what's your experience with antidepressants?

I might be put on some, idk yet, I'm having a meeting with a doctor soon.
So I just want to hear what your experience with antidepressants are.

 

I just started on wellbutrin xl and it has help to take away the deep sadness and it actually gives me some energy i also started on antianxiety med too i will stay on them for now as it keeps my mind from going to dark places i like wellbutrin because it is easier to wean off it then some other antidepressants It increases dopamine levels not the serotonin

 

They've never worked for me but some people say they do.

 

I've always been pretty vehemently opposed to pharmaceuticals except in cases where somebody's life is in immediate danger. A few weeks ago I tried a 20mg Prozac out of curiosity. It could have been placebo, but it felt like what I expected it to feel like and then some, in a way I could not have imagined without having already experienced it--it was as if my limbic system had been cut off from the rest of my brain. I found myself thinking and behaving and reacting to things as I normally would, except I lacked the subjective experience of the emotions I was displaying. I'd see something funny, for example, consciously know it was funny, and then laugh as if it were funny, without actually feeling like anything was funny. It reminded me of my aunt and uncle, whom I had been living with until recently, and both of whom had been on SSRIs and anxiolytic drugs; their emotional responses always seemed contrived and superficial to me. It was a pretty disturbing experience. I'd honestly rather be dead than feel like that all the time.

Be wary of that shit. It occasionally makes people even more suicidal than they already were, or suicidal where they were not before. Many people experience permanent side effects (some of them particularly nasty, like ejaculation without orgasm), even months or years after cessation. If your doctor prescribes you antidepressant drugs without having first eliminated all other obvious possible causes of your mood problems, like vitamin deficiencies, inadequate exercise, poor diet, sleeping problems, etc., then he is not at all worthy of your trust. Have you had bloodwork done recently? Do you at least exercise semi-regularly? What's your diet like? How's a typical night of sleep for you?

 

I am 48 years old. I am been on anti depressants my entire adult life. They are the reason I am still alive. I take Prozac & Wellbutrin now along with Ativan for anxiety & to
help me sleep. I went through a lot of bad combos of drugs to get to ones I could tolerate & that actually work. I have no doubt in my mind at all that if I were not on them,
I would be six feet under.

Good Luck & Take Care!

 

Anti-depressants surely do end up saving some people's lives. The thing is, there are virtually always other things that would have saved those lives just as effectively that are never even suggested before drugs are prescribed. I'm curious to know, twistedwhispers: what sort of approaches did you take before you started treatment with drugs?

 

I didn't stick with them for long but I found that they didn't solve anything - tooke me to a different state without making anything any better or worse. I had some terrible nightmares and not always when I was asleep. I packed them in. I know people who they've worked for too though so please go into it with an open mind and guage what they do for you.

 

I was in therapy at the time I started. Wow. It's been so long ago, it's hard to remember. So, I guess therapy with a PhD was all I was doing before being started on medication.