Do any of you take meds?

Post Reply New Topic

I'm sure that's a stupid question as I already know several people do. Anyway, I have been majorly depressed lately. I finally sucked it up and went to see a therapist on Friday. I haven't been to one since the psychiatrist I saw in college told me I was lazy and that's why I wasn't doing as well as I wanted in my classes. I was barely functioning. I couldn't get my s**t together at all and was seeking an ADD diagnosis, which I know now I don't has, I have AS, but that was the closest thing I knew of that could describe me back then. Anyway, I saw the therapist on Friday. She was really great! She didn't disagree with me or try to disprove me when I told her I was sure I had AS, and she seemed to know a bit about it b/c she asked to right questions about how I fit the diagnostic criteria. I talked a lot about what's going on in my life (my husband is a grad student finishing his PhD, so he's working A LOT. I mean like 12 hours per day, 6-7 days a week, and we have 3 kids, 2 have AS and 1 "just" has sensory issues, oldest has school problems, youngest has allergies and asthma on top of being a very very very high maintenence personality.) and my obsessive thoughts, which have been a lot worse lately. ANd I'm glad I talked a lot about that. It made me feel a lot better when she pointed out that obsessing over what would happen if I died or killed my self is different from obsessing over actually killing myself. ANyway, she told me that I am under more stress and responsibility than most people would be able to handle. She wants me to come back in a week or 2 to talk some more and then I will probably be referred to the health clinic to see the psychiatrist to start medication. She also wants me to continue seeing her to work on life and coping skills so I can get off the meds once my life is less stressfull (i.e. when my husband graduates, gets a good paying job, and is around to help me more. Not to mention I will be hiring a housecleaner at that point as well. I cannot continue doing everything. It's too much.)

I guess I'm just venting, but I was also hoping to get some input on different meds and what you all think about them. I have a lot of anxiety, depression, and obsessive thoughts. I have no idea what they'd want to give me for all that. And I'm nursing, so that's another complication.

I was on meds from age 10 to age 24. They included Anafranil, Melaril, Prozac, Risperdal, Verapamil, and Paxil.

I am 27 now, and haven't been on any meds for 3 years.

Tim

Did any of them help you? How did they make you feel?

I just know they made me very sleepy, I don't know what kind of effect thay had on anxiety or any AS-related issues.

Tim

I have taken anti-depressants twice in the past thirteen years. They helped lift the depression so that I could deal with what I needed to deal with and then I stopped taking them. I recommend them as a tool, but they are not the be-all and end-all. They are a useful tool.

I take Paroxetine, it's an SSRI frequently used for depression or social anxiety. It helps me keep calm and reasonable about things, it has also helped my mood and concentration. I feel it also helps stop meltdowns from occuring, and it takes a lot more than it otherwise would to set me off.

I have taken Paroxetine since I was 19, and tried without it twice (I'm 22 now.) both times unsuccessful. I will continue taking it for as long as I need it, and I'm not suffering any bad side-effects.

In conclusion, yes it helps me a lot and I can't function too well without it.

I don't take any meds. Before I went to my psychologist last fall, I took caffeine pills in the morning. I also take B vitamin supplements when I remember.

However, I just have therapy and have a suggestion ("prescription"?) for exercise to increase the serotonin and "to feel better". It's helping "lift" my overall mood and daily function but I'm still having problematic "mood swings". (Brisks walks several times a week, vigorous swimming once a week)

I may start taking "the Pill" (birth control) to see if that helps regulate my moods. I'm not sure if it's PMS-related or cyclothymia (soft bipolar).

But I'm not obsessing over suicide anymore and I'm not "believing" my crazy thoughts anymore.

Paxil is the same thing as Paroxetine. It made me sleep a LOT. It also stopped me from feeling any emotions very strongly. Anxiety, motivation, love, joy, sadness, shame and hope were all erased fromy my experience. I flunked out of university due to utter apathy. Also, the drug is very addictive, and when I went off it I was so sick I couldn't work for a full month and a half. I do not recommend it.

Paxil felt very "comforting" to me,but I too was more apathetic than I realized and made some odd decision while on it(for just under two years).Withdrawals were very bad.

It does not affect everyone in these ways,and the benefits were nice for awhile,but I really do suggest researching and considering all affects and alternatives beforehand.

I also took Zoloft and Buspar for two years each.Zoloft made me slightly more socially tolerant but strangely anxious about other things.And I took Buspar during a crisis so I don't know how effective it is "normally".

I also think there is a place for these drugs,when taken wisely and concsiously.They can give a reprieve from persistent troubles,long enough to develop other coping strategies.But they are not a long term solution.

Last edited by methinks on 03 Jun 2007, 7:28 pm, edited 1 time in total.

I went to a 'crisis clinic' and they gave me Celexa samples. I got a perscription from an urgent care doctor to continue it. I kept getting urgent care doctors or clinics or what ever and took it for 2 1/2 years. I had no 'talk therapy' or even a doctor's advice or monitoring, just the pills. I really thought they were my 'cure' for what ever was wrong, but after that long I could not understand why I still was like me. So I cold turkey-ed off them, which was worse than being on them.

I now am only on my Levothyroxine (thyroid) and naproxin sodium and when my muscles charlyhorse (contract painfully) some Soma. other than that, I am squeeky clean.

Merle

I agree that anti-depressants are best used for temporary reprieves. I will stay on one until I feel like I am capable of stopping, and then I stop and I'm good like that for a while. I've been off meds for a year but will probably look for another prescription soon. My problem is that I fade in the stretch and can't deal with long unmitigated periods of constant up down up down up down.

At which point in my life would you like me to start? I'll stick to the legal ones. In the army they had me on two, one was a freaking knock out drug, the other less so, but couldn't do it either. They thought I might have been epileptic. The current run of meds and differing DX's, depending on the doctor of the moment, has been a long haul, about 14 years. I have lost count of the types and combos, the names. This one is the best, but even this one is giving me a really hard time right now. This one is in the mood stabilizer family. It isn't as bad as the highest dose, but it's got me in a bad spot. I need to ride it out a while longer just to be sure. But looking more and more like I'll drop it another 25mg. The dose I'll go to isn't as stable, but at least I'm happy, this is just making me meaner then a snake. The higher dose, well suicide was a possibilty at any given moment. Meds can be really tricky, you can have the right one, but be off just a little on the dose with marked differences. I've been on about all off the above or combos there of, at some point and many that aren't in the above. I've gotten to the point where I told them all to go to hell and got off them altogether, I had forgotten who the hell I was trying to fix. They didn't like that too much, but f**k em. I run the show now, to many doctors come and go. When you start talking about depression, the meds are there and designed for just that, mostly. When you go after other things, you very often end up trying "cast off" drugs. Drugs that were found to help in certian cases with things they were never intended for. I think I fianally got lucky and got one that helps the AS, even though, so far, they refuse to even look at it seriously. Going to be interesting to see what they come up with for the newly uncovered PTSD and I'm going to bring to this ones attention other little oddities he has not bothered to read about in my records. This doc is in for a whirl wind next visit and he better know his s**t, because, like I said, I'm in a really really foul mood. I've grown very tired of this pill pusher.

I too have become more apathetic than before, but I still feel joy. I however don't feel much sadness, shame, hope or anxiety - I do have the same amount of motivation as before, that hasn't changed.

It is very addictive to the body, but not to the mind. The discontinuation symptoms are horrible I agree, vertigo, anxiety, weakness in muscles, illness...Well it's just not fun to stop it But then again you can half-life it and cut the symptoms down!

I flunked school long before I started taking these meds, so I can't blame it on the meds ^^

Nope. And I've seen people ruined by them.

Paroxetine in the last 7 years or so. Before prozac. In the afternoon some xanax (very low dosage), they all help I think, wisely used.

Inhaler for my asthma...and that's it. Asthma is allergy related and I pretty much know my triggers so I really have little need for that anymore most of the time.

I tend to avoid Dr.'s unless absolutely necessary...had too many bad experiences in the past.