Anti-depressants

I want to know how many of you are taking anti-depressants?  I was put on one last year for general anxiety disorder (GAD) before I found out I had Crohns. Who doesn't have anxieties when they have teens.  I didn't like it and didn't feel I needed it so I stopped taking it.  Then I found out I had CD and three months later I developed steroid induced diabetes.  I was working really hard to lose weight and getting extremely frustrated and obsessing over it.  Felt like I was aneroxic without losing the weight.  For 8 months I've been going to the Y and eating extremely healthy and nothing.

When I found out I had Crohn's I was "Okay, I deal with this"  When I found out I now had diabetes I was "That's sucks but I will do what I have to to get it together."  I start doing what I have to and I just couldn't lose weight.  Only lost 11 lbs in 6 months.  I talked with my GI and she recommended Cymbalta because it can work on not only anxieties but on pain and can cause appetite suppression.  Anyway,  I've been on it a month and feel so much better.  I've lost 10 lbs in 4 weeks and no longer have joint pain and muscle aches. 

I just wanted to know what the percentage of people taking anti-depressants because they are dealing with chronic illness.

I have taken Celexa..........it helped me IMHO but I have now stopped ( weaned with docs help) and take Valium or Lorazapam when needed..........

We have many ppl on a/p forum that have Crohns or other Chronic illnesses.............

  After reading the results of this survey, and I know it is by no means scientific, I don't feel like I failed because I'm on an anit-depressant. I didn't realize that this many people were taking them. Thank you so very much for contributing. Makes me realize that I'm not abnormal after all.

I agree with Krysta...cause ever since I started them, I know I became a much friendlier easy going person to deal with when I wasn't so depressed and sad or angry all the time....My husband calls them my 'happy pills' since I am actually happy, laugh and better to get along with in our relationship too, so they helped, probably not just with me myself, but also our relationship and all. Mine I take is called Cipralex, and I rarely hear of anyone who actually knows what they are or takes them for some reason, even doctors have to look it up for some reason to figure out what I am taking. So not sure how I ended up with them, but they are great, effective and don't seem to cause any side effects for me either, including weaning off, I just plain dropped when I felt like it to see, and I have still been fine.

I use to be on Paxil, when my exhusband started to decrease his by Drs orders I followed the same decreasing schedule. I gained 35 pounds on Paxil which made my joints hurt more and the weight gain made me depressed ( I was 131.5 on paxil...a few yrs later and I tend to hang around 103 of no steroids are involved). I am however on Elavil, I started this for migraine prevention but it was created initially for depression the migraines is an off label use. I am cutting down on it though I was on 100mg and I want to decrease slowly since I want kids in the next yr or 2 and this is 1 med you should not be on so I am slooooooooowly decreasing it...rather do it slow and have no side effects than cut down like a "normal" patient would. Also I recently found that Elavil can cause motility issues and toxic megacolon...yeah neither is fun I found out the hard way it wasnot caused my meds the DRs dont think since the toxic megacolon was post emergency resection. Elavil can cause heart trouble too and that runs in my family, myy dad was on 100 I think when he had his heart attack at age 49, he is now on 25mg (which is my dosage goal until I become pregnant)