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Anti-depressants

I'm strongly against them but its been 18th months of severe depression and im thinking its maybe time to accept defeat? I know they would help im just **** scared of not knowing how i feel anymore/changing when im on them and becoming depend on them. And theres a chance i could never get off them.

Would do people think i should do? x

Reply 1

dh00001

16

accepting help is in no way defeat or a sign of weakness. your doctor would be the best person to talk to about this. go and have a chat to them about it.

Reply 2

Pink Moon

OP

well they're quite happy to put me on them, appart from that they think i might OD on them but if i say i wont them i could go on them. its kindof up to me x

Reply 3

Rutter knows best!

12

i got defeated and their GGGGGGGGGRRRRREAT!

but seriously do you think when coming out at the other end of this could be worse than the build up to it.

thats just how i look at it.

Reply 4

joe456

Anti-depressents work completely different to how they are percieved to work. I've been on them for several months for depression, and they've done wonders.

They don't affect your behaviour. From my own experience, they simply serve to make you feel more positive about things that get you down. It's just like always being in a good mood.

And they aren't addictive, don't worry. :smile:

Reply 5

*pink_sapphires*

1

I love my prozac! I've not changed. I'm just more positive. Tell your GP your concerns. Personally, I think they're a good way of helping you cope with things life throws at you. It's not defeat. They help you get better

Reply 6

Anonymous #1

I'm taking prozac right now, have been for 5 days after citalopram did nothing. I've wanted to kill myself all day, I feel completely dead inside, I don't feel like me I can't feel any emotion except sadness, severe headaches, sore throat, tight chest, I hate this stuff I have to get off it as soon as possible.

Even when I was most depressed I didn't feel this bad I'm not sure how much more of this I can take.

Reply 7

empfrench

Firstly, let me just say that any advice you are offered on TSR should not be considered definitive - if you are really in such a bad state of depression then I would recommend speaking to friends, family, someone you trust in person - a good unburdening talk can help in so many ways.

In regards to your question about anti-depressants: A couple of years ago, I was hit with a really bad bout of depression. I flunked my exams and just generally couldn't face anything - it was a really black time. So I went to my GP and told her how I was feeling, and she referred me to a 'young people's centre'. This wasn't very helpful - the appointment was weeks away, during which time things got worse. The night before the appointment, in an effort to cheer myself up, I went out with some friends, and got really hammered. I went to the 'interview' with the psychiatrist really hung over and looking bad, and he prescribed me anti-depressants. I was feeling awful, my judgement was clearly not great - I was reluctant, as you are, about the pills - not wanting to be dependent, considering pulling myself out of the mess over time to be the best option, rather than relying on pills. In my weak state, however, I took them.

The next few weeks were a nightmare. The pills somehow made everything so much worse: during the first week it was as though I couldn't trust my own emotions, like I was being brought 'up' into a kind 'high' which was unnatural, and made me become very introspective and, I'll be honest, a little crazy - I started getting paranoid and raved about nonsense - non of which had happened before. So I came off them. It got even worse after that. I just descended, after this artificial high, into the most black, crippling low. I attempted suicide, was almost hospitalised; it was a horrible experience for myself and my family. As a result, I was put on more pills - a ridiculous combination, I later discovered, of diazepam and Prozac - so I was rendered physically weak and incapable of doing the simplest things, while at the same time feeling really hyper and in need of activity. The week or so that I was in this condition remains the worst experience of my life.

After that, I came off the pills, more or less - for about a week on holiday I went back on the 'mild' anti-depressants proscribed on the first occasion, but, again, had a bad reaction and stopped. Things remained bad. The summer ended, I went back to repeat lower sixth in something of a daze, a shell, I thought , of my former self. Eventually, however, through the support of friends, through the routine of getting up and going to school every day rather than sitting at home thinking about it, things improved. I started writing daily events down in a diary, charting the improvement. By the New Year, I had recovered, and I havn't really looked back.

So, for me, the cure was Time. I am convinced that, without taking the pills, things would have eventually improved much faster, and I would not have suffered, and caused my family to suffer, such appalling a nightmare. However, as I said, advice on TSR should not be considered definitive. I know that many, many people have recovered from depression thanks to anti-depressants. For me, the pills simply made things much worse. I would also advise you that all anti-depressants come armed with a fairly hefty list of possible side-effects, which is scary. GPs have been, rightly in my experience, accused of being too quick to prescribe anti-depressants, especially to teenagers and young people, because the NHS simply does not have the resources to meet the needs of people with Mental Health problems. This is a travesty. However that is for another post.

Sorry about the length of this reply! I hope my little tale can help with your decision. Good luck, and if you need any more advice and feel that I could help you in some way, please do not hesitate to PM me.

Ray.

Reply 8

beach surf babe

14

The thing with any kind of treatment is that not all people respond the same. Sometimes anti-depressants work really well and other times they don't. Its worth a shot trying them. They can really help in getting you in a place where other forms of treatment can take over. There is so much mixed response over anti-depressants and I can't offer any personal experience. There are no guarentees. I'd talk with your doctor about all forms of treatment available to you. Either way, don't suffer in silence. :smile:

Reply 9

Pink Moon

OP

thanks for the replys everyone. my story in brief;

april 06 i starting SHing and got incredbily depressed, had a term of my college. i didnt get any help for a year and was actively suicidial the whole time. i finally got refferred to CAMS (child and adolescent mental health service) and was put on prozac. Two weeks later i tried to kill myself and was admitted. they took me off it, it was one of the things i overdosed on. Anway, i got transfered to an adult ward after my 18th and they put me back on it. I hated it and realised that it just made me worse, but took it to get out of there. After that my life completely collapsed (we're now at july 07 til now), i got chucked out of my school/house and generally lost everything i ever knew.

Now i have no support at all and nothing to do with my life. Theres alot i want to do with my life but im stuck at the mo, i cant get enough energy to get things in place and i keep getting put back. i would still say that im seriously at risk of doing something but its more the 'depression' that i cant handle and dont know what to do about it :s-smilie:

Reply 10

Sarahl89

15

joe456

And they aren't addictive, don't worry. :smile:

dont take that as gospal.

my mum was put on anti-depressants after years of resisting it as she didnt wanna become addicted & was finally persuaded to take them as they persuaded her that they werent.

and now it turns out the drug company got it completely wrong. the drugs are almost impossible to come off without a vast collection of side affects which shes tried so many times in the last few years to ride out but could never do it. the drug company in question is currently being taken to court by people in america & the UK whos lives its effectively ruined since they cant get off the drug.

of course the clever thing there, is that the drugs simply dont work as effectively after youve been on them a few years (only 5..), so symptoms of depression come back again & you cant mix other anti-depressants with them, so the drugs companies are still effectively winning this as the people trying to sue them & get the drug withdrawn are all so depressed they simply dont have the energy to fight it.

also its still being prescribed, certainly not as the wonder drug it was marketed as before (its Seroxat/Paxil/Paroxetine), but i wouldnt touch it with a barge pole personally.

and id be veryy wary of other drugs & look into them properly before ever taking them. definately wouldnt just take my doctors word for it. :rolleyes:

i know other drugs for depression dont have such bad effects as this & that some of them aren't that addictive (debateable)and they can make people feel so much better & really help, but at the end of the day, these are drugs prescribed to change the balence of chemicals in your brain.. and so little is known about the brain to begin with that ithink its a very dangerous thing to be messing about with.

if it were me id look into trying everything else before resorting to drugs to sort my problems out, cause im doubtful that they would be able to sort anything out long term without causing problems in the future.
i know its not good to be so cynical about these things.

and also before the neg rep comes flooding!.. i know they do help some people & have an amazing effect and make people feel loads better sometimes. & im not saying that i think all anti-depressant drugs will have side effects long term etc.. just that everyones different & can react differently with drugs like this so its always going to be a risk taking them as nobody knows what effect it will have on them personally.

hmmm i seem to have written abit of an essay sorry.

just do your research before you start taking anything OP, & i hope you make the decision thats right for you :hugs:

Reply 11

As The Gears Remain

citalopram made it worse for me also

Reply 12

Anonymous #1

came off prozac a couple of days ago, still feel absolutely terrible. Have been proscribed something else, begins with an R I forget exactly what, apparently CBT (which my other doctor told me to get) it too much for the NHS so they're going to pump me full of drugs until I get out of their way one way or another.

Reply 13

Megatronix

I have no experience with depression, pills or anything related.

However i don't believe pills are the answer to depression. If you rely on pills to keep you stable then that must be a sorry existence. Just like alchoholics that drink all the time to keep themselves in what they think to be a better state.

That's just my opinion, probably very wrong.

Reply 14

Anonymous #1

Megatronix

I have no experience with depression, pills or anything related.

However i don't believe pills are the answer to depression. If you rely on pills to keep you stable then that must be a sorry existence. Just like alchoholics that drink all the time to keep themselves in what they think to be a better state.

That's just my opinion, probably very wrong.

They're not, but it's a lot cheaper to give someone drugs than actually bother to sort out their problems.

I hate the drugs, I don't want to take them but I have little other choice. I can't afford private healthcare and I've also had a good go at getting better myself which also failed.

Reply 15

Megatronix

Anonymous

They're not, but it's a lot cheaper to give someone drugs than actually bother to sort out their problems.

I hate the drugs, I don't want to take them but I have little other choice. I can't afford private healthcare and I've also had a good go at getting better myself which also failed.

I wish i knew more about it. Because i really feel like we're spirallnig into a pill popping culture that's getting hooked on medication we don't need.

As i said before i don't know anything about it, but people get themselves into these states of thinking through experience and such. And should be able to get out of it through experience as well. That being positive experience. Like friends, family, relationships, a strong social life, hobbies, interests, education, work (interesting work that is).

We're only making problems for ourselves in 10's of years to come when a whole generation is hooked on pills. Docters/Politicians etc need to pull their thumbs out and deal with it. So do people who are on the pills aswell.

(Not saying people who are depressed aren't trying that is)

Reply 16

puppy

Megatronix

I have no experience with depression, pills or anything related.

However i don't believe pills are the answer to depression. If you rely on pills to keep you stable then that must be a sorry existence. Just like alchoholics that drink all the time to keep themselves in what they think to be a better state.

That's just my opinion, probably very wrong.

Ermm bite me? If you have no experience then I don't really understand what you have to offer this debate. Of course being on drugs is a sorry existence but being suicidal isn't exactly a walk in the park. I seriously think sometimes drugs are the answer, what do you expect severly depressed people to do? They can't exactly motivate themselves to change their lives if they can't be bothered to live.

Reply 17

Bismarck

13

Depression affects the chemical balance in the brain. It is extremely difficult to recreate an equilibrium there without the use of drugs. Drugs don't solve the problem, but they make it possible to resolve through other ways, such as therapy.

Reply 18

matt@internet

12

I'm on 20mg Prozac, not very strong, but most days I certainly feel a lot better than I used to. I still have some days when I feel pretty bad, but at least they are comparatively few.

Reply 19

Anonymous #1

Megatronix

I wish i knew more about it. Because i really feel like we're spirallnig into a pill popping culture that's getting hooked on medication we don't need.

As i said before i don't know anything about it, but people get themselves into these states of thinking through experience and such. And should be able to get out of it through experience as well. That being positive experience. Like friends, family, relationships, a strong social life, hobbies, interests, education, work (interesting work that is).

We're only making problems for ourselves in 10's of years to come when a whole generation is hooked on pills. Docters/Politicians etc need to pull their thumbs out and deal with it. So do people who are on the pills aswell.

(Not saying people who are depressed aren't trying that is)

Completely disagree with you there. You try bringing yourself out of depression when it's all you can feel, or like the other poster said you just want to kill yourself. You don't feel any pleasure from hobbies and interests, learning gets extremely difficult, work is a huge mountain to attempt and friends and family seem distant and it becomes very hard to interact with them. Drugs alone aren't the answer but they can apparently help a great deal when combined with other things. I think you're being very unfair here.

I agree with puppy on this.