Cipralex 10mg week 3

Hey Wize - glad it's working out. BTW, in Montreal too, lol

Hello everyone...I have not taken the time to read every single post but I was wondering if anyone can provide me with any feedback or have similar experiences to my own?
I have been suffering with Anxiety and depression severly for 5 years now, and most recently diagnosed with a minor case of OCD (So far). My doctor and therapist both agree that I probably had anxiety/depression since I was young but then I had some Major stressors that basically send me over the edge about 4yrs ago. I had been on a off Ciprilex or many years but never consistantly enough which was my problem. But over the past 2 years I took it consistantly, I started out on 10mg and then over time have been increased to 30mg. i feel like HELL!!! My sex drive is pretty much gone and i have no desire to be around people, go outside, or even go to work. I had some tough times when I wasnt on meds but now that I am on them it sucks. I am not really depressed too much, and I still have bouts of anxiety. But everything else is ruined it seems.
I am a a professional mma fighter and was on a great run, I trained 6 days a week and went out and played poker. Hung out with friends. Now just the thought of being around people irritates me,I have stopped going to the gym and passed up numerous fights over the past few years..and I dont care. I have put on soo much weight that its the heaviest I have ever been, sweat like a pig, and cant feel anything. I am no sad, but I sure as hell am not happy, sad, angry, loving or anything. I want to isolate myself and be alone at all times. I should be really happy right now..I got engaged, bought a house and NOTHING. My fiance is amazing and stands by me through all of this and I know its tough on her and I worry it will ruin us..there is only soo much one person can handle right? I dont have sex, and dont want to either. It feels like everything seems like pressure and once I feeel that I push it all away. I want my life back so I have come off cold turkey which I know is not good..but I have to try something because I cant even remeber who I once was. Being on these meds have made me seem more distant, less confident......I am dealing with bad headaches now which i assume is the withdrawl from the meds.
I have gone to my doctor before and all he does is add on more meds...wellbutrin. I am done and am goig to try a natural way. I am at the end of my rope and ready to let go...this is no life. Life being depressed sucks, but at least I felt something. I have had 2 previous suicide attempts and thats the only reason why I decided to take these meds and I havent had any more thoughts or attempts of suicide but I am miserable. I want to step back in the cage again, have sex, be motivated, go to work..and since I started taking these meds I have slowly stopped doing everything and anything.
has anyone else felt this way???

Hey there backfist,

Sorry to hear that it's not working well for you. I can tell you that it's normal for cipralex to kill the libido but that's when wellbutrin comes in. I am on 15mg and i notice a slight decrease, I'm single now, still had good times with girls but if i see that it's not the same I will definitely try that wellbutrin out! A surplus of serotonin(cipralex) decreases the dopamine levels in the brain which decreases the libido. Wellbutrin blocks the dopamine inhibitor receptors, whatever they're called and therefore re-establishes the levels of dopamine and the brain and the side effects that this does is an increase in libido. i saw some posts on forums about that and a lot of guys said that it's the "boner pill" !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

By the way did you sometimes drink alcohol while on the meds?

And also there are so many types of SSRIs out there that even if cipralex doesn't suit your brain chemistry, another one will likely do the job.

Hang in there fighter!

GO GSP!

Hey Backfist,

I have major depression, like you I was depressed all the time, didn't feel like doing nothing work, see people, work out (I do triathlons and haven't worked out in over a year now), and libido was dead also for over a year... All that was without meds! My doc put me on Wellbutrin 300 mg to get my motivation back and my libido. I was also eating my emotions so I had put on so much weight. Wellbutrin helps with loosing weight. I've been taking it for 4 1/2 months and have lost 18 pounds + my libido has never been better! Wow! 2 months after starting Wellbutrin, I had more energy + libido + loosing weight but I still had no fun doing anything and was feeling anxiety... I never laugh and hardly smile... So my doc added Cipralex 10 mg to Wellbutrin 300 mg and now I'm doing so much better. I go out, see people, have fun and the sex drive is still off the wall!
You should give Wellbutrin a try, talk to your doc! There is certainly a medication suited for you that will give you a quality of life back! Staying depressed without meds is as bad as being on the wrong meds in my book. Don't give up and find the right meds for you, your fiance will be very greatful ;-)
Take care and keep the faith,
Caroline

I think that wellbutrin is a ssni. But I am not positive. I will have to look it up and see. The only problem that I had with it, was that in order for it to help my depression, I had to have a high dose. But when I went to a higher dose, I got nervous, anxious and coudln't sleep. But I liked it other than that. I also took effexor which is an ssni, and it did not mess with the sex drive at all. The one that did for me was zoloft.

Different meds effect different people in different ways. So what one experiences doesn't mean the next will. So you are kind of on your own there. But we have to try many sometimes before we find what works for us. It took me awhile.

There are meds that do work. I was on effexor for over 15 years. And you don't have that "no feeling" effect. I can be happy and I can be sad if made to be. But I am more happy than sad. So I am in a good place. I know thta life is not perfect and that not everyday is going to be hard, but I also know I can handle thta now.

If you try any of the natural remedies, make sure that there isn't any remnants of the drug in your system. Because if there is and the two medications mix, you could have a problem. Some of the drugs take a long time to actually get out of your system.

I would give the wellbutrin a try. Give it six to eight weeks. I noticed in the beginning that my mind was really super sharp. I felt good for a long time. But when I had to up the dose for depression, I got very edgy and couldn't sleep for anything. But that is just me. You may be able to tolerate a higher does where I couldn't.

So give it a chance, and wait the full eight weeks to see if it is going to work. If you have side effects in the beginning, give them about three weeks to go away. This way you know that you gave it everything you could.

Best wishes to you.

hugs, Karen

Caroline,

Thanks for clearing up that wellbutrin is in a class of it's own. I knew it was buproprian, but didn't realize that it wasn't an ssni. So thank you very much. And thank you for the post.

As you can see Backfist, different people do react differently to different meds. We can share our experiences with you, but you really have to try them before you will know how it is going to work for you. I had to try many before I found what worked for me.

Take care, I hope that you feel better soon. Don't give up...

Hugs, Karen

DO NOT STOP TAKING THEM

Those side effects will go away in my opinion in like 3-4 weeks TOPS

On the motivation side, if this persists and again I say "IF", wellbutrin can be prescribed and added to the cipralex ... But you might have the side effect of increased sexual drive so it's at your risk lol, I guess you wouldn't mind that, wouldn't you??

Hi Maddan and Loonytunes.

I wanted to welcome both of you to the forum...

Hugs, Karen

Try to give it a few more days and see if the side effects go away. They usually do. If they don't after two weeks on the new med, then I would call the doc and see what they have to say.

I hope that it works for you. Most likely the side effects will subside.

Let us know how it goes.

Hugs, Karen

I take a ciprelax during the morning at 10:00a every day but it makes me loopy/foggy/anything at that point so I'm moving my dosage to the evening. just to see if its a lot better

well Ive only been on cipralex for 7 days now and the side affects are little to brutal for me.... plus I take lorazepam for my panic attacks,,, mainly for panic attacks and anxiety!!

I feel very anxious about going off the rivotril. All they do is make me feel normal.Meaning without them I feel very anxious, hard to do everyday chores, yet I take them and I'm just me. Reason I'm being seen by a psych and every other week a psychologist is because I've been diagnosed with OCD and I spose if I just remained on rivotril it would never progress to ridding myself of the obsessions. I was told that Celexa has some sort of way of controlling obessions/compulsions. But since rivotril can't been stopped just like that, she's weaning me off with 1 at bedtime.

What has me concerned is, the psych doctor is putting me from 2 a day to 1 a day with Celexa. But I have nothing at noon..So makes me wonder how I'll manage going from a rivotril at noon to having to wait until bedtime. Was thinking what if I took 1/2 rivotril at noon, and 1/2 with celexa at bedtime would work. Same dosage, except divided in 2..