Hello, thank you guys again for all the great information you put out.
It is from my understanding that stress factors in everyday life can affect your ability to recover, and also perform in the gym. Would you doctors consider antidepressants (SNRI or SSRI) a way to manage stress factors outside of the gym? To be more specific, if my ability to recover has been comprised from my Generalized anxiety disorder, and Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, will my antidepressant i’ve been prescribed technically reduce the effect of stress on my recovery assuming that is helps lower my stress?
While we do not recommend antidepressants or other pharmaceuticals for stress management in general. However, if they are correctly prescribed for a mood disorder such as generalized anxiety or depression then they would likely have a beneficial effect on the internal load experienced by the lifter. That being said, they probably don’t augment recovery as much as they do overall fatigue.
The “stress” that will be reduced by SSRI or SNRI will generally be “nonproductive stress.” So yes, to the extent the medications and therapy help with your anxiety disorders, they will reduce nonproductive stress and therefore should help with recovery and Gainzzz. Also, training regularly should help with the anxiety disorders too. Treatment + training = win/win!
