Spiritual Interaction of Depression Medication

[Naiad]

So recently I started taking medication for depression because of life events (I'm sure I don't need to explain further, there are plenty of people that get it). Its been about 5-6 months since I really started keeping up with taking it when I'm supposed to and so forth.

Recently though, I've started to notice that I don't have the same strength of spiritual connection I had with for example my patron god as before... Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying I was hearing voices or seeing things before, but it just seems...weaker now. Almost deadened. I blame my medication because even before I became depressed it wasn't like this.

I was just wondering if anyone else has had an experience similar to this with medications or if I'm just jumping to conclusions here and it actually isn't related at all.

[toxicyarnglare]

Re: Spiritual Interaction of Depression Medication

I kind of have similar experiences to an extent... Like I have a harder time meditating when my health issues, which make my brain feel depressed, get pretty bad. I also did take sertraline (which is an SSRI) and that seemed to clog up my mind and give me brain fog.

I find just moving around or "manually" raising your mood or outlook can have a dramatic impact on meditation and whatnot. As for any deeper spiritual experiences, I can't say as I haven't gotten that far myself.

[Torey]

Re: Spiritual Interaction of Depression Medication

When I was taking antipsychotic meds, they made me feel much the same. I have also taken antidepressants, but that was longer ago than what I formerly mentioned, so I can't honestly recall if they made much of a difference.

I have mixed thoughts when it comes to what the mechanism is behind these feelings and how they are linked with the use of certain medications. While I do believe that intake of any substance into the physical body may likely have vibrational or energetic repercussions, I don't know that something as small as a pill can really make any profound vibrational change to the energetic makeup of the body.

I do believe that a great deal of our ability to manifest magickal change or to effectively attune ourselves to spiritual communication originates within the brain - so, hypothetically, anything which alters the chemical balance within the brain may affect those abilities.

It really is a fine line - I do wholly support responsibly taking medication, but it is unfortunate that sometimes our bodies and spirituality suffer as a side effect.

[Naiad]

Re: Spiritual Interaction of Depression Medication

It's good to know I'm not alone. It's just frustrating that I can't feel them there like I used to. And I can't not take my meds, it just ends up ruining all the relationships that I've built and turns me into an absolute jerk.

[anubisa]

Re: Spiritual Interaction of Depression Medication

I've been taking meds ever since i've been born. So I can't help you hon. I wish I could. You might want to try getting used to the med and see if your connection returns. I'm sorry. Hope things get better.

[Rae'ya]

Re: Spiritual Interaction of Depression Medication

So recently I started taking medication for depression because of life events (I'm sure I don't need to explain further, there are plenty of people that get it). Its been about 5-6 months since I really started keeping up with taking it when I'm supposed to and so forth.

Recently though, I've started to notice that I don't have the same strength of spiritual connection I had with for example my patron god as before... Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying I was hearing voices or seeing things before, but it just seems...weaker now. Almost deadened. I blame my medication because even before I became depressed it wasn't like this.

I was just wondering if anyone else has had an experience similar to this with medications or if I'm just jumping to conclusions here and it actually isn't related at all.

I've heard it go both ways. I've never taken medication like that myself, but I've interacted with people who do and there seems to be mixed results. Some find that the medications depress their spiritual experiences, while others find that they do better because the imbalance BEFORE the meds was so distracting that they couldn't achieve much.

It's good to know I'm not alone. It's just frustrating that I can't feel them there like I used to. And I can't not take my meds, it just ends up ruining all the relationships that I've built and turns me into an absolute jerk.

Either way, I think that it's important to realise that this is not necessarily permanent. Your body-mind-soul interaction (or whatever you want to call it) has been changed, and therefore the methods that you used before don't necessarily work as well.

Think of it this way... a person who only ever trances out when they use drugs usually finds it very difficult to trance out without the drugs. They've learned to do it one way and that method has become a crutch that prevents them from easily doing it another way. That's not to say that they CAN'T do it... just that learning another way is now much harder.

So basically your interactions aren't necessarily permanently gone or weaker... you're just back to square one, so to speak. Going back to the beginning, relearning the basics and reforming the connections, then some dedicated practice should form new connections and get you back to where you were before. It's frustrating, but it should be doable. I have heard of people who feel that their connection is permanently gone, but for the most part it seems that they get frustrated and disillusioned and stop trying, because it's not the same as it was before.

[thalassa]

Re: Spiritual Interaction of Depression Medication

So basically your interactions aren't necessarily permanently gone or weaker... you're just back to square one, so to speak. Going back to the beginning, relearning the basics and reforming the connections, then some dedicated practice should form new connections and get you back to where you were before. It's frustrating, but it should be doable. I have heard of people who feel that their connection is permanently gone, but for the most part it seems that they get frustrated and disillusioned and stop trying, because it's not the same as it was before.

This x1000!

I'd say more, but I'm at work...so I'll get back to this thread!

[Charlie]

Re: Spiritual Interaction of Depression Medication

I've had feelings of this nature after getting my thyroid nuked twice.

Sometimes i still feel compromised by the synthetic hormone.
But there's no real choice for me, as I have no thyroid left, and it sounds like you've made a clear choice with your AD!

We need to build up something new with this current state, I guess.
I'm beginning to feel more secure every day.

Maybe the connection is not weaker, but different, and starting to grow from a new place, like Rae'ya has said very well.