Antidepressants

SSRIs might influence your reading-abilities. You might be too tired to concentrate on the cards. (at least during the first weeks) Perhaps at the moment you read more negative readings. Maybe, if you feel better with the meds, you will find more positive aspects in the cards. Maybe if your mood is better, you will feel more sad about sad results of your readings. I only have experience with Prozac and Trimipramin.

Im on setraline 150mg. It hasnt effected my readings. I think everybody differ's though as to how they effect you.

I've been on 40mg prozac for 3 years. There are no adverse effects on my readings. If anything, I think I'm more relaxed and able to interpret the cards more objectively. Each individual is different, however. There's only one way to know how it will affect you.

I'm a bit blown-away with this whole thread, and struggling to come to grips with it.

Tarot reading *is* my antidepressant of choice, at the moment. As a lifetime antidepressant, it comes second only to having half a dozen people-friendly chooks in the backyard, but as I don't have decent fencing or a chookshed in this house, chooks are out of the question. So the cards are my only antidepressant. And they do the job quite adequately.

I still miss my girls sometimes, though ...

Everyone is different, some anti-depressants will suit you more than others, some doses will work better than others.

I've taken Prozac, Zoloft & Effexor (the latter is actually an SNRI or serotonin-norepinephrine reuptake inhibitor but the side-effects felt pretty similar to me.)

I couldn't read when taking any of them at the doses prescribed by my GP. Eventually with the Effexor I lowered the dose myself and then everything was fine. The best thing to do is discuss the side-effects and doses with your doctor and if the side-effects last longer than expected go back and discuss it again. Personally, while I didn't get on particularly well with these drugs I believe they did help in the long run.



I should note that I'm not in any way recommending that anyone should adjust their dose themselves without consulting a doctor first. In my case I had ME which can be a controversial diagnosis especially if your GP decides it's 'too fashionable' and there was some (contested!) evidence at the time that normal doses of anti-depressants were too high.

I've been on almost all the SSRIs available at one point or another (failed to find one that suited me so they took me off them altogether!), including citalopram. Everyone I know has had different effects from it, though I personally couldn't read for an hour or two after taking one. Still, after that period of time had gone by, I was fine to read!

The purpose of antidepressants is to normalize the levels of various neurotransmitters in the brain, so you function as normally as possible. I've been on SSRIs and other types of antidepressants for the past 20 years, on and off (mostly on, the last 10 years). The trick is to find the combination of meds that make you feel as normal as possible with the least number of side-effects. Most people will find a med or combination of meds that works optimally for them. It might take a few months, but believe me it's worth it. Having a brainful of misbehaving chemicals did not work for me at all! I just feel my normal everyday self, and I don't experience side-effects at all apart from the occasional dry mouth.

I have had some experience with depression, taking antidepressants, and reading tarot. All of the drugs I tried were in the SSRI category.

As depression set in over the years, my spreads would take me 'round and 'round in circles with a spiraling downward effect. It seemed as if there was no way out and no answers for anything I asked. I felt blind and helpless, and my readings were mirroring those emotions. I stopped using the cards at all at this time. I missed them, however, and NOT drawing cards was one of the catalysts that prodded me into searching for help.

In the search for a medication that would actually help me, I found that Prozac, Paxil, and Zoloft all effected me in the same way: I was no longer a pile of sobbing mush, but that was because I just didn't care about anything. I call it The Zombie Effect. I would sit and stare at the cards (or the dishes, or the dust on the tables) and not be able to focus on what to ask, what to do next, or even to feel the energy from the cards or people like I had before. This was one of the reasons I kept changing medications after a 60-90 day trial of each.

Lexapro finally did the trick for me. After a couple of weeks on this medication, I started to think and feel "normally" again, and I felt in touch with my cards and with people again, at last!

My conclusion from this is: The ability to read tarot is directly connected to how clearly you can see yourself, your ability to focus and make decisions, and how well your mind can process information and energy. The healthier you are mentally and spiritually, the more precise and accurate your readings will be.

Wenchie said:

My conclusion from this is: The ability to read tarot is directly connected to how clearly you can see yourself, your ability to focus and make decisions, and how well your mind can process information and energy. The healthier you are mentally and spiritually, the more precise and accurate your readings will be.

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Yes.

And if being in good health means taking meds is necessary - then on meds will be how you read best. I've not had to take anything heavy since I started to read - but I know that at my worst, I would have read better on the meds than off them - indeed, I doubt if I could have read without them. I could not focus at all. I couldn't even get dressed ! Decisions - not something I am good at anyway - but forget it when I'm ill !

And I have taken St John's Wort as a preventive since I began to read and it didn't seem to affect my reading at all.

Alcohol, now - THAT......

gregory said:

Alcohol, now - THAT......

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Lol! Funnily enough, alcohol actually makes me able to read the cards a bit easier! What they're telling me could still be gibberish though