Now, my experiences with ADs. Caveat: when I started, I had severe major depression with some psychotic features.
Wellbutrin: At its best, took the suicidal and delusional part of the depression away, but didn’t get me any better than just moderately depressed. Took this alone, then in conjunction with the following.
Lexapro: Not strong enough to get me better than moderately depressed. Sex drive severely decreased. Taken in conjunction with Wellbutrin.
Prozac: Got me to only mildly depressed. Sex drive dead. Felt emotionally numb all the time. Found myself staring off into space and realizing that I hadn’t had a thought in my head for many minutes. Was like being on autopilot most of the time. Used with Wellbutrin.
Zoloft: Did nothing for me. Wound up back in the mental hospital after taking this. Used with Wellbutrin.
Effexor: Got me to moderately depressed. Caused my blood pressure to go up over time. If I missed a dose, it was like I had the flu–dizzy, weak, nauseous. With Wellbutrin.
I have been on Lexapro (10 mg) for a month now, and it has helped my depression. I was SO embarassed to finally ask my doc for help ( I went to counseling too) but it has improved.
The first few days on it were no fun though.
I had nervous legs, blank staring episodes, no appetite…but they all subsided and I really do think it has helped me.
When I took anti-depressants I’d start out with half the regular dose and work up to the full dose. Those initial side-effects can be enough to make someone stop taking the medication. I don’t understand why doctors don’t have their patients work up to the full dose.
With many antidepressants, they do this because they have to–the side effects from going on all at once are just too severe. Effexor is one of these drugs. It is also a common practice when the dose is going to be rather large.
Well, once again, they work differently for different people, and youbshould talk to a psychiatrist. Here are my experiences, for what they’re worth.
Prozac did next to nothing for me.I was put on it because it was supposed to help the anxiety problems I have and reduce the urge to self-injure, which I have a history of. I had managed to stop on my own, but my psychiatrist included the history of it in her decision for what to try. It accomplished some of the anxiety help(not a whole lot, though), did not reduce the urge to self-injure, and made me gain a lot of weight.
Wellbutrin helped some, did some general mood lifting, made it easier to see days as good days. I was still pretty depressed and anxious while on it, though. It is a personal thing, though. Try it, if it works, it works, if it doesn’t, it doesn’t.
Now, for one that doesn’t get suggested to many people, because it’s a relatively small percentage of depressed people who are helped by it. So you should probably try all the options your psychiatrist suggests before even bringing this up. Hopefully you’ll find something helpful waaaay before it gets to that point.
Adderol. Yes, the ADD/ADHD drug. This has worked wonders for me. One of my main issues with the depression was that nothing was worth doing, I had no motivation. Forcing myself to actually -start- an activity is still difficult (pure laziness) but actually getting things done is a realistic goal, now. I can get up in the morning without spending an hour awake being miserable and forcing myself to just stand up; I can be productive instead of morose and sluggish. The anxiety is still there, but it’s secondary to accomplishment so long as I have a goal. The resulting pride is also amazing and life-brightening.
So I’m weird in terms of reactions to drugs, but there’s one more option to try if the rest of them still dont help.
I hope you find a way out of your depression, whether or not any of the antidepressants help. Much Luck.
I’ve had great luck with Prozac. I feel more sharp and my baseline happiness level was just nudged up a little. No ill porking effects. The only negative I’ve had was often I have mundane vivid dreams that for the first couple of minutes of waking up can’t decide if they’re are real or not. Ex. if I’m running low on milk I’ll dream I went to the store to get milk. Takes a little while to decide if it really happened.
:smack:
I did a few years of imiprimine for several years. It was before SSRIs were common. Worked fine. Evenatually my doctor decided that the SSRIs would be a better choice (medication interactions and dry mouth) and switched to Paxil…which worked fine. Went off it when we started trying to conceive. Years later I was perscribed Zoloft - not good - did nothing for either the depression or the resulting insomnia, but did make me zombielike.
Give anything you take a few weeks. Stay in contact with your doctor. If it isn’t working, say something.
A friends wife started her medication under similar circumstances. She still can’t handle stress, but can function.
I would never take the Tom Cruise attitude about drugs but I would make sure to start with a level playing field when entering into a drug treatment. By that I mean I would make diet and exercise the highest priority in an effort to avoid overmedication for the lack of same.
I also wouldn’t hesitate to use drugs if needed. Sometimes when I have a stuffed nose I dream of of suffocating situations that trigger claustrophobia. I’ve had to get dressed and leave the house a couple of times. If this were in anyway a frequent event I would do all possible to alleviate it. There is no logic to suffering when there are remedies at hand.
I would also experiment in meditation techniques. I’ve done silly things like forcing myself to laugh when I get claustrophobic and it seems to take the edge off the initial feeling. My personal experience is that I can effect my emotional state if I recognize things early. In that same vein, I’ve been able to train myself to wakeup from bad dreams.
Best of luck and don’t give up. As long as you can rationalize that your unhappy feelings are not logical you can get things back on track.
Well, this is day one on Celexa. The side effects are odd though. Nausea, this weird feeling that I have laser focus and that back of my head is tight. They’re bearable and ignorable though. I’m pretty pleased that my doctor agreed that SSRIs would be good for me. My mom has told me it’s best to take pills in the morning but one of my co-workers told me that it’s better to take it at night so you sleep through the majority of side effects. Does anyone have a preference or advice?
Ashamed as I am to say it, I haven’t read anything but the OP, because I want to go to lunch now. But, in the past, I have been on Prozac, Celexa, and now Wellbutrin. Prozac was okay for a little while, then it went overboard–I wasn’t depressed, I was downright apathetic. Celexa worked for a bit, then just stopped. (In the interest of full disclosure, however, I should point out that while on Celexa, my best friend died, I lost my apartment, I had to give up two pets, and sundry other horrible things–the Celexa may have just not been able to counteract the massive suck.)
I’ve been on the Wellbutrin for a while now, and I have to say, I feel better than I have in a very long time. It is, of course, dependent entirely on your own body and your own brand of depression, but I recommend it over anything else I’ve tried. The first few days make you feel like you drank an entire Starbucks, but you level out after a while.
I didn’t really notice any difference between taking it at night or in the morning. I didn’t find Celexa to be particularly stimulating (like Wellbutrin) or to cause drowsiness (like many tricyclics) and I didn’t find one time or another to have an impact as to side effects, but YMMV. I tended to mine with the first meal of the day - it was easy to remember and I seemed to feel better if I had food in my stomach.
In most cases, side effects should become less prominent in the first few weeks. Be sure to drink lots of water, eat properly and get some rest if possible. I promise, it gets better!
Back in March I went to the doctor because I was having out-of-the-blue anxiety attacks and symptoms of depression. He put me on Zoloft, 25mg a day for two weeks, then to my current dose of 50mg a day. He also gave me a script for Alprazolam (the generic of Xanax) to take when things get very stressful. It’s been nearly 4 months now and I feel better than I have in years. I can actually socialize without anxiety now. I really did feel like that little blob-thing in the Zoloft commercial. The only side effect I notice is that I am tired most of the time, but not so much that it is affecting my daily activities. My sex life is back to normal, now, too.
Interestingly, though, on Tuesday I forgot to take my pill :smack: and I almost immediately started feeling depressed, so much that yesterday I didn’t do anything, not even things I like to do, like my hobbies. I won’t be forgetting again, let me tell you.
