From: Jim Fehlinger (fehlinger@home.com)
Date: Sun Mar 18 2001 - 14:48:22 MST
Samantha Atkins wrote:
> Hugo Alves wrote:
>
> > Boredom is an emotion and already we have means
> > (drugs etc.) that can reliably dispel boredom for extended periods (albeit
> > sometimes with side-effects).
> I have friends who take some of these anti-depressants. I have
> watched many of them have their creativity and a large part of
> their joy flattened in order to have a even-tempered ok-ness take its place.
When I took the tricyclic antidepressant imipramine (Tofranil) for a year,
some 20 years ago, I was struck by the similarity of the drug's effect
on emotional response to the side effect it has of blunting orgasm.
In both cases, it changes the "spike" into a mild "swell" :->
Emotionally, you have the impression of **watching** yourself
feel things, rather than feeling them directly.
However, if you had previously been in the circumstance of having
ordinary social encounters stab you with hot blades of self-hatred,
you'd welcome the relief (you don't stop feeling them altogether;
they just don't seem to penetrate very deeply anymore).
Make no mistake, these drugs **do** work, at a cost (so what else
is new?).
Jim F.
P.S. -- I have no experience of the newer fluoxetine/Prozac and
other SSRIs (fluoxetine was only available in Europe when I
was taking the imipramine), but from what I've heard, the effects
are similar.
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