Reducing serotonin in order to have effects opposite SSRIs, is, I'm sorry, a laughable idea. The effects of SSRIs are complicated and not well understood, they do much more than simply increase serotonin.
Maybe you can state your goals and I can give some recommendations?
"Have effects opposite SSRI's" - I never said this was my goal?
My goal is simply to reduce serotonin, as I'm convinced it's bad for you, especially in the long run.
If you have any advice I'd be happy to hear them.
Cyproheptadine is garbage, it has additional anti-cholinergic and anti-dopaminergic effects that diminish any benefit that would be seen with serotonin blockade...if it were just a serotonin antagonist - then it would be useful.
Yeah, I know. I do find it useful for sleep every now and then though.
I've tried Paradise Herbs' Shilajit at 1000 mg doses and it does make me feel good. But at these doses it's too expensive. You know any source for bulk powder?
If it were that simple, then tianeptine, a Serotonin Reuptake Enhancer, would have the direct opposite effects of SSRIs, But it's not, and draining yourself of Serotonin is a silly approach.
Well no, just as SSRI's, tianeptine has several other mechanisms, opioid agonism being one.
Do note that I'm not saying low serotonin doesn't play a role in depression - it most certainly does - but I'd rather feel depressed and miserable than be looping on serotonin.
To quote John Stuart Mill:
It is better to be a human being dissatisfied than a pig satisfied; better to be Socrates dissatisfied than a fool satisfied. And if the fool, or the pig, is of a different opinion, it is because they only know their own side of the question. The other party to the comparison knows both sides.
To give you some perspective: the type of behavior displayed by upper classes of society; the elegance, the subtlety, the higher levels of intelligence and conscience, most likely reflect low serotonin levels (or rather, a lower ratio of serotonin to other neurotransmitters). Now take the opposite, high serotonin, say in combination with a poor immune system, low metabolic rate, chronic inflammation, and what will you have? Well, a serf/thrall.
To refer to Timothy Leary's Eight Circuit Model of Consciousness, as you see, the upper circuits are activated by drugs that alter/lowers serotonergic expression.
From an article I found interesting:
Suomi gathered plenty of that evidence himself in the years after his 2002 study. He found, for example, that monkeys who carried the supposedly risky serotonin-transporter allele, and who had nurturing mothers and secure social positions, did better at many key tasks—creating playmates as youths, making and drawing on alliances later on, and sensing and responding to conflicts and other dangerous situations—than similarly blessed monkeys who held the supposedly protective allele. They also rose higher in their respective dominance hierarchies. They were more successful.
