What are your experiences with medication for Mental Health?
What are your own, or friend's/family's experiences with MH medication? What was it for, and did it help? What do you think about medication for MH in general?
Personally I started on Citalopram for anxiety a couple of weeks ago (after years of not wanting to take medication) and I feel like it's starting to help my anxiety and mood! Feel free to ask me any questions about it, and I'll try and help
If you think you need help with your Mental Health please see your GP. If there is anything more urgent, please contact the Samaritans.
You can post in this thread anonymously.
Personally I started on Citalopram for anxiety a couple of weeks ago (after years of not wanting to take medication) and I feel like it's starting to help my anxiety and mood! Feel free to ask me any questions about it, and I'll try and help
If you think you need help with your Mental Health please see your GP. If there is anything more urgent, please contact the Samaritans.
You can post in this thread anonymously.
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I started out on Citalopram last August and it helped significantly with my OCD. I then got the dosage increased and then i started to feel extremely tired all the time.
I was sleeping for 12-16 hours at a time and was still struggling to get up.
I was also nodding off in college which wasn't good (due to the bullying I was already going through).
So I went to the doctor and requested a switch to something else.
I'm now on 100mg of Sertraline daily and I get the same relief from Anxiety/Depression/OCD but without the tiredness!
So its much better (when I remember to take it).
I'm glad to hear that your medication is helping you! I Hope it continues to do so and you can beat the anxiety for good!
I was sleeping for 12-16 hours at a time and was still struggling to get up.
I was also nodding off in college which wasn't good (due to the bullying I was already going through).
So I went to the doctor and requested a switch to something else.
I'm now on 100mg of Sertraline daily and I get the same relief from Anxiety/Depression/OCD but without the tiredness!
So its much better (when I remember to take it).
I'm glad to hear that your medication is helping you! I Hope it continues to do so and you can beat the anxiety for good!
I started on fluoxetine when I was about 13/14, but it didn't do a whole lot for me. I didn't notice improvement, so I ended up on citalopram. I've been taking it for quite a while now, and it's really good for me. I went from having up to 10 panic attacks a week to only 1 every couple of months, and my mood is so much better. I'm a lot better equipped to deal with things compared to before, where I'd just shut down
I've lost count of the number of mental health medications I've taken. Originally I was treated for depression so I took drug after drug but felt no relief. The majority just made me feel nauseous and headachey but fluoxetine (prozac) made me feel like I was going to die, I've never felt so bad before or since. I took it for 4 days and stopped. But these medications are very much trial and error and what helps one person may do nothing for someone else.
Now, antipsychotics.....they're a whole different beast.
Now, antipsychotics.....they're a whole different beast.
Started citalopram at my worst point. Made me sick the first day and feel il for like a week after that.
Interestingly I couldn't swallow tablets well so just that was a challenge. Had to use thinck or fizzy drinks so I could manage them. After a couple of months I started being able to swallow tablets. Now I can swallow paracetamol :P
I think they make me receptive to therapy and helped even me out. Took about 2 years but I eventually felt confident enough to come off them.
The biggest issue is they completely depleated my sex drive... just as I got a bf. XD
Interestingly I couldn't swallow tablets well so just that was a challenge. Had to use thinck or fizzy drinks so I could manage them. After a couple of months I started being able to swallow tablets. Now I can swallow paracetamol :P
I think they make me receptive to therapy and helped even me out. Took about 2 years but I eventually felt confident enough to come off them.
The biggest issue is they completely depleated my sex drive... just as I got a bf. XD
Original post by Sabertooth
I've lost count of the number of mental health medications I've taken. Originally I was treated for depression so I took drug after drug but felt no relief. The majority just made me feel nauseous and headachey but fluoxetine (prozac) made me feel like I was going to die, I've never felt so bad before or since. I took it for 4 days and stopped. But these medications are very much trial and error and what helps one person may do nothing for someone else.
Now, antipsychotics.....they're a whole different beast.
Now, antipsychotics.....they're a whole different beast.
Got that reaction on sertraline.Original post by Airmed Got that reaction on sertraline.
Got that reaction on sertraline.Sorry to hear that. Sertraline is actually the only "common" antidepressant I haven't tried. :/ I didn't really get much side effect wise on ADs, but yeah I remember you saying you're super-sensitive to them.
Right now I'm on Quetiapine and Haldol and have put on 55lbs since April.
Original post by Sabertooth
Sorry to hear that. Sertraline is actually the only "common" antidepressant I haven't tried. :/ I didn't really get much side effect wise on ADs, but yeah I remember you saying you're super-sensitive to them.
Right now I'm on Quetiapine and Haldol and have put on 55lbs since April.
Right now I'm on Quetiapine and Haldol and have put on 55lbs since April.
Super sensitive to any medication it seems.
Still on the horrible liquid trazodone.Oh no. Is the drug you told me about, the one they use for diabetics, not helping with the weight gain?
Original post by Airmed
Super sensitive to any medication it seems. Still on the horrible liquid trazodone.
Oh no. Is the drug you told me about, the one they use for diabetics, not helping with the weight gain?
Still on the horrible liquid trazodone.Oh no. Is the drug you told me about, the one they use for diabetics, not helping with the weight gain?
Is the trazodone helping with sleep at least?
Nope, not anymore.
There's a possibility it's my thyroid, I'm getting tests. 
About a year ago, I started taking Citalopram for depression, and I do think it has helped. I was having emotional outbursts quite regularly, I felt like nothing was going right and it was all getting on top of me really. I persuaded my doctor to let me try Citalopram, as my mum had had success with it previously. It took a while for me to notice the effects, but it did seem to have a positive impact, as I stopped feeling so fragile and felt better able to cope with things. My mum describes the Citalopram as giving her a 'coating' which helps her to deal with negativity
Original post by Sabertooth
Is the trazodone helping with sleep at least?
Nope, not anymore. There's a possibility it's my thyroid, I'm getting tests.
Nope, not anymore.
There's a possibility it's my thyroid, I'm getting tests. No, it has worn off. Low dose after all.
Ah ok.
Medication in itself can and often will be a placebo effect its more the idea of what it can do that helps.
When I was on it I felt more muted and like a bedtime feeling all day which meant I didn't have the motivation to do much but I didn't quite get miserable feelings directly but just a middle feeling of im neither happy or sad.
You would have to build on top of that for any improvement so thats where the placebo effect would come in, you would get in your mind drugs will help you recover so you feel better just for the experience and any actual changes in personality from the medication you see as improvements.
Hope that doesn't sound negative.
The reasons it didn't work for me was that my mh problems got worse over the years so I knew to me what was happy and what was low and since I didn't feel happy on medication just different it didn't make my mind "click" that life was getting better.
When I was on it I felt more muted and like a bedtime feeling all day which meant I didn't have the motivation to do much but I didn't quite get miserable feelings directly but just a middle feeling of im neither happy or sad.
You would have to build on top of that for any improvement so thats where the placebo effect would come in, you would get in your mind drugs will help you recover so you feel better just for the experience and any actual changes in personality from the medication you see as improvements.
Hope that doesn't sound negative.
The reasons it didn't work for me was that my mh problems got worse over the years so I knew to me what was happy and what was low and since I didn't feel happy on medication just different it didn't make my mind "click" that life was getting better.
Hey I am going to see my GP but want to ask, have people often found medication doesnt work, or isnt worth the side effects? 
Everyone copes with MH in different ways, some need medication and some don't. I've never tried SSRIs or anything like that for my anxiety because I don't feel I need to, but I do take beta-blockers for my panic attacks and they've really helped me a lot.
In my opinion they don't work.. I took valium and xanax for some year and nothing made me feel better.. it's now a year without that kind of medications and i feel like when i took it The only thing helped me it was marjuana but only for the time in which i was high.. after that.. everything looks like before the drug ( i have a bipolar disturb and i suffer from anxiety and depression since i was a child.. now i'm eighteen ).
The only thing helped me it was marjuana but only for the time in which i was high.. after that.. everything looks like before the drug ( i have a bipolar disturb and i suffer from anxiety and depression since i was a child.. now i'm eighteen ).
I was on citalopram, and then citalopram hydrobromide, for most of this year. Great for the first month or so and then they just didn't seem to help anymore. I found making other changes in my life (moved back in with my parents, started at a new college, better diet, working out) more beneficial than the drugs and therapy. So I threw out the drugs and stopped showing up at the mental hospital. *
Warning, coming off citalopram is an awful experience. I quit cold turkey three weeks ago. I wish I'd took my doctors advice and come off it gradually, but I moved practice and they want me to go in for a review before they'd give me anything. And the point is I don't want anything anymore!
Warning, coming off citalopram is an awful experience. I quit cold turkey three weeks ago. I wish I'd took my doctors advice and come off it gradually, but I moved practice and they want me to go in for a review before they'd give me anything. And the point is I don't want anything anymore!
(edited 7 years ago)
Age is dependent on your presentation and cannot really be answered. Most antidepressants are not given to under 18s by a GP but can be prescribed. Best thing to do would be to speak to GP
Placebo effect only accounts for some improvement. They guve you what you expect to receive. When I started taking my current meds there were a lot of unexpected, yet positive changes. Like a quieter mind, being more alert. Better regulation of eating disorder. None of which I expected. I take an SNRI. SSRIs don't work with me
Placebo effect only accounts for some improvement. They guve you what you expect to receive. When I started taking my current meds there were a lot of unexpected, yet positive changes. Like a quieter mind, being more alert. Better regulation of eating disorder. None of which I expected. I take an SNRI. SSRIs don't work with me
