Nothing seems to work!

I spent over a year trying different anti-depressants, probably around 12-13 total-including "booster" meds. NONE of them helped and I only experienced varying side-effects from them including weight gain-which makes me feel worse. My dr just kept trying med after med, with no rhyme or reason (except maybe to get me on all of the new anti-depressants to be their guinea pig). I'm just wondering if this is common practice or should they have been doing something else to help??

Hello vickster: Well... I don't have an authoritative answer to your question. All I can say is that your experience is in line with what I have experienced in the past. I'm no longer on any med's at all of any kind. I do still have a pdoc whom I see a couple of times a year... just to keep my foot in the door, so to speak. Whenever I see him, if I mention anything I'm having difficulty with, he's right there with a suggestion for a med I could take. If I wanted to, I suspect I could be on a whole laundry list of medications. I've chosen not to go down that road. You asked if your providers should be doing something else to help. My personal opinion is... yes they should be. However my experience suggests to me that they probably won't.

You don't mention, in your post, if you see a therapist. That, of course, is the other option. I don't see one of those either. I've tried a few in the past. But none of them turned out to be worth the expense. However I've read posts here on PC written by members who said their therapists saved their lives. So I presume there are great therapists out there. It's simply a matter of finding them.

Hi vickster,

Have you considered trying ECT? I've had ECT during times when medication wasn't working, and it pulled me out of my deepest depression. The memory side effects are something to consider, but when you are at rock bottom the side effects don't matter as much as getting your mood stable.

It seems to be a common practice. They randomly try things at the beginning but I think after a few they can have a more informed plan. No one can predict super accurately what will help or hurt.

That is a lot of psych meds in a short time. They typically take 6-8 weeks before they might start working. I was on the med treadmill for about 21 years before getting off. Unless a med was causing bad side-effects, the shortest time on any of them was about a year.

One thing to look into is pharmacogenetic testing. It is not perfect but can narrow down what meds might be more effective without major side-effects.

I looked into TMS and ECT after stopping the meds I was on. TMS actually looked like a great alternative with fewer side effects than ECT, AND there was a local office that performed it-but of course my insurance did not cover it and it was quite pricey to pay for out of pocket. I then looked to ECT. Memory loss did seem to be the most significant side effect, which, at the time I was totally ok with. When I started to look into it more though, it appeared that it takes a substantial amount of time to complete treatment-taking off work/school is not an option for me...Needless to say, I was more than disappointed-especially about the TMS! But that is great that you have had success with ECT in the past!

Thanks for your input!
I spent the year that I was trying different meds seeing a therapist because my insurance required me to. She was horrible but I didn't have it in me to ask for someone new, so I just endured it so I could try the medical route. Finally, I got sick of the whole shebang and quit going there all together and quit all the meds. After a couple months, things still had not improved, so I decided that I would just see my primary(whom basically allows me to tell him what I want to try-thankfully I don't abuse this as I'm sure many do...). Around then I also found a different therapist-which I do like. I am not sure yet how effective the therapy is, but at least he doesn't use the whole session to complain about his life or share about his sugar daddy who wants to buy him a house in Vegas...

I do feel as though one or both of these things are helping a bit, along with getting rid of the very toxic bf that triggered this episode to begin with.

Thanks for your feedback!

I have wanted to look into testing, I guess I just haven't because I am not sure who performs it. The pdoc I was seeing certainly never mentioned it.

It was a lot of meds in that time period! A couple weren't anti-depressants, but add-ons like Abilify(which at a high dose made me super manic and a low dose caused a 40lb weight gain). Cymbalta was short lived-I broke out in whole body welts on about day 3. A couple of them caused significant enough side effects that I had to stop as well. But the ones I did stay on for longer, I was maxed out on the dosages with zero benefits. I just got so burned out on the whole idea that I finally just stopped all together.

I have been on more meds in the past 2 years than I care ti think about. I also did 12 ECT treatments, which did nothing for me at all, except mess with my memory.

I am currently trying Ketamine Infusions. It isn;t covered by insurance and isn't cheap. For just about everyone I have heard from, mostly online, it made a huge difference for them. Me, it has helped a lot, but not the monumental difference for everyone. I go Monday to speak with the doctor at the Ketamine Center to decide what to do now. The usual treatment is 6 infusions. I didn't start seeing a difference until the 4th, so I did number 7 yesterday and am tentatively scheduled for 8 on Tuesday. If you can afford it, it is worth looking into.

Hopefully you get this. Here is one place that does it and seems to focus on psych meds.

Good luck and I hope this site proves to be useful to you.

How have thee Ketamine treatments worked fr you if your still on here?

I had tried Ketamine also but did't get much from it. I only had 5 treatments. Are you still doing well with it?

I was treated for Treatment Resistant MDD for YEARS with every antidepressant and antipsychotic and therapy available all to no avail. Doctors have no choice but to prescribe medications by the trial and error method because there are no definitive tests for MI and because every medication affects every patient differently.
Finally had a manic episode, whether it was caused by the antidepressants or because I'm just a late bloomer. An excellent psychiatrist took over my care and started me on Bipolar meds which work just great.