About to switch meds, need some input.

Hello everyone, this seems like a really good place to discuss Anti-depressants here so I will :)

I'm 21 and I was severely depressed from age 16 - 19. When I was 19.5 I finally went to the doctor after life become to horrible. I was having nervous breakdowns 3+ times a day and I couldn't get more than 2 hours of sleep a day during the weekday. The depression was HUGE and caused me to be unable to have any real relationships with anyone during those 3.5 years of my life.

I started Effexor XR, 37.5 mg up to 112.5 mg. My life started as soon as I started Effexor :) No longer did the issues of depression affect me. I finally formed a relationship with someone who ended up cheating on me which sent me into a stooper. At this time, almost exactally a year ago, I upped to 150 mg on doctor's recommendation.

Now I'm here! However the side effects of Effexor have worsened as time has progressed. I sweat A LOT with it. If I were to change my shirt every time I had soaked arm pits, I'd need 6 shirts per day at least. I hate that a lot. I've become restless at night and I'm unable to sleep. Often my sleep goes from 10:00 - 1:00am then 7:00am to 12:00 am. Even though I'm tired I've been unable to sleep despite taking my pills as soon as I wake up. I also have been a little more 'stessed' out than usual. I'm often feeling anxious lately for NO reason what so ever. There's also the sexual side effects. Orgasms aren't much fun, and my libido is shot, (But its hard to tell since depression also killed my libido). I think it's time to change medications to one that has less symptoms.

I've been researching a lot of Anti-depressants and I'm not sure which to pick.

There's Zoloft which has only 4 of the 11 symptoms I currently have.
Paxil which has 6 of the 11 symptoms I currently have.
Then Wellburtrin which I've heard good things about.

I know everyone reacts differently so it's extremely hard to gauge how each drug will affect me. But any experience, recomendations, or anything, especially about wellbutrin would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you so much

I agree that you should definitely consult w/ your MD and give him those details about the sleep and sweating and anxiety.

From experience and observation of others, I strongly urge you to slooooowly get off of Effexor if that's what you decide to do.  The "withdrawl" can be brutal, as I'm sure you've had hints of if you've forgotten a dose here and there.  There's physical discomfort but also significant emotional discomfort that I would avoid.

Adding something to help with sleep is something I've seen done often and what I ended up having to do after being on only anti-depressant meds for a few years.  We switched around to different anti-depressants, and eventually had to add a sleep aide.  There's trazadone, ambien, lunesta and plenty others. 

I don't know whether a general practitioner or a psychiatrist is rx your meds, but  I recommend that someone see a specialist if they've had mental health problems for several years - when it's not a reactive depression, situationally induced.

hope that helps.

h

If you are going from effexor to cymbalta, it might not be so hard, they are close cousins and that helps make the transition easier. I did go off of effexor once and had a really hard time, but I wasn't going on anything else. I felt good and thought I didn't need it anymore, boy was I wrong.

Best wishes to you,

hugs, ...Karen

good luck to you...

Let us kow how it goes...

Hugs, ...Karen

 

A-guy,

 

It sounds like the side effects of the drugs are as bad as the symptoms the drugs are supposed to treat.

 

At this stage, it seems you are more occupied with withdrawal from drug addiction and have forgotten about the symptoms you started taking drugs to treat.

 

Is this like smashing your thumb with a hammer so you can forget about your headache?

 

If you’re going to have to tolerate discomforts, would it be better to do it without drugs?

 

 

Wow kitt!   That sounds like some pretty painful stuff!   I know what its like to be in really bad pain and how urgent it was to get it under control. I got burned pretty bad once and it was pretty horrible. All I wanted was for the pain to go away and I didn’t care how.   The worst part was the de-breeding – i.e. cutting the burned, dead skin away so I could grow new skin and heal. But the de-breeding was worse than getting burned all over again and involved cutting and scrubbing until the wound was a painfully bloody mess. That process took weeks and all I wanted was for the pain to go away.   The down side of it is that after my skin healed I kept taking the pain killers. I didn’t need them for pain. I just felt I needed them. I had developed a habit and was reluctant to break it. Luckily I could see what such an addiction to drugs would lead to, so I stopped taking them. It wasn’t easy at first, but I prayed about it and “got by with a little help from my friends.”   I’ve been reading about those types of depression you mention. Dr. Peter Breggin has a good book about depression. I forgot the name of the book, but maybe you can cross-reference the author’s name.   I think I’ve gone through a few bouts of that “situational depression,” and I reckon a few of my friends have too. The bright side of that is that it is usually temporary.   I’ve also read about the type of depression associated with a “chemical imbalance.” I’ve often wondered if that type of depression is temporary too, or do folks just get impatient because they want the pain to go away.   There is a lot of books about that too. My favorite is one by Dr. Joseph Glenmullen.   But I can’t find any books or literature about how they test for chemical imbalances. I know it has to do with neurotransmitters like dopamine and serotonin, but I’ve yet to find any descript ions on how they test for it. Can you recommend any books or research publications that describe that type of lab test?   How did they do it with you? Did they use blood samples? Spinal fluids? Can something like chemical imbalance be determined with a CAT scan? Do they use the results of the lab tests to determine what medicine to prescribe and what dosage to use?     Post Edited (SpiritualStuffing) : 9/8/2008 7:59:16 AM (GMT-6)