Anyone tried/on antidepressants? Hows your experience been with them?

I remember laughing so hard when I read "depression" on the side effects. I mean... alright...

I had a decent experience, I'd say - my psychologist disagreed that I suffered from depression, though, so there's that. But I found them useful, I really felt more balanced, a little less numb, but also a little less victims of my mood swings. I didn't take them long, I think I just needed them at the start of my psychology treatment.

Hope it helps! ♡

for sertraline you need to wait 2 weeks before you see the full effect! :)
also don't worry much and trust your meds cuz otherwise it won't work properly

Anger is the only antidepressant I need.

Basically the thing to remember is to give it time. You need to try a med for a month or two before knowing if it's working and if the side effects you may or may not experience are temporary or not. Then it's up to you to talk to your doctor and be honest about the negative and positive side of things, and whether the tradeoff is worth it to you! Remember, there are MANY different antidepressants out there, and if one doesn't work well another might. It can take a while to get the right type and dose dialed in.

And I mean you have to be honest about things - even uncomfortable things. One of the major side-effects that people tend to "forget" to talk about is sexual dysfunction of various kinds - unfortunately also among the most common of side-effects from the more popular types of anti-depressants. If something ain't working the way it did in that department, you should be clear about it with your doctor, and it isn't a side-effect you have to accept.

My experience isn't exactly typical since I am not prone to side-effects in general, but the type I'm on now is one of the ones that doesn't generally cause any of the more common side-effects anyway - and for me it causes none that I've noticed... aside from perhaps a bit more appetite. More importantly though that constant feeling of "it's not even worth it" just kinda... melted away. It hasn't been a miracle pill, I still have to work on myself, I still have to struggle with some things... but it's lightened the load I've been carrying. It's not quite as hard to get through the day any more, and everything is just more balanced, requiring less mental and emotional effort to get through.

Just give it time. Don't be scared by the side effects you hear about - not everyone even has them. You have to pay attention to yourself and your experience, and weigh any downsides YOU feel against any benefits YOU experience. And good on you for getting help!

Good luck!

Talk to your doctor about these questions. You can also ask your pharmacist. Prescribed medications are serious stuff, and you need the answers from your doctors.

It’s wildly different for everyone. It takes persistence, patience, and doctor/patient cooperation to get it right. For some people it will never work.

However, for many people finding the right drug/dosage can be absolutely life altering. Personally, I haven’t had the best experience with antidepressants, but I have several friends and family members that it really, really helps. I’ve been considering giving it another go, again finding the right doctor and dosage can be a bit of a dance. Luckily, this is a field where breakthroughs occur daily.

I was on Venlafaxin for a bit more than one year. The first two weeks were ... weird. It was like all my emotions were suddenly just turned off. I thought, this must be how a Vulcan from Star Trek must feel all the time. But I didn't mind at all. I struggeled with my work at university at that time. I needed this extra push to get up my ass and start doing regular day stuff, like showering, wearing pants and go to the university like everybody else. I felt like I was trapped in my personal hell hole. With the meds, it took me one or two months to build up the courage and talk to my professor. Without the meds, I'm sure I would have never done anything. with my life. Also, the weird emotionless phase ended after exactly two weeks. It was like someone set a timer for 14 days and at the end of this period, I felt somewhat normal. But since they helped me a lot, I'm more that gratefull. After the 2 weeks, I didn't encounter any mentionable side effects. I think I once forgot to take the pills one day and I think I had a weird feeling in my head, a bit like a headache. But nothing remotely serious. Just the very weird first 2 weeks.

I've been using venlafaxin for about 10 years now. No obvious side effects, and it makes life bearable.

Now I just feel not-great to almost-okay, instead of wanting to die and lying in bed :)

I've used sertraline for a few years now, with maybe a six month break before I had to start again. My experiences have been pretty positive. No major side effects, although there certainly have been some, and I think the pros hugely outweigh the cons for me. Apparently it can be difficult to stop using antidepressants, but that wasn't my experience either. Although I did have to start taking them again, it wasn't because of any withdrawal symptoms I couldn't handle or such - in fact I didn't notice any withdrawal symptoms whatsoever when I was stopping.

Whether it's sertraline or something else, I hope you find the right medication and therapy/etc. for you and can overcome your condition.

In my experience, antidepressants made things worse so I didn't take them long. I also know a couple other people that used them as a gateway drug to other things. And I know one other person that had a life threatening reaction to one, but it wasn't zoloft.

I know some people that used them for a short period of time to get them through some bad stuff and it helped a lot. I know some other people that have been using them for over 10 years and use their Rx as an excuse to avoid normal human struggle.

Everyone is different. Just remember- happiness doesn't come in pill form. Pain is a part of life, avoid facing your struggles too long and there will be a reckoning down the line. I wish you the best of luck, it might take years to master your emotions but the struggle does pay dividends.

Every person's body is different, but I've actually been on sertraline for a couple of years as well. It was rough in the beginning and felt like it wasn't doing much, but as time went on (and my psych increasing the dose because he felt there was room for improvement) the difference was spectacular.

It saved my life, honestly. Probably the most significant side effect is it likely has drastically decreased my sex drive...I know for some people that's a major deal breaker. For me, I'll take that over wanting to phase out of existence every waking moment.

Hi Zaugr,
don't worry, this kind of medicine takes a bit to show the positive effects, give them some time.
The side effect reported are in general exaggerate, those medicines are NOT particularly dangerous. And in any case if you notice some symptom of something that is going bad you can tell it to your doctor that can change the dosage or the medicine itself with another one.

Tried taking Maprotiline for a week, been sitting still all days long, thrown them away and turned back to marijuana, staying on it for over 20 yrs now, god bless, amen!

I've been on a few. I was on fluoxetine for a couple years, and it was really good. The first time I spoke to my doctor about it I described the feeling as being high, and he responded "or it could be that now you're feeling 'normal'." The statement blew my mind, and really brought my depression into perspective. Eventually I got a gf, which is when the sexual dysfunction side effects really started glaring (another thing I didn't notice until it was something I could reflect on from previous experience). So, I asked my doctor to switch to another kind of med, and after some trials with different kinds we settled bupropion. It took a while to get the dosage right, but haven't looked back since.

There's also some really good/strong short-term medications you can get. Like say you have a high anxiety / high stress event like an interview or exam. Like tevapropanolol, trazodone (night before), and lorazepam.

There definitely is no one size fits all experience regarding these types of medications. What works for one person may not necessarily work for you. That's why it's important to talk things over with your doctor so that your doctor is aware of your concerns and can address them.

That being said, the very nature of antidepressants is such that it is usually a month before they'll have any positive effect. I've yet to hear of any that work any quicker. Your doctor should have told you that. If you do not feel that you are getting good information from your doctor, you can look for another one.

I remember a friend of mine getting prescribed some and sharing - we were popping them like they were M&Ms.
it certainly made us quite happy

on a more serious note, psychiatric medication is a lot more trial-and-error than people realize. drugs affect people differently, and it takes a while to figure out which drug and at which dosage works best for each person. don't shy away from getting help that you need, even if at first it doesn't work quite right. Trust your professional, they know a lot more than you may realize

Hey, I'm on paroxetine due to anxiety and let me tell you, each antidepressant is different. I haven't had any side effects since then (except maybe some weight gain? nothing alarming though). But you need to be careful, each body treats it different. Some ADs are more powerful than others, and that doesn't mean they're good, it means they can affect your body.

Also, you need to wait 3 months for them to take FULL effect.

it's not a little dose and you need to wait about 3-4 weeks for negative side-effects to pass off so don't worry but let sb else watch you if you had suicide thoughts before

Try to remember that SSRIs usually cause a dip in mood before they begin to have a positive effect, and that it can take a little while.

My doctor tried to put me on sertraline once, and the initial punch of side-effects hit me like a hammer. Anxiety, nausea, slightly elevated heartrate, uncontrollable urge to fidget, vague shakiness and dizziness, trouble mentally focusing, a weird fear reflex, hot and cold chills, complete lack of appetite (loss of sense of whether my stomach was empty or full), feverish dreams and restless sleep. It was so awful in that first 24 hours that I outright refused to take a second one. The doc fixed me up with a different kind of SSRI, and while there were still side-effects to that one too, they were absolutely nothing compared to the sertraline. The new ones gave me some wooziness and sensations of heat on my back until they got into my system (along with the sexual dysfunction they remind gentlemen not to be worried about), and then once they were sorta 'harmonised' with me, the only side effects I get are rare night-sweats, and a foggy mind if I take them with little food and too much caffeine.

It's important to remember that different SSRIs effect different people in different ways. Until your body acclimates, some side-effects are normal. My experience with them are generally good, but going in blind and not knowing that your body can react badly to certain ones can be pretty scary when you suddenly get jumped by a ton of side-effects that you might interpret as danger signals.

Despite your doctors unwillingness, it may be best to talk to them if you have concerns, or perhaps even pursue a second opinion if you don't feel confident your doctor is taking it seriously.

I am using Sertraline as well!
Used a different one before that as well.
Off to bed now but can talk more when back if you have questions or whatever.

I tried sertraline, for a bit, didn't notice a difference so now I only take it when I know I have a stressful week, just in case...

I was once put on antidepressants with the 'side effect' of "Sudden unexpected death"
Part of me wondered if they just put it on there to see if anyone noticed.
I'm been on various ones for years including the classics like Lithium, Valium, Prozac etc.
I prefer ones with a long half-life like prozac

The difficult part is finding the one(s) that work best for you. You can try a lot of different pills and experience annoying side effects, but it's just a matter of trying again and again until you find the right one. They affect every person differently, so you never know.
Besides that, you cannot develop a physical dependence on them, it's just a matter of reducing the dose slowly and perhaps you can feel similar symptoms as the ones you had on the first week of treatment, nothing more. Same goes with long-term effects, after some time without the medication they all disappear. I've tried a lot of different antidepressants through years and that's been my experience with all of them. If after 1-2 weeks you still have some nasty side effect that you can't stand, ask your doctor to try a different med. None of them are perfect, but you don't need to accept certain things if they're really annoying for you.