Mental Health

During your heart’s electrical conduction there are different phases. You have the contraction of the atria. The little pumps above the ventricle (main pumps) whose role is to help fill up the ventricles. The contraction of the ventricles. The main pumping part of your heart that pumps the blood to both your body and your lungs. And the repolarisation of both the atria and the ventricles. Basically the heart muscle reseting for another beat.

The atria contract first and repolarise first. On an ECG (heart trace) the atrial contraction corresponds to the P-wave. The little wave at the front. The atrial repolarisation occurs during ventricular contraction so you can see it on the ecg. When the ventricular contraction occurs you see the sharp up and down squiggles on the ECG. This is the QRS complex. Following ventricular contraction there is ventricular repolarisation. This occurs after the QRS complex and looks like a really big P-wave. This is the T-wave.

QTc prolongation is when the T wave takes a long time to occur after the QRS complex. When it gets too bad it is dangerous because the electrical energy that occurs in the T wave can set off another contraction of the heart. This contraction occurs outside of the normal pattern of the heart and the heart does not pump effectively leading to something called torsades de pointe which can develop into ventricular fibrillation leading to cardiac arrest (your heart not really pumping any blood).

Here is a labeled picture of an ECG ignore the u-wave its not really relevant and does not always occur.

Here is a picture of the heart showing the location of the atria and ventricular Heart

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/QT_interval

The QT interval is a measurement made on an electrocardiogram used to assess some of the electrical properties of the heart. (...) An abnormally long or abnormally short QT interval is associated with an increased risk of developing abnormal heart rhythms and sudden cardiac death.

QTc stands for QT corrected for heart rate, the medication that increases QTc will increase the risk of certain dangerous heart conditions.

I have never been diagnosed with anything and never consumed any antidepressant or other psychopharmaceutical, but I get what you are describing like a lot, especially lately but since practically forever, at least since I was 12.

I practically often feel like the 2 taxi drivers in the Hudsucker Proxy (as I identify 2 internal voices) describing, in a detached way, whatever I do, including me typing on the keyboard right now (with one of them making fun of the fact that I still haven't got the confidence to never look at the keys while typing).

Are we talking here about something that would hinder me functioning socially and professionally or does what I described count towards something I should take care of?

That... explains a lot about a few months of my life

It's kinda funny how much medicines' effects can vary from person to person, I tried sertraline and had absolutely no difference, whereas my mother and my sister take it and it works for them

May I ask, what do you mean it leveled you out?

I also had testing for psychiatric medication-gene interaction, and can recommend it as worth it (and am in the US)

Amitriptyline as well, started taking it for peripheral neuropathy. Ended up on a higher dose because it's a heavy sedative. Take it before bed, and I'm out. I was taking Zopiclone before, to help me sleep but don't need it now. Also it failed as an antidepressant but works wonders for antianxiety.

We have it for our dog. We got it first when she was spayed and needed to chill out in order to not rip stitches and now we have it to give before stressful situations (guests, vet, etc). It definitely makes her more tired, but she will still fight through it to be crazy.

Been on it consistently for over a decade now and have always been funky with sleep. I started back in undergrad when the pressure of life left me spiralling out of control, and have since always thought I was just a weird sleeper.

I have insomnia semi often, usually anxiety-induced, but I've never thought that it could be the bupropion directly.

Very curious, and good to know.

I'm on Venlafaxine and the sexual dysfunction side effect does subside over time (months), at least that was my experience.

Venlafaxine almost killed me which is fun :^)

The issue with mental health and medications is that different root causes can create different symptoms in different people, and different medications have different effects in different people. The understanding of what those root causes even are is very limited, let alone trying to figure out what the root causes are in a specific person.

We know that certain medications have certain effects on symptoms, generally speaking, but identifying which one, at which dose, suits that specific person with a collection of reported symptoms that look like depression or anxiety or whatever, often in combination, is trial and error.

Of course, in the US, where healthcare is "fuck you, I got mine," cost does also play a role. Shouldn't, but does. Another thing to take into account is what other medications you're taking, and whether they interact poorly with one another.

Sertraline is the generic for Zoloft, and it's been FDA-approved since 1991. That's a good long time, and if you're going to prescribe an SSRI, it makes sense to give more weight to something that has a long history, for the sake of both effectiveness and side effects.