Meds... your opinion? Have they worked?

My doctor added a prescription that I've always dreaded: antidepressants. (Celexa/citalopram)

I've always said that I could beat this on my own, that I could work it out and get through it all, but having my doctor give me the prescription just makes me feel like even more of a failure.

She says it'll help get me motivated to do the things I like again. I'm an artist, but haven't enjoyed painting in a while. I do commissions, which puts a strain on me since I have someone expecting me to do things, even when I can't.

I took it a few days, but felt horrible! If I took it at night, I couldn't sleep. If I took it in the day, I couldn't stay awake. And the migraines, horrible nonstop migraines.

So I stopped.

Is this normal? How do you feel about meds? Do they work for you?

I'm trying the amino acid method next, maybe it can balance me out...

Meds do help but it depends on types. Amenoacids only help your diet. It does not help in stabilize your depression. Different meds have different effects on person.

Unfortunately there is a lot of trial and error involved with meds. What works for one won't necessarily work for another. Just because some have horrible side effects for you doesn't always mean they all will

I'm not a good example of saying whether meds work or not, I have issues staying compliant which does not help matters.

I just wanted to add though that taking an anti depressant doesn't make you a failure at all. Depression is an illness, just like any other. Would you feel a failure if you had to take medication for a physical illness to make you well again?

If you have migraine then it is wrong med

I didn't have migraines but I had all your other reactions on the same drug and went off it within 10 days. I was not willing to put up with the side effects which were extreme. I didn't sleep for 3 days straight. Did your doctor offer to give you a benzodiazepine for sleep? I am now labeled as allergic to antidepressants in my medical records. I will never ever again take an antidepressant and am working on lifestyle changes, which is a long, tough road. Good Luck to you in your journey.

Just a quick comment before I get to my main comment. If it causes a migraine, it's probably because these meds all interfere with the body's ability to utilize magnesium as well as depleting it as the liver detoxes the med. Magnesium is an extremely effective treatment for migraines. There are several good videos on youtube about the subject.

I was on meds for bipolar 2 for 13+ years. They probably saved my marriage by turning me into a zoned out zombie. As for controlling the bipolar, it was marginal at best. I did have a lot of side-effects that I didn't realize were side-effects as my Pdoc never mentioned them, and I was too naive and dumb to consider that meds caused anything other than a day or two of nausea, a slight headache and slight constipation. It was only after I experienced some very serious and upsetting side-effects that I realized just how many strange symptoms I was experiencing were side-effects including depression and anxiety.

I went off meds, and felt much, much better for the first time in over a decade. I came across info about using amino acids to regulate the neurotransmitters the same way meds are supposed to do. The difference is that instead of keeping old, worn out neurotransmitters from being reabsorbed or reuptaken [selective serotonin /norepinephrine reuptake inhibitors] when they're worn out, the amino acid is used by the brain to produce fresh neurotransmitters so your brain has what it needs to function properly. I was absolutely amazed at how effective they were in controlling my mood. And I'm tied to a Pdoc who ran my life. If my mood shifts up or down, I take whichever amino acid or the mineral supplement lithium orotate needed to bring it back in line. I've been doing this for 9+ years with great success.

Here's a great brain function questionnaire that shows the emotions/feelings related to various neurotransmitters and the related amino acid:

http://drjolee.com/Brain-Function-Questionnaire.pdf

Here are a couple of articles on treating depression using amino acid therapy:

https://www.integrativepsychiatry.ne...epression.html

Treating Depression Naturally Is Possible ? Clean's The New Black

My opinion... Taking meds doesn't make anyone a failure. The standard wisdom is that depression is an illness... (So the concept of failure is irrelevant)

I can't take meds because of intolerable side effects ...

I wish you luck

In my case, they work only for a few months. They are helpful when I am at my lowest low

Delicious I don't believe that taking meds makes anyone a failure. Some forms of depression are caused by brain processes that meds can help just like diabetes can be helped by meds.

IMO you need to talk to your doctor about side effects and not just stop taking the meds. With antidepressants, often it takes six to eight weeks for them to work and if you interrupt the process you will never find out if you are on the right med. Many side effects appear instantly but only last a week or two. I get terrible, debilitating nausea whenever I start a new antidepressant but it starts to subside in a few days and disappears in a few weeks. A few weeks of discomfort is worth it for the hope of dealing with my depression which is also debilitating and is long lasting.

Some side effects may indicate immediately that this is the wrong medication for you. Migraines might be one of those but I don't know. Your doctor will know. He may advise you to give it a few more days with an expectation that they will subside. He may tell you to stop taking the medicine immediately and will start you on something different. He may tell you to taper off the medication slowly with a plan that he gives you. He will know the safest and best way to proceed. I do not believe that stopping medication on one's own is a good idea but I do think you should let the doctor know immediately about any serious symptoms like migraines.

I am a firm believer in using medication to treat mental illness, which is a biochemical disorder. Sometimes it takes trying a few different meds before you find the best one, or the most effective combination. When you DO find the best meds it is amazing, because you get LIFE back.

Agreed about the side-effects.

I did the same thing that you did...stopped too soon. I thought the side-effects were horrible, but depression is more horrible.

Ask yourself what's worse? (That's how I get through life now, anyway)

Hugs.

They can be one of the things that help. Never the only solution. There is not magic combo to make life happen. It can make you able to live life. Like when you have killer headache before a deadline. Painkiller may make able to work. But simply popping ibuprofen will not do the work.

Same with mind altering substances. (which include psych meds.) They can give you the boost or bring your down enough. But they are in no way a miracle cure and I would beware of anybody who spouts it as such.

There is not test for "chemical imbalance" and everybody but Pharma reps moved on from that theory. Your psyche is not that simple.

You're not a failure for trying meds. I hate that the stigma about taking psych meds is still out there. I am an artist too and depression makes me totally uninterested in creating anything.

Can I ask you a question? Is the doctor managing your medication your GP or a psychiatrist? There's only so much GP's know in realm of the delicate intricacies involved with psychiatric medication. IMO, I think you stopped the celexa too soon and you might want to reconsider. Yes, the side effects when introducing a med often feel unbearable and like you can't go on. I've experienced it all with various meds (never taken celexa though) - nausea, fatigue, loss of appetite, insomnia, weight gain, weight loss. But I always push through it and commit to at least 6-8 weeks of faithfully taking a medication before I decide whether or not to continue. But that's just me. In any event, your doctor should at least give you something to help you sleep if you decide to restart the celexa. I find avoiding caffeine as much as I can + a simple Xanax extended release at night (1-2 mg) does the trick. Traditional sleeping pills don't work for me, or they make me unbearably drowsy the next morning.

Personally, I am treatment-resistant and I've tried 3 or 4 different classes of drugs. Right now, I am only on 2 meds: 6 mg EMSAM (an MAOI in the form of a transdermal patch) and Xanax ER. I discovered that the higher doses of EMSAM gave me horrific insomnia that I am still trying to recover from. The benefits of taking medication transdermally is that it bypasses my digestive tract, which is always bothered by virtually any medication I take. But I still am pretty damn depressed and have trouble doing everyday tasks.

Another thing - in my 15+ years of experience in the school of hard knocks as a psychiatric patient, I find that doctors downplay side effects overall. It's important to advocate for yourself, but I'm sure you know that already. Good luck to you in whatever you decide to do

I agree with Fuzzy and Dexter that meds don't equal failure.

I've was put on an antidepressant cocktail at one point. You have to keep in mind that I'm in my very early 20's and many side effects of antidepressants won't be side effects for someone older. Also, I suffer from very frequent passive suicidal ideation. Putting me on antidepressants was a risk, at best. To put me on the amount he did, just made things worse, along with being on three different ones. For the first week I had headaches, was tired during the day and couldn't sleep at night. I became very drained. The only good side effect was that I had fewer panic attacks. I was going to be willing to put up with everything if it lifted my depression. The thing is, not only did I have an inability to have emotion, my passive suicidal ideation turned into obsession. You can see where I'm going with this.
They switched my meds up a couple times to no avail. So, my experience hasn't been great. I wish that they would've helped because if anything could make these thoughts and feelings go away, at this point, I'd take it in a heart beat.

That is an excellent analogy venusss. I agree that antidepressant meds alone are not sufficient, they only help us past a chemical roadblock so that therapy, life changes, and coping skills can work.

Medications are not any sign of being a failure. I don't claim to know too much about medication,except for the one's I've taken. I research them on my own. However, the stigma of mental health in my opinion, makes people think those kinds of things. It's a horrible rocky road to get on the right cocktail of medications, but it's soo worth it when you find the right mixture. You can struggle through feeling terrible the rest of your life, or in the same amount of time struggle through medications to get to the point that you do feel better. And that is worth it to me!

Taking meds is not sign of failure, it's trying to help yourself.

But if the meds do not work for you, that is fault of the medication not your (or even sign you are "so bad off"... as these are far from perfect).

Going off meds after trying them and not finding them helpful is not sign of failure or not trying either.

Nobody should be bullied and pressured into anything. That is personal decision upon consultation with a trusted doctor or other resource you trust.

I believe that meds, much like counselors and therapy, will work differently for everyone, and you kind of have to play around them to find just the right one. Is it obnoxious and time-consuming? Yes. We all want the quick-fix for this disease, because it sucks the life out of us. Sadly, we can't really rush it and it's definitely not a one-size fits all.
Luckily, most side-effects don't last that long. When you try a med, you will get a couple of weeks of some undesirable-ness. But then, hopefully, the good part happens and you'll start to feel better.

Everyone was telling the OP she shouldn't feel like a failure for taking meds. Isn't this invalidating the OP's feelings about taking psych medication?

I didn't feel like a failure as much as very anxious about being dependent on antidepressants.

I spoke to people who had "brain zaps" and other horrible symptoms when coming off of antidepressants. I found this out a few days into taking antidepressants because my primary care physician did not discuss side effects or withdrawal symptoms, and so, yes, I did go off them within two weeks based on new information.

Many studies suggest antidepressants should be only used short-term, and the person needs to augment the use of antidepressants with therapy and lifestyle changes. But I know several people who have been taking antidepressants for decades, and don't do therapy, and are not actively engaged in exercise, a good diet etc. They take the antidepressants because they are afraid to come off of them.

In truth, in all these decades it has not even been determined how antidepressants work. It is unknown.

As the pharmacist was handing me my antidepressants he said that they would return my zest for life, creativity, happiness etc. I now think it was unethical for him to make these statements. It wasn't his place to be making these kinds of promises. The pharmacist made antidepressants sound like miraculous happy pills. No one told me that antidepressants are only helpful to about 30% of the population.

Why does the responsibility always fall on the patient? If the antidepressant doesn't work the patient is told they didn't stay on it long enough, or didn't properly weather the side effects. My side effects were severe such as not sleeping for days, ratcheted up anxiety, and suicidal ideation. It was one of the worst experiences of my life.

This isn't like other disease processes. I take synthroid medication for my thyroid. It works. In 20 years I have had only occasional minor dosage adjustments. I can depend on my thyroid medication. I take it every single day, it works, and there are no side effects, except that it does what it is supposed to do which is to keep my hormones in balance.

Invalidating the OP's feelings about entering the world of AD's was not my intention at all. I was trying to help him/her see that sometimes people need help with depression when everything else doesn't work, and it's tough dealing with people in your life who wag their fingers at you telling you not to rely on meds - to just exercise more, get outside, eat better, meditate, take vitamin supplements, I've even heard marijuana oil. I've seen internet comments of people who believe that AD's cause violent behavior. (Yes, I realize the comments section is the toilet of the Internet but it makes me wonder how widely that is believed).

I do know people who have been OK with the same med for many years. I am not one of them.

People rely on solely on AD's without the other components you mentioned for a whole host of reasons. Maybe they can't afford therapy. Maybe they're hourly workers and can't afford to lose that time *and* pay a therapist during that hour or two that they're losing. Maybe they've had bad experiences with therapists. Maybe they have a health issue that prevents them from being as active as they could be. Maybe they're taking care of a family member and can't take time out for themselves to do stuff like prepare better meals, exercise, etc. Maybe they don't have the time it takes to investigate options of treatment (community health centers, govt. services, seeing a student therapist at a college etc etc). Everyone has different life situations. So, I can see very well why they're afraid to go off of them then, because that's all that's keeping them going.

IMO your pharmacist was totally out of line and shouldn't make comments about any medication at all. They're supposed to just fill it, you pay for it, and that's it. Your GP was unethical about not telling you about side effects. This is why I am against GP's prescribing these drugs. If you have a more complex heart issue, a GP refers you to a cardiologist. If you have a neurological issue your GP refers you to a neurologist or neurosurgeon. I don't understand why a GP doesn't do that with a psychiatric issue. Maybe it's the fact that psychiatrists are very difficult to get an appointment with (at least in the US anyway) and they can be super expensive if they refuse to take insurance.

This is a horribly complex disease and everyone working on it - from therapists, to psychiatrists, to researchers - have only just discovered the tip of the iceberg.

Again, I didn't mean to invalidate the OP's feelings in any way.

I take meds to help me hope I have since 2012. I do see that they really help me. Since there is no cure for MI I'll go to my grave taking them

It is, actually, similar to other diseases. Because they are diseases. Many can compare it to the struggles of those with, say, neurological diseases, and their fight to find the right med cocktail. My mother has epilepsy, and it took her 15 years to find the right meds to keep her seizures under control. That's 15 years of meds with some very undesirable side-effects. Our bodies are all unique, and they all take to medications differently. So medications aren't going to just work for everyone. They will be a process for some. Others can just take one medication for the rest of their life and be fine. But sometimes you have to do what you have to do when you have a disease like this.

And I don't think anyone was trying to invalidate OPs feelings. They are just trying to help.

I only ever tried a couple, all of them turned me zombie like. Needless to say I came off them, and my medicine now is a councillor or a Therapist.

Everyone will react differently so YMMV

I may be one of those people who doesn't like taking medication so what the OP said struck a nerve with me.

I do believe in the importance of lifestyle changes, and everyone can make time for healthy lifestyles. It is true we live in a fast food culture...but it has been proven that poor nutrition can contribute to MI, as well as smoking and not exercising.

If the antidepressants help the OP than for her the choice to take them is positive.

And then there are the people like the writer/blogger Therese Borchard (look her up, she writes for this site and on her personal blog). She has bipolar disorder. She is a strict exercise fiend, runs marathons, eliminated all gluten, sugar, processed foods & alcohol from her diet, she sees a homeopathic doctor, a psychiatrist & therapist, and she *still* has debilitating episodes and almost found herself in the hospital again this year (according to some recent blog entries).

I don't like taking medication either. But I am a monster if I don't.