Will the medication turn us into a zombie or make us look medicated?
Looking
"medicated" is often a reason that some people avoid treatment with
antidepressants. Although some medications are used in psychiatric
practice that can affect a person's state of alertness, perhaps making
that person look robotic or overly sedated, antidepressants do not cause
this. Sedation or sleepiness can sometimes occur as a side effect from
some of the medications, but usually that can be avoided by changing the
timing of the dose or switching to another medication. No one should be
able to tell by your appearance that you are taking a medication for
depression. In contrast, as depression can impair your concentration and
cause decreased energy and fatigue, the use of antidepressant therapy is
likely to make you more alert and less "robotic".
Some people
worry that their personality will be changed by medication. Medication
does not change a personality. Aside from the presence of side effects,
you should experience no specific effects from an antidepressant. For
some people, the lack of tranquilizing effects from an antidepressant
sometimes leads to the conclusion that the medicine "is not doing
anything". Antidepressants do not make you feel any differently or as if
you have taken a medication. For someone who has been depressed for years
(such as in dysthymic disorder), it may seem as if this is just a part of
his or her personality so that once the depression is lifted one might
wonder if his or her personality has changed. Similarly, some people
believe that they will no longer experience sadness and thus not feel
human. Sadness is in fact a normal emotion and is not supposed to be
eliminated by antidepressant use. Some people do feel their emotions have
dulled somewhat; if this occurs, it may simply mean a slightly lower dose
of the medication is needed.
