Antidepressants - Experiences.. good or bad?

I took Prozac for a week 19 years ago. I had to ask for it because no one wanted to help me sort my feelings out (was PPD, but nobody could/would tell me and I had no clue where to look for help other than medical professionals). I stopped for 2 reasons:

1. My sleep became nonexistent. I slept less until one night I spent it sitting in the bedroom listening to my daughter breathe.

2. My family knew I was depressed and would insist I "take my pill" if I ever expressed any kind of emotion, be it happy or sad.

I deal with it now by having a breakdown every 3-4 months - bawling all the time, suicide attempts/cutting, lashing out at my husband, breaking things. I do my best to keep it in the bedroom or bathroom and away from others.

Those meds are a bandaids. Have your cortisol and thyroid tested. If either of those two are not where they should be, all your stated symptoms will be present.

Most doctors would not prescibe such drugs without the blood tests first to check these and other potential issues are not causing the symptoms.

Please see a doctor and discuss your feelings - and your feelings about drugs.

Also, remember drugs have changed since your parents took them and are (or should be!) less "blunt instrument" and more readily tailored to the individual, esecially in terms of dose (from very low to "knock out elephant").

I take vitamin D and vitamin B12 and they both help with my symptoms.....way more than any of the massive amounts of antidepressants I was on ever did.

From someone who's been clinically depressed since age 10, I can honestly say anti-depressants are the best thing that ever happen to me.

Without my antidepressants, I would have surely committed suicide years ago.

They can take away the gray clouds and allow you to see the sunlight that is all around you. It's like removing a layer of dirt from a car's windshield... it just helps remove a chemical 'funk' that is causing unnecessary pain.

My first antidepressant didn't work. My second one only worked for a time. I had a terrible allergic reaction to the third, and then my 4th one.... oh my 4th one . It was the one. It worked and it worked and it worked. It was perfectly. I wasn't a doped up dummy. I had highs and lows, felt pain and sadness -- but depression wasn't overtaking me anymore. I was back to "level", as I called it. No more feeling "low".

Most people don't have allergic reactions like I did. I don't know anyone else who has reacted as badly as I did. My body is incredibly sensitive to certain categories of medication and not as receptive to others.

After feeling "level" for about a year and a half, I told my therapist I was ready to come off my antidepressant. She hesitantly agreed, and stepped me down until I was off the meds. She has been thrilled with my progress. I've been off it since last October.

There is no shame in taking a medication to help level out improperly balanced chemicals in your body. The improper balance may be situational (mine always is), may last for only a short time, or may be something new that will remain with you.

There is no shame in taking a medication that can help you shake off a gray cloud that diminishes your quality of life. If a small pill can help you see past the cloud to the bright sunshine, why deny yourself that happiness?

There is so much stigma attached to mental illness, and it's a damn shame. So many people don't lead the lives they could because they don't understand or don't feel they should take medications that help.

IMPORTANT NOTE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Medication without therapy won't cure everything. The biggest part of dealing with my depression was therapy in conjunction with my medication. Therapy taught me how to see life for what it was (instead of skewing it negatively) and how to handle life as it came at me in the hard times.

Depending upon your level of depression, therapy might be the only thing necessary. I began therapy first, but after repeated thoughts of suicide, went on an antidepressant in addition, and that medication saved my life.

I take a SSRI called Celexa. I would say the effects are beneficial. Without the drug, I feel like I'm naked walking in the middle of a concrete hot road in the middle of heavy traffic - my mind was racing, I felt extremely agitated and moody, paranoid, had bouts of insomnia, worried restless, and the age old abstract psychological pain with thoughts of suicide.

Celexa evened me out, but the cons are that you feel emotionally numb and impenetrable by outside stimuli (a feeling of being trapped inside your head), creativity and thoughtfulness (i.e. reveries) are greatly hampered which is bad for artists and philosophers, sex drive can be low, and when having sex there is far less sensation. Yet the pros outweigh the cons.

Withdrawal from the drug is unpleasant and consists of extreme agitation (e.g. flipping out over not being able to open a pack of cheese or ziplock the ****er back up), headache, feeling hot and feverish, and episodes of strange dizziness that feels like being kicked in the head by a powerful horse.

I'm on the same, and it's done amazing things for me. It has made weight loss a little tougher for me, but that's the breaks.
Last summer I was doing so well my Dr. and I decided to try taking me off of it, as I tapered I was miserable. One morning I woke up feeling like I was living in a black hole, completely miserable.
Also, after I was on the medication, combined with therapy, I was able to face up to other issues that made me feel even better. I had been drinking too much because of the depression, so I got sober. I learned tools for how to deal with the family and work stress that used to make me panic. The medication can even out the chemical imbalance, but you still have to do the work to get better.

SSRIs for moderate and mild depression have been shown to be relatively useless. I really wouldn't recommend going on an AD if you don't believe that your depression is biological. I think that it would mostly be the placebo effect but meh I'm not a psychiatrist.

If you really want to try one that might even help with weight loss, I'd ask for wellbutrin. If your main depression symptom is lack of energy, it would help. Wellbutrin is one of the only antidepressants with weight loss as a side effect.

Not a doctor. Just my own experience.

I took Celexa for 7 years. I recently stopped taking it because I just didn't feel I needed it any longer. I did find that I had a whole lot more energy after stopping it and it was hard to get off it.

That said, it worked well for me while I needed it and I would take it again if need be.

I know people who have been on anti-depressants for 30 years, at a certain point you have to treat the cause of the problem, rather than the symptoms

Really? My mum was schizophrenic since she was 17 all the way till her death at 53 ...what would you have told her to treat? He depression was part of that. Comes a time when people who know nothing OF being depressed should just shhhh.:mad:

Yup...I totally agree.

Do whats best for you. I tried to avoid medication for so long because thats what "society" told me to do. I finally couldn't take it anymore and Im glad I decided to take a pill. It helped me realize what I need to fix about ME and get out of the horrible funk I was in. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise...especially here! Listen to your heart with the guidance of a professional.

Instead of going on an angry rant here, which is very tempting.. (I have lots of experience with this issue. LOTS.)

You can cure depression with diet. I did and I am far from an isolated case. Depression is just one of many symptoms of malnutrition aka metabolic syndrome. (Yes, people who are eating too much ARE often malnourished...)

It's your choice what to do.

Just one resource to get you started if you are so inclined: http://gaps.me/ (Gut and Psychology Syndrome written by Dr. Natasha Campbell-McBride).

While I'm sure some forms of depression can be cured with diet and lifestyle changes - just as some forms of diabetes and hypertension can - but this doesn't apply to everyone. There are some legitimate chemical imbalances that need to be treated with medication.
There is nothing wrong with asking for help and taking medication if you need it.

Instead of going on an angry rant here, which is very tempting.. (I have lots of experience with this issue. LOTS.)

You can cure depression with diet. I did and I am far from an isolated case. Depression is just one of many symptoms of malnutrition aka metabolic syndrome. (Yes, people who are eating too much ARE often malnourished...)

It's your choice what to do.

Just one resource to get you started if you are so inclined: http://gaps.me/ (Gut and Psychology Syndrome written by Dr. Natasha Campbell-McBride).

While I'm sure some forms of depression can be cured with diet and lifestyle changes - just as some forms of diabetes and hypertension can - but this doesn't apply to everyone. There are some legitimate chemical imbalances that need to be treated with medication.
There is nothing wrong with asking for help and taking medication if you need it.

Maybe a reasonable comparison here would be Type I Diabetes versus Type II Diabetes.
While diet impacts both, one can be controlled while the other tends to run rampant and do as it pleases.

I am not a doctor so that for what it is worth. I dont believe in antidepressants at all. I know so many people that are over drugged. If you have personal and work related issues that are causing your stress it is OKAY and GOOD to feel those emotions. Our society is now taking drugs for grieving...these are normal responses to what is going on around you. If there was no stress and you were still depressed/emotional/ whatever for seemingly no reason I would say maybe look into it but even then there are so many natural things you can do to deal with stress. I personally would get a weekly massage or something.

. I dont believe in antidepressants at all. I know so many people that are over drugged...There are so many natural things you can do to deal with stress. I personally would get a weekly massage or something.

. I dont believe in antidepressants at all. I know so many people that are over drugged...There are so many natural things you can do to deal with stress. I personally would get a weekly massage or something.

I went through a very dark depression 2 years ago but thank you for assuming I didn't know what I was talking about :flowerforyou:

Getting a massage for a chemical imbalance isn't logical. I'm sorry for what you went through, but your experience (especially if it was situational rather than biological) isn't everyone's.

I am not a doctor so that for what it is worth. I dont believe in antidepressants at all. I know so many people that are over drugged. If you have personal and work related issues that are causing your stress it is OKAY and GOOD to feel those emotions. Our society is now taking drugs for grieving...these are normal responses to what is going on around you. If there was no stress and you were still depressed/emotional/ whatever for seemingly no reason I would say maybe look into it but even then there are so many natural things you can do to deal with stress. I personally would get a weekly massage or something.

I appreciate your kindly worded post, but stress doesn't make you think about driving your car into an overpass support post, going into a swimming pool and never surfacing, or stand on the edge of a drop off and hope your balance fails you so it was an accidental death.

Depression is real and true. It makes you think that someone held a door opened and smiled at you because they pity you. It makes you think that your friends calling to check on you makes you a burden on them. It makes you think that yelling at your child for something they've done wrong makes you the worst mother on the planet and your child is doomed. It causes your entire world to become hell. You can't bother to spend money on yourself because you aren't worth it. You can't call a friend to talk because you shouldn't weigh them down with your worries. Hell, I didn't make it to a therapist until my 3rd try, because during my depression, my mind told me it wasn't worth it, that it wouldn't help, that I would never find hope or joy again.

Therapists do tell you what else helps -- exercise, something like a massage for enjoyment, spending time with friends. But those things come hand in hand with the therapy to get you well again.