What antidepressants have you tried and have they helped?

[Dukakis88]

Was it a temporary thing, or something that you've decided you'll need to take for the rest of your life in order to function?

Had any bad experiences to share in warning with others?

I'm currently on Zoloft and Wellbutrin, myself. The only side effect I've noticed with the Zoloft is difficulty achieving orgasm. (I'm not kidding.)

I resisted antidepressants and therapy for years (a decade or so, really), and finally caved on the therapy. The therapist eventually talked me into trying the antidepressants.

I'm not sure what they are doing for me. I do seem to not dwell on the pain in my life as much as I used to. I used to be able to sink into a state where I would just sit motionless for hours listening to depressing music and thinking about how I have never been loved and how grotesque I am, eventually working myself into such a state of despair that I started crying out in pain and rage. That doesn't happen now, which is good.

[HEyHEY]

1. Mainly just a lot of masturbation

[Dukakis88]

4. That's the problem...

The Zoloft at first literally made it so it took me up to three hours to successfully masturbate, due to the seratonin inhibitor effect on orgasm.

[HEyHEY]

6. jesus and they let this shit on the market?

[FM Arouet666]

11. Everything has side effects

These drugs are very powerful. If we pulled every drug with an untoward side effect, we would have nothing to prescribe. I tell patients all the time about risk/benefit ratios. The risk of severe depression is serious, the benefit for many justifies the risk.

Don't get me wrong, the pharm companies are generally out for profit regardless of risk. Take Merck and the Vioxx fiasco. The Chimperor will back the pharm Co every time and use us as lab rats.

[Dukakis88]

23. For depressed people, it's often not much of a loss.

I haven't had a lover my entire life, in large measure due to depression... Hard to make a good impression on girls when you are your own worst critic, mope around the house all the time with the curtains drawn, and take romantic rejection like a death sentence. If the drugs can help me out of this place I've been, then the side effect is worth it. When I actually get out of this situation enough to have a love in my life, then I'll worry about my sexual performance.

[Omnibus]

2. I'm on celexa and wellbutrin,

They seem to work well for me. They keep both the anxiety and depression at bay, and don't cause that many side effects (dry mouth and funny bowels).

I suffered a similar problem with Zoloft.

[Qanisqineq]

3. I've been on a few

Zoloft has sexual side effects, most of the SSRI's I've tried do. Wellbutrin, make sure you have never had any kind of concussion or head injury or eating disorder -- can cause seizures. I've tried Prozac -- yuck, made me feel like I wasn't quite all there. Desipramine -- no effect. Those are the ones I've been on for any length of time within the last few years. More than 5 years ago, can't remember.

Most people I know are only on them temporarily. I've been on them for more than 10 years and probably will be for life.

[AVID]

5. i started lexapro 5mg six months ago

a big improvement (except for last week)

[Droopy]

7. I just started using welbutrin

The only thing I've noticed so far is that I don't sleep as much as I used to. I still get caught up in past events that were painful to me. Hopefully some of that will go away soon. I guess it takes a little while for anti-depressants to start working good.

[FM Arouet666]

8. No your not kidding....

My wife is a psychiatrist and she put me on Zoloft when I was getting aggressive and anxious. A stressful surgical residency will do that to you. Anyway, I was on Zoloft, and to be honest, have considered restarting it. After residency has been even more stressful. The sexual side effects were a pain, I had the same thing. I was a bad patient and skipped doses so that I could have a decent orgasm. What is worse than that, was coming off the drug. I had a lot of dizziness, which I understand from my wife and the drug rep is unusual, but I was on 200 mg a day, I know I am messed up.

The Wellbutrin Zoloft combo made me manic, I had to stop after a week, I was bouncing off the wall.

The bottom line is, these drugs are powerful and do work, but I think I improved most with therapy and medication. Eventually, I got off the medication, but may have relapsed a bit. Therapy with or without meds is probably something I need to function. If you feel better with the current therapy you may need to be on it for the foreseeable future. However, there are other meds with less sexual side effects, Effexor for example, which I have never tried. If this side effect is a concern, and I feel your pain, ask your psychiatrist.

Peace....

[Qanisqineq]

9. I had the same problem coming off of Zoloft

I was on 200 mg too. They told me to slowly decrease the dosage but when do I ever listen?

[Dukakis88]

10. The therapy was crucial for me...

...before I started therapy, I used my mother as the person I turned to with all of my problems. (She did the same with me.) It was only by starting therapy that I was able to get enough distance to realize that one of my big problems was sharing everything / seeking advice from my mother! I hadn't made that crucial separation, and was psychologically infantile, dependent. Still working on that part.

[FM Arouet666]

13. Therapy is key

I was on drugs first because I had access, given that both my wife and I are M.Ds. But, I didn't improve that much, still irritable and anxious. The therapy really helped me. Now that I am off both, we have seen a bit of a relapse.

[kvining]

15. Ok,,,

I have anxiety problems due to growing up in a family with a lot of alcoholism, so I've done the depressant thing. I took Effexor for a while, it seem to work well at first, but it affected my business judgment. Although it really improved the quality of my work (programmer), I became so laid back and easy going I was a sucker for anyone. I let a customer keep sliding on paying me and the SOB went bankrupt and I got screwed. I made a couple of other bad business decisions afterwards, and I finally started connecting it to the Effexor. I stopped taking it, and was soon back to being an overly anxious twit who irritated everyone, but hey - being overly anxious can be a plus in business, and sure enough, business got better and I didn't do stupid things. But my life sucked human relationship wise. I went to a new doc, explained my problems to him, and he put me on this new stuff called Remeron that you really don't hear much about. It works different - you take it before you crash. It helps you get to sleep, and you don't have to go through popping your pills in the morning and "getting off" followed by that I-just-smoked-a-pound-of-hash-and-I-can-still-think feeling. Instead, you wake up to a new normalcy. It keeps me even keeled without any "dopey" effects, and so far I have noticed no sexual side effects. After a year and a half, I haven't noticed any bad effects on on my judgment, in fact it has improved my concentration so much, I am actually even more on top of my game. I'd recommend it to anyone.

[FM Arouet666]

18. Really........?

I will have to ask my wife about this one. I have heard of Remeron, but I am just a silly surgeon. I empathize with some of what you say. I recall going to a gun shot wound trauma when I was on Zoloft, a real adrenaline buster, but I remained real calm. Almost to calm. "we need to open the chest, sure lets open it up, dude", maybe not that bad, but nothing really got to me. Thanks for the sharing.

Peace...

[Dogmudgeon]

12. Been there, done them

Zoloft -- and any of the SSRIs -- will inhibit orgasm, especially in males. I was on the stuff in my late 20s and while my girlfriends loved it, I felt like I wanted to chew a hole in the floor. It's not a pleasant experience.

After a few months, another sexual side-effect kicked in: I lost interest, and it only returned slowly after about five years.

I also gained a lot of weight. Back then, SSRIs were being hyped as the newest weight-loss drug. SSRIs also gave me a nasty case of GERD (gastric reflux) that still hasn't subsided.

Ludiomil (maprotiline) worked well for me once, but never worked after that. I don't know why.

The best antidepressant I was ever on was Merital (nomifensine). It was pulled off the market over dire fears of causing anemia. And, as I found out, in higher doses it was a euphoria-producing drug for some people, which I suspect is the real reason.

These days, I'm occasionally on Ritalin, since my depressive episodes are briefer and marked by concurrent ADHD symptoms.

--bkl

[Crunchy Frog]

14. I've tried just about everything out there

and have seen very little in the way of positive results.

I hope you have better luck than me. Longterm chronic depression really sucks doesn't it?

[RevCheesehead]

27. yes, it does.

[AndyTiedye]

16. A Lot of Us Really Wanted to Try "President Kerry"

That would have cured most of the depression around here.

[shockingelk]

17. anti-depressant reviews here:

http://www.gourmandizer.com/ezine/drugs/

[American Tragedy]

19. I take Adderall 20 mg, Wellbutrin 300 mg, Lexapro 15 mg

and I used to take Zoloft 200 mg, but I stopped earlier this year.

All of them worked for me temporarily, and it was wonderful. I would warn anybody who takes Adderall to space out each of the pills throughout the day, or the shaking and the palpitations may be almost unbearable. I know from experience.

There has been trouble lately though. All this year I have been sinking back into the unbearable world that I was in two years ago. The election and some collapsed relationships have quickened that fall. My psychiatrist has been elevating my dosages but seemingly to very little avail. My grades this year reflect it devastatingly, and that makes it even worse. I'm already probably going to have to forget about law school and most of the other things that I dreamt of a year ago.

I'm back in hell and I don't know what to do.

[Dukakis88]

20. Changing your user name might be a good start!

[Egalitarian]

24. Not sure if this is helpful

But since I've learned to be more comfortable with "not knowing what to do"- my daily life is much more manageable. It's OK to not know where you're going, or what you want to accomplish, or what you feel like you can. I used to beat myself up real bad when things didn't go as planned. Don't fall into that trap! Then there's my favorite thing to forget; all the Good that is present in the world. Once I remember to look for this; everthing usually becomes bearable, even enjoyable. Remember,

Things will get better:-)

[Egalitarian]

21. Currently taking L-tryptophan and L-Tryrosine

For about 9 months I shared a low dose prescription of Prozac(20mg/day) with a girl friend and liked it, but felt a little like an emotional zombie. I had emotions, but they seemed far off, and rather than deal with them I think I suppressed them easier. About two months ago I started taking the above combination. I take 1000-1500mg of tryptophan in 2-3 pills (one an hour after dinner, and 1-2 before bed). I also take a sustained release b-complex vitamin with the first 500mg. Then in the AM, just after waking (and an hour before breakfast) I take 500mg of "tyrosine plus" (b-6 and vitamin C added) and then another an hour or so before lunch. So far, I'm really liking how healthy I feel on this routine. L-tryptophan is a precurser to seratonin. I tried 5-htp which is a precurser to l-tryptophan, but even the enteric coated(easier on the tummy) version didn't seem to do anything for me-some folks claim it doesn't cross into the brain as well as tryptophan and this is my subjective experience as well. The tryptophan makes me sleep like a baby. I've always had trouble waking in the morning and still do, but now it's because I'm in such a deep sleep, not so much because I don't want to face the day. I'm a 6-10/day handrolled cigarette smoker and the tyrosine seems to help lessen my dependency on nicotine. I was doing well, down to 3-4 thin cigs a day until the election. Since then I haven't been doing so well with either following my dosing routine or cutting back on smoking, but I'll bounce back. Since tryptophan and tyrosine are amino acids I try to make sure I haven't eating any protien an hour before or after. Protiens are made up of amino acids and if you take aminos and eat protien in the same time period, the absorbtion is diminished. If anyone has any questions, do some research. The tryptophan I get is made by Craig Phamaceuticals(purchased at a local health food store) and contrary to many rumors, it is available prescription free in the US. the program I'm on follows their recommendations, but concurs with the indenpendant research that I did. Good luck to all as we seek to become/remain? a human being in an often inhumane world.

[GingerSnaps]

22. Ativans

After Tuesday night I was put on Ativans. :hug:

[LittleClarkie]

25. Buspar and therapy

The therapist is a raging Lib, which has helped and hurt. We spend half of my session moaning about Bush. I introduced her to the campaign, and she was so proud to tell me that she'd been canvassing over the weekend before the election. That was the last job she'd wanted to do (she'd rather donate and write letters) but she did it and thought to herself, "Wait til I tell Erica."

It was good to have someone to talk to who understood though. Here in Freeperworld, that's not easy to come by.

[Dukakis88]

26. Both my therapist and psychiatric nurse practitioner are liberals, too!

Made it a lot easier to describe my behavior on election night.

[NamVetsWeeLass]

28. They say Effexor doesn't have the sexual

Side effects. The only thing I know is that I can't take any type of SSRI, they seem to make me a lot worse than I was before I started taking them.

[Roon]

29. I am on Zoloft and Risperdal

I upped the Risperdal dose after we lost the election and it's been very easy going for me. I would recommend it to anyone.

[motely36]

30. Lexapro 10mg

I also resisted taking any antidepressants for a long time. But I think it's really helping. I've been on it for about a year and I can see a definate change.

[Drunkkkkkkkkman]

31. TANK!

DUKAKIS HAD A TANK! TANK! TANK! TANK! TA K!N!

:7

[Dukakis88]

32. Bush's "Mission Accomplished" Flight Suit = Dukakis Tank x 666

[Midlodemocrat]

33. Effexor

works okay. Lots of very vivid dreams in the beginning, but okay now. I started it after my mom died, then my sister-in-law, and then my dad. Crummy few years.

[Maine Mary]

34. Try reading "The Noonday Demon"

:An Atlas of Depression by Andrew Soloman It's a very insightful book on the subject of depression.

I wouldn't know what drugs to recommend. Everyone is different. You have to find a drug (or combination of them) that is right for you. It could take possibly years of trial and error.

In the meantime you really need to see a therapist to help guide you through all of this. He or She would be the best source in helping you discover not only what drugs work for you but also how to cope with the illness. Drugs alone will not do the trick if you are seriously depressed and it sounds like you are. Remember this IS an illness and requires treatment as well as symptom management. Don't feel ashamed about getting help. If you were a diabetic (for example), I'm sure you wouldn't think twice about going to an MD for treatment. This is no different; you must get the help you need.

Have a friend or family member make your appointment and physically take you there if necessary. Severely depressed people often are too apathetic to even seek the help they need. But that hopeless and helpless feeling can be deadly. Get help now and good luck.

[jimbo fett]

35. I'm on Paxil and Buspar. Occasionally Xanax.

Paxil seems to work the best for me and unlike some of the others there's no sexual side effects or weight gain.

[CO Liberal]

36. I Used to Be On Wellbutrin

But then Cigna (my insurance carrier) decided it wasn't on their formulary and changed the monthly co-pay to 60 bucks. So now I take St. John's Wort.

[Ivan Sputnik]

37. St. John's Wort

Effective for mild depression, in my experience. No side effects. But you have to take a standardized extract and the right dosage.

http://hypericum.com

[noonwitch]

38. I took some valium once-it worked very well

I know it's an addictive and dangerous drug, but man it did make me feel like I had no problems in the world.