Do Antidepressants Make you Feel Numb?

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I suppose this question is too general since they all have different reactions. But I was wondering for anyone who is on Effexor or the generic version of it.

I notice that while it didn’t exactly cure my depression, it kept me from acting out. Since I’ve been on it I don’t have extreme fixations about suicide or self harm as I used to. That said, the side effects are awful if I skip a day and I’m wondering if this medication causes me to feel like a vegetable. My psychiatrist thinks that it could be depression and that I may need to up my dose and get some therapy. Here’s the problem, I’m tired of pills and I can’t afford therapy. I no longer have insurance and was thinking of slowly coming off of it but I’m worried about my behavior and how it will affect me. On the other hand I’m wondering if there are other alternatives out there. I kind of miss some of the feelings I had that made me less a zombie.

Not sure if I’m communicating this well but I’d be curious to know what your experiences on this particular medication have been and if anyone else feels “numb”. I’ve often wondered if the medication may have magnified my traits when it comes to being able to genuinely laugh at jokes or feel in ways that seemed more intense than they do now.

venlafaxine never made me feel numb but I definitely knew when I missed a dose ( Brain zaps ) , it woke me up if anything but it made my BP go through the roof so I had to stop taking it. I'm currently on Prozac and that does make me feel numb but it quiets my mind so it's the lesser of two evils.

If you decide to stop taking Effexor , make sure you taper off slowly , I just stopped dead and I was manic for 6-7 days , it's the most productive I've ever been but it was driving me crazy.

Venlafaxine made my blood pressure get really high too. I had to come off it for that reason.

I've found that if one antidepressant is replaced by another smoothly, then you don't get those awful brain zaps and dizziness.

I'm on moclobemide now and it works well. I have found, though, as with other antidepressants, that it subdues obsessions, good ones and bad ones. I haven't had a good special interest for a very long time.

Trazodone made me feel fuzzy, as if my head was full of cotton. Nortriptyline, a tricyclic, gave me more energy, but is seldom prescribed nowadays due to cardiac toxicity. One of the SSRI's killed my sexual response. I had no negative experiences with Effexor. Now I am on Cymbalta, and it's great. I'm not depressed, and I am able to enjoy things. No obsessions, no impulsivity.

Don't run right out and ask for Cymbalta. Different strokes for different folks. Since I also have fibromyalgia, it was a good pick for me because it treats both conditions with a single drug. Your mileage may vary!

Definitely , everyone's different , I couldn't get on with Cymbalta , it made really lethargic and gave me bad tinnitus.

Antidepressants Do make you feel numb along with other effects such as tinnitus High BP/Low BP, tachycardia/ bradycardia lousiness shivering of hands etc
THey must be avoided if it is possible.
Physical exercise greatly reduces depression along with breathing exercises.... Emotional support is very Important.
And any form of antidepressant will have one or the other reaction / side effect.
Doctors have gone nuts with using them n so hav patients.

I was put on Prozac, Paxil and Welbutrin in that order.

TRIGGER WARNINGProzac made me so numb, for so long, I tried to kill myself. I couldn't stand not being able to feel ANYTHING at all. On top of all the trauma and hurt, suddenly being devoid of literally every feeling was too much. I could understand, logically, that I was supposed to be afraid of sexual harassment and rape. I knew, logically, that I should be sad that I just got hit so hard my neck cracked and burned, for nothing. But I couldn't FEEL anything about it. I had no drive to save myself, to do anything really.

Paxil made me paranoid.

Welbutrin made me violent.

Never. I credit depression for making me numb. However I think SSRI’s are beginning to work less well on me and I still experience extreme mood swings and anxiety. I can’t say for certain if the medication is ineffective or if my mental health is actually worse than I thought.

Ugh, it's so common for doctors to blame medication side-effects on the depression and to present raising the dose as the solution

Serotonin agonists are known to make some people feel numb, and have certainly not been proven to cure (or even treat) severe depression: https://davidhealy.org/wp-content/uploa ... .h1771.pdf

A solution might to try an atypical antidepressant like mirtazapine, which doesn't raise your serotonin levels to produce such numbing effects.

I agree with your doctor about the therapy. If you can't afford to see a therapist, there are books that could help. This is an unorthodox solution, but books changed my life: by reading, I went from being constantly anxious and angry to being consistently tranquil. As a starting point I would recommend 'The Antidote: Happiness for People Who Can't Stand Positive Thinking' by Oliver Burkeman.

Edit: self-help books are usually sniffed at for good reason, because most of what they offer (the 'positive thinking' doctrine) doesn't work. The aforementioned book isn't like that. Another one that really helped me was 'A Guide to the Good Life' by William Irvine, but that isn't as accessible as Burkeman's book, which is why I don't recommend it as a first port of call.

I was talking to a GP I know a few months back and he told me that the feedback he most gets from patients ("all the time") on antidepressants is "I feel numb" and "I just felt like a zombie on them", with the second one being the most common response he heard, and came from most of the people he had prescribed them for.

I wasn't on venlafaxine or desvenlafaxine long enough to realize how they made me feel. I was already very low functioning mental health wise so I wasn't in a position to evaluate.

Antidepressants never did anything for me, except a couple gave me an allergic reaction. I've tried 5 or 6 of them.

I take Geodon now, which is a mood stabilizer, and it definitely makes me numb. I take it for bi-polar, and my mania doesn't present as euphoria but rather insomnia and irritability. After about 8 months of taking it I got tired of feeling dead inside so I quit, cold turkey. Man, huge mistake. The insomnia and irritability came back in just a couple days and it was horrible. I realized I'd rather feel numb any day than have those symptoms.

Geodon is an atypical antipsychotic. I tried it when I was suffering from a psychotic depression but it caused me to have ticks & twiches so I wasn't on it very long. I didn't feel numb on a lot of the psych meds I tried but I guess they affect different people differently.

Yep.

I tried and was on Geodon/Zeldox for about two years. Then it was found that it gave me heart problems as I had an ECG. A shame because it was a good medication with minimal side effects.