worsening depression on meds?

Im on 20mg since almost 2 weeks but i dont feel any improvement. How long does it take, or is this just the wrong med for me? Im on it for totally 7 weeks. Just my libido is less and a bit of numbness down there. not as severe as on paxil though. Restlessness is a bit less, but still chronic stress and unable to relax.

My pdoc mentioned wellbutrin before but i didnt like the idea of artificial energy. I thought my energy would come back soon or late. But this takes already so long that I might suggest wellbutrin instead the lexapro (or on top of it?).

Personally? I think it's been too long. I have a couple ideas. One, when did you add the remeron? I'm assuming from your post suggesting you need energy that you're having energy issues? Remeron's half life is 20-40 hrs, so it could be contributing to your lack of energy. That being said, you mention being restless, remeron is good for decreasing restlessness, it works very quickly - much quicker than SSRIs, usually in about 1-2 weeks and it's a good antidepressant, however not at the dosage you're at. It's not effective until dosages of at least 15 mg, up to 45 mg/day. So you could talk to your doctor about increasing your remeron dose and getting rid of the Lexapro entirely. Or maybe talk to your doc about upping the Remeron to 15 and adding low dose Wellbutrin, without the Lexapro?
You also mentioned wellbutrin? That tends to have a lot less sexual side
effects and does often help with lack of motivation, lack of energy etc.
How are you sleeping?
Talk to your doctor. Hope you find something that works. Sorry it's been so long. I can relate, I think it's been three years since I was on a "good" med cocktail.

One more thing. Has your doc ever discussed the possibility of adding an atypical antipsychotic? Zyprexa, Abilify, Latuda, Saphris, Invega, Risperdal, Geodon, Seroquel etc? You mention having a PD and possible hypomanic episodes? At least with these you would run less of a risk of having a hypomanic episode and they may help even out some of the PD symptoms - mood swings, restlessness, anxiety etc and a lot of them are really good with depressive symptoms. Just an idea, maybe something to bring up at your next appointment.

Thanks a lot pinkflower for your anser. I will mention this to my pdoc. Ive been on remeron since ive been on the lexapro. ill mention your suggestions to my pdoc next time. thx!.

I was put on seroquel before, for sleep. 25mg. Didnt help much with depression though. For sleep it was good, but in combination with remeron I get severe restless legs.

I wonder why I was 3.5 years withoud meds and did fairly well, as well as social anxiety as depression and now even on 20mg lexapro plus 7.5mg remeron I am anxious as never before.

The only AD has has consistently worked for for the past 3 years is wellbutrin! I've tried them all and zoloft was the worse. I was also on seroquel but had to stop because it gave me restless leg syndrome and binge eating. I was always hungry on it. Next I tried Lamictal and started on 25mg nothing, but no side effects either. SO I was hopeful this may be the one. But when I upped it to 50mg just after two days I fell in the deepest depression episode I ever felt in decades! I felt like crying and my eyes were watery. I have not cried since 1987. So that was weird. The worse was I became extremely suicidal on it and for that reason had to stop 6 days in to taking 50mg.

Wellbutrin and klonopin is all I am on now and have been on for the past year in that combo, it's always been wellbutrin and either xanax or klonopin. Lately pdocs only prescribe xanax short term over here and most are reluctant to prescribe even klonopin long term, but I been on one benzo or another they just conclude I was addicted to them years ago and since they work just keep me on them.

I was able to try abilify for 2 weeks! Pdoc gave me sames and I loved it. Only thing is I can't afford it so I am waiting for it to go generic this summer some time.

Seriously, all AD's suck, bad side effects, and minimum effect if any, and more likely worsen effects. IMHO wellbutrin is the best kept secret and it's a pity. NO side effects and starts working 20 minutes after u take your first pill!

Thanks for your extended review

If I dont see any improvement over the next 4 weeks Im gonna suggest wellbutrin. Only thing Im afraid of is weight loss cuz Im on the skinny side and appetite is not that well. That was one of the positive effects of remeron, finally I had a normal weight. But now I'm just on a small dose of remeron to sleep. Maybe wellbutrin/remeron is a better combo for me than lexapro/remeron.
Abilify is an AAP right? Why should you wanna add it to wellbutrin? I see you are bipolar, but you can manage it with just wellbutrin (plus the clonazepam)?
I dont know what meds are the best for me. Paxil was my first and made my do strange things to say the least. But after a couple of years it poops out and I get fatigue. If I taper off and reinstate after a couple of years, the party begins again with this hypomanic/artificial energy thing. And poops out again.
I did quite well without any meds for 3.5 years, but somehow, I dont know if it was because of relational stress and/or work but I got really bad.

Ow, my sleep is so/so.... with the 7.5mg remeron its faily well. But Ive had better times. That could be also because I dont work atm so I stay in bed long. Thats also cuz I dont have any motivation to get out of bed, anhedonia. Thats how this episode started, with a couple of years anhedonia. On top of that depression, a hypomanic episode and even worse depression.

Wellbutrin is working for me too. It didn't in the past but now with the combination of meds I'm on I think it is actually helping.

I used to be on 12 meds all at once and I found that just the fact of taking that many meds worsened my depression, like it weighed me down and dulled me instead of picking me up like it should. Now that I'm on fewer meds I am out of my depression and feeling much more like myself which is very comforting.

Well, after months of sleeping 14+ hours a day since 2 nights I don't sleep at all. Yesterday not even 4 hours and last night 1 hour and that was very light sleep. Fell asleep (if you call that sleep) at around 1am and got out of bed at 2am. In Im completely hyper, no benzo or mirta can calm me down. At least a day lasts long this way and Im quite productive... Is this the lexapro? Im completely ****ed up.

Now after 2 days of hardly to no sleep and feeling completely hyper, Im down again. Still that feels better than being so hyper that nothing can make me calm.

Medications sometimes can worsen symptoms, or simply may not work to improve them. If you only sleep and stay in bed all day every day I imagine that is not helping matters either...even if a medication is the right one and does help it wont totally 'cure' you it can help along with a healthy lifestyle(or as healthy as you can manage). Anyone would feel restless/edgy in the evenings if they slept all day every day because they're so used to being in bed....you might see more benefit if you force yourself out of bed, maybe do a couple simple tasks around the house or sit outside for a while even.

This restlessness is not from staying in bed long. Ive had a burnout a couple of years ago and i slept a lot too but I wasnt restless at all, stressed yes, but not this physical and mental kind of rage feeling, as if my head is in an F-16 fighter jet or high speed train. Thoughts are racing, im extremely multitasking like doing 10 times at the same time and dont sleep at all for a couple of days (this time it lasted just a couple of days, previous time it lasted more than a couple of weeks). Its a bit like when you are on xtc, but without the pleasant effects.
I dont have other ways to express it but maybe someone recognizes this.

Forcing myself out of bed. Yes thats what is supposed to help. But if I dont have any motivation to live, there is no motivation to get up and do simple tasks. In those moments I just wanna disappear.

Saw pdoc today. After 9 weeks with hardly any effect we decided to taper off of lexapro and start wellbutrin next week. She doesnt wanna combine when i asked about something for the anxiety.

I read that for (social) anxiety it can last to 3 momths before lexapro starts working. Anyone has experience with this? Now im a bit scared that i might stop too soon. Here in my country pdocs dont like to mix meds. She doesnt wanna keep me on the lexapro and add wellbutrin. She says therapy will help andvalso when the depression gets less she thinks the anxiety gets less too

Past couple of days I feel a bit better. I even get up early in the morning (8-9am) instead of afternoon.
The anxiety is still there. Im tapering off of the lexapro and been taking wellbutrin since 2 days now. Still on 7.5mg remeron at night. I might up the remeron for the anxiety and go off of the lexapro completely. Does remeron doe anything against anxiety?

And still I have a huge branfog... or derealization/dissociation/depersonalization or whatever... I dont have grip on it.. time passes by, my life passes by and doesnt make sence, its not me.. its like im in some kind of computer game... I dont have grip on my life anymore

I can't remember if remeron helped my amxiety. It helped my sleep which is great! But I wasn't even aware it was used for anxiety.

Glad you're starting to feel better. Wellbutrin is working well for me right now. Seems like it will help you too.

I was on Wellbutrin for a short period of time, and it made me feel great. Unfortunately, I lost way too much weight on Wellbutrin, which I couldn't afford to lose.

If I can recall correctly, Remeron is used off label for anxiety, but I don't know how effective it is for anxiety. It depends on the individual in most cases.

I'm taking Remeron now and it makes me hungry and sleep better. That's the only side effects I can tell so far, and those are side effects that I can live with.

It's good that you're feeling better.

Wow... I'm waking up at 6am, hungry and got out of bed at 7am. That's the first time in years that I got up voluntarily at this time. It must be the wellbutrin because from day 1 Im getting up a lot earlier than in the 2 months on lexapro.

I'm concerned about the weight loss too. I put on some weight on lexapro/remeron combi but I am still on the skinny side. I hope the remeron keeps the wellbutrin effect in balance.

I am on day 8 with wellbutrin. The last two days have been awful. I've been agitated, extremely depressed and have had a few crying fits which I'm not super used to. Hopefully this goes away and the meds kick in. I don't know what to do with myself and I can't get up off the couch.

Maybe its the side effects MarleyCat, most of them should go away in a couple of weeks. And I know thats a long time, especially when you are so desperate to feel better.
I had a terrible time the first few weeks on lexapro but I continued and waited 9 weeks without result, or maybe just a little bit but that could be natural recovery as well. Wellbutrin seems to work already although now I wake up too early. It should get you off of the couch sooner or later

Take care.

I have been dealing with depression all my life, was on Effexor or many years but weaned myself off last fall - probably a big mistake because I started having anxiety like crazy, and then the depression came on strong. I was trying to take some serotogenic supplements (samE and 5-htp), but they weren't holding, so I tried taking a very small dose of Effexor again and that put me into mild serotonin syndrome! I went to a p-doc who took me off all supplements and put me on remeron since I had lost all appetite, had lost weight and couldn't sleep.

On 7.5 mg I was thrilled to be able to sleep and felt a little better, but after a couple of weeks, it wasn't holding me so I bumped up to 15 mg. Again, improvement for a day or two but then down the hole again. I have gradually worked up to 30 mg over a month, and again it isn't holding me. The apathy, low energy and feelings of worthlessness are incapacitating. Monday I was on the couch all day, just couldn't face the smallest of chores/tasks, including feeding myself. Everything feels overwhelming. I am doing some psychotherapy work called EBT, and dang it if I didn't keep using the tools all day, yet my thoughts refused to shift to a better place. I took 37.5 mg Monday night, and I actually had a pretty good day Tuesday, able to feel good outside, able to get a few tasks done.

I took 30 mg Tuesday night, and 7.5 mg Wednesday morning, since my p-doc said some people split it that way, but Wednesday was another down day.

Throughout these down periods, I tried to reach my p-doc through his assistant, REPEATEDLY, and never got a response! It has been a week that I tried to reach him, left a message on his assistant's VM to give to him that the meds weren't holding me and what could be done/changed/added? Still no response!

The only thing that has saved me through this is the EBT connections (we have connection buddies and a once-weekly phone in session with our group coach and the group members). plus a very loving husband and family members checking in on me. I have isolated myself during these lows, which is the opposite of what I need, since connection lifts me a little.

Is it possible the remeron hasn't reached it's full effect after a month and these increases? My p-doc encouraged me to "play with it," increase as needed, that it was a gentle anti-depressant. Maybe it's too gentle?

I am struggling with issues of self-worth because for one I am not working but feel I should be, yet I am mentally not strong enough to go out and find work. I am working hard with the therapy and have an appointment with my therapist today, but when I get low it's like the therapy work just can't work, that my brain state is just too low to respond or something.

I have an appointment with a new p-doc in 3 weeks, keep checking to see if he has any cancellations. I have an appointment with the old doc in 10 days, which I will keep if the other one doesn't have an opening sooner, but I am angry with him for not responding to my requests for help. I am afraid to be put on SSRIs because of the horrid side effects. I was put on Viibryd early this year by another doc but the side effects of anxiety were so bad I quit.

I am miserable and don't know which way to go because of the horrid side effects of meds, meds not working, but fearful of being on nothing since my brain is clearly depressive, always has been, and can't seem to do well without.

perlys, I'm glad you seem to be getting somewhere with your meds. I hope it is lasting.

Wanttogrow you seem to go trough rough times too. What is EBT? Have you ever tried meditation? Do you have a restless depression or quiet? If you are quiet and not ruminating too much you might give meditation a try. I hope you will find the right meds soon.
I was feeling a bit better but the last couple of days I feel very restless again. Also lots of crying spells. I switched medication from lexapro to wellbutrin. I notice the stimulating effect, at least I get up earlier, but it does nothing against my depression, anxiety and restlessness yet. Especially this extreme restlessness is horrible.
Unfortunately I dont have caring family. I live alone since a while.

Take care.

Im a week on wellbutrin and off of the laxapro, cold turkey. Besides crying spells no withdrawal symptoms like I had from paxil.... That is pure hell... But lexapro didnt work

one month has passed... still feel like shait... and mood swings. one day i feel terribly depressed and desperate next day i can be fine. I also notice i get angry so soon with the slightest things. That is not how I am and I dont want it but I cant stop it.