#this is a silly but easily-comes-to-mind example: that ‘i can’t get therapy or i won’t be funny anymore’ mindset | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

nad-zeta · 4 years

Note

I'm a dum dum , didn't even realize your requests are open 😂. Ok~ I hope I'm following your rules– cuz I couldn't find any :")) but would you mind doing a hc for Ikesen characters(you can choose the characters! I don't really mind) reacting to a teenager MC(from ages 14-17)? I've seen lots of child MCs but not a teenager one.

Headcanon: Teenage MC feat: Nobunaga, Kenshin, Ieyasu, Hideyoshi and Masamune

Hehehe that's cause I'm a lazy potato so, for now, there are no rules lol 😂 😂 😂 ! Lol so for this I made it more fun and less romantic cause like don't want my sweet bios to look like pedos u know lol 🥀 ! Thanx for the request dear I hope you like it! And I hope you have the best day! (✿◠‿◠)

Nobunaga

The first time he sees you he is super intrigued

Like how did someone so young and smol manage to pull him out of a freaken burning building

He went into full BIG BRO MODE

The two of you would get up to all sorts of mischief together

Stealing candy together is a given

You would harry potter style hide under a not so invisible cloak, running to the kitchen together like hunched old ladies

The second you enter the kitchen the hunt for the candy begins

You find the jar in 0.2 seconds “Trust me this ain’t my first rodeo.”

“Aaaah so my fireball sister is an experienced thief then.”

The two of you happily munch on the candy in the kitchen when all of a sudden the two of you heard someone at the door

The two of you turned in sync to see Mother Dearest Amber eyes shining with anger in the dark

“How many times have I told you stealing is bad, and that candy before bed is extremely unhealthy.”

He turned to look at Nobunaga, who looked like a guilty schoolboy “My lord, you are supposed to set the example, how do you expect to be a good big brother if you are influencing her to steal and eat candy before bed.”

Everything was going perfectly according to plan- while Hideyoshi was distracted you snuck a few handfuls of candy in the hidden pockets of you kimono

Once you were done with your mission you chimed in “Yeah big bro how do u expect me to be a good girl when you always dragging me along to steal the candy.”

“Oooooh don’t think I forgot about you, young lady.”

He lectured the two of you for three hours

Hideyoshi sent both of you back to your rooms.

Luckily Nobunaga’s’sNobunaga’s’s room was right on top of yours and you were experienced in the art of sneaking out to meet up with friends

So you easily climbed up onto his balcony and snuck into his room

The two of you snicked and laughed while munching on candy together

Hideyoshi

“Have you eaten yet today, brushed your teeth, done all your chores.”

Catches you stealing candy at night with Nobunaga again

“How many times have I told you not to eat candy before bed young lady.”

Hideyoshi has full-blown turned into your castle mom

You had been secretly dating some random boy, you met in the market

You twisted your ankle sneaking out your room to go and see him, luckily Mamayoshi was doing his final rounds of the castle and found you hissing on the ground.

He picked you up and patched you up real good

Cue lecture about sneaking out in the middle of the night

The next day the boy broke up with you- cause he a piece o shit

You spent the whole day crying in your room

Cue Mamayoshi barging into your room, cause the maids had informed him that you skipped breakfast!

(ಥ﹏ಥ)

“Who dare break my favourite sister’s heart” (ノಠ益ಠ)ノ彡┻━┻

“Just show me who he is and I’ll teach that freaken punk a lesson he will never forget” (╬ ಠ益ಠ)

You spent hours crying on his shoulder, Hideyoshi made you some tea and took you to the market to do some retail therapy

You would go to Mamayoshi for advice all the freaken time, you really did see him as a mom

Have boy trouble Hideyoshi is there helping ya out and giving you advice, struggling to do the homework Mitsuhide gave you, Mama will sit for hours helping you, someone Is bullying you? Hideyoshi will mom style cut them

Will take you out to tea all the time, and the two of you will low key spill the tea on all the latest gossip

Kenshin

Treats you like a fragile princess

Will be an extremely doting brother

Will 100% teach you how to defend yourself

Feeling sad, Kenshin will legit find the source of your sadness and freaken kill them

Feeling anxious or insecure, Kenshin will be there wrapping you in a big bear hug while drawing soothing circles on your back. He will soothingly comfort you as your cry on his shoulder

Will summon his army of fluff balls to cuddle with you until that smile is back on your face

You like a boy in the market… forget about it. Kenshin is there glaring at the boy… “He is not good enough for my dearest sister.”

You give Kenshin puppy dog eyes “No way bunny, you are still a baby, definitely not old enough to date. Come on, let go get some tea and pickled plumbs to cheer you up.”

You cant say no to Kenshin especially when he gives you his puppy dog eyes in return

Will always insist on holing your hand when walking in the market together

Will legit kill anyone or anything that threatens you

Will give you platonic forehead and cheek kisses

Loves it when you sass and roll your eyes at Shingen trying to pick up all the woman at banquets

Will let you sneak a few sips of his sake, and you are the only one he will share his pickled plumbs with

Will send you off to bed when it gets too late, the bunnies have taken quite a liking to you so they will accompany you back to your room and cuddle with you

Masamune

“come on lass lets’s go on an adventure.”

“No way the last time we went on an adventure I was almost killed and both of us got an hour-long lecture about the dangers of waterfalls.”

“Where is your sense of adventure kitten.”

“The same place your sense of safety is, non-existent.’

Drags you with him to go hiking, when you were on the top of the mountain you slipped on some loose gravel. Masamune caught you, and both of you went tumbling into a lake

You couldn’t help but laugh

The two of you splashed around in the water until late into the afternoon

“Quick lass let’s sneak in before mother dearest scolds us for.”

Too late he was already waiting for the two of you

Masa will cook you anything and everything your heart desires, when you tell him you’re on a diet cause some boy called you fat Masamune’s eyes widens.

He will bring your favourite dish an place it just under your nose, you can’t help but crumble damn that smell too good to waste, “Fine but my diet starts tomorrow”, (っ˘ڡ˘ς) you say with a mouth full of food

Lol tomorrow never came and that asshole of a boy was never seen again

Sometimes it was hard to tell who the teenager was you or Masamune, the two of you would always joke around pulling pranks on all the castle residents

You were actually pretty thankful Masamune didn’t drink, cause it made you feel like you weren’t missing out on anything during banquets

At the end of the banquets it would always be you, Masa and Mitsuhide left awake and playing card games till dawn

Will leave Shogetsu with you during times of war. The big cat literally destroys everything

“No way masa, ask Mitsunari to watch him, last time when I woke up he shredded everything in my room”, he just grinned at you “That’s what adds to his cuteness”. (=^・^=)

You narrowed your eyes at him “What’s in it for me”. (¬_¬)

“I’ll bring you back a months supply worth of candy and I Masamune Date will owe you a favour”.

You beamed up at him, that would definitely come in handy one day “Fine I’ll do it”. (｡◕‿◕｡)

“Thanks, kitten that’s why you’re my favourite sister”,

You rolled your eyes “I’m your only sister”.

He pats you on the head while chuckling “Exactly” (＾��＾)

Ieyasu

Would have witty battles with the resident porcupine all of the time

Masamune would literally, howl in laughter when the two of you are at it.

You would juts roll your eyes “Not my fault Ieyasu is always so salty.”

The amount of time the two of you have had an eye-rolling contest is ridiculous

Even though the two of you fight like cats and dog you still enjoy Ieyasu’s’sIeyasu’s’s company

Ieyasu actually shows you his soft side

One day a boy broke your heart

You walked into Ieyasu’s room and looked at him ༼ つ ಥ_ಥ ༽つ

Ieyasu rushed to you and wrapped you up in his arms and let you cry it out

“You know what will be fun” Ieyasu asked with a hint of mischief in this emerald eyes

“What” (“･ω･`) you asked sniffing and wiping the last of your tears away

“If we make that punk regret ever breaking your heart.”

You couldn’t help but give him the biggest brightest smile, the two of you snuck out that night and egged his house

You are the only person privileged enough to know Ieyasu’s soft side

The two of you will have a chilli eating contest

Basically ends with you drinking a gallon of milk and losing all sense of taste “Silly girl this isn’t even the hottest peppers yet.”

You will play matchmaker to get Ieyasu a date/lover

He will legit just roll his eyes at the suggestion, he is way too busy with work

“I found the perfect person for you Yasu, they are sweet, kind you know basically an angel and don’t worry they definitely won’t get put off by your contrary personality.”

Yasu raises a brow “Who” (ーー;)

You snicker a little and burst out laughing “MITSUNAR, he is perfect for you.”

Yasu legit spits out the tea he was sipping on, he was turning as red as a tomato

Yasu.exe has stopped working

“I freaken knew it, I’m gonna go tell him right now” (°o°)

“Don’t you dare” (ー_ー)!!

(✿◠‿◠)

(((( ；ﾟДﾟ))) Yasu legit leaps over his desk and tackles you to the ground tickling you until you surrender

“Fine but if the two of you ever get married, I better be your maid of honour.”

Yasu legit just ruffled your hair and rolled his eyes “Yeah yeah whatever just don’t tell him.”

Hope you liked it, dear! <3

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psychotic-spectrum · 5 years

Note

I think i might be schizophrenic or maybe psychotic but I can’t see a therapist. I experience closed eyed hallucinations, hallucinations in the dark, delusions, and physical hallucinations. Do you have any resources about symptoms or how to handle these things?

Hi anon.

I’m sorry to hear that you’re struggling with symptoms and that you can’t see a therapist. I found a wiki page with a lot of useful information on how to handel hallucinations.

Remember that hallucinations can never hurt you.

Your brain is playing tricks on you, but you are safe. No matter how disturbing the hallucination might be, it isn't going to harm you.

Hearing voices can be a sign of stress, so do activities that relax you.[2] Sleep deprivation, isolation, dehydration or starvation, strong emotions, fever/illness, and drug use can also cause hallucinations.[3]

Tell yourself "it's just a symptom" or "just because it sounds/looks/feels real doesn't mean it is."

Check if the thing is real.

Sometimes, the hallucinations might obviously be fake (like a cat with glowing eyes and wings), but other times, they may be more subtle. Here are some ways to test whether something is a hallucination:

Sight: Try taking a photo of what you see. If it doesn't show up in the photo, it's not real.

If you wear glasses, try taking them off and see if the hallucination looks "clear," like when you're wearing your glasses.

Hearing: Try taking a recording of what you hear on your phone. If the voices are too loud, ask someone else to listen to the recording. Or play music: if the voices are still clear despite there being loud music, they're a hallucination.

Smell: Ask another person, "Do you smell that?" If they don't, it's probably a hallucination.

Taste: Ask someone to try a bit of what you're eating. If they don't taste what you're tasting, it's likely a hallucination, and your food is fine.

You can also notice if other people and animals are reacting to whatever you're noticing. If nobody seems to notice it, it may not be real.

Engage with something that you know is real.

This can help you focus on something better, and distract you from the hallucination.

Try doing something that you enjoy, like working on a hobby, playing with a pet, watching a show, or playing a favorite game.

Try using a different sense than the one the hallucination is engaging. For example, if you're having visual hallucinations, then you could sing along to music.[6]

Sometimes, blocking out the hallucination using the same sense might work. For example, if you're having tactile hallucinations, a warm shower or cold compress might drown out those feelings.

Try a grounding exercise.

Grounding exercises can help you stay connected to reality.

Focus on the senses that are best connected to reality right now.

Try treating visual hallucinations as friends or companions.

Give them a name. Tell them about your day, if you're alone. This can make them seem less scary.

Which is more scary: an eldritch four-tailed abomination in your corner, or the four-tailed creature named Fluffy who listens to you talk about your troubles at work?

Dismiss any mean voices inside your head.

Sometimes, you may hear voices saying awful things to you, or telling you to do bad things. Pretend they're coming from edgy, pathetic teens who are trying to upset you by being as rude as possible.

If you're in private, you might want to talk back to them. Insult the voices right back, be sarcastic, and mock them. It won't make them stop, but it may help you cope.

If you're in public, you can talk into a phone while talking to the mean voices, so that people don't get confused.

Do what helps you feel safe.

It's okay to be upset by hallucinations, even if you know they aren't real. They can be scary or disturbing sometimes. Any calming rituals, even if they might seem "silly" to other people, are worth doing if they help you.

Go to a place that makes you feel safe.

Use any comfort objects, like a favorite blanket or a book that you like to re-read.

Turn on the lights.

Play your favorite, most relaxing music.

Spend time with people who help you feel safe.

Using Long-Term Strategies

If you've been diagnosed with a mental or physical illness that causes hallucinations, work on self care.

Take your medication, as directed, every day.

Set an alarm on your phone, or write a reminder.

Talk to your doctor about what to do if you realize that you missed a dose.

If you have a pet, give your pet a treat every time you take your meds. You may forget when it's time to take your meds, but your pet won't.

Know your early signs.

This will help you recognize an oncoming episode, so you can prepare and perhaps adjust your medication or talk to a doctor.

Potential early signs include:

Sleep changes

Isolation

Feeling annoyed more easily

Wondering if it's time to stop taking your meds

Keep a diary of your hallucinations. This can help you notice patterns, such as situations when they're more likely to show up.[14] If you want, the diary could also be helpful to show to anyone who you want to explain your situation to, like a doctor.

Find ways to reduce stress in your daily life.

A lower-stress lifestyle can help reduce hallucinations. Try to do something relaxing or enjoyable each day, and limit your exposure to things that cause you stress.

Spend time with loved ones.

Try to exercise, even in small ways.

Enjoy your hobbies.

Try spending time with animals.

Get advice on how to tackle the most stressful areas of your life.

Spend less time on stressful news or social media sites.

Cut out (or at least reduce exposure to) toxic people, places and habits.

Try mindfulness and meditation. Some people find these helpful for managing hallucinations. Try focusing on your breathing, or being aware of what you're going through.

Talk to your loved ones about how they can help you when you're hallucinating. People without hallucinations may feel worried, confused, or powerless to help. You can tell them what would help you most, so they know what to do when you're hallucinating. Here are some examples of things you can say:

"Sometimes I forget what to do when I hallucinate, because I'm so scared that I forget how to help myself. It would be helpful for you to gently remind me of the strategies I can use."

"There's not much you can do when I hallucinate. But if you stay with me, and listen and validate my feelings, it really helps me feel better."

"Please don't argue with my hallucinations. It doesn't help me. What I really need is someone to listen to me and acknowledge my feelings, even if the hallucinations aren't real."

Avoid self isolation. Being alone with your delusions or hallucinations can make them worse.[16] Try to spend time seeing friends or family.

Stick with your self-care habits as much as you can.

Sleep well, get outdoors to exercise, and eat healthy food. This can help you feel healthier and stronger, so you're better able to cope with difficult situations.

Don't punish yourself if you have a bad day and aren't able to take good care of yourself. Tomorrow is a new day. Just keep doing your best.

Avoid drugs and alcohol.

These may worsen your hallucinations, or impair your ability to deal with them.

Marijuana might calm you down in the moment, but it makes symptoms worse and increases the risk of a relapse.

The next pieces of advice are about getting professional help, if you can’t get read them anyway because they can be useful for the future

See a doctor if you don't know why you're hallucinating.

It's important to know what's going on with you, and to get an accurate diagnosis. Make a doctor appointment to talk about what's going on with you. Sometimes hallucinations are brought on by severe stress or lack of sleep,

while other times they are a sign of a mental or physical illness.

If you've been keeping a journal of symptoms, bring it along.

If talking about your symptoms is hard, try writing down a list.

If you're nervous, try bringing along a support person to help you through it.

Try anti psychotic medication.

Anti psychotic meds may reduce your hallucinations, or even stop them.

Try talking to a doctor about whether they're right for you.

Take your meds according to the directions. Don't take more than the prescribed dosage.

Some medications have side effects. Talk to a doctor about any side effects you're experiencing, and whether a different medication might be better.

If you feel like you're "cured," it means the pills are doing their job. Don't stop taking them without talking to a doctor.

Look into therapy. Therapy may help you deal with stress and handle your hallucinations. Ask about what type of therapy might be right for you.

Try talking to other people with psychotic disorders online. There are online communities, like forums and hashtags such as #PseriouslyPsychotic, where people with psychotic disorders can talk and connect. People there may be able to give you advice and support.

Consider joining a support group. There may be support groups in your area for people with psychotic disorders, or mental illnesses in general.

Do your best to be patient with your recovery. Effects may not be instantaneous, and it's possible to have relapses and bad days. That doesn't mean that you're "broken" or that you'll never get better. Keep doing the best you can with the resources you have.

You can find the full page here:

https://www.wikihow.com/Handle-Hallucinations

#anonymous #answered #hallucinarions #how to cope with hallucinations

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imagestag · 4 years

Photo

700+ Best Instagram Captions & Quotes for Friends Instagram app is without doubt one of the finest social app for all cell phone. It is fascinating that Instagram is among the many prime 5 purposes at the moment on this planet. Today, we are going to search for prime finest Instagram captions and selfie quotes. Instagram is a social sharing app that was began by two individuals, and it was later bought by Facebook for $19billion. It is one of the finest Facebook’s funding. Your selfies on Instagram interpret so many issues, however as an Instagram consumer, you may add superb captions to your photographs and your are not directly telling your pals, or followers all about that individual picture.

What is Instagram Captions?

You might be wondering, what is Instagram captions? It is either a short / long words, emojis, hashtags, and tags written in Instagram’s description or status box. And it helps you as a user to complete your post on the photo sharing app. With the addition of Instagram caption, you can easily complete different tasks and direct customers to your bio link. A user can add a caption to an image to explain and contextualize the subject of the photo. Instagram captions can include hashtags and tags. The definition of a caption is a heading or title, or words on a screen that communicate what is being said. An example of a caption is the title of a magazine article. An example of a caption is a descriptive title under a photograph. With Instagram captions added to your selfies, you are directly pointing your selfies to a definite sight and definition. Your followers will understand and can easily share those alluring selfie quotes, and you can also increase social media engagement. Having knowing all this, lets get started with all Instagram captions for selfies, friends, funny, cool, sassy, best and rare Instagram captions.

11 ways to make a great Instagram captions

As we all know, Instagram captions character limit is 2,200 characters, and they might increase it in few years to come. But to make a great Instagram captions for your pictures, selfies, you will be promoted to show off your brand’s personality, entertain the audience, and/or compel people to take action. In order to get the main and actual Instagram Captions, you must be required to add up simple, and easy to read and follow short words, long words, 30 hashtags, emojis and tags.

Try to be professional

Getting professional and being professional comes from one way, it is from the brain. You know who you are, where you are going for and what you want. You have to present a captivating caption for that particular products, image, selfie or any other important signatories. When we mention about one getting professional, we are not talking about speaking those high standard English word, that will require the help of dictionary to understand the words. But you can attached the best of the best English.

Know who is following you

You are now professional, well to do but do you really understand your followers? do you understand who is following you, do you understand the group of people that interest you? There are ways to find out your audience. Instagram has 1 billions users and still counting, those certain amount of people behind you, are there for a reason. Find out that reason, find that particular Instagram image captions that brings their audience to one piece and invest in that.

Little Sense of Humor is Needed

In opposite, am literally asking you to be an humorist. Having a huge sense of humor starts from yourself, and expanding that to your followers requires an extra sensible skill. Sense of humor is built straight into our body system. Right inside our brain, we have a touch of an humorist, which is different from a comedian. You can’t publish a product and talk extreme professional about that product. Instead, add some funny or witty words, which will definitely make your audience more interesting and confidential.

Understand your brand

If it is about product company, your captions is totally different from celebrities and how they use and engage their audience. Although, a bunch of this is explained in the above article, about being professional. You know what you are advertising, do it much more better and follow the trend, follow the natural phenomenon and how people are going with. Meanwhile, if you are celebrity advertising a product, go straight to the details and add a little funny words.

Don’t add much words

Leave it, kill it, Want it, but this is it. When creating a publication in your Instagram post, or Instagram status, don’t add much words. Your fans, or audience aren’t interesting in reading the whole book of what you are saying. They are only interested in its meaning and the actual message you are passing forward. You are advised to increasingly leave everything behind and focused on the main thing. Short words brings great understanding!

Important words comes first

This might stand as an opposite to ‘do not add too much words’ The people you are sending the message to, might not be really interested in your story. If you are interested in the whole store, just add the important words first. They are not interested in reading the complete bible from you, give them a tip at the beginning of your starting sentence and you will receive over flowing responses. Important words comes first, is like a short briefing, before the main story!

Is it lengthy, try to edit

Your selfie captions, products captions, is important as any other stuff around you. Are you trying to form an interesting caption that will attract the attention of your audience, please edit your words. Probably, you have written blockbusters of words, intriguing vast words of wisdom, that might interest one or two persons in your audience. But it is highly advisable and recommendable to edit and re-edit your captions before going wide. People don’t want to visit an Instagram block or wall, where they always publish wrong sentence, wrong spellings and many more. When typing, our brains think faster than our hands, the impulse that is sent to our hands are slower than our brains.

Hashtags helps a lot

‘Yep, this is the #beardgang’ or ‘We are in the era of #bezel-less Smartphone’ These are the main important of hashtags, they bring you to the limelight. With hashtags, you can learn what other people are saying and join the trend. Thankfully, you can hashtags to your captions but wait, this shouldn’t be too much. It is advisable to add hashtags to your Instagram captions but it should be situated at the last of them all. And you must follow the trending hashtags, don’t publish an Instagram captions concerning Christmas celebration, when it is time for Easter celebration. As we know the popular hashtags, MCM, WCW, throwbackthursday and many others

Questions attracts

Questions brings more audience, increases your chance of becoming the best, increases user’s engagement and brings some famous popularity among your peers. Have anything in mind, ask your audience and watch the replies you will get. Although, you can’t build ROME (followers) with questions, but you can easily do much more better with questions and replies from your audience. Asking intriguing questions or brain storming questions, will quickly boost your Instagram’s presence.

Use the @mention

This is one of the most interesting part, which you must learn. And it is specially made for group of photos captions. If you take a picture with your friend, try to be familiar and sharing by adding their username with @mention With the CTA button, you are either prompting your users or audience to follow that particular user or like their most recent photo captions. You are slowly establishing your horizon on the photo sharing app.

Quotes and Emoji also works

Quotes won’t kill you, and Emojis will work accurately. Add some important quotes to your Instagram selfies or photos. Or probably, add some emojis to your recent publications. Emojis is a little bit more understanding that images, that pictures, than selfies and with emojis, you can bring in that little sense of humor. Try it and watch how your Instagram presence will grow. [caption id="attachment_746" align="alignnone" width="1080"] 700 Best Instagram Captions For Friends, Pictures And Selfie Quotes[/caption]

Instagram captions for Friends

❁ For your true friends, no need to think twice. ❁ Good friends are like stars. ❁ All the best people are crazy ❁ Strangers think I’m quiet, My friends know that I’m completely Insane. ❁ I can send my ugly selfies to my real friends. ❁ I like you because you join in on my weirdness ❁ Disturb your friends all time. ❁ Sometimes, being silly with a friend is the best therapy! ❁ Best Friends we fight, we argue, we got mad at each other. But we have each other until we die. ❁ One friend does not know how to whisper. ❁ Rain or Shine. I will always be here for you. ❁ Coffee and Friends make the perfect blend ❁ In the end, we will not remember the words of our enemies. But we remember the silence of our friends. ❁ My best friend is a secret FBI agent, he collects all my secrets and reveal to my parents! ❁ Our friendship knows no distance ❁ The most discovery true friends make is that they can’t grow separately until they grow apart. ❁ It is easy to find a friend, but difficult to find true friend. ❁ Our friendship is..awesome!! ❁ Friendship isn’t about whom you have known the longest it is who came and never left your side. ❁ Best friends help you to create memories. ❁ I don’t know what’s tighter, our jeans or our friendship! ❁ “I would rather walk with a friend in the dark, than alone in the light.” —Helen Keller ❁ Best Friends make good times better and hard times easier! ❁ I don’t know what I did to have a best friend like you. ❁ Life was meant for Best Friends and Good Adventures! ❁ She is my Best Friend. You break her heart, I will break your face. ❁ Meet my Partner in Crime ❁ It’s me and my Best Friend for Life! ❁ Good Times + Crazy Friends = Great Memories! ❁ Sometimes, being with your bff is all the therapy you need!

Funny Instagram captions for friends

❁ Friendship isn’t about who you’ve known the longest. It’s about who walked into your life and said, I am here for you and proved it. ❁ Throughout, your life can find a person who never gets bore with your talks. ❁ Friendship isn’t a big thing – it’s a million little things ❁ Pumpkin spice and everything nice. ❁ Fall so hard motherpumpkins wanna spice me. ❁ The only thing getting ‘lit’ this weekend are my fall scented candles. ❁ At this point, my blood type is pumpkin spice. ❁ I’d like to see you s’more. ❁ An apple a day keeps away anyone if you throw it far enough. ❁ I have never met a pumpkin I didn’t like. ❁ Fall is my excuse for pumpkin everything. ❁ Stressed, blessed, pumpkin obsessed. ❁ UnbeLEAFable. ❁ If you don’t like fall, you can leaf me alone with my pumpkin spice latte. ❁ Autumn leaves and pumpkins, please! ❁ Friendship isn’t about who you know the longest. It’s about who walked into your life and said I’m here for you. ❁ There comes a time when you have to stop crossing oceans for people who wouldn’t jump puddles for you. ❁ Way to have a best friend is to be one. ❁ There’s something about childhood friends that you just can’t replace ❁ Friends are medicine for a wounded heart. ❁ A big hug from a Small person! ❁ People say it is hard to find friends, just because best one is with me. ❁ No man is a failure who has friends ❁ I was thinking of you and feeling fortunate that life brought us together and made “BEST FRIENDS”. ❁ Your vibe attracts your tribe. ❁ It is Priceless to find friends with same mental disorder. ❁ Strangers think I’m quiet, my friends think I’m outgoing, but my best friends know that I’m completely insane. ❁ It’s not how many friends you can count, it’s how many of those you can count on ❁ The great thing about new friends is that they bring new energy to your soul.# ❁ Hope to be your friend until we die, become best ghosts after death. ❁ Best friend? Nah. She’s my sister. ❁ Friends are like flowers, they add color to your life..!! ❁ She is my Best Friend. You break her heart, and I will break your face. ❁ Friends make the world beautiful. Thanks for being mine. ❁ Dear best friend please stay in my life forever. ❁ I don’t know what I did to have a best friend like you. ❁ Girl can survive without a boyfriend, not best friend. ❁ Best friends are hard to find cuz the very best one is already mine

Good Instagram Captions

❁ I never let my best friend do stupid things… alone ❁ Life’s too short and so are we ❁ You’re the Betty to my Veronica (or vice versa) ❁ Always better together xx ❁ We do a thing called what we want ❁ Very pretty and we sure know how to run things ❁ We only roll with goddesses ❁ Victoria’s Secret models, we comin’ for your careers ❁ We don’t see any competition ❁ Real queens fix each other’s crowns ❁ The sunshines of my life ❁ We all scream for ice cream ❁ We create our own sunshine ❁ We shore do love each other ❁ Future’s so bright we need shades ❁ See you on the next wave ❁ These are the days that we live for ❁ High tides & summer vibes ❁ Beach days always ❁ Ocean air, salty hair ❁ Girls just wanna have sun ❁ Suns out, buns out ❁ Stay wavy, baby ❁ Just keep swimming… ❁ We got our pockets full of sunshine ❁ Serving mermaid realness. ❁ Summer nights ‘n’ city lights ❁ Seas the day

Best Instagram Captions

❁ It is what it is, we still slayin’ ❁ Reality called, school’s back, so we hung up ❁ And so the adventure begins… ❁ You CAN sit with us ❁ Bienvenue au paradis (welcome to paradise) ❁ We told you the world was ours ❁ Being so bad, got us feelin’ so good ❁ Friends who slay together, stay together ❁ Too glam to give a damn ❁ Wonderfully made… And I’m not just talking about our outfits 😉 ❁ She been breaking hearts since *year your BFF was born in* 🌹 ✨ ❁ Life’s better when you’re *your BFF’s age* 😇 happy birthday sister ❁ Chin up darling, your tiara’s falling 👑 it’s your *your BFF’s age* birthday xo ❁ Another year down, so many more with you to go. Happy birthday to my other half

Instagram Captions for Selfies

❁ Maybe she’s born with it… ❁ Salty BUT sweet. ❁ Never let anyone treat you like you’re ordinary. ❁ Be yourself, there’s no one better. ❁ Make them stop and stare. ❁ She acts like summer and walks like rain. ❁ Life is better when you’re laughing. ❁ Be more of you, and less of them. ❁ Pizza and you are all I need ❁ To the 🌙 and back ❁ On our worst behavior ❁ Ain’t McDonald’s but you lovin’ it ❁ Let’s wander ❁ We find comfort in the chaos ❁ The bags under our eyes are Gucci ❁ They’re lactose intolerant so we had to cheese on ‘em ❁ It’s not a phase mom, it’s who I am. ❁ Self love is the best love. ❁ As beautiful on the inside as I am on the outside. ❁ Be a stiletto in a room full of flats. ❁ Smile big, laugh often. ❁ Some days you just have to create your own sunshine ❁ Being happy never goes out of style. ❁ I woke up like this. ❁ Crazy hair, don’t care. ❁ Morning coffee, because anything else is worthless. ❁ Coffee and confidence. ❁ Fresh out of the shower, no makeup on. ❁ May your coffee be hot and your eyeliner even.

Selfie Quotes

❁ “Maybe she’s born with it…maybe it’s an Instagram filter.” ❁ “Reality called, so I hung up.” ❁ “When you take a selfie so good, you can’t believe it’s you.” ❁ “But first, let me take a selfie.” ❁ “Sure, I do marathons. On Netflix.” ❁ “If I was funny, I would have a good Instagram caption.” ❁ “I need a six month holiday, twice a year.” ❁ “Puts selfie on top of tree because I’m the star.” Food selfie captions: ❁ “There is no we in food.” ❁ “You’re one in a melon.” ❁ “We go together like cupcakes and frosting.” ❁ “You can’t live a full life on an empty stomach.” ❁ “At least my pizza still loves me.” ❁ “Yea, dating is cool. But, have you ever had stuffed crust pizza?” OOTD selfie captions: ❁ “Life isn’t perfect but your outfit can be.” ❁ “I’m nicer when I like my outfit.” ❁ “Glitter is always an option.” ❁ “Caring doesn’t really go with my outfit.” ❁ “People will stare. Make it worth their while.” ❁ “Too glam to give a damn.” ❁ “My fave part of this outfit is the invisible crown.” Inspirational selfie captions: ❁ “They told me I couldn’t. That’s why I did.” ❁ “Live more, worry less.” ❁ “You have to believe the changes you’ve already made.” ❁ “Life is way too short for bad vibes.” ❁ “Don’t dream of it. Train for it.” ❁ “The way you speak to yourself matters the most.” ❁ “Some beautiful paths can’t be discovered without getting lost.”

Good Captions for Selfies

❁ Morning Gram ❁ Mentally on the beach ❁ Some days start better than others ❁ All about the vibe ❁ Only a cupcake searching for a stud biscuit ❁ The wasted years, the wasted youth, the pretty lies and the ugly truth ❁ I am that clumsy person, always loving and never leaving ❁ Dear cupid, next time shoot us both ❁ Mellow vibes and everything nice. ❁ Why so serious? ❁ I woke up like this ❁ Getting my pose on! ❁ Be a more of you, less of them. ❁ Smile a little more, regret a little less. ❁ Clever as a devil, twice as pretty. ❁ Grow through what you go through. ❁ Self love is the best love. ❁ Why you chase when I am the catch. ❁ Escape the ordinary. ❁ Mon tre’sor. ❁ Sunshine on my head. ❁ Let it hurt and then let it go. ❁ Don’t be eye candy, be Soul Food. ❁ Salty BUT Sweet. ❁ Own who you are! ❁ FRI-NALLY! ❁ Choose Yourself ❁ Do ya thing B! ❁ I am Prada. You are NADA ❁ Eyes are never Quiet ❁ Confidence Level: Selfie with no Filter. ❁ Saturdaze! ❁ I always bring my Slay game. ❁ Less Perfection, more Authenticity. ❁ Make them stop and Stare. ❁ Life Happens, Coffee Helps. ❁ Everything’s blurry but the feeling’s real ❁ Life is like photography, we develop from negatives! ❁ Thick thighs, thin patience. ❁ And it’s all fun and games until somebody falls in love ❁ SO young, SO High ❁ Glazed eyes, empty hearts ❁ Love me now cause forevers don’t last ❁ Things I used to trip on, I walk over now ❁ I like it better when my jeans are ripped up ❁ You can’t airbrush personality ❁ A little contour and confidence ❁ If I can’t wear my sneakers, I ain’t goin’ ❁ Flexin’my complexion ❁ Fall in love with being alive ❁ Don’t play hard to get, play hard to forget ❁ I am too full of life, to be half loved ❁ Temptation isn’t sin.

Captions of Pictures of Yourself

I don’t need your approval to be me. Why chase you, when I am the catch! I am who I am, I am what I am, I do what I do and I ain’t never gonna do it any different. I don’t care who likes it and who doesn’t. Take me as I am, or watch me as I go. If I were you, I would adore me. Me? Weird? Bitch Please! I am Limited Edition. I am not perfect. I make mistakes. But when I say Sorry… I mean it! I am not trying to give an image of a fairy-tale, perfect, everything else, I am just being myself. I was both loved and hated for being upfront. But I was just being myself. I like being myself. Maybe just slimmer, with a fewer wrinkles. I take a lot of pride in being myself. I’m comfortable with who I am. Everyone said I could be Anything.. So I became Sexy!

Rare Instagram Captions

❁ Do you sit in a pile of sugar? cause you got a pretty sweet ass! ❁ They say tongue is the strongest muscle of the body. Wanna fight? ❁ Did you swallow magnets? cause you are attractive! ❁ Kiss me if I’m wrong but Dinosaurs still exist? Right? ❁ Nice t-shirt. Can I talk you out of it? ❁ Do you have a name or can I call you Mine? ❁ Do you like sleeping? Me too! We should do it together sometimes! ❁ Can I borrow a kiss? I promise I’ll give it back. ❁ Aside from being sexy, what do you do for a living? ❁ Do you live in a cornfield, coz I’m stalking you. ❁ Never do the same mistake twice, unless he’s hot! ❁ My mind is full of You! ❁ Can I keep You? ❁ Hey You! I love your face! ❁ You don’t cross my mind. You live there! ❁ As beautiful on the inside as I am on the outside. ❁ Let me touch your shirt so I can tell you if it’s boyfriend material. ❁ Besides chocolate, you’re my favorite. ❁ Smile. It’s the second best thing you can do with your lips. ❁ In a room full of art, I would still stare at you. ❁ Don’t talk, just act. Don’t say, just show. Don’t promise, just prove. ❁ Never stop doing great just because someone doesn’t give you credit. ❁ It always seems impossible until it’s done. ❁ Marry the right person. This one decision will determine 90% of your happiness or misery. ❁ Be honest. ❁ Invest the now in tomorrow’s dream. ❁ Some Girls want superman but walk past Clark kent every day! ❁ Good things come to those who hustle. ❁ If you want to succeed, you have to let failure be your best friend! ❁ You can’t do epic shit with basic people! ❁ Be self-starter. ❁ If it doesn’t challenge you, it doesn’t change you. ❁ I didn’t come here to lose. ❁ Hustle until your haters ask if you’re hiring.

Instagram Captions Lyrics

❁ I am beautiful, no matter what they say. Words can’t bring me down. ❁ With your phone out, gotta hit them angles. With your phone out, snappin’ like you Fabo. And you showin’ off, but it’s alright. It’s a short life. ❁ Darling I’m a nightmare dressed like a daydream. ❁ Gonna love myself, no, I don’t need anybody else. ❁ No scars to your beautiful. We’re stars and we’re beautiful. ❁ When it comes to me I wouldn’t wanna be anybody else. ❁ We ain’t picture perfect but we worth the picture still. ❁ You the best I ever had ❁ Let’s celebrate with a toast and get lost in tonight ❁ Twenty-four-hour champagne diet ❁ Live for today, plan for tomorrow, party tonight ❁ I’m here for a good time not a long time ❁ On my worst behavior ❁ My excuse is that I’m young ❁ You only live once ❁ Worrying about your followers, you need to get your dollars up ❁ I’m up right now and you suck right now ❁ I’m just saying you could do better ❁ Think before you come for the great one ❁ If I die all i know is I’m a legend ❁ Know yourself, know your worth ❁ Every time you see me I look like I hit the lotto twice ❁ Call me the referee because I be so official ❁ Last name ever, first name greatest ❁ Started from the bottom now we’re here ❁ Fresher than a pillow with a mint on it ❁ All we want is hot hot boys boys boys. ❁ So baby raise a glass to mend all the broken hearts of all my wrecked up friends. ❁ Some girls won’t dance to the beat of the track. ❁ Stars in our eyes ‘cuz we’re having a good time. ❁ Put some lipstick on, perfume your neck and slip your high heels on, rinse and curl your hair, loosen your hips and get a dress to wear. ❁ Don’t tell me I’m less than my freedom. ❁ I can’t believe I’m telling you this but I’ve had a couple of drinks and…oh my god! ❁ Write what you want, say what you want ‘bout me, if you’re wondering, know that I’m not sorry. ❁ I don’t wanna be alone forever, but I love gypsy life. ❁ It’s good to live expensively, you know it. ❁ Out in the club and I’m sipping’ that bub and you’re not gonna reach my telephone. ❁ I should’ve left my phone at home ‘cause this is a disaster. ❁ Get your hot rods ready to rumble ‘cause we’re gonna drink until we die.

Cool Instagram Captions

❁ Turn ya savage up and lose ya feelings. ❁ You can ask tommy, Hilfiger it out! ❁ You are a tornado with pretty eyes and a heartbeat. ❁ In a room of arts, I would still stare at you. ❁ I am a gold, you can prefer Silver and it’s okay. ❁ Get you a Me, I am LIT. ❁ I am not picky, I just know what I want. ❁ Braless is flawless. ❁ Sunshine mixed with a little hurricane. ❁ If you ran like your mouth, you would be in good shape. ❁ I accept my time, back in cash. ❁ Soul over ego. ❁ I’m fall-ing for you.” ❁ I’m going to go out on a limb and say I be-leaf in you. ❁ After a good summer fling, it’s time to fall in love. ❁ Sweater weather is better together. ❁ Autumn leaves and pumpkins please. ❁ Fall is the perfect time of year to spice things up. ❁ You are unbe-leaf-able. ❁ Autumn shows us how beautiful it is to let things go. ❁ Sweet like pumpkin pie. ❁ You are the pick of the patch. ❁ You’re the apple of my eye. ❁ Happiness is a hot drink on a cold day. ❁ Is it really a pile of leaves if you haven’t jumped in it? ❁ I haven’t tripped, but here I am in the fall. ❁ Channel the flannel. ❁ But my personality is lit. ❁ No guts, no Glory. ❁ Forever is composed of nows. ❁ Let the good times roll! ❁ Stay real or stay away from me. ❁ Accept yourself unless you are a serial killer. ❁ We serve drinks cheaper and colder than your EX.

IG Captions and Quotes

❁ “October, baptize me with leaves! Swaddle me in corduroy and nurse me with split pea soup. October, tuck tiny candy bars in my pockets and carve my smile into a thousand pumpkins.” – Rainbow Rowell, Attachments ❁ “If a year was tucked inside a clock, then autumn would be the magic hour.” – Victoria Erickson ❁ “I’m so glad I live in a world where there are Octobers.” – L.M. Montgomery, Anne of Green Gables ❁ “Autumn, the year’s last loveliest smile.” – William Cullen Bryant ❁ “There is a subtle magic in the falling of old leaves.” ― Avijeet Das ❁ “We pretended she’d only gotten lost in the colors of fall.” ― Tammy Greenwood, Undressing the Moon ❁ “Autumn is a second spring when every leaf is a flower.” – Albert Camus ❁ “Life starts all over again when it gets crisp in the fall.” – F. Scott Fitzgerald ❁ “Fall has always been my favorite season. The time when everything bursts with its last beauty, as if nature had been saving up all year for the grand finale.” — Lauren DeStefano ❁ A sweet friendship refreshes the soul. ❁ You are my sunshine on a rainy day. ❁ My best friend is the partner in all my secrets. ❁ A friend is a second self ❁ I will always have this piece of my heart that smiles whenever I think about you. ❁ I would rather walk with a friend in the dark, than alone in the light. ❁ Don’t ever think to hurt me a little because my best friend will kill you and make your death looks like an accident! ❁ Friendship is born at that moment when one person says to another: ‘What! You too? I thought I was the only one. ❁ Nothing compares to the stomach ache you get from laughing with your best friends ❁ Girlfriends come and go, like the waves of the ocean but the true friend stays with you forever. ❁ I am lucky to have a friend like you! ❁ Best friends believe you, when you do not believe yourself. ❁ Nothing makes the earth seem so spacious as to have friends at a distance; they make the latitudes and longitudes. ❁ If you have crazy friends you have everything you’ll ever need ❁ I may not always be there with you, but I will always be there for you. ❁ Side by side or miles apart, real friends are always close to the heart. ❁ Best friends have all the therapy you need. ❁ I don’t even need to ask. I got you! ❁ Friendship is born at that moment when one person says to another: ‘What! You too? I thought I was the only one! ❁ If there ever comes a day when we can’t together keep me in your heart, I will stay there forever. ❁ Things are never quite as scary when you have a best friend. ❁ We are best friends, as we both are weird. ❁ You’re one of those people who make my life better just by being in it ❁ Best Friend: Thank you for standing by my side when times get harder, Thank you for making laugh longer when I didn’t even want to smile. ❁ Everything changes and nothing stays the same, but as we grow up, one thing does remain: I was with you before and will be until the end. Nothing could ever replace my best friend. ❁ When you forget to love you, even then your friend always loves. ❁ Sorry only my best friend is the best. ❁ Because of you, I laugh a little harder, cry a little less and smile a lot more ❁ Making memories with you, Is my favorite thing to do. ❁ Best Friend: the one with whom you can be mad for a while because you have important things to tell. ❁ Time to create millions of memories filled with funny jokes with your best friends. ❁ You make me laugh even when I don’t want to smile ❁ I don’t know what’s tighter Our jeans or Our Friendship 🙂 ❁ Life was meant for Best Friends and Good Adventures!

Good Instagram Captions

❁ Strangers know my innocent side of my personality…Best friends know my dirty Insane side of my personality! ❁ Friends make you laugh till your cheeks hurt ❁ Sitting silently beside a friend who is hurting may be the best gift we can give them. ❁ Friendship isn’t a big thing. It’s millions of small things. ❁ My best friend is like a cute egg… I love him although he/she is little crack! ❁ Watch more sunsets than Netflix. ❁ Hey, I just met you, this is crazy. ❁ At least this balloon is attracted to me! ❁ I must destroy you with hugs and kisses ❁ Stop looking for happiness in the same place you just lost it. ❁ I woke up like this. ❁ I decide the vibe. ❁ If we could only turn back time… ❁ Keep smiling because life is a beautiful thing and there’s so much to smile about. ❁ No one is you. That’s your power! ❁ Got my coffee and donut. ❁ Escape the ordinary. ❁ Sweeter than honey. ❁ Proof that I can do selfies better than you ❁ When your mom lectures you about how you need to lose weight for an hour and you’re like ‘shit I don’t care I have got a skinny mirror to make me look good’! ❁ A friend will always make you Smile, especially when you don’t want to… ❁ Life is like a balloon..If you never let go, you will not know how high can you rise. ❁ Sometimes life can surprise you with a happy coincidence. ❁ You can’t afford my Swag Bitch! #selfie ❁ This is to the Echos of our laughter. The looks That we Share. The never-ending gossips. and the Sudden amazing getaways. This is to our Past And This is to Our Future. This is to our Friendship that will Never Fade. ❁ Life isn’t perfect…But my Hair is! #selfieaddict ❁ Always classy, never trashy, and a little bit sassy. ❁ Be a Warrior, not a Worrier. ❁ Go wild for a while. ❁ Rolling with the homies. ❁ When you are Downie, eat a brownie. ❁ All we have is NOW. ❁ We got that Friday feeling. ❁ Catch flights, not Feelings. ❁ Disappointed but not surprised. ❁ How I feel when there is no Coffee. DEPRESSO! ❁ 50% Savage. 50% Sweetness. ❁ You can’t do epic shit with basic people. ❁ I myself never feel that I’m sexy. If people call me cute, I am happier. ❁ It is not how much we have, but how much we enjoy, that makes happiness. ❁ The most important thing is to enjoy your life – to be happy – it’s all that matters. ❁ Life is not a problem to be solved, but a reality to be experienced. ❁ I love those who can smile in trouble, who can gather strength from distress, and grow brave by reflection. ‘Tis the business of little minds to shrink, but they whose heart is firm, and whose conscience approves their conduct, will pursue their principles unto death. ❁ It had long since come to my attention that people of accomplishment rarely sat back and let things happen to them. They went out and happened to things. ❁ Love can be unselfish, in the sense of being benevolent and generous, without being selfless. ❁ When I feel a little down, I put on my favorite high heels and dance ❁ Women drivers rev my engine.

Cute Instagram Captions

❁ With You, I forget all my problems. With You, Time Stands Still. ❁ We come to love by not finding the perfect person but by learning to see an imperfect person perfectly. ❁ When I fell for you, I fell Hard ❁ If I ever write a story about my life, don’t be surprised if your name appears billion times. ❁ I want you to be happy, but I want you to be happy with Me. ❁ It will be Always YOU. ❁ If you are Mine, You are Mine. I don’t like Sharing. ❁ Nothing Can replace you! ❁ I love you. That’s all I know. ❁ I’m not perfect but I am Loyal. ❁ What happens under the mistletoe, stays under the mistletoe ❁ Sweater weather is better together ❁ If kisses were snowflakes, I’d send you a blizzard. ❁ Meet me under the mistletoe. ❁ Merry Christmas you filthy animals! ❁ The best way to spread Christmas cheer is singing loud for all to hear. ❁ Do you want to build a snowman? ❁ Maybe Christmas doesn’t come from a store…maybe Christmas means a little bit more. ❁ First, we’ll make snow angels for two hours, and then we’ll eat a whole roll of Toll House cookie dough as fast as we can, and then, to finish, we’ll snuggle. ❁ I passed through the seven levels of the Candy Cane forest, through the sea of swirly twirly gum drops, and then I walked through the Lincoln Tunnel. ❁ It’s all humbug, I tell you. Humbug! ❁ We elves try to stick to the four main food groups: candy, candy canes, candy corns and syrup. ❁ It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas! ❁ I’m dreaming of a white Christmas. ❁ All I want for Christmas is you. ❁ We can hardly stand the wait. Please Christmas, don’t be late. ❁ Have yourself a merry little Christmas.

Funny Instagram Captions

❁ She was simple like quantum physics ❁ Today I will be as useless as the g in lasagna ❁ Kanye attitude with drake feelings ❁ Hella heart eyes for you ❁ Throw sass around like confetti ❁ Sending my selfie to NASA, because I am a star! ❁ Life isn’t perfect but your outfit can be ❁ Moonwalks out of an awkward situation ❁ All the jingle ladies. ❁ Sleigh my name, sleigh my name. ❁ Sleigh-in it. ❁ Believe in your elf. ❁ Me every day: slay. Me in December: sleigh. ❁ But first, let me take an Selfie. ❁ Dear Santa…I can explain. ❁ All spruced up. ❁ Totally sleighed it. ❁ Tis the season to sparkle.” ❁ The elf did it. ❁ There’s snow place like home. ❁ Tis the season! Let the overeating begin! ❁ Dear Santa, define ‘nice.’ ❁ I’m only a morning person on December 25th. ❁ Dear Santa, is it too late now to say sorry? ❁ I hope Rudolph eats the naughty list. ❁ Dear Santa, I’ve been good all year. Most of the time. Once in a while. Nevermind, I’ll buy my own stuff. ❁ Friday, my second favorite F word ❁ Life isn’t perfect…But my Hair is! #selfieaddict ❁ I didn’t choose the thug life, the thug life chose me. ❁ When I was Rome.. I did what the Romans did. ❁ I got back with my Ex…Box 360 ❁ Lost in the world that doesn’t exist. ❁ Today I will be as useless as letter g in lasagna. ❁ You only drink diet soda? You must be so healthy. ❁ The worst time to have a heart attack is during a game of charades. ❁ The moment when she says you’re cute. ❁ If we could only turn back time… ❁ You are my best friend because…you are you, you let me be me, and still we love each other! ❁ No matter how serious life get, You still gotta have that one person who is your friend.

Instagram Caption Family

❁ Family make the good times better and bad times easier. ❁ A good Family knows your strength, and knows your weakness! ❁ I don’t know how to thank you but I’m lucky to have you in my life ❁ If camera lenses are round, Why are the picture square? ❁ Families are like Stars. You don’t always see them but you know they will be with you forever. ❁ I am quiet for the strangers, but insane for my Family. ❁ Families make the good times better and the hard times easier ❁ I will slap you so hard even Google won’t be able to find you. ❁ You and I are more than families. We’re like a really small gang. ❁ I’m truly grateful to have you. ❁ Families isn’t about whom you have known the longest. It’s about who came, and never left your side.

Best Instagram Captions

❁ Life is better when you’re with friends ❁ I still remember the feeling I felt when I first started talking to you. ❁ A sweet friendship refreshes the soul! ❁ True friends show their love in trouble and happiness. ❁ Life goes on, with or without you. ❁ 5’2 my height but my attitude 6’1 ❁ Don’t Study me. You won’t Graduate! ❁ If you’re honestly happy, fuck what people think. ❁ Being pissed off gets old. I’m just at a whole new ‘fuck it’ level. ❁ Her attitude savage but her heart is gold. ❁ Own what’s yours, or else others will try to. ❁ Life goes on, with or without you. ❁ Don’t mistake my kindness for weakness, bitch. ❁ You couldn’t handle me even if I came with instructions. ❁ Forgive, yes. Forget, never. ❁ There’s a hole in my heart where you use to be. ❁ I don’t need any part-time people in my life. ❁ Exhale the bullshit. ❁ I got it from my mama. ❁ Thick thighs and pretty eyes. ❁ Good Times + Crazy Friends = Great Memories! ❁ Life is a lot better when you have someone to share it with ❁ More beautiful then all the stars is the sign in my heart that is my loving friend.# ❁ Friends become our chosen family! ❁ The Valuable thing in life is True Friends. ❁ We will always be friends until we are old and senile. Then we can be new friends. ❁ Just remember, if we get caught, you’re deaf, and I don’t speak English. ❁ Always better together ❁ A friend is someone who reaches for your hand but touches your heart. ❁ Friendship is not a big thing, rather than million things. ❁ We’ll be the old ladies causing trouble in the nursing home. ❁ We go together like cupcakes & frosting ❁ To my friend’s Thanks for being there for me. ❁ Don’t know what’s tighter, our jeans or our friendship! ❁ Trust the one who can see sorrow behind your smile. ❁ Love is beautiful, friendship is better ❁ We go together like coffee & donuts ❁ But friendship is the breathing rose, with sweets in every fold. ❁ Finding friends with the same mental disorder: priceless! ❁ Friends are the one start discovering the world together. ❁ We go together like drunk and disorderly. ❁ Life is sweet with friends like you!! ❁ Always remember and idiots who make you laugh in his presence will definitely make you cry in his absence, Those idiots are our best friends. ❁ I hope we’re friends until we die. Then, I hope we stay ghost friends so we can walk through walls and scare the crap out of people. ❁ You should not lie to the one trust you; never trust the one who lie you. ❁ You will always be my best friend, you know me too much. ❁ Besides chocolate, you’re my favorite ❁ Best friends are the people in life that make you laugh a little louder, smile a little brighter and live a little better.

Good Captions for Pictures

❁ Treat yourself like a King and you’ll attract your Queen ❁ Don’t judge someone by their mistakes but on how they fix them ❁ If I don’t post a picture, did it even really happen? ❁ You know you’ve made it when your idols become your rivals ❁ They call me ranch ‘cuz I be dressing ❁ One does not simply create a clever Instagram caption ❁ Maybe she’s born with it, maybe it’s the Clarendon filter ❁ If the world was created in 7 days but it took 9 months to make me, I’m clearly a big deal ❁ People will judge everything you do, so you do you ❁ I just rolled my eyes so hard I saw my brain ❁ You never realize how boring your life is until someone asks you what you do for fun

Short Instagram captions

❁ Be the type of person you want to meet ❁ Just two friends having a good time ❁ Guess who I just met? ❁ Best. Day. EVER! ❁ What just happened? ❁ Go BIG or go home ❁ This is GOLD ❁ This is it! ❁ Express gratitude. Regret nothing. ❁ So much to be thankful for ❁ Nothing shines brighter than a heart of gold ❁ Mistakes are proof that you’ve tried ❁ The journey is always the best part ❁ Today’s the best kind of day ❁ Life is only as legendary as you make it ❁ Good vibes only ❁ Livin’ the good life

Sassy Instagram captions

❁ It’s better to arrive late than to arrive ugly. ❁ When you actually matter to a person, they’ll make time for you. No lies, No excuses. ❁ Because she competes with no one, no one can compete with her. ❁ You will never be truly happy if you continuously hold on to the things that make you sad. ❁ Change your thoughts and you’ll change your world. ❁ Never be controlled by three things: Your past, Money, and People. ❁ But without the dark, we’d never see the stars. ❁ She says nothing when she wants to say everything. ❁ You can’t just come into someone’s life, make them special and then leave. ❁ One day you will find the one who makes all the others disappear. ❁ No, I checked my receipt. I didn’t buy any of your bullshit. ❁ Do expect me to get pissed off when you don’t answer!? Who do you think you are!? The delivery guy? ❁ If you treat a girl like a dog, she’s going to piss on you. ❁ I didn’t kill anyone, jealousy did. ❁ If you are testing my water, you better know how to swim. ❁ I don’t know what’s tighter, our jeans or our friendship. ❁ I swear I’m nice girl until you do something that pisses me off.. then the bitch will come out to play. ❁ I want a relationship like “Tom & Jerry” fight daily, still can’t live without each other. ❁ Cry only for cuts and stitches not for bastards and bitches. ❁ My biggest problem? I notice everything. ❁ It’s sad but life is full of sudden good bye’s. ❁ I gave so much to someone who never appreciated it. ❁ I’m a good person. But don’t give me a reason to show you my evil side. ❁ Pay close attention to people who don’t clap when you win. ❁ There are two reasons why we don’t trust people. First, we don’t know them. Second, we know them. ❁ Be careful who you push away. Some of us don’t come back. ❁ Some people are not your friend, they are just scared to be your enemy. ❁ I am who I am, I am what I am, I do what I do and I ain’t never gonna do it any different. I don’t care who likes it and who doesn’t. ❁ The most important thing is to enjoy your life – to be happy – it’s all that matters. ❁ Take every chance you get in life because some things only happen once. ❁ I myself never feel that I’m sexy. If people call me cute, I am happier. ❁ Women drivers rev my engine ❁ I like foodies ❁ Hey, I just met you, this is crazy ❁ At least this balloon is attracted to me! ❁ I must destroy you with hugs and kisses ❁ Stop looking for happiness in the same place you just lost it. ❁ I woke up like this ❁ If we could only turn back time… ❁ Keep smiling because life is a beautiful thing and there’s so much to smile about. ❁ Beauty is power, a smile is its sword ❁ My autobiography is this ❁ Last day of class ❁ Do not take life too seriously. You will never get out of it alive ❁ Chilling like a gangster. Are you satisfied with the above Instagram captions for your friends, selfie quotes, Instagram quotes and many others? If you are satisfied, please do well to use the below share buttons to your friends, such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram etc. #bestinstagramcaptions #captionsofpicturesofyourself #coolinstagramcaptions #cuteinstagramcaptions #funnyinstagramcaptions #funnyinstagramcaptionsforfriends #goodcaptionsforpictures #goodcaptionsforselfies #goodinstagramcaptions #igcaptionsandquotes #instagramcaptionfamily #instagramcaptionsforfriends #instagramcaptionsforselfies #instagramcaptionslyrics #rareinstagramcaptions #sassyinstagramcaptions #selfiequotescaptions #shortinstagramcaptions

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insession-io · 5 years

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In Defense of Antidepressants

The backlash against antidepressants results from a suspicion of medicine, and misunderstands the very nature of depression.

I was first prescribed antidepressants in 2000. Ever since, I have been on and off these drugs, mostly because the idea of taking them made me uncomfortable. It was a mixture of guilt, probably not unlike the guilt some athletes must feel for taking a prohibited doping substance; shame for needing a pill that had such a profound impact on my behaviour; and frustration with the recurrent episodes of depression that would bring me back to the antidepressants I would then quickly abandon.

I broke this cycle when my daughters were born and I realised that it would be irresponsible to stop treatment because being a good father meant having a stable mood. It was a purely pragmatic decision, made without resolving the existential issues that antidepressants had raised for me before. That being the case, I do not write with the fervour of the newly converted, although sometimes I speculate about how much smoother my life would have been had I decided much sooner to stick to the antidepressants.

Depression is widespread. According to the World Health Organization, in 2015 depression affected more than 300 million people, or 5.1 per cent of females and 3.6 per cent of males, worldwide. It was the single largest contributor to global disability, and the major cause of the nearly 800,000 deaths by suicide recorded every year – suicide being the second leading cause of death among 15- to 29-year-olds.

Despite these statistics, depression remains misunderstood by the public at large and is, it seems, best described by those who have lived it. The novelist William Styron wrote in his memoir Darkness Visible (1990) that: ‘For those who have dwelt in depression’s dark wood, and known its inexplicable agony, their return from the abyss is not unlike the ascent of the poet, trudging upward and upward out of hell’s black depths.’ Andrew Solomon’s memoir The Noonday Demon (2001) is a useful tome and the book on depression for the public at large. ‘It is the aloneness within us made manifest,’ he writes of the state, ‘and it destroys not only connection to others but also the ability to be peacefully alone with oneself.’

For those outside the experience, part of the confusion comes from the association of the disease with melancholia and sadness, feelings we all have experienced. Malignant sadness, or depression, is something else entirely, and it takes a leap of faith to accept that too much of something can become something completely other.

Clinical depression manifests in different forms. The two main categories are major depressive disorder (MDD) and dysthymia, which is a milder form of depression. (Episodes of major depression alternating with extreme euphoria characterise bipolar disorder, but this disease is typically treated with mood-stabilising drugs, which are not the focus of this piece.)

Broadly, depression is a chronic, recurring and debilitating disease that turns you into a prostrated citizen, an absent or incompetent employee, a needy friend, a self-absorbed partner, a useless parent. You can’t think clearly, you can’t make decisions, often you can’t get out of bed in the morning and, even if you manage to stand up, you won’t find anything worth engaging with, not even your regular hobbies or your dearest friends and relatives. You also tend to ruminate endlessly, fuelled by feelings of guilt and worthlessness, which sometimes leads to suicide ideation, suicide attempt and death.

Even if the vague links that some people see between depression and creativity are real, by sustaining depression you would still be making a pact with the devil, given the extent of the associated pain. If you have any doubts, read David Foster Wallace’s brutal short story, ‘The Depressed Person’ (1998), in which a young woman is depicted as a self-centred monster who asks: ‘What kind of person could seem to feel nothing – “nothing,” she emphasised – for anyone but herself?’

It is obvious that the discomfort I once felt over taking antidepressants echoed a lingering, deeply ideological societal mistrust. Articles in the consumer press continue to feed that mistrust. The benefit is ‘mostly modest’, a flawed analysis in The New York Times told us in 2018. A widely shared YouTube video asked whether the meds work at all. And even an essay on Aeon this year claims: ‘Depression is a very complex disorder and we simply have no good evidence that antidepressants help sufferers to improve.’

The message is amplified by an abundance of poor information circulating online about antidepressants in an age of echo chambers and rising irrationality. Although hard to measure, the end result is probably tragic since the ideology against antidepressants keeps those in pain from seeking and sticking to the best available treatment, as once happened to me. Although I am a research scientist, I work on topics unrelated to brain diseases, and my research is not funded by the ‘pharma industry’ – the disclaimer feels silly but, trust me, it is needed. I write here mainly as a citizen interested in this topic. I take for granted that a world without depression would be a better place, and that finding a cure for this disease is a noble pursuit. Without a cure, the best treatment available is better than none at all.

In second-millennium Mesopotamia, depression was treated with a concoction of poppy extract and donkey’s milk, which sounds delicious, but time is too precious to be wasted on anecdotal recipes when the suffering is so great. There is no universal medicine or therapy for depression. Several approaches are possible, frequently chosen on a trial-and-error basis and in a non-exclusive manner, including psychosocial treatments such as cognitive behavioural therapy, which are focused on changing cognitive distortions and behaviours, and therapeutic drugs. The psychotherapies have had their critics since the invention of psychoanalysis, but the biggest debate swirls around the use of antidepressants, especially the most popular configuration of these drugs, known as selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, or SSRIs.

The drugs work directly on the human brain, which is comprised of around 86 billion neurons that communicate with each other through the release of neurotransmitters into a space called the synaptic cleft. These neurotransmitters modulate the electric signals that travel along the neurons and ultimately shape our feelings, thoughts and actions. Serotonin is one such neurotransmitter. SSRIs essentially block the molecular transporters that reuptake serotonin from the synaptic cleft back into the neuron that released it. By inhibiting this transport, the concentration of serotonin in the synaptic cleft is selectively increased while the concentrations of other neurotransmitters are unaffected.

For many like myself, this is enough to help depression lift, yet the critical drumbeat against these drugs goes on. There is strong opposition to antidepressants among a particularly resistant, yet heterogeneous crowd: those who have crystalised a mistrust of the profit-hungry pharma industry (partly justified by many examples of wrongdoing); those with a philosophical or mystical opposition to pills that interfere with the mind, particularly if these medicines are not ‘natural’; and those who make a living by promoting alternative treatments.

Critics ignore the finding that the magnitude of the effect increases with the severity of depression

Even decades after many of these treatments emerged to change the landscape of psychiatry, they are still hotly debated by people ‘full of passionate intensity’, to quote from W B Yeats’s poem ‘The Second Coming’ (1921). The American actor Tom Cruise, boosted by Scientology, and the English writer and critic Will Self, universalising what must have been a terrible personal experience with therapeutic drugs and a psychiatrist, have both pontificated against antidepressants, spreading the typical ideology-driven myths.

Some of those myths, such as the idea that these drugs are addictive ‘happy pills’ that produce the ‘high’ of a recreational drug, are pure lies; anyone who echoes them could be easily exposed as dishonest or ignorant. The most common antidepressants do cause withdrawal symptoms such as nausea, but reports of addiction to antidepressants are rare and tend to occur in patients with a history of drug or alcohol abuse. Unlike recreational drugs that are highly addictive, such as cocaine or heroin, antidepressants do not hijack the reward circuit that is associated with the euphoric rush of another neurotransmitter, dopamine.

The discussion gets more complicated when the scientific evidence for or against the effectiveness of antidepressants is evoked. Such evidence comes mostly from randomised trials in which some patients are assigned to a group that receives an antidepressant, and others to a group that is given a placebo. The conclusions of these studies can be distorted by different sources of error. The most important source of error is publication bias; much of the research is funded by the pharma industry, where there is a tendency to report studies that find positive effects for antidepressants, while studies that find no effect are left in the drawer.

Breaking the blind in clinical trials is another source of error. Here, the individual might correctly guess in which group he or she was included, based on the established side-effects of the drugs, such as dizziness, low sex drive, stomach aches or dry mouth, among others. A third source of error, caused by a skewed measurement scale, is overestimation of the effects.

All these issues are compounded in the popular mind by the tendency to emphasise not individual randomised trials but meta-analyses that combine multiple studies to increase the sample size, iron out discrepancies between different studies, and eventually extract a more valid, that is to say, statistically robust, conclusion. However, the ‘garbage in, garbage out’ dictum of computer science applies perfectly to these exercises. If a relevant proportion of the original studies is fundamentally flawed, the meta-analysis will not fix that problem.

One of the main findings ignored by critics of antidepressants is that the magnitude of the effect compared with the placebo increases with the severity of depression. In the go-to study cited by critics, published in 2008 by Irving Kirsch of Harvard Medical School and colleagues, this effect is attributed to the decrease in responsiveness to the placebo for the extremely depressed patients. But in a subsequent, technically superior analysis from Jay Fournier and colleagues at the University of Pennsylvania in 2010, the benefit of medications over a placebo is substantial, and not due to differences in response to the placebo. These findings appear unequivocal: while antidepressants could indeed be being prescribed to many people with mild depression who do not need them, they nonetheless work well in many patients with MDD. Overprescription and the usefulness of antidepressants to people with mild depression could be open for debate, as there are conflicting data in the literature, but it has been repeatedly demonstrated that antidepressants work in people with MDD. Why is it so difficult to accept this highly cautious conclusion of the published data?

The message is clear: antidepressants are better than placebo; they do work, although some work better than others.

One reason for the recent surge of skepticism is a gigantic meta-analysis by the psychiatrist Andrea Cipriani at the University of Oxford and colleagues, published in The Lancet in 2018. While the earlier study by Kirsch had included 5,133 participants, Fournier’s had 718, and another study, by Janus Christian Jakobsen in Denmark in 2017, had 27,422, Cipriani and colleagues analysed data from 116,477 people – or 3.5 times more participants than in the three previous studies combined.

The sample size is not sufficient to ensure quality, but the authors were careful to select only double-blind trials and did their best to include unpublished information from drug manufacturers to minimise publication bias. They found no evidence of bias due to funding by the pharma industry, and also included head-to-head comparisons between drugs (which minimised blind-breaking). They concluded that ‘all antidepressants included in the meta-analysis were more efficacious than placebo in adults with MDD, and the summary effect sizes were mostly modest’. The results are summarised by a statistic, the odds ratio (OR) that quantifies the association between health improvement and the action of the antidepressant. If the OR is 1, then antidepressants are irrelevant; for ORs above 1, a positive effect is detected. For 18 of the 21 antidepressants, the ORs they found ranged from 1.51 to 2.13. These results have been widely mischaracterised and described as weak in the press.

It is not intuitive to interpret ORs, but these can be converted to percentages that reflect the chances of experiencing health improvement from the antidepressant, which in this study ranged from 51 per cent to 113 per cent. These percentage increases are relevant, particularly taking into account the incidence of the disease (20 per cent of people are likely to be affected by depression at some stage of their lives).

For comparison, please note the uncontroversial finding that taking aspirin reduces the risk of stroke – its associated OR is ‘only’ 1.4, but no one describes it as weak or has raised doubts about this intervention. It would be unscientific to describe the work of Cipriani and colleagues as the definitive word on the topic, but it’s the best study we have so far. The message is clear: antidepressants are better than placebo; they do work, although the effects are mostly modest, and some work better than others. This paper was an important confirmation in times of a reproducibility crisis in so many scientific fields. We don’t have to look too far: a major study was published this spring that does not confirm the association of any of the 18 genes that were reanalysed and had been proposed to be associated with MDD.

Now that the scale has dramatically tilted in favour of antidepressants’ efficacy, it is likely that the critics will keep insisting that we remain mostly ignorant about the causes of depression. To deal with this critique, we need to go back a few decades. Chance often plays a role in the discovery of our most famous drugs, as in the case of L-DOPA for Parkinson’s disease and catatonia, Viagra for erectile dysfunction, and antidepressants. Hollywood movies have been made only about the first two – Awakenings (1990) and Love & Other Drugs (2010) – but the discovery of antidepressants is cinematic in its own right.

Prior to the 1950s, depression was treated with sedatives, stimulants such as amphetamines, and electroconvulsive (shock) therapy, without much science backing up these approaches. But new treatments emerged as neuroscience advanced. In the 1950s, three observations led to what is still our current understanding of the action of antidepressants. First, in 1951, doctors from the Sea View Hospital on Staten Island noticed that a drug named iproniazid, used to treat tuberculosis, had a peculiar side-effect on patients, which was described at the time as ‘a sensation approaching euphoric dynamism’, including increased appetite, more energy and resistance to fatigue. This tempted psychiatrists to try iproniazid as a ‘psychic energiser’ in depressed patients, with encouraging results.

Biochemically, iproniazid is an inhibitor of monoamine oxidase (MAO), an enzyme that breaks down biogenic amines, a group of neurotransmitters that includes serotonin, dopamine, epinephrine and norepinephrine, among others. When the MAO enzyme is inhibited, these crucial neurotransmitters stay intact and become available for release into the synaptic cleft, influencing connected neurons and ultimately contributing to mood or behaviour. Iproniazid worked but because of its substantial adverse effects, such as liver toxicity, dizziness and drowsiness, it was eventually withdrawn from the market.

Second, around 1957, a drug named imipramine (brand name Tofranil), developed as an antipsychotic, showed little effectiveness on schizophrenics, but had remarkable effects on the depressive symptoms of schizophrenics with depression. In the words of the doctor who first noticed these effects: ‘Patients who had great difficulties in getting up in the morning, get out of bed early with their own initiative, at the same time as other patients. They initiate relationships with other people, start conversations, participate in the daily life of the clinic, write letters, and are again interested in their family matters.’

The ‘monoamine hypothesis’ said depression results from a depletion of serotonin, norepinephrine and dopamin.

Imipramine was the first member of a class of drugs named tricyclic antidepressants (TCA) because of the presence of three rings in their molecular structure. TCAs act in several different ways, but their therapeutic effects are thought to result from the inhibition of the reuptake of norepinephrine and serotonin released into the synaptic cleft. The drug has side-effects such as dry mouth, drowsiness, dizziness and urinary retention, among others, and an overdose can be lethal.

The final observation revolved around reserpine, a treatment for hypertension that sometimes caused depression. Reserpine is an alkaloid (a naturally occurring organic compound containing basic nitrogen atoms) from the plant Rauwolfia serpentina. Its negative psychiatric effects were ultimately traced to the inhibition of molecular transporters; with the transporters inhibited, neurons retained neurotransmitters that would otherwise have been released into the synaptic cleft.

Combined, these three observations were the basis for the ‘monoamine hypothesis’ put forward in the 1960s, which proposed that depression results from a depletion of serotonin, norepinephrine and dopamine. Over the four subsequent decades, efforts concentrated on developing safer drugs with fewer side-effects within the frame of the monoamine hypothesis.

In the late 1960s, research began to single out serotonin. Decreased concentrations of this neurotransmitter were found in the corpses of depressive suicides, and binding molecules, called ligands, were developed to inhibit only the reuptake of serotonin. The first of these SSRIs, fluoxetine, was described in 1974. In 1989, it would reach the market under the name you’re probably familiar with: Prozac. In 1993 came venlafaxine (brand name Effexor), a serotonin-norepinephrine reuptake inhibitor (SNRI). In 2013, vortioxetine (brand name Brintellix) was approved as a ‘multi-modal’ drug for its ability to target the serotonin transporters but also several serotonin receptors. Over the years, the monoamine hypothesis became, at least for the non-experts, the serotonin hypothesis.

The human body contains at least 12,000 metabolites. On the day of his final exam, a biochemistry major might know a few hundred, but most of us will be able to name only a few dozen, with a clear bias for the metabolites known to influence behaviour. We will immediately associate adrenalin, cortisol, testosterone, oestrogen, oxytocin and dopamine with stereotypical behaviours and personality types, but what about serotonin? The molecule is certainly no obscure metabolite. The French novelist Michel Houellebecq named his latest novel Sérotonine (2019). But would you associate the ‘happy hormone’, as serotonin is often described, with the formation and maintenance of social hierarchies and the impetus to fight observed across the animal kingdom, from lobsters to primates? Indeed, since SSRIs have been found to influence our moral decision making, naming serotonin the ‘happy hormone’ appears to be a mistake. Apart from its role in mood balance, this neurotransmitter is involved in appetite, emotions, sleep-wake cycles, and motor, cognitive and autonomic functions. In fact, most of the body’s serotonin production is not found in the brain, but in the gut.

We simply do not have a consensual overarching explanation for how SSRIs/SNRIs work in depression, and how to link these neurotransmitters to the environmental stressors, genetic factors, and immunologic and endocrine responses proposed to contribute to depression. It is also clear that restoring the chemical balance of monoamines in the brain with a pill, which only takes minutes or hours, is insufficient to immediately produce therapeutic effects, which take several weeks. Indeed, without a complete picture of the mechanism of depression, it is not surprising that the available drug treatments are not fully effective. In a study involving thousands of MDD patients consecutively encouraged to move to a different treatment if they did not achieve remission from the previous treatment, only about 67 per cent of the MDD patients taking antidepressants went into clinical remission, even after four consecutive treatments. Thus, there is a large group of patients who don’t respond to SSRI/SNRIs, which raises doubts about the monoamine hypothesis to explain depression in full.

Other ideas have emerged. One line of thought focuses on the neurotransmitters glutamate (involved in cognition and emotion) and GABA (involved in inhibition), among others. One of the most exciting findings in the field is the clinical efficacy of ketamine, which targets glutamate neurotransmission, producing immediate effects in patients refractory to SSRI/SNRI treatments. Along with the monoamine hypothesis, most of these newer approaches are somehow related to the notion of neuronal plasticity, the ability of the nervous system to change, both functionally and structurally, in response to experience and injury, which can take some time to occur. Thus, it could be that the decreased levels of monoamines are not the real cause of depression, perhaps not even an absolutely necessary condition for depression. The data certainly suggest that there might be better targets to be found, and that the pharmacological approach has to become progressively more tailored.

That said, the temptation to dismiss the monoamine hypothesis to score points against antidepressants shows a lack of understanding of how medicine has worked for most of its history; imperfect but useful therapies have been the rule, even as we refine our understanding of disease.

We have an inbuilt need for self-control, and the idea that a drug fixes our behaviour is not attractive.

The monoamine hypothesis was a remarkable triumph of deductive reasoning, and deserves better from critics who say that depression is so complex it cannot be treated by tweaking neurotransmitter levels. Such a view seems to predate the lessons of chaos theory, which holds that complex systems can be ruled by extremely simple equations, and that small changes can have big consequences. It is also a view not supported by our understanding of biological systems and disease, because we know that a cause as minuscule as a single amino-acid change can make the difference between a healthy life and a living hell.

If you ever tried to convince someone to take antidepressants, maybe you used the argument ‘antidepressants are to depression as insulin is to diabetes’. This recurrent comparison might be useful to diminish the stigma around antidepressants, but for the depressed individual the analogy has two major problems. The first is trivial: he has the option not to take antidepressants, which creates the burden of choice, whereas the diabetic will die without the insulin shots. The second is subtler, but goes to the heart of the issue: a diabetic would be furious if told that he had never needed insulin in the first place, that he had been a victim of a big scam to extort money from him for life. If the same story were told to a lifelong consumer of antidepressants, he might display public indignation as well, but deep inside some pride could emerge from the realisation that, after all, he survived on his own, without any drug. We have an inbuilt need for self-control, and the idea that a drug fixes our behaviour is not attractive. Thus, unconsciously or not, each time someone poses as a contrarian skeptic or whistleblower claiming that antidepressants don’t work, he is essentially a crowd-pleaser.

The key difference between insulin and antidepressants is that the former heals the body, whereas the latter fix the mind, and our sense of self is more strongly attached to the mind than to the body. We do not spend a minute thinking about our pancreas, unless it fails to work. In contrast, our conscience can easily become fixated on a moral dilemma when we take drugs to change the brain. Antidepressants restore the healthy state just like any other medicine, but by tapping into processes so intimately connected to our perception of the self and our moral compass, they raise an existential problem – one that is likely to gain relevance as these drugs become more refined and we leave mental-health restoration for the realm of cognitive enhancement.

The constant trashing of antidepressants has created an absurd situation. These drugs are the most rigorously scrutinised treatments for depression we have to date, yet they keep getting a bad press while ‘holistic’ approaches such as practising sports, yoga or salsa dancing, and consuming St John’s wort, Omega-3 fatty acids, soul food, daylight, Radiohead or J S Bach, perhaps even poppy extract and donkey’s milk, get a pass from everyone. Antidepressants don’t fix the sources of depression that can trigger the disease, they merely fix a biochemistry that makes some of us more vulnerable to stress and life in general. It is a truism that these drugs should be combined with life changes, and that transformative life events remain relevant for depressed individuals taking antidepressants. The Anatomy of Melancholy (1621) by Robert Burton advised his audience to ‘be not solitary’, and that ‘every man almost hath something or other to employ himself about, some vocation’. This advice is as good as ever. But given the state of the art, the high rate of antidepressant discontinuation, and the tragedy that a depression could trigger, bold statements such as ‘antidepressants don’t work’ are a disservice to the public.

Vasco M Barreto works in molecular immunology at CEDOC (Nova Medical School) in Lisbon, Portugal. He is finishing a book for a lay audience on the social implications of our genetic inheritance.

Kathryn McNeer, LPC specializes in Couples Counseling Dallas with her sound, practical and sincere advice. Kathryn's areas of focus include individual counseling, relationship and couples counseling Dallas. Kathryn has helped countless individuals find their way through life's inevitable transitions; especially that tricky patch of life known as "the mid life crisis." Kathryn's solution-focused, no- nonsense counseling works wonders for men and women in the midst of feeling, "stuck," or "unhappy." Kathryn believes her fresh perspective allows her clients find the better days that are ahead. When working with couples, it is Kathryn's direct yet non-judgmental approach that helps determine which patterns are holding them back and then helps them establish new, more productive patterns. Kathryn draws from Gottman and Cognitive behavioral therapy. When appropriate Kathryn works with couples on trust, intimacy, forgiveness, and communication.

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