What has been your experience with anti-depressants?

Question

I have tried 4 different pills for depression and anxiety and am about to try my 5th because the first 4 were unsuccessful in making things better. In fact, 2 made things significantly worse. I'm losing hope that there is any medication out there that will help me as a face my issues. I'd love to hear your experience with this type of drug.

I am also doing talking therapy, but my therapist is convinced that sorting out the drugs will help with lots based on the assessment of me thus far. However, it seems like each type I try makes me worse than the one before. Zoloft, Prozak, Cipralex, Effaxor sp? (which almost put me in the hospital). Next up is Paxil.

Answer 1

I take medication and hope you don't expect that just the medication alone will cure he problems. Expecting to much from myself, driving myself to hard and being perfectionist contributed to the symptoms for medication.

One bad experience I had was a while after I quit taking the medication at age 18. I went from depressed to manic and was hospitalized and lived to talk about it. I had a good doctor, a very supportive family and I am a brave person with a sense of humor.

I have to monitor my thoughts and devote some time to things I enjoy.

Don't give up !

Answer 2

I took zoloft at 50 then 75mg, which is a pretty minimal dose. For the most part I felt a lot better but there were the sexual side effects and I felt just emotionless. Like I wasnt sad but I couldnt really be happy either. Also, I was excessivley tired, could never keep my eyes open. I was only on the medication for a time after a death I had experienced. I went and got behavioral therapy and saw a therapist, this seemed to help me out a lot more than meds did. Hope my answer helped you some

Answer 3

When I was younger, around 11, I was forced on Celexa. I didn't really help anything, other than make me feel numb and foggy. I resented being on it and my parents never followed up with the treatment policy (I was supposed to go to therapy three times a week, that never happened). Eventually they had a big fight over who should pay for it and I stopped taking them.

When I was 20, I went through my third major depression since I was 8. I found a therapist who actually helped, and took Wellbutrin and Prozac. One for anxiety and one for depression. I felt that I was on too much medication. One made me lose interest in food and I lost a lot of weight, so they wanted to make me take medicine for my appetite. The other made me a severe insomniac so they then wanted to give me sleeping pills to make me sleep.

I decided to get off medication and work through my issues on my own. Is this the right choice for everyone? Certainly not. But I do feel it helped me.

Answer 4

I had the same problem!

Paxil made me extremely angry 24 7
Lexapro didnt do anything except make me unable to have an orgasm.
Effexor made me extrelely manic! I didnt know thats what it was doing at the time, but my therapist told me after asking a bunch of questions!

I am on Wellbutrin now. I thought that it wasnt working again, but I was confusing alot of thesymptoms that were coming back as returning depression when in fact it was ADHD all along! So I am going to try an ADHD med to see how I do.

Dont give up! They dont have to give you just antidepressants for anxiety. They can try meds that are taken only as needed like valium or xanex. Hoefully you will find what you ae looking for.

Answer 5

well i have anxiety, and i am 17 and we just moved, and i am supposed to be going into my senior year, but i might have to quit school to do correspondance, which would mean that i would have no social life, because i just moved and dont no anyone. I cry with my anxiety, alot, and i am too young to understand it yet i think. I have been on prozac, which was pretty good, no complaints, but my mom didnt want me on that strong of a drug at 16, so she got me taken off. I went on adavand for a while, and it works the first couple of times (it is a little tablet that you put under your tongue if you feel an episode coming on and it dissolves) and i found that after a couple of times, it stopped working, so i got off that, and now i have been taking celexa for about 2 weeks, and my anxiety hasnt went away at all. The doctor did say that it wont start working for about 4 weeks. I just want to be a normal teenager, you no the other day i asked my 19 year old sister why she was so exited, and she said because i am going back to school. I just wish i was like that. I like meeting people, but my anxiety just takes my personality away. Anyways enough about my life lol, but those are the only deppression pills i have taken...

Answer 6

My husband has been on countless meds for the same problems. He previously took Xanax as needed and various other anti-depressants. He now takes Klonpin for the anxiety and Zoloft for the depression. He was on Zyprexa but it had horrible side effects. Everyone is different. If you're unhappy with your current meds, try talking to your doctor. If they're unresponsive, get a new doc. It can take a lot of trial and error to find the right combination. Please don't give up hope. We suffered for four years until the right combination of drugs started to work. Now our marraige, our sex life, and our family is back to normal.

Answer 7

I have been on paxil for 12 yrs. It has given me a different perspective to life. I realized after I had been on it for a while that I must have been suffering from depression even as a child . I feel balanced now.small things aren't important as they once seemed.I've even gotten over my fear of driving which would almost paralyze me at one time . My doctor has stated that some people can function quite well on it. I told him I'm staying on it because I've become a much nicer person than I was when I wasn't on it. keep trying until you find the one for you.

Answer 8

Good job being on your fifth! My experience is that none of them ever work but if I'd had the patience to try many different ones I'm almost positive I would have found one that did. There's about 100 anti-depressants out there I'd say. 98% do not work, that's one in fifty that does. It may take years but you will stumble upon the one that works for you. May take as long as ten years and many dozens of medications to try.

Answer 9

If you have a lot of anxiety..try one/fourth mg. of risperdal. I take it for panic attacks. It's the first thing I've found that helps. My sister takes Cymbalta and loves it...for depression.

Answer 10

Zoloft: quite good
Wellbutrin: yuck
Effexor: quite good
Topamax: quite good
Celexa: take off the market
Lithium: yuck
Klonopin: quite good
Elavil: yuck