zeppelin
Iron
- Joined
- Feb 24, 2025
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Please take all of this with a grain of salt. I’m not a professional, I’m not your doctor, and what worked for me may not necessarily work for you.
I was born with OCD and had been taking medication for it my whole life. I was also noticeably shorter compared to my family’s genetics, which seemed really strange. I went to three different "doctors," including one who claimed to be the most 'experienced' and 'knowledgeable'
in the field. All of them told me that I had normal HGH (human growth hormone) production—just a bit lower than average for my age. They said I was probably just a "late bloomer." After speaking with the so-called expert, we did an X-ray(when i was 14.5), and it turned out my bone age was 13—a full year and a half younger than my actual age. So my growth was delayed, but HGH production wasn’t the issue. It didn’t make sense.
I did everything I could. I studied for hours about growth, bone development, hormones—everything. I checked all the boxes:
Exercise – good Sleep – good Nutrition and diet – good I kept thinking: What am I missing? It drove me crazy. Then it hit me—could the medication I’m taking (fluoxetine) be affecting my growth? I searched online, and as I read, I got chills. It was like, holy shit—I had so many of the listed side effects. I read about how SSRIs can stunt bone development, and saw real cases of people who grew taller after stopping their medication.
So, I made a decision—I secretly stopped taking it. And about six months later, I experienced a 13.5 cm height increase.
Along with quitting SSRIs, I changed other lifestyle habits, which led to huge neurological improvements. If you’re reading this and you have OCD or depression and have been on antidepressants, you should seriously rethink it. Here's what SSRIs do to your body:
1. Initial Effects – At first, everything seems normal. Your HGH and hormone levels stay stable.
2. Long-Term Effects – After years (especially in people with OCD), your hormones get out of balance. You might even develop gynecomastia (gyno) due to abnormal estrogen/testosterone levels.
3. Growth Suppression – HGH is released and converted to IGF-1 normally—but SSRIs make it hard for IGF-1 to get absorbed to bones, which can seriously stunt growth.
4. Reversibility –
The good news: these effects are reversible. Imagine there's a gate between IGF-1 and your bones. What SSRIs do is partially close that gate—not completely, but significantly. IGF-1 is still produced, but it starts to build up, almost like a "bubble" of unused growth hormone stuck between the gate and your bones. And it doesn’t just disappear—as we all learned, mass doesn’t vanish.
When you quit SSRIs, that gate slowly begins to open—very slowly. It usually takes about 2–3 months before you start noticing changes. Once the gate opens, IGF-1 can finally be absorbed properly by the bones, allowing healthy bone growth to resume.
Trigger warning: you’ll probably experience some of the most intense growing pains you’ve ever had—in your legs, arms, feet, even your hands. And in some cases, you might even go through a growth spurt that pushes past what you thought was your genetic limit.
What’s beautiful about this is that the growth doesn’t just happen in your limbs—it also adds significant bone density to your face.
I was born with OCD and had been taking medication for it my whole life. I was also noticeably shorter compared to my family’s genetics, which seemed really strange. I went to three different "doctors," including one who claimed to be the most 'experienced' and 'knowledgeable'
in the field. All of them told me that I had normal HGH (human growth hormone) production—just a bit lower than average for my age. They said I was probably just a "late bloomer." After speaking with the so-called expert, we did an X-ray(when i was 14.5), and it turned out my bone age was 13—a full year and a half younger than my actual age. So my growth was delayed, but HGH production wasn’t the issue. It didn’t make sense.I did everything I could. I studied for hours about growth, bone development, hormones—everything. I checked all the boxes:
Exercise – good Sleep – good Nutrition and diet – good I kept thinking: What am I missing? It drove me crazy. Then it hit me—could the medication I’m taking (fluoxetine) be affecting my growth? I searched online, and as I read, I got chills. It was like, holy shit—I had so many of the listed side effects. I read about how SSRIs can stunt bone development, and saw real cases of people who grew taller after stopping their medication.So, I made a decision—I secretly stopped taking it. And about six months later, I experienced a 13.5 cm height increase.
Along with quitting SSRIs, I changed other lifestyle habits, which led to huge neurological improvements. If you’re reading this and you have OCD or depression and have been on antidepressants, you should seriously rethink it. Here's what SSRIs do to your body:
1. Initial Effects – At first, everything seems normal. Your HGH and hormone levels stay stable.
2. Long-Term Effects – After years (especially in people with OCD), your hormones get out of balance. You might even develop gynecomastia (gyno) due to abnormal estrogen/testosterone levels.
3. Growth Suppression – HGH is released and converted to IGF-1 normally—but SSRIs make it hard for IGF-1 to get absorbed to bones, which can seriously stunt growth.
4. Reversibility –
The good news: these effects are reversible. Imagine there's a gate between IGF-1 and your bones. What SSRIs do is partially close that gate—not completely, but significantly. IGF-1 is still produced, but it starts to build up, almost like a "bubble" of unused growth hormone stuck between the gate and your bones. And it doesn’t just disappear—as we all learned, mass doesn’t vanish.
When you quit SSRIs, that gate slowly begins to open—very slowly. It usually takes about 2–3 months before you start noticing changes. Once the gate opens, IGF-1 can finally be absorbed properly by the bones, allowing healthy bone growth to resume.
Trigger warning: you’ll probably experience some of the most intense growing pains you’ve ever had—in your legs, arms, feet, even your hands. And in some cases, you might even go through a growth spurt that pushes past what you thought was your genetic limit.
What’s beautiful about this is that the growth doesn’t just happen in your limbs—it also adds significant bone density to your face.
