dave w replied: "i've taken that personally, as well as a few other antidepressants (paxil, zoloft, i forget what else). wellbutrin is the worse stuff i've ever taken. i took it for about a month and it made me psychotic. i was merely depressed before taking it (i also smoked more while on it. remember: this is the drug which was rebranded under a different name and sold as a smoking cessation pill). after a month on wellbutrin i ended up in a psych hospital for a few days. paxil worked well for me, but i felt somewhat like i was on xtc while on it. zoloft had the least side effects for me. i also found it almost impossible to fall asleep most of the time while on SSRIs, so i took ambien before going to bed. i don't take anything any more. i've determined that the reason for my issues is autism, so i take into account autism coping techniques and have learned when to stop when i've reached a limit with something. i've also taken benzodiazepines (as someone else here is quite fond of) and they do provide nearly instant relief with anxiety, and probably anxiety-induced depression. i think that SSRIs are useful tools, but not to be taken indefinitely. someone else mentioned thinking positively. learning how to do this has kept me from getting depressed in situations similar to past experiences which resulted in depression. however, when one is actually depressed it's quite difficult to change one's way of thinking into the positive. that's where i think SSRIs, etc come in. after you have regained comfort and learned some coping skills, then i think it's time to ween off of them. every psychiatrist except one (out of 6 or 7?) has adamantly told me that i'd need to take those drugs forever. the one who didn't was the rare psych who actually listened to me. oh, and besides the long-term health concern of these drugs, they seem to take away one's sense of self. you're maybe no longer depressed, and maybe artificially happy about anything, but things just don't feel real. some of these psych medicines also impair your cognitive abilities, which probably doesn't matter to most people, but if you need to engage in deep logical thought often, it can be a problem."