depressed

LegacyUser

hi. i've been seriously depressed for a long time now. i am getting to the stage of going to doctor. feel very low 99% of time. i will probably be put on anti-depressants. i'm wondering what the side-effects of these are. i'm getting stuff from google. but i'd like to hear from people with experience. or of people that users here know of that were prescribed anti-depressants

D!ve^Bomb!

what makes you think the doc will defo give you anti-d's.. Can you give a little more info about your depression.. why do you think you're depressed?

I tend to get depressed a lot.. i think about what i should be doing in my life rather than what i am doing.. i usually see things in a pessimistic way.. but then i kick myself in the ass and say that YOU LIVE YOUR OWN LIFE AND DO WHAT YOU WANT SO SHUT THE **** UP COMPLAINING ABOUT IT AND JUST DO IT!!!

If you're depressed about life then do somethin about it.. i think it takes a lot of metal/will power to tell yourself to make things better.. if you don't like somethin about your life then change it!! don't mope around about it. if your depressed about work/college and feel you're just wastin away at what you're doing. leave!! do what you want to do.. only YOU can do somethin about it. i know it's easier said then done but it's a chance that sometimes must be taken

Personally, even tho i can't speak from experience.. i don't really think anti-d's are the way to go..

You can give pain killers to a person with a broken arm, the pain may subside, but the arm will still be broken.

calis

takin anti d aint the answer. u gotta find out y u feel so low most of the time not just try and supress it wit drugs.

make some life changes in the new year.

good luck.

I am MAN

It's quite possible the doctor will prescribe you a low dose of anti-d's just to act as a crutch and also do therapy.

I've been on a few anti-d's and I found the one with the worse side effects to be seroxat, it was really harsh so id recommend using cipramil if possible.
Seroxat just made me numb to emotions...i wasnt suffering or i wasnt happy I was just content and I wouldnt get overly excited or too depressed.

tuxy

newband wrote:

what makes you think the doc will defo give you anti-d's..

you dont know irish docters very well do you?

D!ve^Bomb!

i guess not.. Then again,, in my whole life(21) i've only been to the doc about 4 times at the most.. not including when i was a baby cos i can't remember that time..

but seriously,, don't go on anti d's.. just maybe get some therapy and find out why you're depressed and work on it from there

StupidLikeAFox

newband wrote:

i kick myself in the ass and say that YOU LIVE YOUR OWN LIFE AND DO WHAT YOU WANT SO SHUT THE **** UP COMPLAINING ABOUT IT AND JUST DO IT!!!

probably the best piece of advice for a lot of people! (not nec. the original poster

ando

Believe it or not, external events do not make you feel depressed/sad or down. Its how you react that makes you 'feel down'. It’s all about managing your inner self monologue. If you can replace the self destructive taughts with more positive taughts, it will lead to a happier life in general. This book is very good.

Feeling Good : The New Mood Therapy
by David D. Burns

(http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/0380810336/qid=1104083802/sr=2-3/ref=sr_2_11_3/026-0141860-8859632 )

Druggin up is not the way IMO, that'll only hold back the symptoms and doesn't challenge the cause. You have to find out why your feeling down and tackle it once your mind is straight and your not having irrational, illogical taughts

Victor

You are jumping the gun a little. It's up to a doctor to decide if you should take medication.

Each medication will vary, some will affect things like your diet, libido and will tame (not necessarily stop) in this case depression.

Side effects tend to be well documented and listed in the literature and can be discussed with your doctor.

Corksham

PM me please on this issue

MistressPandora

I've been through hell and back with depression, I feel like I have my own pass to come and go as I please. I've been put on happy pills, various kinds, and there was a poster saying that seroxat was the worst for side effects, and yet I have another person pushing me to use seroxat. The happy pills are different for everyone, but I think we can all agree that the first 3 weeks are normally hell.
I don't know what kind of symptoms that the original poster has, so I really can't offer that much help. All I can say is that I've decided recently to try and control my own depression, and with luck. I've been using herbal remedies and I've taken up swimming again, so maybe there's a thought you could also bear in mind...?
Anyways, pm if you want to talk. Purely confidental of course.

LegacyUser

If you feel depressed,it may be a good idea for you to see your doctor as the more information you have the better informed you are and you'll be able to make decisions with a clear head.Antidepressants aren't as bad as they were years ago and most have little side effects,i take them everyday and have a normal life.
They are not the wonder drug as sometimes said but they do help, you may need to speak to a counsellor and get in touch with how you feel,i hope it works for you and beleive me it's never as bad as it seems,it will get better.
Aldo

goin'_to_the_PS

are anti depressants bad for you at all.

MistressPandora

Well that depends really, a lot of people find that it makes them numb on the inside. While it slows down depression immensely, it also slows down other emotions too IMO. When I was on them I felt like a zombie with no real life. It wasn't until I did a cold turkey and decided that I was going to use a herbal style that I felt so much better.

Uthur

It depends on what ones you get. Some will have lots of horrible
side-effects. Some will have few to none. They affect everyone
differently. My current ones make me sleepy and hungry.

Chances are you'll get Cipramil or Effexor. Cipramil will probably make
you sleep more, tiredness,make it hard to orgasm, possible impotence,
dry mouth, maybe nausea. These wear off after a few weeks/months

Effexor is a lot worse for most people. I hated it and quit after a month.
Some people are ok on it though - you have to try to see if it suits you.

Believe me, better to get drugs and put up with side-effects for a while
than live with a truly crippling illness that never lets up.

check out alt.support.anxiety-panic on usenet too.

Let us know what you get.

Nightwish

ive been suffering from manic depression/ bi polar disorder for a number of years and following 4 suicide attempts and a year of self harm i finally went to the doc and yup, the fu*ker gave me the anti-d's. was on prozac for 2 years. i came off them only cos i lost my prescription and couldnt afford to go back to the doctor, but i am coping without them. there are days where id kill to go back on them just so i can feel normal.they're ideal for the short term, but i dont think i should've been on them for 2 years. had no side effects other than feeling relatively ok

RedRules5

MistressPandora wrote:

Well that depends really, a lot of people find that it makes them numb on the inside. While it slows down depression immensely, it also slows down other emotions too IMO. When I was on them I felt like a zombie with no real life.

This was my experience also. I have spells of being up and down but taking the drugs I was prescribed just levelled it all out so I was neither one or the other. I stopped taking them because the happy good periods made up for the bad ones.

MistressPandora I'd love more info on your experiences with herbal remedies. I took St Johns Wort for a while but it didn't seem to help much after an initial precieved improvement which I now put down to a placebo effect.

nesf

Anti-depressents are horibly over prescribed in this country, but at the same time they are necessary in some cases. I tried for years to go on without drugs, but after two nervous breakdowns and a suicide attempt I decided to try drugs again, and to be honest they've helped me alot. I'm able to live on them.

In my opinion, it's all about whether the side-effects are worth the benifits. For me they are, for alot of other people I know they aren't. It's a very personal thing. I do however think there is alot of unnecessary anger over anti-d's due to Irish doctors overprescribing them. GP's shouldn't they be prescribing them to people, they should be refering people to psychiatrist for an opinion on the matter of someone trained to make the decision.

calis wrote:

takin anti d aint the answer. u gotta find out y u feel so low most of the time not just try and supress it wit drugs.

make some life changes in the new year.

good luck.

Um thats VERY bad advice mate. Some people actually require medication to deal with the problem. Specifically people that were born with a severe chemical imbalance, and their natural brain chemistry just doesn't work normally. These people need drugs to live a normal life. You can't think your way out of clinical depression anymore than you can think yourself better out of pneumonia.

That said 90% of depression cases do not need heavy doses of drugs, just either drugs or therapy as a crutch to help the person deal with it. Still I would never recommend to someone not to get a professional opinion on the matter. It could be very dangerous.


As for side effects to the drugs, as was the original question. You can't know until your on them. I had hallucinations on Cypramil when I was on it, this made life unliveable and I couldn't take the drugs. I'm on a heavy dose of Effexor atm and tbh the worst side effect off it is memory loss. I'm being changed onto a different drug though, so we'll see I was on other drugs as well, Rispendal, Zyprexna and others. They didn't have any sever side-effects for me at all. But they are anti-psychotics rather than anti-depressents, and are a totally different kettle of fish.

The main problem with treating depression with drugs is that it can take quite a while to find the correct drug for the person suffering any severe depression, be it chronic or acute.

To be honest there seems to be alot of negativity on this thread over anti-d's, which I can totally understand with the way they are prescribed in this country, but my honest experience is that they have worked wonders for me. I'm genuinely happy and well-adjusted on drugs. Sure there are nasty side-effects, but they far out-weigh what I go through when I'm not on drugs. That said all they are is a crutch. They don't solve the problem, they can only help you help yourself, either by correcting a chemical imbalance, or giving enough of a pick-up to allow the person to live a normal life.

Depression can be crippling. It's just very mis-understood in this country. We have a serious problem with over-prescription of drugs for depression, alot of people that should try to solve their problem through therapy and not medication aren't given the choice by GP's here. That said anti-d's can be life-saving for people with severe chronic or acute depression. To dismiss them purely on the grounds that they are over-prescribed is madness. They are very important and effective in the right situations. It just seems that they get prescribed for the wrong ones over here, and that causes a very negative backlash against them and results in a stigma against the drugs and the illness.

I've rambled long enough. I'm not recommending drugs as an answer to anyone, I'd just be very very slow in telling someone they are not necessary, since sometimes they are.

$0.02

WhiteWashMan

while some people have their own views and experiences, youre best bet is to just go and see a doctor. the treatment if any is needed may or may not be anti-d's.

none of us is qualified to do anything other than give you a opinions and personal experiences, and none of those are any use to you in this case.

go and see someone qualified.

rorygbluz

got no drugs but seriously down since my best friend died last January