Antidepressants Vs No Antidepressants

Gab2014 · ‎11-02-2014

Hi all,

I'm Gab and new to this site. My Doctor has said she thinks I should start taking antidepressants. I was relieved, like a weight lifted off my shoulders. She was supportive. I got them yesterday. I took one this morning (and feel just awful)

I'm confused about what to do. You see late last year I was injured at work, I became really teary and not coping with the pain and so Work Cover sent me to see a psychologist. Its been somewhat helpful. I've learnt to belly breath and try to relax. I've added some light exercise into my day (hydrotherapy for my shoulder injury) and I've tried watching some funny movies and having a laugh.

My pain has really settled now, but my tears have increased. I'm back at work on very light duties a few hours a day (have been twice so far after 4 months off work) and while there I feel OK. Today the psychologist said "Maybe you can choose to eat better, exercise more, laugh more and have sex. Rather than take the antidepressants. She has encouraged me to try other things.

There is and has always been a stigma with antidepressants. I don't know what to do. My decision making is out the window. So are my eating habits - I'm super overeating. (10kg gain in 4 months from inactivity and comfort eating) I'm feeling so low. Oh and I feel gross... uncomfortable. I feel guilty. I'm yelling at my kids, a lot. I have twins girls 18, and they just cant seem to clean properly, I'm overrating all the time. I'm crying and feeling heartbroken about all sorts of things. I have no energy. I sometimes cant even get energy for a shower. I think I should take them. But I don't want to feel worse while they kick in. I've also taken on a distance ed Uni course that starts next Monday. I don't want to be foggy. I don't want to defer and feel like I've failed. I really want to do it. But I'm worried I'm not going to be able to do it.

My Mum thinks I should take them, my Brother says stay away from them. What are your thoughts? To take or to not take antidepressants??

Cheers Gab

JessF · ‎12-02-2014

Hi Gab food and sex as a cure for depression - imagine if they could put that into a pill! I was just saying in another thread that sometimes antidepressants can make you feel a bit funny before they kick in. I have friends with various other chronic illnesses and they have xperienced the same when starting new pills, it seems to be part and parcel of it. You say you think you should take them, I say bugger the stigma and go with your heart, you can review it in a month with your doctor and take it from there. What have you got to lose?

strangebrew · ‎12-02-2014

From my own personal experiences (I have been on a number of different types of antidepressents), it can take up to 4-8 weeks to really start to see much of a difference. The first few days or even weeks can be very difficult as many of them can cause nausea, vomiting, loss of sleep, loss of appetite, loss of sex drive. It’s a tough few weeks to get through, but usually I have found my body starts to adjust to the negative side effects after about 3-4 months. I know it sounds like a long time, and everybody reacts a bit differently but they can definitely take some time to show positive effects. And make sure to talk to your doctor if you can before stopping abruptly if you do.

Girl_Anachronism · ‎12-02-2014

Hi Gab,

First off welcome to Beyond Blue. I hope you will find the people here as supportive as I have.

It's a very good question that you ask and unfortunately the answer is different for everyone. you see we all have slightly different brain chemistry so Antidepressant A which works for me, may not work for you. Antidepressant B may work fro you but not me, but it might work for the guy down the street. For some people they find antidepressants don't work at all. It can be a very long path finding the answer that works for you.

The way antidepressants work is that they do take a few weeks minimum to work. It might be a few weeak after that before you feel the full affect. So you can take them and discover after 6 weeks that they aren't doing anything for you. The other side of antidepressants is that they can have sideaffects which can range from headaches to fainting spells to weight gain to suicidal tendencies. Ironic isn't it? THe thing we take to make us less depressed can actually make it worse.

As for my own personal experience with them, I cam from a point of view that I would do this on my own. When I had a crisis in my teens, I did without. The crisis I am in now, I decided to take everything everybody said (including my brother in law who has Bipolar and ha done the Mental Health circuit so had sme good advice) and see if they would help in my situation. The first antidepressant I was presciribed was not the right way. I had terrible headaches, light sensitivity and worse yet, it made my suicidal ideations worse. So after it reached a point of no return, I was taken off them cold turkey under supervision in the hospital.

I then proceeded for the past few months tried to go without getting on another, instead just oing to psychs and talking it out. That too, reached a point where I was experiencing five moods in a day and was so exhausted that I called out for help. I am now on a different antidepressant, and aside from zombie affects the first three days of taking it (again in hospital under supervision) I had no sideaffects what so ever. It was still a few weeks before I started to feel any effects. I still don't know if I should go up in my dosage or not. I am giving it a few more weeks to see if the mood stabilising effects increase.

Like I said, way back at the beginning, this is my story and my brain chemistry. IT probably won't be how yours goes. From what you are describing, it sounds like the antidepressants you are on aren't agreeing with you. These affects you notice could pass, but I' d encourage you to go back to you r GP/Psych and tell them about these affects. Tell them about your concerns. They can propose a plan of action.

Ultimately, antidepressants can work for or against you. Each person is different with each different antidepressant. The bottom line is though, that if you choose to stop them, GO SEE YOUR GP FIRST. I say this in caps ( something I never do) because while you may not notice any effects, if you stop them cold turkey your brain chemistry can go very vey bad beause it has gotten used to them. Stopping cold turkey is not recommended by anyone, unless you are in the situation like I was in where they were not helping me at all, they were hurting me. The only reason I was told to do that was because I was in hospital under supervision for the next two weeks. So if my brain went to dark places ( and it did ) I was safe from myself.

Giant big warning signs side, what the GP will do if he/she agrees to stop or change your meds to a different one is wean you off them. Over the course of a week, you'll probably take half tablets and then depending on your dosage, a lower dosage than that. During this time you may have more regular appointments with your GP and/or psych to make sure the lower dosage doesn't do bad things.

I hope I haven't blasted you with too much information. Antidepressants can help you through a rough time, you just have to find the right one. That's a tough process.

I hope you can post again and let us know how things go.

Take Care,

GA

Ballza · ‎30-11-2017

Hi Gab... That’s only a question you can answer....

I’ll be completely honest with you,

If you can manage your symptoms on your own, maybe keep going that way.. But if you can’t, you may have to try!!!

I started using a medication 13 years ago, and it worked really well for me, but for some reason they seem to have stopped working... I don’t know why...

Know I’m stuck in the position of trying to find another one, and honestly I really don’t think I’m having any luck...

I’m at the point where I wish I never used them and angry because at the time when I started I was given no information that I may grow a tolerance to them... So that’s my answer....

You have got to go with what you think is right for yourself...

Take care and good luck, would love to know how you get on though!!!

Matt