anti depressants and addiction

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Do you take it in the morning or night?

I used to take SSRI as soon as I woke up.

If I took them at night I couldn't sleep.

Maybe taking them first thing would help with the anger?

My GP also disagreed when I said Paxil causes me to become angry. She said anger is a separate issue. I was quietly sceptical. There must be at least some overlap.

I take them first thing I'd not risk it the other way round

It depends on your definition of addiction. Paxil use does not lead to chemical dependency, but it can lead to a psychological one. Anti-depressants my their nature alter behavior so it makes sense that as you stop taking it you would have unpleasant side-effects from lowering or stopping the regular dose. Just like they do when starting them.

I have been on and off of just about every type (SSRI, MAOIs, and Tri-cyclic) and while withdrawal isn't easy is not impossible.

When i came of paxil i had a white face, and i was told i looked ill.

If drug is used to cure a chemical imbalance, wouldnt it be logical to have a chemical dependancy?

Mayo clinic talks about "withdrawal like symptoms" which sounds like weasel words. These include:

General feeling of uneasiness
Nausea
Dizziness
Lethargy
Flu-like symptoms

Thats more than psychological

All of those symptoms are also to be expected when Starting paxil as well, with the exception of "flu-like symptoms" which of not cased by a cold or flu are psychosomatic, so no it doesn't really sound more that psychological. Starting and stopping any anti-depressant will cause side-effects. These are not the result of a chemical dependancy.

Dependence and addiction are similar but separate issues.

Addiction is a powerful urge to do something, even if it is detrimental to your health.

Dependence is when you require a chemical to function.

Antidepressants don't create an urge to keep taking them. They can lead to dependence, but not necessarily addiction. Addiction is the positive need to keep taking something, whereas dependence is the negative need to not stop taking it - at least that's how I'm going to explain it.

As I said earlier, it depends on YOUR definition

I tend to use the terms addiction and dependence interchangeably, because everybody seems to have different views on what the difference is, and some recommend abandoning the terms.

https://www.addictioncenter.com/addicti ... ependence/

I don't understand the difference, if there is one at all, so to my mind they both refer to a condition where discontinuing a drug (or whatever) would be uncomfortable or harmful. I suppose the effects of withdrawal can be divided into physical and psychological, but the result may be much the same - discontinuation causes problems that didn't exist before the drug was first taken. So for any particular drug, it would be important to know the likely nature and severity of those problems, and to develop a safe, effective, and (hopefully) comfortable exit strategy.

If longterm use of the drug had no adverse effects and the continued supply of the drug was secure, there'd be no reason to discontinue it anyway, but I don't suppose there are many drugs like that.

As for antidepressants, many sources say they're usually not addictive:
https://www.findatopdoc.com/Questions/w ... -addictive

But for all that, discontinuation can often lead to problems:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antidepre ... n_syndrome

So it might be dangerously misleading to simply ask your doctor "are these addictive?" because the answer would probably be "no." So I think it's better to drop the term "addictive" and just ask "might there be any problems with discontinuation?" And I wouldn't just take the doctor's word for it, because you might not get the full and frank answer you want.