Wednesday, April 18, 2012

My “a-duh” moment: Brain Damage and SSRI’s

This should not have been so hard to grasp for me.  Zoloft, which I took in large doses (200mg) for a year in 2000 and just under 6 years in smaller doses (25-50mg; 2006-2011, with a few 3-4 month “off” periods) is an SSRI.  The acronym alone is informative and should have provided a clue “serotonin re-uptake inhibitor”.   It blocks your nervous system from re-assimilating  the serotonin that your body produces.  Its effects are supposedly to help with depression.  I took it as a sleep aid, which worked for a while.

The big “a-duh” moment  is my recent  realization (epiphany even) that the body, being the adaptable thing that it is, will probably eventually produce less serotonin if its re-uptake is blocked by some ingested pharmaceutical, in a quest for equilibrium.  This is a hypothesis that is not too hard to infer with a little bit of biochemical awareness and common sense.  I should have thought of this years ago.  And just as my thoughts were turning in this direction, an Internet search turns up this article http://www.psychologytoday.com/print/68229, which suggests as much.  This may explain much about why I have such low serotonin levels.   My last Zoloft pill was July 2011 – my ability to naturally produce serotonin is probably still impaired.

Its sobering that my insomnia may be fallout from SSRI–induced brain damage, with uncertain irreversibility.  BTW, I’ve relapsed back into insomnia-land despite my new serotonogenic supplement regime – hopefully temporarily. 

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