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View Full Version : My experience with prescription anti-depressants



Doflamingo
24th May 2013, 11:07
Not entirely sure if this is the right place to create this thread, but I can't stress enough that you should NOT take anti-depressant pills. I know that this is common knowledge, but I'd love to share my own experiences, and if anyone else wants to then feel free to.

Drowsiness: The drowsiness I felt while on anti-depressants was unreal. I took them in my senior year of high school, and I can't remember being awake for a single class that entire year. I'd still feel anxiety, yet I would be asleep. My friends would tell me that my legs would be shaking while I was asleep in those classes. On weekends, I would often have friends over and I would be asleep for a majority of the time. I'm not sure if they understood why I was so sleepy, but it was really a buzzkill for both them and me, who hates to keep someone un-entertained.

Weight gain: The weight gain I experienced when on the medication was unreal. Before I started taking it, I was slightly overweight (around 200lbs/90kg), but I didn't look overweight, just a bit chubby. However, about a month after I started it, I started gaining weight, and quickly too. Over the summer I had gained 50lbs/22kg, even though I was quite active outdoors at least twice a week (swimming for 3 - 5 hours weekly and walking with friends). My diet didn't exactly help, but it was actually less than I had eaten before the weight gain.

Lethargy: The medication did absolutely nothing for my depression or anxiety. It simply got rid of my energy and will to be. I would be lethargic most of the day, rarely showing emotion or interest in anything. It also felt like it was affecting me creatively, I couldn't exactly "think outside the box" when I was on the medication. Everything I thought of seemed like a bad idea, so I never wanted to expand on the idea. I had also lost interest in reading and learning during that time, which had also affected my grades in school. I nearly failed my economics class because I couldn't "see the point" in doing any of the projects that we were doing.

Coming off of the medication: This was easily the hardest part of it all. The medicine was strongly addictive and would make me feel sick just going a day without it. I'd have a "static" feeling in my head with a mild buzz at almost all times for nearly 2 weeks. I would feel sick the entire time as well. Nothing much else to say, but it was hard to drop. After dropping them, I've been feeling much happier than I have when on them.


If anyone took the time to read this, then I hope you may have learned from my experiences. Once again, I apologize if this is the incorrect place to make a thread of this nature, but I would hate to see my comrades experience the same things that I have. Though, I'd like to hear from others about similar experiences.

Lev Bronsteinovich
24th May 2013, 13:14
Comrade, I am very sorry that you had such a bad experience with an antidepressant. Prescribing medicine, particularly psychotropics is an art, not a science. The side effects you mention are among many that are possible with antidepressants. Which one were you taking. The trick with these medications is to find the one that is helpful with fewest/least onerous side effects. And there are many too choose from. Sometimes, one antidepressant will make a person feel even worse, but another, very similar one will work pretty well. There is no way to know this with certainty without trying them. It would seem that your doctor kept you on this medication far too long. I am a psychologist -- so I don't prescribe medication, but I work with many patients that have used these meds. Sometimes they are immensely helpful. Mainly, they can relieve symptoms of depression, mania, anxiety, etc. They don't usually help people resolve ongoing problems in life. But saying that ADs are simply awful and to be avoided based on your experience with a trial of a single medication does not make sense.

I hope you are feeling better -- a good psychotherapist might help. If that is not a viable option, and you are still suffering, you might consider a trial with a different AD. If you start having noxious side effects, stop quickly. Best of luck in taming the tiger of depression and anxiety.

Rugged Collectivist
24th May 2013, 15:16
Thanks for sharing your experience. I also took anti-depressants for a while. I recently stopped and I'm feeling better. Fortunately I had no side effects from stopping due to the fact that after a while I only took them irregularly. I was on a variety of ADs and I remember them helping a little in the past but I don't know if that was just the placebo effect.

All that being said I don't think our experiences with them are enough to discredit their use entirely.