I'm depressed but i'm worried about taking anti-depressants because the last time i tried with Celexa i got manic. That lead to recklessly and foolishly starting a relationship and being rejected and then getting even more depressed than i had been in the first place.

I felt so lousy last night i called the crisis line and had a disappointingly mediocre call. My life is just soooooooooooooo empty. I don't have any family or friends. I don't work. Most days i don't talk to anyone at all. I have a sweet dog, tho.

It's to the point where i am weighing the risk of suicide versus the risk of mania.

Has anyone who is prone to anti-depressant-induced mania found something they can take safely?

I can't take any AD without a mood stabilizer. Lamictal is good, but takes several weeks to ramp up the dose. Lithium works quicker. There are others. Talk to your pdoc about how you respond to ADs so that you can get the help you need.

Here's to sweet dogs.

[Disorder7]

I take 20mg of Prozac. I was like you. I told my pdoc I was thinking about death a lot. He said, we have to flip your mood-- fast.
So he started me out at 10 mg and moved it up to 20 after a few weeks.

I take abilify, and xanax, so they offset the mania.

Aren't you taking a couple of things which create a sedative effect? If so, they will help balance the mania.

Take care. No one needs to be sitting around thinking about suicide.

[Victoria'smom]

I take viibryd after several "fun" experiences with AD's. It's an SSRI that have AP qualities.

[LastQuestion]

Sleep, diet, exercise, reading, learning useful information, and finding something to keep ones mind occupied can really help. It may also be that the Valium is contributing to your depression. Asking your pdoc about a lower dosage to find out may be worthwhile. Other than those, I've found l-theanine, Sensoril, Fish Oil, and plenty of sunlight to get vitamin D have taken care of my treatment resistant depression. I'm less depressed now than I was while on my AD, and back then I had fewer reasons to be depressed. Be sure to talk to your pdoc before adding anything to your treatment, as both herbs and amino acids can have significant interactions with psychotropics. For example, Sensoril has an affect on how strong the effect of a benzodiazepine is, so it would be necessary to at least drastically scale the benzo dosage down if not discontinue it through a gradual taper.

I started zoloft monotherapy in june after months of awful depression and anxiety. It made me somewhat manic in the beginning (which was honestly a very welcome relief and manageable since it was for a short time / not too bad), then I felt great, then once I got to 75 mg. a little too great. I decided to go off and tapered very very slowly...so slowly I didn't notice I was becoming depressed again until WAM - feeling suicidal. I'm now back on just 50mg and am doing really well so far...that's just my personal story (I'm BP II by the way, which I think makes a difference in cases like this...)

[BipolaRNurse]

I take a mini-dose of Celexa because higher doses threw me into mania. It's also opposed by a mood stabilizer and a couple of anti-psychotics, so I get a little bit of anti-depressant benefits without risking going too far the other way.