and is difficult to treat. I don't know much about its truth. But, I being a sufferer, want to hear about positive stories about people how got successfully treated for this condition.

Which med(s) worked for you and gave you your life back?

I am currently on Venlafaxine 225mg and Amoxapine 200mg. I am in a much better place than before when I was on Sertraline, Vilazodone,low dose aripriprazole, Buspirone and Desvenlafaxine at different times in different combos.

But still, the joy of life hasn't returned much. Although I have started doing things on my own, that I avoided earlier. Maybe the path to remission is this slow. I don't know.

I have heard that depression when it occurs with a significant anxiety component takes longer to treat and is difficult to treat. I don't know much about its truth. But, I being a sufferer, want to hear about positive stories about people how got successfully treated for this condition.

Which med(s) worked for you and gave you your life back?

I am currently on Venlafaxine 225mg and Amoxapine 200mg. I am in a much better place than before when I was on Sertraline, Vilazodone,low dose aripriprazole, Buspirone and Desvenlafaxine at different times in different combos.

But still, the joy of life hasn't returned much. Although I have started doing things on my own, that I avoided earlier. Maybe the path to remission is this slow. I don't know.

Edit: Thanks all for sharing. I noticed one thing. Rarely any mention of TCAs. One mention of MAOIs. are TCAs so less prescribed nowadays?

I was watching someone doing barbell rows with quite a heavy weight when it struck me. It was a jerkier movement than the deadlift and the person doing it had to keep the barbell always in the air. The hip was in a hinged position so no question of being squeezed or tucked in. Rather the person was in slight anterior pelvic tilt. The only thing keeping the person's spine from collapsing under the sheering load of the barbell was his well braced torso.

Then it dawned on me, why at all are we advised to tuck in our pelvis or squeeze our glutes to come into a stacked position during calisthenics movement like pushups, inverted rows, etc? Why isn't proper bracing of the core not enough?

Most of the time, the advice to a beginner asking how not to sag at the hips or butt high during pushups is to squeeze the glutes and the core will take care of itself in the movement. Is it really so? What if their TvA, obliques are really really weak? I am not talking of the rectus abdominis muscle because it is mostly the asthetic part of the core musculature. Does squeezing the glutes in a plank or inverted row position necessarily ensures that the core will be braced in the movement? If not, is glute squeezing at all necessary for strength training? Can't bracing alone keep the body stable in calisthenics?

I can do 1 unassisted chinup per set with my clavicle touching the bar. No more than that.

While I can do sets of 6 inverted rows on the floor with a lebert equaliser setup.

I have to choose one among the two for my routine given the time constraint and the energy constraint throughout the day.

My goal is to develop a strong back. Target is arch back clean form pullups from deadhang with proper scapular movement.

Which one should I choose to be my back movement for better development. For pushing I am doing pushups and for lower body I am doing ATG split squats.

Edit: I know doing both is beneficial or the best option. But it gets me too drained for that day and the next for my strenuous job, which is non-negotiable at the moment.

ML research is progressing at breakneck speed where frontier labs in both academia and industry have access to considerably large computes (GPUs). Where do small labs or independent researchers go in this context?

Have you come across recent works in ML/DL and its applications (vision, language, speech, etc) where the work is good but it uses very limited compute? Maybe even single GPU workstations? In the past it was still possible, but, I am losing hope that single GPU works would soon become impossible.

Pls link to the works.

I came across InfiniteDiffusion, a work by an independent researcher Alexander Goslin using a single RTX 3090 : https://xandergos.github.io/terrain-diffusion/

I am not sure if this is the correct venue to ask this question. But I don't know the appropriate terms to search on my own.

Suppose someone is suffering from major depressive disorder. Can it make them overly sensitive to certain sufferings in the world such that they try to solve that issue at the expense of their own financial distress or burden?

E.g. Every stray animal (cat specially) that someone sees on the road evokes a pain or ache in the heart so much that the person goes to the extent of financial bankruptcy to find them a home or provide treatment for them. Even sometimes the stray might not be in any pain. But, it invokes the feeling in someone that animals are in pain and have no food to eat, when in most cases they are not. The same feeling about humans is not evoked.

Now, everyone is sympathetic to things like world poverty. But everyone knows their capacity of how much they can contribute to help solving it without bankrupting themselves both mentally or financially.

Why does this happen? What is this phenomena called? Where can I read about it more? Is it simply to relieve her own pain and distress that she recklessly spends? Also, why does she feel pain only for animals and not generally so much about fellow humans?

Since, MAOIs carry many risks and most doctors are not experienced enough to prescribe those, is it possible to create close enough effectiveness of MAOIs by combining multiple newer antidepressants and TCAs?

Since, MAOIs carry many risks and most doctors are not experienced enough to prescribe those, is it possible to create close enough effectiveness of MAOIs by combining multiple newer antidepressants and TCAs?

If you suffer from.major depression with atypical features, which medication worked for you?

Atypical depression is a subtype of major depressive disorder different from melancholic depression. The typical features (along with core features of MDD): mood reactivity, weight gain, increased appetite, laden paralysis (feeling heavy in arms and legs), and sensitivity to interpersonal rejection and criticism, sometimes also anxiety.

I have heard about studies that say MAOIs work best in this subtype. But the studies are mixed and inconclusive as there is conflicting evidence. The other day I saw someone on the zoloft sub, where sertraline worked very well for their atypical depression, which is a SSRI.

Many clinicians online say that the subtypes don't have much implication on treatment of MDD.

If you had atypical features (even if not officially subtyped diagnostically), which meds worked for you?

Are treatment options different for different subtypes of major depressive disorder? Apart from psychosis, what about the specifiers atypical, anxious distress, melancholic?

Or is MDD diagnosis treated as a whole and drugs are trialled following the clinician's algorithm??

I recently realised after a series of incidents that I always tend to correct others in conversations. So, even closed ones have stopped sharing or opening up with me. They have formed the idea (and they are right) that I will always try to pin on them my version of correctness and not consider their option.

Is this narcissism? Or something else?

I don't want to continue like this. I want to get better as a person. I want to become a better friend, a better partner, a better safe space. I don't know why I do this overcorrecting others. How do I change that? How can I learn to be better? And where can I learn that? Books, articles, videos?

Depression (MDD) is a heterogenous disorder. But, I want to learn more about it's accurate description. How do patients present with this condition to the psychiatrist? How are different sectors of their lives affected? How do they recover? I have read throgh DSM's section on MDD. But it feels not deep enough.

I can download articles and books from my uni library.

Which medication changed your life for the better?

Also, how did it change? What were the changes that made you realise you were coming out of the hole? Were there symptoms that you didn't realise you had while you were depressed, only to realise once they got obliterated??

I may sound a bit rude. But the obsession with squeezing the glutes to go into posterior pelvic tilt is something that needs to be talked about. It is often over-emphasized in movements such as pushups, rows, etc.

What should be the number one priority is bracing the core like a belt and learning that. Many experts miss this cue during demonstration because their body naturally does this during resistance movements.

I learned it the hard way. As a beginner I just kept on squeezing the glutes until it started causing irritation in my upper glute region. Then I started with neutral pelvis and it went away. But I wasn't progressing with pushups or pullups for that matter. Then I started bracing properly in my movements and I started feeling muscles (although that is not important). More precisely I started feeling strong and started progressing with my workouts. My long desk job during my 20s and my inactivity and other life issues just ruined my core and deep core muscles. I couldn't sit without support. I had to rebuilt my core strength such that bracing becomes natural while lifting things or pushing things. I wasn't to me for a long long time.

I understand the appeal of PPT, but, for beginners I think learning to actively brace through movements should be top priority such that it becomes second nature and automatic with time.

Even I used to perform hollow holds without proper abdominal tension (bracing). I just focused on gluing my back to the floor. It didn't work

P.S: Infact, the calimove video for pushups in the FAQ doesn't talk about bracing at all. I understand because it is natural to the instructor since, they are advanced.

Most antidepressants can increase weight as a side effect even though they can work beautifully for the original disorder that is being treated.

Depression itself can cause weight gain (weight loss for some). Those who were already overweight due to their mental health condition, which medicines worked for you and didn't affect weight that much??

Anxiety is a comorbid condition for a vast majority of people suffering from major depression. Anxiety affects every part of life and build avoidance behaviors regarding everything including romantic relationships.

What med/therapy or combo worked best for your anxious depression, if you had it? And how did you realise that the treatment was working for you?