[*Boofle*]

I've had depression for years but only saw the doctor about it last year. She offered me either antidepressants or counselling, and I ended up turning them both down as counselling had a very long waiting list and I was scared the antidepressants would make me bedridden for 2 weeks as this is what happened to my friend. I'm thinking of booking an appointment again and getting the antidepressants as I still feel as bad as I did a year ago.

My questions are, how bad are the side-effects when you first start taking them? How much do they really improve your mood? And what are they most likely to put me on first? I sometimes also get panic attacks and feel like I'm going to faint.

Thanks in advance for any replies.

[Mchouse]

antids have very few side effects compared to other psych meds. most common is loss of libido.
they will definitely help with the panic attacks if they are relatively small ones. you will start seeing improvement in your mood after about a month of taking them so don't rush to quit them just give them some time. if you can do counselling as well that would be ideal. best of luck

[Noodlzzz]

Side-effects - this varies from person to person. I personally never had any of them on both of the antidepressants I tried, but other people in my family got seriously bad nausea. However bad the severity it will only last a couple of weeks until your body gets used to them

Improve mood - this really depends on a) how much of your depression is due to biological reasons and b) how severe the depression is

First - citalopram is often the first choice for GPs but they may also put you on fluoxotine, sertraline or another SSRI.

[Id and Ego seek]

The benefits of antidepressants take several weeks to take effect.

[izzabellezi]

My other half is on them at the moment and they're making him very dizzy and tired. But the side-effects are very different for everyone, just as the positive effects will also be different.
I suggest that when you go to the doctors you voice all of your concerns - they should guide you through all the side effects of each medicine.

[Sabertooth]

Headaches, ear ache, nausea, insomnia, sleepiness, crazy dreams, dizziness, general aches and pains in your muscles, difficulty with temperature regulation, hunger, lack of appetite, increased suicidal feelings.....just a few I've experienced.

In all honesty, the side effects really aren't that bad. They tend to be quite mild with antidepressants and wear off in a couple of weeks. The antidepressant effect doesn't usually kick in until 6 - 8 weeks on the drugs. They can make your mood quite substantially better. But they're not "happy pills", they don't make you magically awesomely happy, instead they generally help restore your motivation so you can then tackle your depression with renewed motivation.

You'd probably get put on fluoxetine or citalopram first, almost definitely an SSRI anyway. You could look those up on wikipedia to see how you feel about taking them.

[Exopaladin]

In terms of side effects, I've only ever really had some nausea and headaches with SSRIs. Nausea/cramps/headaches with duloxetine (SNRI). Both went away within a week or so.

When meds have worked for me they've made me feel completely better/'normal' again. Then made me less normal again, but that's because it looks like I have some bipolar variant. Most meds do take many weeks to kick in though.

One thing worth saying is that if your first med doesn't work, there's no reason that another wouldn't. SSRIs don't help me at all, SNRIs/tricyclics/MAOIs/mood stabilisers do.

Most likely meds to start with will be citalopram or fluoxetine probably.

[Anonymous]

I'm on Citalopram (started on 20mg, now 30mg). I've been on it for several months, and I have seen some improvement. I'm still moderately depressed, but it was severe when I started so they have helped quite considerably. Physical side effects were minimal. For the first few days I was more tired and a bit nauseas and had some headaches, but that went away pretty fast. My depression increased in severity around the first 2 weeks that I was on Citalopram, but it is likely that that was not down to the Citalopram (since it was already worsening before I started using it - I think it was just the natural progression and it would probably have kept getting worse if I hadn't taken it).

I think anti-depressants are most useful in two situations. Firstly when depression seems biological rather than situational (for me it seems to be something I've been disposed to my entire life, and I can't pinpoint anything in my life which caused it or which would make it go away) because situational depresison is likely to be helped more with counselling. Secondly when depression is too severe for counselling or CBT (this was the case with me - counselling didn't work when I was severely depressed because I could barely function - I was hardly eating, let alone speaking in full sentences about my emotions and figuring out how to get better). Now the depression has lifted just a little, counselling is more useful to help me figure out coping mechanisms in my everyday life.

All just my humble opinion! Even though Cit. hasn't cured me or whatever, I'm glad I went on it. I could not have stayed in the state I was in for very long.

[Rybee]

For me, side effects were tiredness, loss of appetite, headaches and loss of libido. It lasted for about 10 days and then I was okay, so you just have to persist.

They take about a month to kick in, but it's not an exact science so this will differ greatly from person, dose, medication. It's taken me a year of playing about with different medications at different doses. (I now take 300mg Venlafaxine for Anxiety/Depression - 150mg Pregabalin for Anxiety - 5mg PRN Diazepam for Anxiety - 7.5mg Zopiclone PRN for Sleep)

What specific drug they gives you varies on your symptoms but for generally depression they'll start you on SSRI's such as citalorpam, fluoxetine, sertraline etc...

I tried SSRI's but they weren't that effective, my depression was accompanied by huge anxiety so I tried SNRI's after 6 months. Venlafaxine hit the spot for me, depression was under control and my anxiety melted away. It's frustrating because it's so time consuming but I've lost myself for the last 4 years and the frustration of medication mixing in the last year has been problematic.... but so worth it. Now I'm me again, and happy to be back!

[pajeee]

For me, I had the side effects pretty bad for the first week of taking sertraline. I couldn't sleep more than 2-3 hours a night for the first 6 days, and I felt extremely sick and fidgety. These all went after the first week, but even now, three months down the line, I have very shaky hands all the time, like a tremor, and I often get a really bad temperature about four hours after I take it.

I don't want to scare you with the side effects, as they vary from person to person, but mine made me feel worse for the first week, but after two weeks I felt overwhelmingly happy, to the extent that I was close to tears of happiness for no particular reason. This then dipped down a lot, and I've now had the dose increased.

I'd say talk it over with your doctor. They don't solve all your problems, and I'm not better as such in the slightest, but I felt that they took the edge off the depression, enabling me to be able to cope with it day to day. You still get 'down days' and this is normally. As someone else said, they aren't happy pills. hope this has helped!