Best Antidepressants?

take a muscle relaxer and two benadryl.

It's like a euphoric sleepy stupor. Totally takes the edge off.

I've found good sleep, meditation and prayer, exercise daily, and eating healthy keep me balanced.

Agree.

Medication is a tool, not a cure. It needs to be utilized to supplement the aforementioned lifestyle along with counseling and cognitive behavioral therapy.
All the medications OP listed have multiple side effects, not just weight gain, including chemical dependence and suicide.

I've been a nurse for over 25 years and have doled out more drugs to anxious, depressed people than I can count.
I've given doses of anti-depressants, anti-anxiety agents and other mood altering substances that would snow a horse.
Without lifestyle changes, counseling and cognitive behavioral therapy, they're still anxious, depressed, miserable people.

take a muscle relaxer and two benadryl.

It's like a euphoric sleepy stupor. Totally takes the edge off.

Edge off depression that is not just a 'mood swing' ? Clinical depression...yeah treat it by becoming a spaced out junkie.:noway:

I've tried most of the meds on your list. I was diagnosed with childhood anxiety disorder at age 5, and severe clinical depression (and other things) at age 14. For me I don't think I gained anything due to the medication I was on, I gained because i was depressed and ate too much. I am currently on Celexa/citolopram (sp?) and I've lost over 85lbs in 8 months while on it. I honestly would prefer not to take medication, but every time I have gone off them over the years, I have slipped back into depression, so I guess I'm at the point where I've just accepted that for whatever reason my brain needs them to function normally. But as mentioned by several other posters, just like a diet and exercise regime, it is so completely individual and although we can say what worked/didn't work for us, it will most likely not be the same for you.
Good luck to everyone!

Vitamin D
Magnesium
Exercise
Vegetables

Not being funny, Ive taken many on your list, above is what works for me now.

Also Iron

I love how people seem to think things like sex & a walk or massage will 'fix' depression.

No... it MAY fix a bad mood.... but not diagnosed depression.

Being in a bad mood or a slum is totally different.

OP asked about ANTI DEPRESSANTS.... not how can I get out of a mood.

I've found good sleep, meditation and prayer, exercise daily, and eating healthy keep me balanced.

Agree.

Medication is a tool, not a cure. It needs to be utilized to supplement the aforementioned lifestyle along with counseling and cognitive behavioral therapy.
All the medications OP listed have multiple side effects, not just weight gain, including chemical dependence and suicide.

I've been a nurse for over 25 years and have doled out more drugs to anxious, depressed people than I can count.
I've given doses of anti-depressants, anti-anxiety agents and other mood altering substances that would snow a horse.
Without lifestyle changes, counseling and cognitive behavioral therapy, they're still anxious, depressed, miserable people.

Want to explain that to my mother who despite all of that 'therapy' she was still schizophrenic, or to me where I am borderline manic.

According to DSM-IV codes (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders), schizophrenia is classified as a psychotic disorder.
Bipolar (manic) and depression are classified as neurotic or mood disorders, which may or may not have psychotic features.

Psychosis consists of the presence of hallucinations and/or delusions, marked impairment that grossly interferes with social, occupational, academic or basic day-to-day functioning, and extremely poor "reality testing" or a so-called "break with reality."

Neuosis is a relatively mild mental illness that is not caused by organic disease, involving symptoms of stress (depression, anxiety, obsessive behavior, hypochondria) but not a radical loss of touch with reality.

Therefore they require different treatment plans and medications.
I have yet to see a schizophrenic stabilize and function well day to day without medication.

I love how people seem to think things like sex & a walk or massage will 'fix' depression.

No... it MAY fix a bad mood.... but not diagnosed depression.

Being in a bad mood or a slum is totally different.

OP asked about ANTI DEPRESSANTS.... not how can I get out of a mood.

I'm trying to determine if the majority of folks in this thread figure you can also mend a broken arm by rubbing some dirt on it and getting back to chin-ups, or if they just don't think that the brain is a part of the human body that can sustain damage.

sex

+1

I dont know about the sex advice. It only works if it's good sex.