A doctor said this and it was such a good metaphor: imagine that you have a 3000 year old machine (which no one understands anymore) with a bunch of cogs and gears, and you're looking down at it from above. You're trying to fix a gear that is slightly out of alignment further down in the machine, you can't really tell which one it is but you know roughly which area, and to fix it you drop a rock into the machine and watch it fall down.

That's what we're doing with SSRIs. We're dropping a rock that manipulates our serotonin, which gives a bunch of effects but not the one we're after. The one we're after is somewhere down the line. It's affected by processes that are affected by the serotonin somehow. We're not exactly sure which one it is, but we know that if we drop the rock in there it will make the gears align sooner or later.

Which is why it takes time, and why it has some odd effects on people sometimes.

edit: added a detail I missed, to make it clearer.

Yes and no, also i am not a medical professional.

For classical antidepressants Chemicals tend to function pretty fast but the effect is designed to be subtle because you need to live a normal life, capable of dealing with and feeling both ups and downs. not be perpetually smiling or brain dead.

After some time “a few weeks” of taking a daily dose your body and mind adjust to the subtle changes causing a stable therapeutic effect. At least thats what I understand is the idea.

But lately there is also sm of a psychedelic renaissance of medicine and they work entirely different where a single dose within a therapeutic setting creates a longer lasting feeling of increased well being.

Nasal Ketamine seems to receive allot of attention, near instantly improving the condition. They tend to need 1 dose every 5 weeks so its less addictive then classic medicine. But i do admit it instant improvement for treatment resistant medications is a bold claim and still subject of more research.

I buy antibiotics from this guy downtown, who has cut out so much waste by providing it in powder form. I now I’m not supposed to, but I take it everyday with a nasal inhaler. I’ve never felt better and have great ideas of grandeur for hours each morning!

Could you explain why?

i don't know any addict that would be deterred for even a minute by that

I prefer white doves