Anti-depressant effects on magick

Hi all,

I was hoping to gain some knowledge on the effects or blockages that one might have when practicing magick and energy work, while also taking anti-depressant/anti-anxiety medication.

I remember reading a while ago something about it dulling or numbing your abilities. I have been on medication for a few years now so this of course is of concern to me.

Does anyone have any experience in regards to this?

Anti-depressant medication can affect magickal workings and metaphysical practices, although it's not always a suppressant of your subtle abilities. How it interacts varies and it remains yet not fully understood since not enough testing has been made by reliable sources. Either way I would never recommend someone to stop their medication because of possible interactions with magickal practice, since if you were correctly prescribed that condition must be addressed first.

Hi Jonathan,

Thanks for your reply. I've recently learned about the way cosmic energy can flow through the etheric body during meditation and and heal all sorts of conditions. If i am able to reach that level of meditation (which i'm finding difficult) then there should be no reason for me to continue my medication.. But i would taper off it under doctor guidance. I guess this will be one of my goals to try and achieve as soon as possible

Hi Aurora
I've had experience with this for some years. Jonathan's response was on point but I would also like to add a few things. There are many different kinds of anti-psychotics (if you define them by their ability to suppress overwhelming emotions), and they each can affect someone differently than another person as we are all different. Like Jonathan said, there haven't been many studies on them and not even the way the affect you on a neurological level has been fully discovered. The doctors unfortunately can only judge the success by the resolving of the symptoms therein, and usually cannot understand the subjective and Psychological implications of such. Therefore, in order to discern the amount of which they can obstruct your energy and spirituality, can be found in the way energy works. There are many different forms of it, and each works in its unique ways. Vital energy for example, is the energy that flows through your body and affects your physical health. It is also the one that is most affected by synthetic drugs like that, which in my experience can have two main negative consequences. The first is that a healthy flow of energy is characterized as passing through your head down to the rest of the body. Surprisingly, a lot of times medication like that obstructs this flow, and this reflects on your subtle body, and one of its manifestations is the suppression of sexuality (since the energy doesn't flow easily to your lower abdomen, as it would naturally). The second one is that magick and energy work in general enhance your consiousness and allow you to feel everything a lot deeper. This comes in contrast to the general effects of those drugs, which are designed to do the opposite, and this can cause an overload that leads to mental exhaustion. On a physiological note, most of them target your serotonin and dopamine receptors, which are the two most important neurotransmitters your brain uses to send signals and form connections to the rest of the brain. I talked more in depth about this on this thread by Mystic. https://www.vampirismforum.com/t1936-modern-psychology-and-ancient-metaphysics#23632

To summarize, the only person who should judge whether or not you should continue the medication is you, but the same time you should consult your doctor like Jonathan said in order to do this cautiously.

Hi Naoom,

I'd really like to get off medication more than anything, i don't like the idea of using synthetic drugs every single day. I don't even drink water from the tap but choose to distil it myself so i am not consuming the fluoride, chlorine etc that's in it.

I'd recently gone to a higher dose of my medication after feeling quite numb, unmotivated and depressed, more so than i'd experienced before, but i'm now feeling more back to normal. I've decided to go back to my lower dose as of today and will be trying to stay with that for about two weeks before bringing it down again slowly. Maybe taking it every second day for a while instead.

I do experience withdrawals from the medication when forgetting to take it or changing dose, sometimes strong, sometimes not, which usually involves heightened emotions and inability to focus properly. But i know this can happen and i will do my best to keep it in check and meditate through it. I'll also stay in touch with my doctor, but the decision is ultimately mine and i can't see a better reason to come of the medication as soon as possible if it is interfering with my vital or subtle energy, and journey to my higher self. What could be more important than that

There are energetic techniques that can be utilized to treat depression, but I feel it might be unwise to go entirely off medication without plenty of caution since everyone's brain chemistry reacts differently it seems. 
If you'd like to get off it, maybe you could try a regular therapist in conjunction with gradually diminished doses, so that your progress and health can be closely tracked. 
I'm not a doctor though, so this is just an opinion that should be taken cautiously.

Thank you for your concern Rhea, and believe me i am not taking this lightly. My health, both mental and physical, is very important to me and i will be making an appointment with my doctor soon to discuss my decision to come off the medication. She will help monitor me through the process. I have a friend who is a trained councillor that would be able to help me with therapy also, but i believe the things that will be most beneficial for me are meditation and energetic techniques. Could you tell me more about what you know?

It all depends on what is causing your depression. Some things, just from my own personal analysis without being a health professional, are easier to treat than others.
Many depression cases seem to stem from energetic stagnation or blockages within the subtle system, but again the causes vary widely. 
For instance, an energy parasite could easily cause depression if they are constantly leeching energy from the person they're attached to. 
Natural incarnated life comes with various stressors that can burn some vital energy, leading to diminished energy stores and depression following that. 
Just a few examples from my gradually growing understanding,  since this topic is so intricate that it could probably fill endless volumes. 
I could say that meditation will aid you greatly, but that's only a possibility and not absolute reality. I see,  in many New Age circles, people always advising meditation as a cure-all of depression but I must disagree. In my own opinion it depends on what the practitoner is doing with the meditation. 
Simply sitting and clearing the mind, attaining that inner silence, can go a very long way toward naturally dumping the debris from regular interactions and obligations that can build and degenerate into stress and depression. But then there are also factors such as nutrition, exercise and physical brain chemistry. 
There is a common belief within the vampire community that feeding (energy or blood) can reduce depression significantly, and I personally hold that to be true as well, but I feel it can be dangerous to tell newcomers to rely on that too much as it can create illusion sometimes, and maybe even careless neglect of other vital balancing areas as one chases the power feeling of the vampire archetype. 
It all comes down to your own exploration and cultivating your own experiences. As you experiment, you'll learn what helps you overcome the monster of depression and what doesn't have much effect at all. 
Some kind of hobby involving significant physical exercise (if approved by your doctor- I am not aware of your physical health), a healthy diet focusing more on fresh produce (foods that are alive) and more contact with nature can probably help you a lot. Also, there are simple sets of tumbled crystals you can find online that correspond to and help clear each energy center- those are nice to meditate and work with.

I'm usually not as affected by depression but more so anxiety. I guess it all stems from childhood experiences and trauma.

I was told by my reiki teacher last year that i had a tear in my aura. She said she healed it, but i didn't feel any different. It would be really nice to be able to protect myself from that, and from parasites leeching my energy. I feel as though i'm probably an empath too, which doesn't help when my job involves me being in close proximity and touching people.

I could definitely improve my diet and exercise, that's for sure. And i'm doing so slowly, but with the beginning of this journey it has become of more importance to me.

I still have yet to identify if i'm a vampire.. So i'm not sure if feeding on others energy would be beneficial for me, if i'm not? I wouldn't even know where to begin on how to do that successfully and safely for the other person and myself.

I like wearing crystals and i do every day so i'll have to look into which ones correspond to each chakra to help with that

Thanks for the awesome suggestion Maxx!

The energy we use when working to heal someone, that is the energy of the universe right? So if we ask for OUR energy back, that wouldn't be a part of it right? I just wouldn't want to use energy to heal someone to only take it back again.

Do not make your life more complicated than it should be. You are an example of using one's mind to create all kinds of options and choices to create confusion while sitting down and being overcome with too many possibilities.  Life can really be fascinating and delicious.  It is all up to you.  Simple is easy when recognized.

Your remark actually comes at an interesting time. 
I've been experimenting with this very technique lately, calling back my energy. It has been helpful. 
Admittedly, I've found a lot more value and positive forward movement by working on self and meditation, as well as energy work, but felt wary of telling someone to follow suit due to people being so different. 
Counselors only help so much, for me personally struggling with severe depression. Confronting the issues head on in the spiritual sense has given me more progress than months of talking it out with others. 
I've had strange and vivid experiences during meditation that have fixed problems a therapist never could.

Those are the things i'd love to be able to have experiences of also. And i'm happy to start slow and work my way up. Starting with just energy work basics and meditation. I just feel like i need someone to give me clear precise steps to start with then i can get more of an understanding and go from there

This is a personal detail but I figure it may help the OP. 
I've had anti-depressants. And anti-anxiety medications. 
They ended up doing almost nothing for me. 
The anti-anxiety helped for a short time but not for long. The anti-depressants did absolutely nothing at all. 
I was prescribed them but had an honest talk with my doctor and told him they weren't doing anything because I knew what caused my problems anyway. He let me go off them. 
They do interfere with energy work and sensitivity in a way. They, for me, were more like sand shoveled hastily over something. Did nothing for the real issue at hand. 
Confronting issues within meditation and honest contemplation did. 
Meanwhile, therapists can give tools that help you moving forward, but in my experience it has only ever been just that... A tool. I expected that to fix everything, you know, because of what society tells you about it, but... It didn't. Because they were only able to pierce maybe an inch into what felt like an entire multilayered world. I ended up getting frustrated and taking matters into my own hands. I discovered several things, like for instance that I require the continual pressure and discipline of the martial arts in order to keep stagnation and depression at bay and give me a sense of direction. But again, everyone is different of course. 
I must say modern medicine can be amazing but it needs balance with the spiritual and the occult in order to function as it should. 
Healing is an entire process that can be very raw and challenging.

Thanks for your honesty and sharing your personal experiences with medication Rhea. I feel that medication has helped me, but i've also grown spiritually since i first went on them. It's been quite a few years.. maybe 5 or 6?

I've learned tools also, like deep breathing which is great at helping to calm anxiousness, but like you said - they are tools. The goal is to remove the symptoms so the use of tools isn't needed.

I feel like I have gone through this for long enough to make a proper response.

I would not suggest going off the medicine that has the ability to help with things such as depression. Depression sometimes isn't a matter of meditation and magick. Sometimes it's a chemical imbalance that a person can be born with, and the only real solution is to supplement the brain with what it needs to function properly. I would highly suggest speaking with your doctor or a therapist to see what the root cause of the depression is. We as social beings oftentimes need the opinion of people around us to fully make a decision, especially ones who are trained in the physical body and have experience working with many different cases over many different people.

My advice is to speak with a trained professional on this matter, to see if going off medication is truly the right thing to do. While there is the possibility of medication getting in the way of spiritual and magickal advancement, the body must be aligned the same as the spirit and the mind. I would also highly suggest therapy if you do go off the medication, to see what the root cause of your depression is. If you're too depressed, that in of itself (I feel) will inhibit magickal ability far worse than a pill.