Wow what a great thread, I see that it is quite old now but I'd like to ad that I know first hand ssri meds made me extremely moody, I had several enraged outbursts and would be unusually agreesive and angry while taking them, especially when combined with alcohol, maybe not while intoxicated but for several days later, mainly my altercations were at work on a drilling rig where there really aren't rules or anyone willing to protect people from verbal lashings and threatening behaviour, things are changing now with the oil work force in canada, but when I started fist fights were a common way of settling an arguement or a fast track way to advancing in the ranks.
I knew that something wasnt right and stopped taking them, it took a couple weeks to get back to normal emotionally and the withdrawal symptoms were a lot of sobbing and thoughts of suicide, an increase in the desire to abuse hard drugs and alcohol became too much to handle and I ended up putting myself into detox.
I have in the past felt I've almost had 2 sides to my personality, not really an alter ego per say, but maybe a slight dose of Jekyll and Hyde... I haven't really had this happen much in the past couple years since I have found something outside the conventional spectrum which is working better than anything I could ever imagine.
Going back to Jekyll and Hyde, I could have all of this anger, rage, hosility and violent agression brewing inside of me on meds or not on meds, and a few times I never discussed these negative emotions with my psych mainly because I was worried about being commited or being put on a watchful eye, years ago when I was running with a rough crowd I was caught dealing drugs with a fellow junkie by an under cover sting operation targeting cocaine and heroine dial a dope operations, so when I got sentenced (first offence and guilty plea with a $33,000 attourney whom members of a world motorcycle organization often used in provincial and federal cases I got off with 6 months of house arrest) I had a probation officer and counsellor I had to report to, to encourage I was on good behaviour and dealing with my problems responsibly I would tell them what they wanted to hear instead of what was really going on because I didn't want to incriminate myself or be known as a violent or dangerous person... That being said, I don't think a proper psychiatric evaluation could really be conducted due to the fact I was (on the surface and carefully) behaving myself when I knew I had to and hadn't been unfortunate enough to get caught or at least be criminally punished for my actions.
Ssri's are just like any other drug or chemical, just because the doctors give them out doesn't mean they are safe or can't be dangerous and contribute to individuals becoming hostile or violent and I am sure that a lot of random violent acts especially with males 15-30 yrs of age, anti depressants and conventional medications cause these acts of violence, or at least play a major role in the psychosis that causes them
