How many here are on an antidepressant (for depression or anxiety) that actually works? And by works, I mean something that doesn't make life better than normal (although that would be great), but simply restores it to normal?
If you read various forums, people talk about how they've tried all sorts of antidepressants, and about their (usually terrible) experiences with side-effects, a lack of efficacy, etc. I wonder, though, if those are the unlucky people, and if people for whom antidepressants work represent a silent majority that simply feel normal and have no reason to post.
For those here who have had a mental illness such as depression or an anxiety disorder, and have gotten on an antidepressant that worked, how dramatic was the difference before and after taking the antidepressant?
Unfortunately, after several years it turned around on me and actually made my depression worse. (I figured that out when I quit taking it to save up the pills to overdose with.)
Fortunately, I'm no longer in the stressful situation I was and I am doing well.
D3 helps me a lot too -- I live in the Pacific Northwest and everyone I know takes that now.
I think I've taken most things out there. Zoloft made a reasonable difference, but I couldn't deal with the sexual side effects. The one that worked best for me was Lamectal (or maybe I thought it worked best because it worked quickly), but I had to stop when I had a lapse in insurance, and when I went back on it, it was not at all effective. That is one of the known quirks for Lamectal. The rest of the ones I've tried had varying degrees of success. With the exception of Wellbutrin (the brand name pill was fine, the generic made me so agitated and angry, it was awful), but others have had success with it. Paxil literally made me want to kill myself, and I was never suicidal to begin with, others swear by it. It's definitely a YMMV type subject.
Anxiety is what I suffer most, so the only thing I am on now is clonazepam when anxiety rears its ugly head. It's not something I take daily.
I have accepted that I a likely going to be on a low level of anti-Ds for life probably. Without them I am in a constant state of anxiety and extreme pessimism. With them I can function. I was fine until about 12 years ago when adverse working conditions led to a period of prolonged sleep deprivation and then insomnia, followed by pregnancy before I had recovered, then a second pregnancy. Just as I thought the rough patch was over, my second son began displaying unusual behaviors and was diagnosed with severe autism. So after years of hypervigilance I am in a steady state of anxiety that won't shift.
Weight gain is becoming increasingly recognised as a common side-effect of longer-term anti-depressant use. Personally, I found that a big problem, and feeling out of control was almost as bad as the negative and flat moods.
I did quit the meds a while back, lost heaps of weight, then was attending a conference in Christchurch when the quake hit and I went wobbly again after that. When I started back on, I went on an older anti-D with well known side-effects (minimal weight gain) and had topiramate as an adjunct (it counters the weight-gain side-effect). The two meds together are working great.
Older anti-Ds are just as good if not better as their profile is much better known than new ones and they can target your specific symptoms better. Drug companies make heaps more money off the new ones so they are the focus of the marketing campaigns, but they are effectively experimental drugs for the first decade or so. The older second generation drug I am on (doxepine) is better than the third gen (prozac) or fourth gen (venlafaxine) that I have been on for reasonable periods.
That's funny, before I read all the way through your post, I was going to ask you if you had tried topomax (topamax?), since it's weight-neutral (and actually good for weight loss). I got a doctor to prescribe it to me, but I couldn't deal with the side effects. I then understood why people called it dopamax. I couldn't even get in the car to run a basic errand without forgetting where I was going halfway there. It was awful, I really wanted it to work for me.
I found the weight side effects of other things to be pretty unacceptable as well. That was another problem with zoloft.
I take citalopram for OCD. 20mgs per day which is a low dosage for OCD but I also do a lot of mindfulness meditation stuff as well.
The difference was substantial. Before, I felt as though I was watching my mind roll down a hill ahead of me and I couldn't keep up. Within days of stating citalopram I felt like my mind had calmed enough to help me catch up and get a grip.
I feel great and I have no side effects except occasionally feeling a weird tension in my tongue.
I was on 20 and then 30 mg of Prozac for a long time. I found it made me "painfully numb." I didn't have the suicidality, but I couldn't get off the bed. I knew I NEEDED to get off the bed--but I could always think "I'll think about it tomorrow." I finally went off. Then a few years later, a doctor put me on Effexor and lamictal or seroquel--can't remember which. Going off Effexor was living hell. I had brain shivers--is what I read it was. I couldn't work because I couldn't look at the computer without getting dizzy. All I could do is lay on the bed. I read on the internet to change over to Prozac for a few weeks and then taper off that. The doctor wouldn't help me (a very typical mormon male)--I happened to have some leftover Prozac and got off it that way.
I tried lexapro for a short time. It made me suicidal. All I did was cry. I also started having panic attacks at that time.
Like someone above, Paxil made me suicidal.
I went back on Prozac 10 mg 1-1/2 years ago when my dog died. I quit it back in January, but still feel "flat." The lower dose was much better than the higher dose. It took the edge off my desperately depressed feelings about my dog. I'd prefer to have something like lorazepam, xanax, etc., just to take when I really need something. I find as long as I have some, I really don't need them that often. As my therapist and doctor both said, "A pill in the pocket."
I really don't think antidepressants do what they claim. I think you have to be really careful. I also gained a lot of weight on Prozac. I was told Celexa and Wellbutrin are better for not gaining weight, but I have family and friends on those and they gained weight on them, too.
Oh--and the standard these days is to put people immediately on a cocktail of meds--then you don't know what is causing the side effects--so you are pretty much stuck on them. Drug companies make oodles off of drug cocktails. (I didn't come up with this theory--my therapist did--he hates drug cocktails.)
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/26/2012 10:59PM by cl2.
Oh, effexor is the worst. I haven't been on it personally, but I have watched people go off it. Without fail, the withdrawal made them feel worse than whatever it was that made them need it in the first place. Doctors should NOT let patients take that without fully drilling into them the consequences of a couple days of missed pills and/or what the withdrawal process is like. My mother was on it for a while, and she's really irresponsible about refilling meds. She doesn't even think about it till she's at least one day past an empty bottle. While she was on it, I wasn't even living in the same state, but could tell just by a phone conversation when she had gone 2 or more days without it. Shockingly terrible stuff.
It has been years. I was diagnosed with an anxiety disorder, and things were really bad for a while - numbness in my feet, lots of weird things. Came out of nowhere.
I didn't want to be a robot. Didn't want to be "high" all the time. I was very reluctant to take pills.
My doctor prescribed paxil - Man! It really made a difference! I remember my face hurt from smiling so much. I could be sad if I wanted to be but I didn't HAVE to be - and that was a big change.
I took it for a couple of years. The sexual side affects were a drag. I hated that part of it.
Trying to wean away from the meds was bad. Withdrawing from paxil made me very ill.
My doctor switched me to Wellbutrin - terrible side affects - but I got my sex life back. I told the pharm about the side affects and he told me to stop taking it immediately. No withdrawl of any kind! So if nothing else it got me off paxil without vomitting.
Maybe I just needed to get through a rough patch. Maybe I developed better habits once I had a little control. Maybe I still need it and I am too dumb to know. But I haven't taken anti-depressants since. I am grateful for the help I got.
My experience too. I was on a low dose of zoloft for over 10 years. It Made me feel normal and made me easier to live with.
But, every time I tried to stop it, I went "crazy" with bouts of crying, despair, anxiety, irritability. Couldn't handle life without it so I quickly started it again.
The trick to stopping is to very gradually decrease the dosage. Get a pill cutter. Cut the dose in half each week or two. Keep getting smaller and smaller portions until you're down to 1/16th of a 50 mg pill. At that point I was able to stop taking it with out side effects.
By the way, I decided I better dam well get off of my long term use of it because my dentist told me I was starting to get some unexplained bone loss. I looked it up and saw bone loss listed as a possible side effect from long term usage. Don't know if that's really the cause but, I'm ready to see how life goes without it.
I have been on just about everything. And when I say everything, I mean everything, you name it. I don't really even know how to explain the relience on the drug culture we all live but sometimes, as the case with me is concerned, it was harmful on many many levels. My story is very very long and involved 20+ years of trial and error resulting in lost marriage, religion, self respect and most of all, quality of life. Where am I today? No anti's(drugs) of any kind for almost three years now resulting in a clearer thinking mind with less anxiety than I have felt in the whole of that time. Actually less anxiety than any time that I was on xanax, clonazapam(a real bitch to withrawal from) buspar, all of them. I think, at least for me, I had to train my mind to handle situations that the drugs were handling for me. For me, this was a real eye opener into what happens when a person gets misdiagnosed. I lost everything except my identity(regained a clearer perspective of me), my children and my renewed hope for my future.
Everybody is different. Sometimes one thing will work for one person and not for another.
Prozac almost made me have permanent facial tics.
I have been on many things.
Wellbutrin saved my life. I am also on a mood stabilizer which helps a lot. Thing is, I have a VERY good dr. He really cares and works hard to understand my symptoms. He is a V.A. dr. so there is no way he can be influenced by a drug company slipping him a kickback for prescribing their drug.
I have heard some very good things about Wellbutrin from several different people.
I've taken prozac for years now and at the right dose, it works well for me. I require a higher dose (40mg) when I'm pregnant. I started noticing I was feelinheg numb on that dose, though. Sure, I wasn't feeling bad, but I wasn't feeling good things either. 20mg is just enough that I don't have the extreme irritability (my worst symptom). I have chronic disease that definitely triggers depression in me when it gets bad.
One was scary depressed. And had an eating disorder. Prozac helped, but not enough. Switched to zoloft, and she's doing tons better. Feels better about herself. Claims she's not purging anymore, and some of her physical symptoms and extreme tiredness are gone. But I'm watching her closely.
Other child has always been high strung, worried about everything. Born a perfectionist. Prozac has helped this child chill out and enjoy life more.
I've taken Wellbutrin for years for recurrent depression. Headaches and fatigue the first week, nothing since. No issues with weight gain or decreased libido. Life is good.
I liked Wellbutrin because it helped me keep my weight down and had sort of an energizing affect. I gained weight when I got off of it. But I really don't need antidepressants anymore.
The worst side effects I ever experienced was when I took Topamax, which my shrink gave me in hopes that it would make me lose weight. I didn't lose any weight, but it did effectively kill my appetite. I can see how people slim down when taking it.
Prozac saved my life. I went into an extremely severe depression after graduating from BYU. Prozac didn't solve my problems, but brought me to a state where I could deal with my problems. It took a lot of hard work to get where I am today - years of therapy to support me while I got the hell out of mormonism, dealt with sexual abuse from a TBM cousin, and came out as gay.
During all of this drama we realized I'm very obsessive-compulsive. Prozac at higher doses can help ease the urges of OCD. We upped my dosage, and the difference was like night and day. All the chatter in my head, all the ruminating on endless details, seemed to melt away.
I've been taking 80 mg of Prozac a day for over 20 years now. No sexual side effects, no weight gain, no drugged up feeling, no side effects whatsoever. For me it's been a miracle drug.
In my experience though, Prozac didn't solve any of my problems. It was more of a tool, bringing my mind into a calmer state so I could deal with all the issues that were really causing my problems.
I took Lexapro for about 18 months. It helped decrease my anxiety to a manageable level. I could still feel it at times, but it felt more distant and not overwhelming. (I used to just sort of freeze up or get stuck when I got really anxious.) I was better able to let things go and move on when I needed to. It also helped with social interactions that I had always dreaded/avoided, things like making phone calls, scheduling appointments, asking for help in a store, etc.
I stopped taking it when I didn't need it anymore. The last few months I was on it, I seemed to not care enough about things, and just got too nonchalant. Prior to that, I had felt very normal. My 14-year-old cat had passed away sometime during the first month or so I was on the medication, and my grief felt very real and normal--the medication didn't dull it or mask it at all.
Two other side effects I experienced were drowsiness and clumsiness/falling. Even though I took the medication at night, I was often very sleepy in the afternoon. If I sat down for more than 10 minutes, I would start to doze off. And the clumsiness was a real problem, but I didn't realize until I stopped taking the Lexapro that that was what had caused it. Anytime I stepped on an uneven surface and wobbled a little, I was unable to right myself. Normally you don't even notice these things, you just regain your balance and right yourself. But I would fall right down anytime that happened. Twisted my ankle pretty badly once.
If my anxiety or depression ever gets bad enough to require medication again, I would try a different one. Lexapro really helped me for a while, but as time went on the benefits did not outweigh the side effects.
Cognitive-behavioral therapy is also very helpful, along with medication or on its own.
After I stopped the medication, I have still been able to engage in those social interactions that had always bothered me so much.
I've used both Celexa and Effexor. When I get depressed, I don't sleep. Both of these relieved my depression enough that I could sleep again. I felt like I was in a fog and that I'd lost a few IQ points when I was taking Celexa, so I didn't like it. I felt really good on Effexor, but one of its side effects is high blood pressure, and I wound up with that. I'll admit, though, that I was also overweight, didn't exercise, and didn't eat right, so those probably also played into the high blood pressure, so the Effexor may not have been the only cause. I no longer take Effexor, exercise, sometimes eat right, and am still overweight, but my blood pressure is back to normal. You can't quit either of these drugs cold turkey. You have to wean off. I started having problems coming off the Celexa, so I had to slow down my weaning off of it. Given the problems with the Celexa, I weaned off of the Effexor very slowly and had no problems. From what I remember, Effexor is considerably more expensive that Celexa, but its cost may have come down since I used it.