Edit: I’m actually not depressed, just wondering cuz I saw the same question on Instagram somewhere
In: Biology
There kind of are, in the sense that drugs like Xanax can very quickly calm you down.
The problem is that the main neurotransmitter that seems to affect mood in the way that causes depression is serotonin. Serotonin does a *lot* of things in your body beyond regulating mood. Even in its role to regulate mood, we need to be very careful about just adding it into your brain. Brains are too complicated, and dumping in a bunch of neurotransmitter willy-nilly would be like dumping fuel into an engine at the wrong time – at best, it does nothing. At worst, it really messes something up.
SSRIs (and SNRIs) don’t add serotonin, they slow down how quickly your brain absorbs it after using it. When your neurons release a neurotransmitter, something has to clean the neurotransmitter up so that it *stops* activating nerves. If the neurotransmitter is an “on” button, then you need to have an “off” button – else, how would you ever be able to turn it on again? It would just be on all the time, and that’s not how *anything* works, much less a brain. By slowing down the enzymes that break down serotonin (and norepinephrine), the neurotransmitters continue to press the “on” button for a little while longer which has the exact same effect as adding more into your brain; except, your brain is still 100% in control of *when* to add the neurotransmitters.
The adjustment period for SSRIs is to slowly saturate your brain with the drug so that your brain slowly adjusts to having more neurotransmitter available. The drug will reach an equilibrium point where your body is getting rid of it at the same rate it’s going in, which is what you want. What you *don’t* want is to dump the full amount directly into the brain immediately without any time for your brain chemistry to adjust and your body to get used to it. That would have essentially the same effect as just injecting a ton of neurotransmitter at the wrong time. Brains are complicated, you don’t want to make any sudden changes if you can avoid it.
In my experience there are. But they usually don’t last longer than like 8 hours, and some are highly addictive
I wouldn’t call the anti-depressants I’m on “fast acting” but I can certainly feel when I missed them. I’m not scientist, but the way my psychiatrist explained it to me is that brain chemistry takes a while to course correct, and several outside factors like diet, exercise, substance use, etc., also play huge roles and anti-depressants can’t lift the damage from all of that alone.
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