I guess I’m depressed but I’ve never taken any meds for that. What does it feel like? Do they really make you feel happy. I have moments in the day when I’m happy but most of the time i’m fighting with my mind.
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I take Wellbutrin. It does not make me happy, but it helps get me out of bed in the morning.
The most I feel is numb and the tears are suppressed but still feel awful. I only take any at this point because one helps me not overeat and the other helps me sleep
They don’t make you happy. For me, they break up catastrophic thinking and rumination cycles. They help with anxiety. They made me very sleepy for the first few weeks, and I started remembering my dreams for the first time in over a decade. Depression killed my appetite, and on antidepressants, I began to enjoy food again (mixed blessing).
Happiness is its own thing, it’s not just the absence of misery. ADs don’t make me happy, but they alleviate the misery, which helps me get to happy on my own.
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I would say they make it possible for a depressed person to feel happiness, but stop short of actually making a depressed person happy.
As a side note, @Rhubot, it’s good to see you posting! 
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Thanks! I’ve been dealing with the aftermath of a nasty virus for the past few months, which hasn’t left much time for anything but school and sleeping.
Aww, I’m sorry to hear you haven’t been feeling well.
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They don’t make me feel happy but they do give me an ability to be happy. When depressed the ability to experience happiness is removed
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They don’t make me happy. I am never happy but they make the negatives less severe. But Latuda, one of my APs helps more than the AD but it’s expensive. You need insurance to be on it. Without my insurance I couldn’t afford it.
I’ve only ever been on ssris effectively. I did try Wellbutrin but it was more like taking caffeine pills and something which distorted my perception. Ssris and anti depressants don’t make you feel any different emotions but. You definitely can pull yourself out of the dog shut anti motivation not wanting to do anything phase. They basically slightly alter your attitude towards life and situations.
For me, depression is absolute agony, emotional pain beyond description. All i want to do is die, and unfortunately i have attempted in the past due to this. It took 5 attempts to find the right anti-depressant and i’m on Venlafaxine now. The medication doesn’t make you happy, they aren’t happy pills. For me, when i take an anti-depressant, it raises my mood to a level where i’m no longer in agony. I’m usually still mildly depressed, but from that state i can engage in group therapy that aims to provide support and resources for you to use to help you lift your mood on your own that last little bit. At the moment, my mood is quite good. If you are feeling depressed, then i would definitely go and talk to your doctor about it. Maybe a low dose anti-depressant may help or perhaps you can be referred to appropriate therapy, or a combination of both never hurts.
I get happy thoughts after taking paroxetine
I took them twice. I would not recommend them to someone, unless you are fine with using them all your life, you tried to solve your depression in more natural ways first (including waiting) and your depression is very severe. My experiences:
First, Venlafaxine, for a year. Not so much for true depression, but for a real situation that I couldn’t get out of for 2 years and felt rightfully fearful and hopeless about. Not a good reason to start an AD imho. It basicly just mildly numbed me - less fear, less sadness (even when f.e. someone I loved died), less joy, less access to my emotions overall. Less numbing than my later AP though, I could still feel love and connection. Withdrawals were horror - mood swings, psychosis. BUT I can see, how someone who has been in deep dark depression for years, gets room for happiness again on an antidepressant and prefers being on them.
Second, Zoloft. I used it only for a few weeks, because I felt weird on it. Impulsive, energetic, artificially happy, unempathic. Even a little hypomanic. Not the right med for me, but perhaps that was just me having slight bipolar tendencies.
schizophrenia is definitely very depressing. Even I don’t have many real problems in life but I’m still pretty unhappy…
Jeeze can’t we get a break?
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