Beware of Long-term Anti-depressant Use, Says Actor Jim Carrey

Actor Jim Carrey may have grappled with depression during his formative years ,yet he cautions people against prolonged use of anti-depressant drugs.

He warned people about using Prozac for a long period of time during a recent television interview.

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"At the risk of like opening up the whole Tom Cruise Prozac argument, you know, I don't disagree in many ways," Us magazine quoted him as saying on Monday's Larry King Live.

"I think Prozac and things like that are very valuable to people for short periods of time. But I believe if you're on them for an extended period of time, you never get to the problem.

"You never get to see what the problem is, because everything is just kind of OK. And so, you don't deal. And people deal when they get desperate," he added.

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Carrey also revealed that he considered "supplements" to be a solution to the problem.

"It is vitamins. But it's also certain elements of the brain like Tyrosine and hydroxytryptophan that they're treating depression with now," he said. "It is a natural substance that's in your brain. Instead of being a Serotonin inhibitor, which just uses the serotonin you have and Prozac and things like that - it just uses the Serotonin you have and it doesn't allow it go back into the receptor," he said.

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"It metabolizes your serotonin after a while and you have to keep taking more and more to feel good.

"This actually creates dopamine and creates serotonin. It's a wonderful thing. It's amazing. I'm going to talk a lot about it in the near future," he added.

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Carrey also credited his girlfriend Jenny McCarthy for helping him, and recalled meeting her years ago at David Spade's birthday party.

"She looked at me, and she said, 'You just looked so peaceful that I had to come and talk to you. I mean, I'd seen her a bunch of times, never in person. But I just thought well, she's nothing like the persona, like the Singled Out person that I met or that I knew, that I had seen,'' he said.

The actor said that he and McCarthy had no plans to wed.

Source-ANI
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