To ask how many of you take antidepressants?

[Afternooninthepark]

I am 46 and have suffered from anxiety for 25 years. During that time I have tried everything (other than antidepressants) to help. Some things have helped a little but many have not.
I have always turned down the offer of antidepressants as tbh, I am scared of the potential side effects and potential addictive qualities of these meds.
Every time I feel that maybe I should give them a go, there is something in the media and often negative about them (only yesterday there was a discussion on Radio 2 about people addicted to antidepressants and unable to get off them),
However, I am now 46 and my anxiety is uncontrollable, it consumes me all day, every day, I have physical symptoms as a result which exacerbates the anxiety and so the vicious cycle continues. I am beginning to think I need something stronger than the things I have tried so far, as I can not carry on living my life as I have as it effects every aspect of mine and my families lives.
I read that there are around 69/70 million prescriptions of AD’s issued in the U.K. every year and so figure that some of you on here must fall into those statistics and I am confident you would give me an honest and realistic account of your experiences, good or bad of antidepressants (although, of course I appreciate we are all different).
So, can I please ask if any of you take or have taken antidepressants and have/did they help with your problems or are they the evil medications that the media will have me believe?

I should say that I had no real side effects when o started taking either drug. I did find that with the C I had a dry mouth for a week or two which apparently is an effect, but nothing major.

I was so anti medication for anxiety and depression. It took a while for me to admit that I needed a bit of help but am on sertraline which has literally changed my life. Like others said the first week or so is awful I didn't sleep for a week but then it all settles down and I feel so much more in control of my head now

I take 300mg Venlafaxine MR daily, it's an SNRI.

Has some side effects like tiredness etc etc

But it's saved my life.

I've been taking it since 2011, been on this dose since 2013.
May have to increase it as got low level Depression again but the problem is I have the bipolar type of schizoaffective disorder so I don't want to go the other way & go manic.

I don't take them at the moment, but have done at three different points in my life before. They didn't make me feel any different at all, or so I thought at first, then I'd suddenly think 'oh, I actually feel alright today' a few weeks later and realise they were actually doing something! No side effects when I stopped taking them either. I know loads of people who have taken them. A few have had some mild side effects like nausea for a few days, some have tried a few types until they found one that worked for them. No horror stories though.

No shame in needing them, far worse to wake up every day feeling like you are doing at the moment.

Yep.
Tried quite a few with no real improvement until I was given Sertraline.
I've been on it for about 7 years and don't have any plans to stop any time soon.
It's changed my life.

Mn is always very pro antidepressants. I was on and off fluoxetine for 20 years, had horrible time with withdrawal. After a while it didn't work any more and made me worse. Have a look at the online site Surviving antidepressants for withdrawal, for a view of that, I am not trying exercise and St John's wort which seems to be helping a bit. Getting older, fluoxetine also has this risk of fractures which worried me, I didn;t want to be on it for ever.

I took sertraline for almost 17 years including during pg and breastfeeding. For some reason it stopped working and I now take Venlafaxine.

I have severe complex depression (also take a small dose of an antipsychotic) and anxiety and I will never be able to come off these medications. I look at it quite pragmatically- my brother takes daily medication for diabetes and no one is trying to get him to come off his insulin!!

I've been on sertraline for about 4 years now. It's really helped me.
I tried to reduce my dose a couple of months ago from 150g to 100g but it didn't work.
They did knock me about for the first few days though.

me! i had the prescription for an age before i started to take them as i was worried about so many thugs.... they have been amazing. they haven't cured me but my day to day life is so much less overwhelming in them.

I'm coming off citalopram after being on them for the best part of 10 years. Strangely, what made me decide to come off them was getting my beloved dog, who has lifted my mood tremendously. I think dogs should be prescribed on the NHS.

Sooo SSRI’s are not technically addictive, not in the way opioids are. What they are is very difficult to stop, because there is no Pharma research or support for coming off them. Essentially it’s a one way road (for many not for all). It’s difficult to stop taking something that’s actually helping.

Honestly there is absolutely no basis whatsoever for their being some form of recognised chemical imbalance in the brain that SSRIs resolve. Pharma has NO IDEA how these drugs work. They essentially keep serotonin knocking around in your brain and hope for the best. They do work, but they don’t know how and that always worried me massively. Yet even having studied so much of the research I was desperate and i would have tried anything.

They are extremely helpful even life saving for many. I advocate for anyone to try them to help ease their suffering. Yet there is a cost, what pp Vape said about being more distanced from emotions, that is the numbing and because it can be quite subtle it is dismissed. But I am an entirely different person on them and it’s been a few years, I want to stop to go back and remember who I am. Yet I am not allowed to mention this in real life. And who I was before caused problems for loved ones so it’s jot just me to consider.

Really just try them, but stick with them for a month as you may feel a bit rough physically at first. If they don’t work after a while change and there are a few types and some work better for different persons.

I don’t want to be on them forever, but coming off I feel terrible. There is also very little research done on the long term effects of these drugs that does worry me.

Yet still each morning I take the little friend, for fear of what life without it might become.

Good luck!

I have been on and off antidepressants for 20 years for anxiety and depression. Sertraline and Fluoxetine have both worked well for me. Even a small dose is a massive, life changing help. Everything is a bit easier on them.

It could help to see worry about taking antidepressants as another symptom of anxiety. I know when I was really low I was more reluctant to go back on them and put myself under pressure to be ok on my own.

One other thing - I have recently been diagnosed with Coeliac disease which gives a physical reason for my years of anxiety - it has lots of mental health effects. Changing my diet has helped with my head no end, even to the point where I might consider coming off antidepressants soon.

I listened to that R2 piece yesterday and it made me feel upset. They seemed to be promoting a form of retreat therapy, which is probably amazing but it’s not widely available or achievable for all. It sounded like super-charged form of CBT to me.

Anti-d’s are worth a try. Your life sounds very difficult at the moment.

I've been on and off anti depressants since my teenage years.

for the last 2 years been taking 50mg sertaline and 25mg amtriptyline daily. recently ive noticed i'm feeling low again so might need to up the doses to what i was on before 100mg sertraline and 50mg amtriptyline or try something new.

So, can I please ask if any of you take or have taken antidepressants and have/did they help with your problems or are they the evil medications that the media will have me believe?

To be honest it even angers me that ... you won't help yourself and have instead put yourself through such a life of misery. I was on citalopram for 20 years, from 21 y.o. until 2 years ago when I gave up. It improved the quality of my life, allowed me to keep the job and live with the husband I had. 20mg was the usual dose, in the extreme situations (marriage breakdown) it was 40.

I'm ok without them now, but then I have a very different husband and the source of my anxiety -work - has been removed.

I wish you good luck. Please at least try some antidepressants. If they don't help you, you'll see what to do next. But you might not need to, because you could see a massive difference.

I am the same with anxiety, I occasionally take a beta blocker, but the things that help me are Trauma release exercise, lots of examples on YouTube, tai chi, reading Dr Claire weekes books and listening to her audi books and I also use a cbd oil vape called pheno pen. I do meditation, watch a ton of YouTube videos on anxiety, the only way it goes away is accepting it.

VapeVamp yes I’m a lot “harder” now. I’ve been off them longer than I’ve been on them now and I feel like they’ve rewired something in my brain. I only give a shit about important things now (family security work health)
For instance I pretty much avoid the news anyway as it’s anxiety provoking and couldn’t care less about Brexit or politics (sorry MNet I just haven’t the space in my brain for it!!).
I’ve no time for people fannying around nowadays.

I’ve developed some coping strategies amongst which are:
Come off social media
Get enough sleep
Don’t read the news
Read more books
Get enough down time
More nature
Less noise
Spend time with actual people rather than online
De cluttering the house - I was a hoarder
Doing a sport I enjoy-I go to the gym too but if I’m tired I rest and don’t punish myself
Eating better (I eat low carb)
Letting go of perfectionism
Refusing to do things out of obligation.

Be interested to know what strategies others have?

OP I'm on venlafaxine for anxiety very like yours / panic attacks. Have been for a few years. I lived with severe anxiety for most of my life just thinking I was "a worrier". Then I went through a trauma which resulted in me having an NHS psychologist for a while and I tried various ADs. For me, venlafaxine is great - hardly any side effects, the only downside is I can't drink more than half a glass of wine or I get a terrible headache, but that's also an upside - I now drink very little and I'm happy with that. And I have a life in which I worry and panic roughly the same amount as anyone else - I still do, but it doesn't rule my life and drench me in adrenaline all the time. And I don't feel anything has been "taken away" from me - I'm still the same person, still creative, energetic, enjoy life etc (despite menopause setting in).

It is a matter of finding the AD that works for you - I have been through several. Mirtazipine damped down the anxiety but made me feel numb and pile on weight. Sertraline was OK but not very effective. Citalopram was out immediately as it made my neck and jaw feel constantly tense. Then I found The One :) I'm on a fairly low dose and hope to reduce it further eventually. One day, maybe I'll be able to come off it but my GP says it doesn't matter if I do need to stay on it very long-term. Even if I do, it's not an addiction, it's not an addictive drug. The news stories were mainly about addictions to opioid painkillers.

Being in a state of endless high cortisol and adrenaline levels because of your anxiety is bad for you physically. Though there may be risks with some ADs, they are probably outweighed by the risks of the stress you're dealing with every day.

It's worth finding what works for you - you can have a different life. I hope you can get there

I am on citalopram now- for anxiety and "low mood"(weird way of phrasing it but ok...) have been for the last 10 months- it was a good decision- as - like you I had been wary of the side effects and had turned them down on a number of occasions - looking back I wish I had done it sooner - truthfully the first 10 days were a bit weird but it soon cleared.

I was worried that it would make me permanently foggy - quite happy at the thought of having little emotion as I had been finding it overwhelming- but found that actually i'm not numb - I have been actually laughing for the first time in 2 years-

I'm still on the waiting list for therapy, as round me its well over 9 months ,and as much as id like to I cant afford to go private-

try them and see how you get on-

best of luck OP

I’ve been on Citalopram for more than 15 years and don’t ever want to stop them. Why suffer with depression if you don’t have to? I’m also diabetic and wouldn’t refuse insulin. I don’t see the difference.

Another citalopram user here. Tried sertraline (didn’t get on with it AT ALL) and fluoxetine when pregnant, but citalopram suits me best.

My kids probably wouldn’t have a Mum if I wasn’t on it. Actually, they probably wouldn’t be here at all as I started it well before even considering dc. Anyway, it’s saved my life put it that way

I've been on citalopram for about 7 years

I'm on citalopram. They make SUCH a difference to me. I've had counselling several times, but truly I just need the drugs and to keep a healthy lifestyle.
Think my husband (when a boyfriend) was a bit creeped out at first when he knew I took them, but now sees such a difference in me when I don't take them, I.e. during pregnancy.

I went on citalopram when I was stuck in a horrendous relationship - my ex manipulated, twisted, lied and abused me so badly I couldn't even think straight. They helped "numb" it. Then Dr took me off them because she said "A year is long"... then ex walked out without warning. To be honest I was so screwed up, I didn't even noticed he'd packed and left at first.

I've moved and I'm still off them. They made me gain a lot of weight and coming off them was hell, oh my god I felt ill for weaks, sick and in pain everywhere. I wouldn't go back on them.

I need CBT. It's brilliant but long waiting lists and your kids have to be in school/care obviously.

How come peoples Dr's let them stay on it for years, and mine took me off it after a year because she said "You can get too dependent on it and it can cause long term physical health problems"....?! Seriously baffled now.