What experience have you had with talking to your doctor about anti-depressants?

Question

Did your doctor prescribe medication right away? Did they recommend therapy first? What did you discuss? Did you know what triggered your depression? Was the treatment successful?

Answer 1

I'm with " karma" down her on you're list. I too have had many weird symptoms including depression (very deep&suicidel) The same happend with Dr.s, they all want to give you antidepressent. I totaly refuse and said to all of them: that's just a bandage" to cover up symptoms. I already knew it was my Hormones being imbalnced, due to a narcotic painreliever for severe chronic pain. The painreliever meds trew my hormones out of balnce.
I'm also a firm believer in NATURAL MEDS. Our body's hormones controll evereything in us.
If I was you, go to you're GYN and run a blood test for hormone imbalnce. If that happens to be you're problem, you're symptons of depression will dissapear, If this does not apply to you, thenn, go see a Counselor, not before, it can become very expensive.

Answer 2

My doctors have been very understanding and did prescribe medicine right away. I cannot afford therapy, I do know what triggered my depression and that may be why they gave it to me. The treatment was successful, I have been on and off of them since I was 18 when I feel I am capable I do go back off of them, sometimes you need to switch them after a while. I am currently off them and feel I have a good enough grip to stay off them, but they are beneficial to many people.

Answer 3

I do think doctors tend to over-prescribe anti-depressants. They should be used in conjunction with therapy or until the issues are resolved by therapy, not as therapy themselves. Anxiety medications and sleeping pills are prescribed much too often as well. Instead of treating the symptoms of insomnia, depression, and anxiety they should be treating the initial problem causing them.

I was lucky enough to have a thorough doctor. I actually went to see her for migraine headaches, and after some probing questions and many tests, came to the conclusion that my migraines were a side-effect of depression and anxiety. I was referred to a psychologist immediately and had to continue visits with him in order to receive my medication from her. It proved to be rather therapeutic, I continue to see him but I no longer need the medication, and I have follow-ups with her as well. I wish all doctors were this thorough.

Answer 4

I guess my question to you is, what are you concerned about? There are different scenarios in terms of medication & therapy. It all depends what is going on with each person.
Sometimes people have psychotic breaks brought on by a stressful episode. Talk therapy helps for the most part but sometimes your doc. will suggest some antidepressant for a short time in conjunction with therapy. Sometimes depression can be situational brought on by stress like postpartum depression. Other times folks can have panic attacks brought on by difficult life traumas, like loosing a parent or spouse. There are support groups to help with different traumas & are quite successful.
As someone mentioned there can be imbalances in your body which can trigger depression.

Answer 5

ive been on antideppresants for 12 years and never seen anybody or talked about it, ie why i am like i am and where the depression started from, i am 26 years old and fed up of going to the doctors and getting fobbed off with pills its not them i need i also have 2 children and suffered with post natal depression really bad and still nothing was said to me then they wonder why people dont get better

Answer 6

i went to my doctor to talk about anti depressants, and we talked about therapy and things, we also talked about what ive been feeling and why and when and things like that, he gave me a list of different anti depressants to try and we talked about the side effects and how welll they work and things like that, we chose to try zoloft, after a few months i didnt really like it so i went back and changet it to prozac but it didnt work as well, right now i am on lexapro and it is working really good, if you are depressed dont be scared to go talk to your doctor about it, just remember that he is a doctor and you proabably arent the first person who is depressed that he has seen, and they can help you alot with things like that

Answer 7

6years ago i was very depressed & my doctor put me on anti depressants straight away slowly increasing the dose over 6 months.i found they didn't help & i had migranes & withdrawls when i tried to wean myself off them. in the end i found getting out of the house, going for walks & exercise cheered me up more than anything helped me to loose weight & feel better in general. it took about 6 weeks to get into the habit of making myself go out for walks to begin with but it has helped a lot more than the pills.

Answer 8

Great question! :)

I felt the storm cloud over my head and it took 1.5 years to finally get diagnosed with depression. The diagnosis made no sense as I had NO family history, nothing horrible had happened. The drugs were awful and made me sick. The last drug I was on (Zoloft, Wellbutrin and then Effexor) was worse than the depression itself, violent nightmares I would wake up crying about, heart problems...I told doc I wanted off after I stopped being able to sleep at night and 'felt' the presence of the devil..I know, sounds whacked, huh??? Told doc I wanted to try an herbal antidepressant and he said NO! lol....Told me not to believe other patients accounts of the med from the internet because 'people can make fake websites and just put stuff up there.' How rediculous. I NEVER went back to see him. Went to an herbal shop where the owner did consultations...did a symptoms checklist survey and showed I had EIGHT severe vitamin deficiencies. Got started on them and as I weaned off Effexor (drug is so potent that I had to wean off...took a full month) and started taking an herbal antidepressant (Nature's Sunshine - Mood Elevator - Concentrated) and noticed after a few weeks I didn't need it!! It was a vitamin issue! THAT was what caused my depression. If you are wondering how that could be? Think about it...70 percent of food is processed and has nutrients sucked out. We have to do something to keep our bodies going and if you aren't eating only raw foods, then how are you getting those nutrients to your body?

Yes, the first doc that diagnosed me did recommend I see a psychologist and I didn't have anything massive come up from it...but I will say that was a GREAT way to help me figure some things out in life...

Fast forward a year or two and I was having other MAJOR health problems. I saw 11 doctors over 2 years who just kept blowing me off and I kept getting sicker and sicker....so imagine that...I was tired and frustrated so I see this one doc and she wants to put me on an antidepressant. I said...I am NOT depressed...I have a severe hormone imbalance. Did she give me hormones? Nope. I went to pick up another prescription she'd given me and what was waiting??? Paxil!!!!! I didn't take it! I told her NO and she STILL called the Paxil in for me! Did more blood tests with another doctor and wham...there it is...my body STOPPED making hormones....so imagine that...it's like I have horrific PMS EVERY FREAKIN DAY.... this past January, I started feeling the depression creeping back....my new doc put me on a heart med and I started to have suicidal thoughts. Husband and I figured out what it was by process of elimination...and stopped taking the heart med and the black hole went away!!! That was scary.

Why am I sharing all of this??? Because your questions indicate that you are at the starting line with depression and I wanted to TRY to show you the good, the bad, and the ugly with it. I had to figure it all out myself and I found it to be a VERY interesting trail to say the least. Medicines can be VERY powerful...pay attention to how they make you feel. Just because one med was 'death' for me..doesn't mean it will be bad for you. Meds effect people differently.

I am back on my herbal antidepressant that I mentioned above...why will I always choose this over synthetic antidepressants from a doctor? Because this is MY health. And because the meds always made me sick in some form or fashion. The herbal antidepressant hits me by day 3 of taking it, I feel great, and I have NEVER had any side effects.

You asked if treatment was successful? I plan on seeing a new doc for my hormone issue next month and I know that will correct my depression. That treatment, or my herbal antidepressant and even seeing my psycholgist have been VERY favorable.

What do I recommend?

Don't just fill a prescription because you are given it. Do your research, know what the side effects can be. Maybe you want to recommend a med to your doctor! Look for patient testimonies on the internet. Sure, you need to take what you read with a grain of salt but you also can learn somethings out there too. Who will be able to tell you more??? A doctor who pushes meds and gets $$ for it? Or people, like you, who take it day in and day out? There are many websites that have forums related to depression. Just be careful to not get sucked in to the issues of others. Read them for what you need and walk away. Trust your gut....it's YOUR health.

GOOD LUCK!!!!! :)