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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To just take lifelong antidepressants

117 replies

StripeyandConfused · 02/11/2020 08:22

Been on them on and off since 19. I'm currently without them and I feel awful. It's like I cant cope without them

OP posts:
QuentinWinters · 02/11/2020 08:24

I'm in the same boat op. I hate taking the fuckers but feels like I have to so i try to ignore I'm taking them and pretend they are vitamins or something. Flowers

HoollyWugger · 02/11/2020 08:25

I'm the same. Currently back on fluoxetine 40mg and the difference has been amazing.

Lucyccfc68 · 02/11/2020 08:26

Have you had any other form if treatment?

Medication absolutely has its place, but it does need to be blended with other forms of treatment to help get to the cause of the issue.

Can you go back to your GP to ask for further help?

Original poster
StripeyandConfused · 02/11/2020 08:28

I dont have time for counselling. I tried an online thing but it was shite. I ended up under gastro though because prozac gave me diarrhoea all of a sudden despite being on it for years

OP posts:
dolphinpose · 02/11/2020 08:29

Hi OP,

It's fine if you have to. No different from a diabetic taking insulin all their life. If your body doesn't produce the essential hormones you need to stay on track - take them.

My concern, as someone who was on them for decades, is the side effects. I spent fifteen years in a fat, woolly haze, sleeping my life away. One day I realised I was not actually living a better life on them than off them, so titrated very slowly and did a year long campaign to get myself better without them. If you want, I'm happy to share my findings with you - bit too much info to share on here. I've been off them ever since but wouldn;t hesitate to go back to them if my new methods stopped working. All that matters is that you don't get locked in by depression. How you prevent it is individual choice about what works for you. No shame in any of it.

Flowers Brew

WomenAndVulvas · 02/11/2020 08:31

Unfortunately for some people, depression can be a chronic disease. Like high blood pressure - you can't stop taking medication after six months because it will go up again. It's often a lifelong disease.

BadDucks · 02/11/2020 08:33

If it helps then keep taking them.

N0tthe0nlyfruit · 02/11/2020 08:34

No reason not to if you need to.

Original poster
StripeyandConfused · 02/11/2020 08:34

I'm worried about the long term side effects of them

OP posts:
yelyah22 · 02/11/2020 08:36

I am. Have tried a couple of times in the last decade to come off them, thinking it was somehow better to be medication free. Both times were a disaster. And that's with multiple amounts of counselling and therapies - I just don't function well without them!

I've decided now I wouldn't tell my dad to stop taking his heart meds so he wasn't reliant on tablets, so I'll stop telling myself the same.

Sirzy · 02/11/2020 08:38

It worries me that you said you don’t have time for councelling. Sometimes you need to do what is needed to make time to look after yourself. I know it’s easier said than done but do try.

lumberingaboutthehouse · 02/11/2020 08:38

Counselling doesn’t always help, anyway.

OneRingToRuleThemAll · 02/11/2020 08:41

Definitely. I'm a long term anti depressant user, as are most of my side of the family. We don't seem to produce the chemical needed to ward off depression and the anti depressants replicate that chemical and keep us in balance.

AwaAnBileYerHeid · 02/11/2020 08:42

If you need them you need them. What else do you do yourself for your low mood/depression op? In regards to diet, exercise etc?

remaininlight · 02/11/2020 08:42

Me too! I was diagnosed with severe depression at 16 and began treatment with antidepressants at 21 after a failed suicide attempt. I've had years of therapy but nothing helps my depression as much as the antidepressants. I'm in my 50s now and am resigned to taking them for the rest of my life.

HerculePoirotsGreyCells · 02/11/2020 08:44

I'm on sertraline and I feel the same. They have been a godsend and taken the edge of the anxiety I feel. It's like I'm a 'normal' person. What would make me feel panicky before, doesn't now. If I have to take the tablets long term then I'm happy with that.

frogsareflyinginfromthewest · 02/11/2020 08:46

I have been on them for 12 years, and can honestly say it has saved my life and my marriage.

Not without the ups and downs of course, sometimes I have had to increase the dosage.

I will never come off them. You may have to try some other kinds, I had a terrible reaction to Seroxat, but now on Citalopram, and I can't tell I am on them, ifyswim.

Best of luck Flowers

Soundbyte · 02/11/2020 08:47

I’ve resigned myself to the fact I’ll be taking them for life recently too. I’ve spent over 20 years trying various things and they’re honestly the only thing that make a difference.

As for long term side effects, in all honesty I may not get as far for it to be an issue if I’m not taking them so I have to if I want to be around for my family.

Pegase · 02/11/2020 08:47

Are you experiencing side effects? If the medication is working then it is having a positive effect on the biochemistry in your brain which is not functioning as it should for some reason. The comparison with diabetes makes sense although the brain is obviously an immeasurably more complex organ. At the moment you need medication to allow your brain to use neurotransmitters appropriately just as a diabetic uses insulin. At some point you may not need them anymore as your brain functioning improves. Just as diabetes, for some, is reversible.

I would still recommend also doing some CBT or similar, even if you can only do it online. It has robust evidence for its efficacy.

Meruem · 02/11/2020 08:48

I will also be a lifelong user. As others have said, I just view it as being like anybody else who needs lifelong meds for a medical condition. Without wanting to sound over dramatic, my risk of suicide would be high without them. So surely better to be on meds and live, than try to come off them and die. I function very well on them, in fact far better than when I wasn’t on them because my depression made me sleep all the time.

Meixo · 02/11/2020 08:49

I was 14 when I had my first episode of depression I tried to end my life twice and again at 17. Mental illness runs rampant through my maternal line so I have to accept I have to take them or I could become unwell.
My gp called me and said you should come off them as you have been on them for so long. I take another drug for another condition which can interfere with mood so I politely told the GP no. I don't want my mental health to affect my DD like my mums did to me when she went off her meds.

Pegase · 02/11/2020 08:49

Also I don't know how old you are but new treatments are being researched all the time for depression as it is so common so there may well be more effective treatments with fewer side effects within the next 10 years.

Apileofballyhoo · 02/11/2020 08:54

I don't see any reason why you wouldn't take them if they make you feel better. It's a medicine like any other.

30mph · 02/11/2020 08:54

When you say you are without them and feel awful, you didn't just stop suddenly did you? If so, anybody would feel very bad doing this. Most people need to reduce very very slowly, cutting down in small measures over an extended period of time.

Athrawes · 02/11/2020 08:58

In general yes, it's fine to keep taking them if they are working and if the side effects are liveable.
I was on 40mg of citalopram for 8 years. I tried to come off a couple of times and was fairly quickly, within a couple of weeks, plunged into a really deep black place and my husband encouraged me to restart them.
Two years ago I tried again but this time really really slowly. I reduced a quarter of a tablet at a time - 5 mg at a time per month. It took a very sharp knife to cut them up teeny tiny and 9 months in total but I felt no side effects from coming off.
Coincidentally I chose to come off them at the same time that I left my husband. Turned out that I am happier without him and don't need anti depressants.
Plus my libido is back.