How does your antidepressant make you feel?

Hopeful,

You will need to wait at least 6-8 weeks for it to sit in.. have you ever tried genetic testing for meds? Might need to find one with less side effects for you. I know exactly how you feel and wish we could just take Xanax without hitting repercussion but unfortunately they can be hard to come off of if taken for a while. I wish you the best of luck and praying for you.

Xanax is for panic not for depression,I guess.

I take one lowest dose everyday.

My cymbalta gives me tummy issues.

I cry a lot on cymbalta but Pristiq I loved,no issues with it.

All my progress is in dumps because my fibro is overactive.

My sleep is also affected by it.

I will try for 12 weeks then decide.

I miss Pristiq but very expensive.

I think thats one of the biggest things Hopeful86. I know its hard but rather than trying to think of when am I going to be normal again. Try to accept that this is who you are at the movement. "Be comfortable, in being uncomfortable" Now i'm not saying its an easy thing to do but try your best to Float the thoughts, accept them as they come, and they will pass. I know for myself I was doing ok yesterday, and a thought about something I did 10 years ago just popped in my head. I can either accept the thought, and let it pass or I can put all my energy to forcing it out and questioning why this is giving me so much anxiety.

If there is any advice I can give you..

Please read "Hope and help for your nerves" by Dr. Claire Weekes. I read it almost everyday to try and train my brain to bring up what the book has taught me during my down times. Trust me hopeful, I know how you feel and I'm a very sensitive and emotional individual, I know you can do it. Take baby steps, day by day.

Hi Hopeful! Welcome to the forum.

I was on Lexapro (10mg) for a month when my anxiety first surfaced. I felt no anxiety on it, but I slept for 13 hours a day, became some kind of drug-induced narcoleptic, and couldn't stop eating. I went off it because I couldn't function like that in college.

Last fall, I started on sertraline (generic Zoloft) and felt positive effects within the first week of being on only 25 mgs. I yawned a lot and it felt like bugs were crawling across my brainstem every time I yawned, but my brain felt better and I felt hopeful. The side effects didn't fully go away for months until I was fully used to being on a full dose of 50mg and taking it in the morning rather than at night. Even now I can feel a sort of weird brain-crawly sensation when I'm sleep-deprived. I worry sometimes that it makes me a zombie, but I think it's mostly in contrast to being less emotionally volatile again and also being stressed out by work and school. None of my friends or family have remarked on changes in my personality, unlike when I was on Lexapro. It has been a year since I started on it and I have no intentions of stopping anytime soon. It gives me the ability to actually relax fully at the end of a stressful day and quiets my mania, OCD, and anxiety.

I too am extremely sensitive to medications and blame a genetic predisposition. I am of Japanese ancestry and it's not uncommon for Japanese people to have mutations in bits of their genetic code in charge of processing medications. Some countries with a high prevalence of certain genetic variances have to put on their own drug clinical trials because what may work for Caucasian people may not work for east Asian people, descendants of certain branches of the African family tree, etc. You can be genetically tested through most doctors' offices now, I believe, and some psychiatrists may even order it for you. Without insurance it should run you about ~$150 USD, give or take $50 depending on what they're testing for. You spit in a tube, they send it away, and then you get the results 6-12 weeks later.