Non Humor | SSRI Addiction or Physical Dependency Update 2

SSRI Addiction or Physical Dependency Update 2
By Andy Alt / Mental Dimensions

Jul 25, 2008 – I received a very fascinating call a few minutes ago. The caller was from Representative John Kline’s office; John Kline represents Congressional District 2 in Minnesota. He thanked me for my letter about addiction and ssri medication. He said he wasn’t aware of the addiction/physical dependency issue. I clarified to him that I wasn’t a doctor, and he said they’d do some research and talk to some professionals on staff. And depending on what they found out, there would be… I believe the word he used was hearing.

I mentioned in Contacting the Complaint Department about Prescription Drugs that I mailed that article about to several destinations. Representative Kline was one of them. The others include the following: State Rep. David Bly (thank you for the card, David), State Senator Kevin Dahle, Governor Tim Pawlenty, Senator Amy Klobuchar, Senator Norm Coleman, Al Franken, and some of you are already aware that it was first seen when the Northfield News published it.

A few days after I wrote the article, it occurred to me that with the military involved, awareness of the dependency issue might finally be addressed. If I had mailed that article as a patient one year ago, with no mention of veterans, I wouldn’t have received a return phone call, I’m sure. It was then that I realized this might be another turning point for mental health treatment and the pharmaceutical industry, among others.

I should be careful not to complain, after all, I have escaped the lobotomy craze of the 50s and so far, electro-convulsive shock therapy and the dungeons of insane asylums. Therefore, I’ll try to complain less, since progress has been made, and it will continue. I told a friend of mine that if I ever talk to her of suicide, it’ll be her job to remind me that a more effective pill will be available within the next 10 or 20 years (that’s assuming psychotherapy won’t have done the trick for me by then).

I recently started taking Wellbutrin SR (Bupropion, Zyban) to quit smoking. If it happens to help with my depression and energy level, I won’t complain then, either. I was on it about 14 years ago for less than a year, and I quit smoking for about 8 months. I think I started drinking again because I went back to smoking. This time around, I’ll test the effects of the drug without the alcohol interaction. As I recall, Wellbutrin gave me few to no side effects, also I don’t remember any withdrawal symptoms, severe or otherwise. I could have easily been more depressed, agitated or anxious after I stopped using it, but that’s somewhat normal for me and unless it was extremely severe I wouldn’t have attributed it to the cessation of Wellbutrin. For the record, it was Paxil and Effexor that gave me the problems.