Worst medication side effects

Please select however many choices that reflect side effects that truly affect(ed) your quality of life. Also state which medications cause(d) trouble.

Me:

Akathisia (Seroquel)
Parkinson-like symptoms (Risperdal)
SSE (Risperdal and to a lesser extent Geodon)
Tremor (Depakote)
Weight gain (Zyprexa, Depakote)

Appetite change: wellbutrin - happened on Prozac and Zoloft but I didn't care
Anxiety: Wellbutrin, Pozac, Zoloft
Feeling dead/numb: Celexa
GI discomfort: Prozac
Insomnia: Prozac, Zoloft, Wellbutrin
Irritability: Zoloft
Mania: Prozac, Zoloft
Not productive: Celexa
Psychosis: Prozac, Zoloft
Restlessness: Prozac, Zoloft, Wellbutrin
Suicidality: Prozac, Zoloft, Celexa
Waking up at night: Prozac

Hmm all antidepressants there, Lamictal and Seroquel didn't bother me at all.

Wellbutrin was taken with Lamictal and Seroquel.
Celexa with Lamictal.
Zoloft alone.
Prozac alone and with Trazodone or Remeron.
Taken Lamictal alone.
Lamictal with Seroquel.

Various dosages attempted!

Think that's enough failed attempts at psychiatry

Wow! How do you count all that! Wowie! :O

Acne, cognitive impairment, feeling numb, tremors and memory. - lithium. I noticed tho that my 'memory' vote didnt register, stupid phone.

I am lucky: Prozac causes zero side effects - nill! You had a long list of side effects from Prozac alone.

Yes, I did! It was awful and first psych drug I tried, complained and had my dosage increased! This was a psychiatrist too by the way! Learned not to trust 'em doctorly people quick....well not that quick, Zoloft was pretty bad and lasted quite awhile too

I am not sure which side effects are caused by the meds and which by the depression and anxiety. We haven't found the right meds for my treatment resistant depression yet. I think I have taken just about everything. Currently:

Lexapro (40 mg)
Wellbutrin ER
Nortriptlene
Ambien

For me, Effexor was the worst med ever. Several different side effects on that. Mania, SSE, , insomnia, irritability, paranoia, urinary issues, change in taste, nystgmas (bouncy eyes), serious weight gain (like 70 pounds). I've lost 40 after quitting it. I have a long list just for Effexor
Abilify - Tardive dyskinesia
Topamax - couldn't think straight
Trileptal - Zombie
Wellbutrin - Irritability
Geodon - Increased sugar, increased cholesterol (but it sure works great for my dysphoric manias. Haven't had one since being on it which is utterly fantastic!)
Hard to keep it all straight. Hope this helps.

a

Tomorrow I will file a bug...

Are you bp?? That's a whole bunch of AD's to take for a bp person, especially considering that you do not take mood stabilizers and/or anti-psychotics.

suicidality - abilify
akathisia - abilify
feeling dead - lamictal
sse - lamictal

Risperidone made me lactate. Convinced me I must be pregnant and all.

They have all just caused me massive weight gain. I have been gaining weight for two years on these damn meds. I have finallly stopped and started heading the other way on the scale now. Thanks to the addition of Topomax....

There are a lot of worst for me.

Anafranil which is an old med with a lot of sides, got a lot of those. Couldn't pee on it which could get scary at times, took me about 10 minutes to start peeing. Also no saliva at all on it. Try to chew anything....

Celexa made me manic and I'm not even bipolar. Bad luck there. On it I thought nothing could harm me and it almost got me killed.

Prozac, cluster headaches. They hurt. A lot.

Effexor, bad bad bad withdrawals, my pharmacy screwed up and I had no meds for 4 days, I felt like the world was coming to an end. Incredible feeling of doom. I still don't understand how I managed to go to the pharmacy on day five.

Risperdal, weight gain and water retention. I drank but I almost made no urine. Also I gained non-water weight, about 2 pounds a day!

Lamictal, got SJS with an extremely high temp and at the hosp they couldn't even measure my blood pressure with what they had. I was very lucky not to have died.

Remeron, took one pill and was like a darted animal, couldn't get out of bed for 12 hours and was drugged up like heck for another 12, glad I didn't fall and hit my head when I had to get up and pee.

Geodon, the worst med for me. At first it made me so tired I wanted to lie down anywhere, not a nice tired. More like I'm going to die. After a while I started getting basically non stop incredible panic attacks from it. I couldn't eat or drink from the anxiety. They say you die if you don't drink for 3 days, I can assure you I didn't. I forced myself to drink something after 5 days of no food no fluids whatsoever. This is a nightmare I want to forget, but it is hard...

Then I had more minor stuff with other meds, like temporary diabetes insipidus on one (Neurontin), increased anxety symptoms (Paxil, Wellbutrin), and vomiting (Zopiclone).

I think the worst thing I have gotten from taking medication has been the dull flat numb feeling and akathesia (sp?) Anyway those are my worst symptoms. It really sucks when you get pulled out of depression and do into being dull or even worse from mania to dull. Its like coming home from a party.

How is Topomax behaving in terms of cognitive side effects?

it's a good list...all those things are nasty many of them nasty for me too.

it's an odd contradiction of treatment. "I am failing in my current state of mind".....
and

"please give me a better alternative"....."PLEASE!"

I arrived at this 'demand' when I was 28....years of drug abuse and suddenly stuck in a rehab I was personally disintegrating for the first ever time..

there was no way out of it I knew they were there they were available and just like drugs ...I trusted them and tracked them down and never stopped...I needed something...apart from being myself

anything apart from feeling like me PLEASE sir PLEASE mam ...doctor give me that now! I cannot handle being me

and this was even before I was diagnosed...that came two years later and what a task that must have been for them and still is

the worst side effect for me was just yet another alternative experience of being myself and that I already lost that beforehand ...who I was?...then I just got further away

effexor
olanzapine
stelazine
respiridol
citalopram
temezapam
lorazepam
evanza
dexamphetamine
aropax
zoloft
baclofen
xanax
valium
naltrexone
valpro
...some I cannot remember...

My goodness, what a long list!

Only 22 responses, so too soon to draw any conclusion, but I bet that the current "worst offender" - weight gain - is here to stay as we accumulate more votes.

not as long as some I know of hammy...

but there are perhaps four or five more...

and then interestingly yet inappropriately we could go ...umm!

self medication...

thats an entirely alternative area...to explore.

perhaps....with your personal skills here unlike mine...you could 'poll' that one...

self medication side effects....etc...

what? why? when? who and what for...

could be drugs food driving really really fast! hehe

self medication...self control....out of control

Thank you for the idea, it is really wonderful - when we finish with this one, I will make a poll on self-medication.

-- sex
-- driving really fast
-- drugs (called out, please give me a list, as I do not want to put marijuana and hard drugs into one category)
-- alcohol
-- nicotine
-- food (overeating)

Add on...

side effects of bipolar self medication!...

"trying to make ourselves better"....as opposed to "trying to make our experience better"

ooh thats complicated!...could be the same thing?

sex and masturbation...using and abusing relationships physically or avoiding them completely because of insecurity and overindulging anyway.
smoking weed...anytime all the time or just occasionally
drinking alot and not just later but early and often
poking deadly chemical needles into veins or just using the nose for more than it's designed for
eating only the tasty stuff and alot...buying only what tastes good not healthy
sleeping all day after half a night of half sleep staying in bed anyway stuff it!
blowing cash buying crap just to spend so I cannot be blamed later by idiots for having money anyhow and wasting it
isolation...being determined to utter not a word if possible for as long as possible!...addicted to silence
smoking cigarettes.....but only when upset
breaking the law....self medicating with rebellion


maybe that might help Hammy

interesting about self-medication... some of the things i get confused with if they're bp symptoms, personality traits, or self-medication. in al-anon some people would say that anger and rage were their qualifying person's drug of choice. is it a choice? or a bp symptom? big topic, lots of food for thought with this next one.

OK, so by far the worst is weight gain. Second: cognitive side effects.

Headaches: Prozac, Effexor XR
Tremor (really bad -- literally everyone noticed it): Geodon/Depakote
Weight gain: Zyprexa
Weight loss: Celexa (~10lbs in 2 weeks)
Hypersomnia: Geodon, Celexa
Irritability: Effexor XR, Celexa
GI upset: Celexa
Worsened depression: Abilify
Hypomania+general agitation: Zoloft
Rash: Lamictal

I think that's it.