Salazar's improvement while taking Prozac

AlSal has had issues since he was in college, and likely long before than. His epic battle with Jeff Nelson because Nelson had the gall to beat AlSal in the early 1980s. Last year, Salazar has his epic breakdown trying to force the race results to come out the way he wanted them to. It comes as no surprise that AlSal takes meds to help with his condition.

He only took Prozac for a few months and then stopped (this was back in the 80s I believe). I would be concerned about taking anti-depressants and then coming off them...aren't there horror stories about withdrawal symptoms?

AlSal is likely taking something to help with depression: Prozac or whatever else. There are ugly withdrawal for many drugs, usually because someone takes a "little extra" to help them feel better faster. They end up addicted to the meds.

I've taken Prozac or fluoxetine as it's known. ? I took some bad ecstasy in 2012 and almost died. I had a very painful unknown nervous system syndrome for about 3 months. I thought I would be permanently disabled. I think fluoxetine helped me recover. That said, as for being prescribed it for depression as opposed to nervous system repair, I wasn't a fan of it. And recently when I've taken it I've gotten some headaches. I didn't sense any training or performance benefit and if anything I've had psychological hangups about it decreasing physical ability. As far as I'm concerned psycho drugs are for people with mental health issues and I view them punitively and destructively. They are not natural and increase the chemical/ waste load on the body. Stick with natural performance enhances. Of course I need not mention actual PEDs. I haven't read Salazar's book but I would take the Magness approach (from his critique of bullet proof coffee). Until an incredible convincing study comes out or there are loads of very obvious anecdotal studies I'm calling bullsh1t.

I assume some one has corrected this already.

A). The post is poorly, incorrectly, or deceptively written.

B). If you read Alberto Salazar's comments in Duel In The Sun, and read 14mins, you'll be hard pressed to find any athlete in any sport so radically honest about their life and mistakes.

Pray tell, what do find deceptive? AlSal's battle with Jeff Nelson? That AlSal had a meltdown last year? Both of those happened, so maybe it's the Prozac AlSal said he took in his book.

Been on fluoxetine for nine years. I feel the exact same in every way I did before I was on it, except now my down periods are far less severe.

The only enhancement it could potentially give is the same as weed. You're more relaxed when you're not working out, allowing your body to chill and recover.

I wouldn't be surprised if Salazar's improvement during that period had absolutely nothing to do with Prozac.

I started taking Zoloft for depression between my junior and senior years. I didn't feel there was a performance boost (I improved but not as much as between tenth and eleventh grade) but it really made my daily life easier so there's that.

Get it rightt wrote:

B). If you read Alberto Salazar's comments in Duel In The Sun, and read 14mins, you'll be hard pressed to find any athlete in any sport so radically honest about their life and mistakes.

Yeah, I'm gonna trust anything that salazar wrote. It must be true. After all, he earned the handle 'sleazy sal' from being totally honest and above board.

Sleazy was a jerk in the 70's, a doper in the 80's and is a cheating punkassbitch now.

SSRIs make me fat

I came off Escitalopram in Dec last year after being on it for a little over a year and seemed to have no dramatic withdrawals like some people do. With my running over that period (dec - march) I feel my training and racing got substantially better than when I was on the meds. This could however come down to a change in my training programme which my coach had me on from the beginning of Jan...

Was this "Prozac" the stuff in the bottle that was prescribed by Dr. Smulovitz or the stuff in the bottle Dick Brown handed out without a prescription?

Flo'da boy wrote:

I started taking Zoloft for depression between my junior and senior years. I didn't feel there was a performance boost (I improved but not as much as between tenth and eleventh grade) but it really made my daily life easier so there's that.

I take Zoloft, and I don't think it affects my running but I do know it is one of the more activating SSRIs. I always thought it raised my RHR a little, and probably corresponded to a slightly higher HR while running.

I'm not sure if this would be a boost or a detriment, though. You would think it would be a detriment to have a heart that is working harder, but caffeine surely raises to HR and it is considered a performance-enhancer. I honestly don't know either way.

I used to bash antidepressants as being for "weakminded" people, and would always tell people to go the natural way (supplements, vitamins, etc.) Then, over the winter, I had a really, really bad bout of anxiety/depression that I simply could not shake.

Very, very reluctantly, at the advice of a friend, I got a Rx for Celexa. About 5 weeks later I feel more calm and relaxed than I have in about a decade. It hasn't "changed" me in any way, except that I'm not wrestling with irrational, intrusive thoughts all the time. I can think straight and I'm happy as a horse.

Can't claim to have read the book, but I would think (if true) it is a pro/con type thing.

Negative athletic effect from prozac < Mental boost

You don't know the history of psychiatry. I do. I've studied it. All these drugs do is mask the problem. You're not getting to the reason why. There is no such thing as a chemical imbalance. Vitamins and exercise are all you need. Drugs are not the answer.

Tom Cruise wrote:

All these drugs do is mask the problem. ... Vitamins and exercise are all you need. Drugs are not the answer.

Surely we can trust Big Pharma, can't we?

Yes Tommy, you've got that right. We must get in touch with our true nature. We must accept out negative pasts to free ourselves from their binds. That is the road to immortality.