To ask if antidepressants changed your life?

[Fortheweekend]

For better or for worse?
I’m sorry as I know this type of question has been done to death but I’m at my wits end.
I have anxiety, I have overwhelming digestive issues which control my day to day living (Have had endless tests and confirmed as IBS by several gastroenterologists and told anxiety will make this worse).
My anxiety isn’t helped by the fact that I look after my mum who suffers from Alzheimer’s so I know the next few years will become even more stressful and anxiety ridden.
However I am petrified of going on antidepressants. I worry they will exacerbate my already awful gut issues, I worry they will make my aura migraines worse, I worry I’ll end up zombie like and tired all day, I worry they will make me gain weight (I have huge issues with fear of putting on weight) and I really worry they will put me at even more risk of getting dementia. I you can see, I worry and overthink ALOT!
But living with anxiety day to day is like walking through each day in concrete boots whilst dragging a ton of ball and chains with me.
My husband doesn’t help by saying that once on them I will probably never get off them (yet he has zero experience of antidepressants!).
Can anyone give me an insight as to what it is like living life on antidepressants? Good, bad, side effects? Anything!

They've changed my life for the better. Honestly, I can't tell you what they've done for me. I was exhausted for the first month when I started taking them but not anymore. In fact, I've never felt so awake. I'm not scared anymore. I can do things now, that I never thought I'd ever be able to do. All thanks to the pills. I'm much better for it, more like the person I wanted to be. People say they don't work miracles and I do agree, of course, they work differently for everyone but for me they have been utterly life changing. But fir every story like mine, someone else may have a completely different story to tell that hasn't been so positive. I think it's worth giving them a try and if they don't have the affect you are after then you can always discuss with your GP changing them, adjusting dosage or coming off completely.

Sorry that’s you’re having a rough time

I’ve got IBS too, and have been on sertraline in the past. As long as I took an anti acid like omeprazole or lansoprazole daily, it was fine in that regard. And my stomach is sensitive!

It took the edge off the anxiety a lot, and stopped some intrusive thoughts I was having so that was good. I don’t like bing on tablets long term so I came off them after about 6 months with no issue - sertraline in a low dose is a subtle change so not addictive ime. Still very helpful though because the anxiety didn’t return after.

It really can’t hurt to try, know that you can come off if you don’t like it. You do have to wean off it but it’s easy at a low dose

I have chronic migraine (including with aura), IBS and depression.

The pills have made NO difference to my migraines, nor my IBS. Honestly, not a jot. I've had several episodes of depression, and been on two different pills in them. Neither affected my other health conditions.

The tablets did, however, stop my panic attacks, help me cope with being a passenger in a car again (its a control thing with me, I'm fine if I'm driving), let me turn my brain off instead of going round in circles all day and night, and gave me a chance to recover, have some counselling, and actually REST instead of flopping.

Your husband is, frankly, being an arsehole. Does it really matter if you are on them forever? You wouldn't stop taking medication for diabetes just because you didn't fancy taking it long term. This is no different.

You wouldn't decline a plaster cast to support your broken leg if you needed it - this is the same. You need a plaster cast, and these are the cast for depression and for anxiety.

Please take them and ignore all the people who bitch about them when they haven't taken them.

'You wouldn't decline a plaster cast to support your broken leg if you needed it - this is the same. You need a plaster cast, and these are the cast for depression and for anxiety.'

The thing is a plaster cast is the only way to fix a broken leg. Anxiety can be helped by other ways such as lifestyle changes, cbt and managing expectations. Of course there are significant mental health issues where medication is needed but for everyday worries and stress a good diet and physical activity can be just as beneficial.

That will be an unpopular view on mn but so many seem to think ADs are the solution when sometimes you really can change the negative thoughts yourself. Once you're on ADs they become a crutch that people can't seem to then do without.

Hi
I’m sorry that things are difficult for you at the moment.
I began taking a high dose of Prozac some fifteen years ago.
It has literally saved me. I suffer symptoms of complex trauma, life was very difficult and sad, I was overcome with fear.
I understand and fully accept that I will probably use them for life, and that’s okay. My cognitive function is absolutely fine ( I’ve done a degree as well as extensive further study) I live in peace. I’m neither a zombie nor numb, I am engaged with the world and have more positivity than I ever thought possible.
Nobody knows about my medication, it is not something that you necessarily need to share, especially if opinions are less than helpful.
Good luck

No, they don't become a crutch and they aren't addictive. Do you have personal experience of taking antidepressants?

Pills can't be used in isolation - that's when people think they will cure them alone, and not do any other work to get better. So CBT, counselling, etc work alongside the medication... Perhaps that's the kind of thing you've seen?

The OP describes living with concrete boots. I describe my experience as drowning. The pills stop the boots getting heavier or in my case, allowed me to claw my way to the surface. In either case, it helps you to help yourself. If you aren't able to help yourself because your brain is being addled by being in overdrive, a stint of pills can make an enormous difference. In my case, the difference between life or death as I couldn't see the point in living as I was.

Antidepressants changed my life for the better because they enabled me to access CBT. I had had CBT previously and it had helped a little, but only during the couple of months of therapy. Then I slid back into my unhelpful thought patterns. I don't think I ever truly bought into the concept. A few years later I had CBT again, but this time while on ADs. The difference was extraordinary. This time I was far more receptive, far more open to change.

I was on ADs for about 18m. Had very minor side effects for the first 2-3w. The only negative I found was that my emotional range shrank. Overall I was in a vastly better place, but I never seemed to have any very strong emotions. I came off ADs very easily. A couple of years later I felt myself sinking back into spirals of negative thoughts and behaviour, so I went back on the ADs. Only needed them for about 6m that time.

Throughout this period I have had various health issues, acute and chronic, for myself and my dc. The ADs has no negative effects on the health issues, but highly positive effects ability to deal with them.

I was terrified to start taking ADs, so I asked dh to read the patient info leaflet and only tell me what I critically needed to know at that point. And to keep an eye on me for side effects.

Hope you find your way through this. It's really difficult to keep a sense of perspective - depression and anxiety can really overwhelm. ADs can reduce that overwhelmingness and help you gain some clarity about your next steps. It's a journey. But there are guidebooks, lots of people have been there before.

Once you're on ADs they become a crutch that people can't seem to then do without.

I've never understood this position. you know what else I use as a crutch and am going to have to use forever? ...An actual crutch, and a walking stick, and a wheelchair.

If something makes a measurable difference to your quality of life I don't understand why people look down on it. (Yes there are other things you can do as well, and not everyone needs medication/treatment/life improving aids forever but it doesn't matter if they do)

I'm currently on a higher does of ADs. The pros outweigh the cons for me or I wouldn't still be taking them. I am able to handle my life (mostly) my panic attacks have reduced and I no longer want to kill myself. I am however very sleepy so I would like to reduce the does when I'm able to. I don't think if be here without them though.

They changed my life indirectly in that my daughter was able to work with her anxiety with the support of ADs so I no longer had to carry her.

She did have to try a few different ones, as one lot didn't agree with her.

She still had to do all the other work: the CBT, the self-care, the planning to make sure her anxiety was manageable. She still had years of counselling. She still has to work on managing and controlling her thoughts. The difference was that she could engage with that work.

I take Citalopram for anxiety. Have done for 18 months. Started off on 20mg but eventually reduced to 10 with no issues. It has helped enormously.

I can honestly say that sertraline has changed my life. I am me again. I personally have had no side effects, or at least none that have had any impact. I have been on them for years, and did wonder about whether I "should" try to come off them, but my GP said if they are working for you and you're not having side effects, why change things? That suits me - if I can be me again I'm quite happy taking a pill every day! Many people do take them for only a while though, and come off them just fine when they feel ready. It's totally your choice.

I honestly think you might as well give them a go - if you don't get on with them you can stop taking them and you won't be any worse off, and if they work then that's great!

Yes.... for the better.
I'm pretty much free from anxiety and the crippling thoughts that come with it.
I'm so much more relaxed, I've learned to not worry about the thoughts / opinions of others who don't matter to me.
I feel liberated, wiser and so much less stressed

I wish I’d started taking them a couple of years before I finally did tbh. I don’t understand the stigma of taking medicine for your mental health when you wouldn’t think twice about taking it for a physical condition.

Worse I'm afraid. The sleepiness made them impossible to take.
I've decided I'm better off miserable and functioning than unable to work and lone parent properly. I'm a total lightweight tbh and can't function with any but the tiniest amounts of occasional medication.
Counselling and hard exercise works for me.

Yes 100%. The first type didn't help but the second really turned things around in combination with CBT. No troubling side effects at all except sometimes feeling hot which is a tiny price to pay.
My life is immeasurably better.

That will be an unpopular view on mn but so many seem to think ADs are the solution when sometimes you really can change the negative thoughts yourself. My experience of depression is that you need the antidepressants to get yourself to a stage where you can start working on changing the negative thoughts.

CBT has been a mixed blessing. All the people who used to say "Just pull yourself together" are now saying "it's just because you're thinking negative thoughts".

I took citalopram for around 2 years and it definitely changed my life for the better. It made me feel like the person I was before my anxiety took over, and gave me the head space to be able to develop those tools I need to recognise when my anxiety is starting to take over, and to rationalise things. I also had horrible intrusive thoughts for years, that I had started to believe were just normal for me, and the citalopram completely got rid of those. I was able to come off it without any issue, but if I need to go on it again at some point I would not hesitate.

Yes, because DH started to take them. The relief at having him back is immense.

CBT has been a mixed blessing. All the people who used to say "Just pull yourself together" are now saying "it's just because you're thinking negative thoughts".

Yeah I think CBT tends to be thrown at everyone because its cheap when lots of those people actually need trauma informed psychotherapy and things like DBT

Yes. For the better: I did not complete suicide.

I have literally no time at all for the "people get dependent on them and use them as a crutch" argument. I work in mental health, there are no one size fits all solutions. I am genuinely delighted to hear that CBT, DBT, psychoanalysis or any other type of therapy has worked for someone to the extent that they feel fully recovered and in no need of pharmaceutical or other interventions, I wish them nothing but happiness and want their recovery to be lifelong- but I am sick and tired of people getting all evangelical about an intervention which has worked for them and insisting that if everyone else would just do what they did and put some work in, they too would be recovered and well and in need of nothing further.

I'm currently not on anti depressant medication, I'm doing OK, I'm accessing a type of therapy which is beneficial to me, I have been managing my mental health issues for decades and if in the future I need to use medication again, I will, and I will do so without any sense of shame or failure or guilt. And I will not take into account the opinions of people who trot out claptrap about crutches and dependence and think that they are some sort of blueprint for humanity and that what is right for them is right for everyone else.

They can make a massive improvement to quality of life. I don't understand the stigma about 'being on them forever' or 'never being able to get off them'
If someone has a physical condition requiring medication such as asthma or diabetes no one questions this. I don't see how anxiety is any different.

'Do you have personal experience of taking antidepressants?'

I used to work in an organisation where half the staff were on them. They were all very happy to talk at length about their many symptoms but imo some could have helped themselves with physical activity and a bit of cbt or positive thinking.

' In my case, the difference between life or death as I couldn't see the point in living as I was.'

Yes and as I said someone with significant mh problems including suicidal thoughts of course will need medication . However, everyone 'has anxiety' nowadays, when many (imo) are just actually reacting very normally to various circumstances, they need to develop strategies to cope. To use your broken leg analogy, you wouldn’t put a cast on a sprained ankle.

Similar to others I needed the antidepressants to get myself to a place where I could begin to work on my depression using other methods (exercise, CBT etc) but without them I would have spiralled even further. Over time as I got better and learnt what my triggers were I was able to slowly come off them but for me they were essential to begin with.

I take them. My life is better with them, I am different and some aspects not better ie I would say I'm definitely slightly 'detached. The negatives are infinitely better than the alternative me.
You can only try, they may help you cope with other methods to like Cbt etc
Your husbands comment is not helpful, you can come off them but some people do need to be on them and there is no shame in that and no timescale of how long you should be on them. If your ill, your ill.