to talk about antidepressants?

[Neednewjeans]

Who's on them then? Have they been a help or do you regret taking them? After a bad bout of PND most health professionals kind of 'gave up' with me as I wasn't willing to try them (mostly due to my GP saying my symptoms could become worse before getting any better which, at my worst, I couldn't get my head around).

So...I'd just like honest answers. Did they help? Do you regret it? Would you like to come off them? Or not?

Monkeys - my doctor says no, but this is what I personally think it is. But who am I

Let's put it another way. One of the things we know now about the way the brain works is that it responds to the environment. So if you are unhappy, that may cause the serotonin in your brain to drop. Replacing that serotonin may make you feel better, but it isn't addressing the cause of the depression.

I find this bit interesting. What if there is no cause?

I have found CBT to be a complete waste of time. According to my psychiatrist in the US, who first put me on Trazadone and Xanax 20ish years ago, that's because my brain does not work right. It is miswired. It's not emotion. It's not 'in my head'. It's an error in my processing ability.

Hence, the drugs.

Anyone who wants to tell me I don't need them? Can fuck off to fuck off and then fuck off some more.

Without them I'm in bed 24/7/365. Which is not life.

BTW I have also had talk therapy, intense psychotherapy (i.e. Freud's method) and every type of therapy in between.

I'll keep popping my pills.

I agree with circumstantial depression. That is something cbt/dbt or counselling would work for. But some depression has no cause other that an inbalance & I think that in balance is chemical.
PND is hormonal related and bi polar is imo (having worked with mentally ill) cause by fluctuating chemicals in the brain. That's normally why a couple of drugs are prescribed as opposed to 1 & careful monitoring is needed so the person doesn't become really high (manic)

I had awful pnd and PTSD after ds was born. I finally went to the drs when he was 6 months old and started on paroxetine.

I stayed on it for 12 months before weaning myself off (we wanted another baby).

It is now 12 months later and I started Prozac 8 weeks ago. I had dreadful side effects for almost 5 weeks, I have never felt so ill. I feel better now and I'm going back to work this week (phased return).

I had known that I wasn't well for a while before finally admitting it to my dh and family. There has been no specific event or situation to cause the depression, life is great, just suffered really, really low mood ALL of the time.

I think acknowledging that you are unwell with depression or anxiety is a big deal and asking for help is a massive step. I felt that I should be able to "shake myself out of it" but couldn't, leading to feelings of guilt and failure.

It affected my work, my relationship with dh and my family, everything. I got to the point where I just KNEW that I needed medication again and I took a lot to admit it.

Depression is more debilitating than a lot of people realise.

Neednewjeans sorry for slow reply, real life rudely got in the way of my MNing!

I can only tell you my experience, which is that the SJW helped me feel a lot better than anti-ds, although they too helped me I found the SJW more effective. I think it took a couple of weeks to kick in, but it was certainly noticeable. My anxiety lifted massively, my mood lifted, I could feel I was less fearful and negative quite obviously.

I am lucky that my GP was well informed and was able to tell me about the clinical trials which have been done using SJW - apparently they are now first line treatment for depression in Germany, over anti-ds. Although my issue is anxiety, I think it does have somewhat of a depressive element - I don't know if there is research supporting SJWs effectiveness with anxiety specifically I just know it worked well for me.

You have to use a good quality SJW - I use Kira it's either called good mood or low mood can't remember which - and the therapeutic dose is higher than the dose on the pack - for the Kira one the pack says one a day but the minimum therapeutic dose is acutally 2 a day, which is what I take. I think I worked out the dosing from wikipedia! But there's info on SJW on the mental health boards here too, if you're interested. Hope this helps.

CBT basically says that if you change your thoughts and behaviours, the mood will follow. Whilst it is true TO SOME EXTENT, it doesn't always work. I have recently lost weight, feel much better about myself, doing a fair bit of exercise etc. but my mood has been lower than it has been for a long time. There's no obvious explanation other than something isn't working quite right and until we know a lot more about the brain, we will have to resort to medication to treat it.

I quite like pharmaceutical companies. Without them I would be dead. Don't forget to stick to those principles when you are in a life or death situation, you obviously feel so strongly about it.
I take cipralex, helps me a lot and I don't get it from my GP I buy it in the pharmacy out of my own money (not in UK).
Some times ads are over prescribed, sometimes patients are neglected. It is impossible to generalise on that scale surely.

I hate the "pull yourself out of it" attitude :( It makes me sad because people look for a blame or cause and sometimes there isn't one, fact!
shaky I agree it takes a lot to be able to ask for help.
I keep telling my nearest and dearest to please keep an eye on me after this baby is born as I am so scared I will end up really poorly again. Finger crossed I will escape it again but if not I have no shame in getting help.

monkey have you discussed your fears with your GP? I was assigned a Psych nurse who I met with once during my pregnancy and twice after, just in case PND reared it's ugly head along with the rest of my MH issues.

Luckily it didn't. Just everything else!

I also had, BTW, ante-natal depression and (didn't say this earlier as there was enough judgment going on here) was put back on my Trazadone while still pregnant. It hasn't been proven to be safe, since they can't test it on pregnant women for obvious reasons, but in a small study of women who were already on it and stayed on it, there was no increase in birth defects or miscarriage.

My son is now 3.3 and singing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star while dancing around the living room.

OP I'm on sertraline (lustral) for pnd. I became ill pretty much as soon as ds was born - had a very traumatic delivery which I'm sure was part of it.

I was worried about side effects and reluctant to go on AD's but I knew I had to try something because I was a total basket case. Honestly its been the best thing I could have done, Ive been on them about 2 months and I feel pretty normal again. I think a usual course for pnd is 6 months after you start feeling better& then you gradually reduce dose.

I see it as the same as taking medication for any other condition. The only difference is the stigma that's attached.

Monkey I think if you have experienced it once you are more likely to recognise the symptoms and get help sooner rather than later.

It's great that you have asked your family to keep an eye on you, sometimes you just can't see it yourself...

Have you talked to your gp and midwife about it so they can give you the best support after you have had the baby?

It took me a long time to realise that I was traumatised after the birth of ds.

Good luck with the rest of your pregnancy, I hope all goes well for you and you don't suffer badly this time round x

CBT is only useful IMHO if you suffer from anxiety. It is absolutely no use forum depression.

I am currently on Sertraline I was on Duloxitine. I know why I'm depressed, but nobody can cure the reason. These drugs and my DS stop me from carrying out my suicidal thoughts, although they don't stop me self harming if I have had a particularly bad week.

I would love to come off them, but I need to function, as a single mum I can't do duvet days, I can't cease to exist as my sons father doesn't want to know.

I will have an even bigger struggle soon because my mum has a life limiting illness I have to watch her deteriorate week by week.

Find me something other than tablets that will help and I'll gladly do it.

And totally agree - when you are properly depressed you can't "pull yourself out of it" or "just get on with things" and it doesn't go away by itself.

I've had counselling, which helped a bit, but it wouldn't have cured me!

Forum? For.

"if ADs work, and keep me functioning, then I don't care why they work. You can cite all the studies you like but if ADs stop me giving in then I'm all for them, regardless of whether they are 'proven' to work or not."

This.

I think the issue is that people don't get the difference between feeling down and depression. I have tried to kill myself 3 times and the only thing that has helped has been ADs. I'm not talking about feeling a bit sad or lonely, I'm talking seriously thinking that I am a piece of shit who deserves to die. Not on ADs now and I can feel myself heading back there. Yesterday I sat and cried for my entire lunchbreak. If there isn't something wrong with me then it might as well end as I can't do another 50 years of being a worthless failure who deserves pain.

If you don't think depression is real, just be thankful you haven't been there and pray you won't be cursing the irony soon enough.

As an aside I personally think it's something that you can only comment on if you've been through it, reading up on it doesn't give you the empathy to understand how complicated an illness it can be.

Saying that I have read up and asked questions on it since being on meds as I want to know what I am putting in my body.

Well said joyful, you have to do whatever it takes to get through each day, if that means taking meds, so be it.

I would like to be Worzel Gummidge and be able to take my head off, put it in a box and put on my normal, happy head on instead. My meds give me my normal head back...

feeling down and depression to me are two different things. we all have off days, depression is not just an off day!
My pnd was the first bought of depression I had so a total shock to me and family.
Thanks for the advice, never thought to have help in place before!
It does worry me that it will happen again and not a lot I can do to prevent it.

They're life savers.

I'm really shocked at the some of the attitudes here towards a legitimate, tried and tested pharmaceutical aid.

Stigma surrounding mental health is certainly alive and kicking, isn't it.

I have had 3 bouts of depression as an adult - one very serious, the subsequent 2 less so.

Each time, I was offered, and took, the counselling plus antidepressants treatment. The first time I was on antidepressants for a year and a half (the half year was spent slowly reducing the dose under medical guidance so that eventually it stopped. I was doing well and reducing the dose slowly allowed me to move just to counselling, and then as my depression lifted, that stopped too). the subsequent times, I took them for less than a year, and at a slightly lower dose, I think.

Counselling plus antidepressants has the most success in treating depression. One without the other is not as effective. They were a huge help both times - the first time, I think the medication arrested a downward slide that would have ended in suicide.

I do not understand someone going to a doctor, asking for help, and then refusing that help when it is offered.

The only problem I had with antidepressants was the stigma attached to taking them. Once close friend used to talk about them as if they were my problem, not the depression. Several friends thought I was taking tranquillisers, and persisted in referring to the antidepressants as such. 'Don't you worry you'll get addicted to the Valium?' said one. I've never taken valium. SSRIs are not bloody Valium.

So yes, apart from the ignorance and prejudice, I found antidepressants to be very useful at the time.