I've been on SNRI's for a decade +. Venlafaxine, the worst of the bunch.
They "work" in that I can feel barely able to live as opposed to definitely wanting to off myself daily.
But they disabled my dick and flatten any kind of peak-ey emotions as well, including riding a rollercoaster.
If I forget even a single dose - BANG, brain zaps for 12 hours. Good luck falling asleep.
I don't know whether to be thankful they exist or to be sorry I got on them and have to live life like some sort of half-human in the meantime.
This fear has kept me depressed and anxious my whole entire life. 😀 But I'm pretty much at the end of my rope now, so hopefully I can force myself to see a doctor and get some of these addictive pills.
You do you. I just kicked an 8yr addiction and feel better than ever, because I worked on myself and got my brain to make the happy chems. Being addicted is the worst nightmare I’ve ever been through. It starts with “omg this actually works, I can live again!” And ends with EVERYTHING on pause. I was not a human anymore, just a robot/slave to the drug and society. A perfect little worker. Happy to be free and be a real biological creature again. If I feel bad now, there’s a reason and I go change it, it was a whole lot of work to internalize that realisation.
But hey, everyone’s different, and using drugs might help you! It just didn’t for me. More power to you.