Depression and what it's really like

Oh, and please keep us in touch with your progress.

love you, nath! see someone. get help. talk to people. there are people who can help.

Argh, Nath, I tried to webmail you earlier but it didn't work as I was on the bus and my iPhone didn't want to play ball.

You know that I've had a mixed experience with drugs and with therapy. If drugs work for you, that's great. But if they don't - or if they initially help, and then stop working, it's a really bad idea to just stay on them and not try something else. If, six months down the line, you feel as bad as you did before (or worse - because some drugs, especially SSRIs can make people feel worse, long term) then try something else.

I do kind of have a suggestion, based on my own recent experiences, though! I was recently put on beta blockers for my migraines - it is early days, but I have noticed a side effect of massive reductions of anxiety - especially social anxiety.

I mean, I went to a FAP (without drinking) for the first time in a couple of years and stayed for a few hours and it was fine! Under normal circumstances, I would be convinced everyone HAAAATES me, or convinced that no one wants me around, or just feel awkward (your description of feeling "the stupidest person in the room" really chimes with me - though, with me, it was more like "I'm the ugliest person in the room, the the most useless person in the room, the least likeable person in this room" and either have to leave, or more likely just not have got there in the first place without drinking huge amounts first. But it sounds like the same voice.) This, I think is anxiety as much as it is depression.

(At least, I suspect it may be, in mine own circumstances. I'm fine if I have something to do in the situation, but if I'm just there to be social, I feel incapable. This makes me feel isolated. Feeling isolated makes me feel depressed and suicidal and want to sleep all the time.)

Like I said, I was put on beta blockers for migraines (which I know you get as well) but so far they have mainly helped with the anxiety, and because the anxiety has lifted, I'm less depressed. I don't know if this is permanent, or if it's a temporary side effect that will wear off, but it's really helped. It might be something worth mentioning to your doctor, to see if you can switch because I know that you have mentioned both migraines and panic attacks/anxiety before - and this stuff does seem to help with both of those things.

Hope that things improve for you.

Reading this thread as a lurker has been really helping me in the "u r not alone" sweepstakes. I just went off SSRIs for the first time in about 7 years, for no other reason than I'm taking other medications right now, for blood pressure and other things, and wanted to reduce my pharmacopeia by one. It's been a hell of an adjustment and I've been having a really tough time coping. Seems the only things I feel strongly right now are anxiety and anger. :(

OMG, coming off SSRIs was one of the hardest things I've ever done. Reduction and spacing them out is urgent and key. But yeah. Even after the withdrawal wears off, there's this "OMG, EMOTIONS!!! and they're not very nice ones!" like you've been sitting in one position too long and the pins and needles are almost unbearable. But that's what it is. Your brain readjusting. Really hope that things go OK for you, Phil.

Ugh. I did step down, but my last week, and the first full week without them, were fucking miserable. It felt like the worst hangover ever x1,000, 24 hours a day.

Yeah, it's possible to get too used to feeling normal.

No, no, that way lies PAIN. Seriously! I tried about 3 or 4 times to get off them that way, and within a week or two I'd have stabbed my grandmother to go back on them. Reduce, reduce, reduce. Go down 10 mg at a time and spend at least a week or two at each lower level. Once you're on 10mg, start spacing them out longer and longer, like take 2 pills every 3 days, then space them longer and longer. It took me two months to get off them, you have to train your brain to function without them, and to let your brain adjust and make serotonin for itself. It made a lot more sense to me after I read the brain chemistry of the stuff, why it's so hard to come off. Cold turkey is so not a good idea!

x-post

Or just tell your doctor that you want to get off of them (which you should be doing anyway) and have him/her develop a taper-off plan. (Incidently, I took Paxil for a year in the early Nineties, stopped cold turkey, and had none of the symptoms that you are mentioning.)

Brains & drugs: one size does not fit all. Your mileage may vary.

Karen, I am too afraid of betablockers tbh. :-(

Scott, love you, dude. :-)

Betablockers are good, I had them for anxiety a few years ago, and they really helped. Or I should say they were good *for me*, since experiences can obviously vary.

i dunno - i feel like if you feel really numb and are not having emotions while on SSRIs then you are either on the wrong meds or taking too much.

Has anyone here had any experiences with the diabolical 'serotonin syndrome?'

I resumed taking Zoloft last month, after about a year of being off SSRIs, & my pcp advised me to start w/ a slightly higher dosage than I had taken the last time I acclimated to it. On the third or fourth day, I started to feel a bit dizzy and nauseous. I assumed these were textbook side effects (while I hadn't had such a reaction before, I was a bit hung over that day tbh), so I decided to take a nap. I woke up around two hours later from a fever dream, completely drenched in sweat & mess of chills & involuntary leg movements. I was also experiencing delirium to some degree. Thankfully I was able to quickly contact my sister, a licensed pharmacist - she knew immediately what was happening & talked me through it. I was literally getting ready to leave for the emergency room when it started to subside. The effects diminished considerably in the short-term, but it took over 24 hours to them to completely subside.

I cut back my dosage to the same amount I was on when I originally started taking Zoloft & have been fine since, so I'm hoping it was just a freak occurrence. Still it was actually a pretty terrifying thing to undergo, even if only briefly. Would not recommend..

god, that's scary! I haven't experienced that - though I was briefly on Zoloft years ago and it didn't really work for me - for whatever reason, it just made me really angry. I don't really get any weird side effects w/Paxil.

that is odd - Zoloft makes me decidedly not angry (or generally consumed by self-loathing etc.) which means it is doing the trick, I suppose (when it is not to kill me!).

Pillbox: You are lucky to be alive. Very lucky. What other medications do you take? Any herbal medications ?

No experience with serotonin syndrome, but I've read the warnings. That is serious fucking business; I'm glad you got medical attention right away.

Weirdest side effects I've had other than the boring ones like constantly fluctuating weight, tiredness, etc have been the "brain shocks" and others from Lexapro withdrawal. Even while tapering the dosage, I got the zaps and this weird disconnected feeling that's hard to describe (and that I seriously hope I never have to deal with again, not fun).

Prozac is doing OK for me right now, or it seems to be, anyway. I still can't really enjoy anything and have trouble leaving my apartment, but at least I'm not locking myself in the employee bathroom and sobbing for hours at work. Little steps, and all that shit.

I'm really, really happy to hear that, TT.

is there a difference between which SSRIs are generally prescribed for men vs. women? For some reason, I think that Lexapro tends to be prescribed more often to men because it has less severe sexual side effects.

man, fuck SSRIs. i've been managing my depression with them for 12 years now and i've tried going off to no avail for half of that time, never lasted more than six months

scariest part is potentially long-term sexual side effects, ie PE when i'm off and ED when i'm on

current workaround is a maintenance dose of 5-10 mg of paxil (works for me), lots of omega-3 oils (ocean fish and/or legumes everyday), replacing carbs with fresh vegetables, daily exercise, lots of time in the outdoors, mentoring my younger relatives and colleagues, etc

also i've been doing CBT for 12 years, maybe its a natural fit for me because i teach high school and we basically use CBT to manage and motivate our students

our sessions are mostly focused around career and personal goal-setting these days rather than managing anxiety attacks, though i still get those weekly, working on turning that energy into positive motivation

i'm also using herbs but with the awareness that they just complement - not replace - all those other strategies and resources and that i really needed good meds for that initial intervention

so yeah there's a way out of SSRIs but like any other massive lifestyle change it's definitely best approached real gradual and one step at a time

I've gone off ssris three times in the past five years but I always end up back on. Last time was just a few months ago...It wasn't too bad going off them, but then after a couple months, I gave up. I could make it through the day okay without 'em, but I just found myself revisiting old (extremely negative) thought patterns and generally I was mired in misery much of the time. So fuck it.

I find it difficult to accept that I might be on them for the rest of my life, though.

way way xp to Christine

Yeah, the way my sister described it, serotonin syndrome basically has a snowball effect to the degree that a slight imbalance can escalate to such a degree that one could be particularly susceptible to a stroke or cardiac arrest. Thankfully, the effect usually stops short of such extremes, but it is esp. tricky b/c there isn't really a way to correlate the ratio b/w overdose & consequence. In my case, like I said, I was just about to call for a ride to the ER when it scaled back considerably & my heart rate & blood pressure responded in kind. I guess maybe I should keep some kind of sedative at hand, in case it happens again, tho the opinions I've gotten & my own research suggests that it is not something one might be esp. prone to - it is literally sort of a freak occurrence.

I will probably wean myself back off the SSRIs down the road a bit, anyway. I am prone to clinical depression, but I can often keep it in check w/ diet & exercise & other lifestyle factors. Bet every so often I find myself in a trench & just need something to grease the wheel, so to speak. Aside from the one (admittedly awful) incident, the Zoloft has actually helped me considerably when I've needed it.

To answer your question: I am also an ADD basket-case, so I take Adderall (tho I hadn't taken any on the day of the incident). I take Claritin fairly regularly for allergies. In terms of herbal supplements, I take one or two Ginkgo Biloba capsules daily & sometimes I drink a lot of Yerba Mate. Vitamins, minerals & such I try to get from food as much as possible. I drink more alcohol than I should & I occasionally smoke weed. Sorry if all this is TMI or whatever, but if you have any suggestions, I would certainly be interested to hear them. Right now, I am sort of depending on the Zoloft, but Christ I do not want to have any more experiences like ^

I had something really fucking weird happen one time when I was on Zoloft and ate maybe too many hash cookies and that started with a racing heart, shivering, legs twitching uncontrollably. Still, no THC on the wikipedia article for "serotonin syndrome", but, fuck. I thought I was dying and considered calling an ambulance and then I thought "well of course you're just being paranoid, duh, let's not make this any worse than it already is". Then I kept blacking out, like I'd know I'd been doing stuff because I'd be in a different place, but have no memory of the past two hours; repeat.

Anyhow I am probably just looking for something to blame for a moronic teenage overindulgence and attendant freakout, but, fuck.

(I have not really told anyone this before because it sounds so fucking dumb but I am kind of startled that it actually might have been potentially serious. I am OK though! And it probably wasn't that at all! Seeing as it is not a listed combination on the wikipedia and all!)

Man I hope this will not be the last post on this thread as I am sure to regret posting this in the morning, but...

Sounds like you have good reason to be concerned, despite the absence of THC in the Wiki article. No weed/hash paranoia I know of includes uncontrollable leg twitching and blackouts! you weren't drinking alcohol at the time?

Replying partly so you don't regret posting. ;)

imho sounds pretty hard to separate what happened from garden variety paranoia, i've had racing heart and shaking hands too

i had bad experiences whenever I'd miss my lexapro. i'd walk around with my head perfectly still because when i'd turn my head it felt like my brain was turning slower than my eyes and then when i'd stop my brain felt like it was still turning

if anybody's having similar issues i'd recommend just try switching to an equal dose of celexa instead of tapering off ... can't be any worse!

Also a hell of a lot cheaper since celexa has a generic. FWIW for the curious: the dosage on celexa is 2x the dosage of lexapro. (40 mg celexa = 20 mg lexapro)

as far as acceptance most of us don't regret our addiction to eyeglasses, eczema cream or supportive footwear and I just figure ssri's maybe are just a form of mental hygeine that we're starting to understand

well, it is a pretty basic chemical function that they serve.

I can't recommend strongly enough working with your doctor if you want to get off anti-depressants. There is no possible way to do it too slowly or gingerly, imo. Seriously, this shit goes best if you work with a sympathetic professional who knows what they're doing! This goes not just SSRIs but any mental health med. Getting off SSRIs was a like petting a pile of puppies compared to tapering off Lamictal. Dear God.

My doc was really nice about it, and even following her advice I still had a seizure from going off Lamictal the last week I was working on tapering off. Scary. But, ultimately, it worked out OK. I don't think I ever should have been put on Lamictal in the first place tbh.

I was ANGRY six months later when I went to a doctor for the flu or something like that. He saw in my records what meds I used to be on, and started just chastising me and telling me I was a bad and irresponsible person for "refusing to take my meds." When I hadn't talked to him 1x the whole time about the situation (the doctor I had been seeing for my mental health was at a free clinic, this dude was not). It was just so presumptuous and entitled. I just needed to complain to someone about that, sorry guys!

the bullshit is rooted in side-effects & social stigmas

xp

(couple xposts)

Racing heart and shaking hands, sure; leg twitching and blackouts, not so much, but ymmv.

I was on Celexa for a short time, no real problems with it*, although it had a reputation for leading to suicidal ideation/behaviour at the time.

*Except, when tapering off, I had a similar experience to moonship I called brain taffy, whereby my brain felt like it would occasionally stretch out in a weird kind of slo-mo.

Just a quick reply (I'm going to look up Pillbox's meds in Medscape sometime tonight). Will you all please stop acting as if SSRIs are just another bad habit to break rather than a medication that may be vital to your health? First off, SSRIs do not = antidepressants. Second off, if you feel better on them, barring any troublesome side effects, then stay on them, for heaven's sake. Don't get off of them just because of some misguided desire for A Drug Free Life.

Look, I'm sorry for that rant, but it's just something that's been building up for a while.

Oh, and Abbott, I started writing that reply before your recent post, so if I hurt you, I'm sorry.

Hahaha, no, not at all. It's not like you jumped to any fucked-up conclusions about me, plus also you are not my doctor.

I went off my meds because after four years of taking them & doing therapy both me & a doctor & my therapist all decided I did not need them at this point in my life. I'm comfortable w/my decision.

I totally think people should make whatever decision is best for them! And that they should make it with the help of professionals who know about the person & about the meds in question. I hope I did not make anyone feel like it's time to get off the anti-depressant train. I don't have an agenda except people having the best possible mental health! Which, if that means taking whatever helps, that's great that you found a helpful solution! Nothing to feel guilty about.

i usually wanted to stop because I hated the side effects - lethargy, weight gain, sex dysfunction, etc

but yeah, i've learned that means adjusting my dose and/or rotating my meds

That's a different thing that you're talking about--you made that decision on the advice of a professional. I've seen people get talked/talk themselves off their meds before, often with horrible results.

I have had a bad week and I feel so weird right now.

maybe I should smoke a cigarette. I have some and I have been good about not getting back into the habit when I do smoke the occasional cig.

maybe you should put on some music and see how many jumping jacks you can do

That shivering, twitching thing described upthread happened to me once when I was coming down off LSD (no antidepressants involved). I searched it up but it wasn't 100% conclusive what it was. It was very, very unpleasant and I had read enough about serotonin syndrome to assume this was what I'd managed to do to myself, which made it much, much worse. I don't know if it was shivering or some kind of tremor. Terrible shit.

"I have had a bad week and I feel so weird right now."

Hugs,dude. How do you feel weird?

Stopped smoking the day I took my first pill (sipralexa). I was so nauseous, I couldn't do anything but lie down. It's been great so far. Decided I had to quit cause my husband was going to as well. I have been smoking off and on for the last seven years. I still don't consider myself a smoker weirdly. But I never do the occasional cigarette anymore, cause I know by the end of the month I'm doing almost a pack. I miss it but otoh I am happy to be an ex-smoker.

Anyway, decided after the advice here, to do some sports. Although I hate running, I think I'm gonna give it another try. Or at least do some major walking.

My mom's been asking how things are. For the first time in my life I have decided not to tell her anything. So nothing about the pills. I told her several times before I had anxiety attacks and felt depressed, but she never took it really serioulsy. So why make her worry now? She's too far away (in Japan) and can't do much.

is there a difference between which SSRIs are generally prescribed for men vs. women? For some reason, I think that Lexapro tends to be prescribed more often to men because it has less severe sexual side effects.

female lexapro taker here. i kinda hate it, but it's worked better than anything else i've tried. i think my doctor only put me on it because that's what the drug rep happened to be pushing that month.

did i say i *kinda* hate it? i really hate it. i hate the side effects (mostly weight gain) and i hate how shitty i feel when i have to be without it for even a few days. more generally, i hate dealing with doctors and insurers and pharmacists and the whole stupid circus every month when i need a refill or whatever.

*camera 2, close up* THERE'S GOT TO BE A BETTER WAY!

Welcome to the world of chronic illnesses. At least you don't have to go through dialysis or chemotherapy.

My parents are medicated for the first time in their lives and it's doing a world of good, afaik. My mom has had depression/social anxiety issues to an extent for most of her adult life and my dad is an anxiety addict who has some obsessive-type habits.

I went on celexa at the end of last year when I finally admitted I was at the end of my rope. Still going to get into talk therapy "at some point," which actually seems the truth now and not some sort of excuse. Basically, having the chemical balance shift at the same time I was making huge life changes made me a lot more confident so it was a partial red herring that made me put off completing the mental health puzzle.

I've been fucking things up a little the last few weeks because I've gone back to dating after a year hiatus and celexa can cause... hell, is it called anorgasmia in men? I think it's called "retarded ejaculation" or somesuch. So I've been staggering pills at 36 hour intervals and it's starting to catch up to me, especially since I've been drinking a bit more.

Pre-SSRIs, if I was a touch hungover I would get a thought or a song stuck in my head and lay awake at 4am after the alcohol cleared my system and be unable to fall asleep. This kicked in again the other day, although thankfully not until 8AM.

I believe retarded ejaculation is a normal orgasm where the semen is retained by the body.

nah, that's retrograde