Side Effects commonly experienced on Anti Depressants

Hey guys, I want to know what Anti Depressant Therapy has been effective for you and what were the side effects you commonly experienced.
I have my exams in a month, and I need something that wouldn't effect my concentration, memory, and wouldn't make me drowsy.

Hell and welcome to PC. No one here can tell you what meds to take . There are so many it's impossible to go into all the benefits and side effects. Most ADs take a while to be effective. I suggest that you see a professional and get help if you need it.

I agree with Shazerac. With my experience, I had been prescribed a couple of times. I took a generic kind (I don't remember the name of it) one time and had a bad reaction with it. When I took it, I would feel like I would be getting a heart attack if I did some heavy lifting. And then I took Prozac. Prozac was better, but I felt like it did not do much for me.

The most common side effect I've felt from every AD I've been on is tiredness. A feeling like there's sand in my blood, like it's hard to do very much before I absolutely must rest.

The most common ones for me have been nausea and weight gain, which I know - makes no sense. However I am suffering from gastritis now due to ibuprofen overuse (a good 18 months of higher than ideal use, I would say) and when I tried to go back on AD's 6 months ago my stomach couldn't tolerate any of them.

The weight gain was caused by Paxil, especially in my last 4 years of taking it. I was at a mega high dose and I just wanted to eat everything, I was always hungry.

Everyone is different, but FWIW here's what I've experienced on the loads of different meds I've tried:

Paxil - nausea (during the start-up), weight gain, insatiable appetite, bad interactions with alcohol

Effexor - heavy sweating

Abilify (an anti-psychotic but it is prescribed to people with treatment-resistant depression) - nausea, loss of appetite

EMSAM (MAOI-Inhibitor) - this was a transdermal patch and it did the most damage out of all of these, mostly psychologically. It really changed my behavior and I felt like I couldn't control outbursts of anger. Severe insomnia, irritability, "manic-lite" states at night, fell out with a few friends because of the state I was in. My now former pdoc did not believe that the drug was causing the insomnia, he said it was stressors related to drama with my immediate family. I got a second opinion and that pdoc (who is now my psychiatrist) said it most certainly *was* the medication.

Cymbalta - nausea, dry heaving, muscle stiffness

Lamictal - heavy fatigue, heavy eyelids

Zoloft - wasn't on this very long because the gastritis I mentioned above started to rear its ugly head at the same time. It caused intense nausea right away. I intend to try it again once my GI issues clear up.

Wellbutrin, Buspirone, Viibryd - no side effects

I agree with both. I've tried so many different medications that I've forgotten some of them. Medications work differently for different people. What works for me and causes no side effects for me may not work for you and cause terrible side effects. Good luck finding something that works for you. Sending big hugs.

extreme Diarrhea, or extreme constipation

both of which are just urg

dry sandy mouth as well