To ask how bad things need to be to take antidepressants?

[Walkerby]

Hello all, hoping for some advice/experience. Feel I could do with some help but don’t know if antidepressants are the answer.

We’re all down/stressed with lockdown, home schooling etc, I know. But I’m struggling when usually I’m very steady. Just no motivation, feels like a constant treadmill, snappy with the kids, feel no joy in anything, lost all interest in sex, just feel quite numb. Can’t even cry at times when I feel like a good cry would do me good. My business (self employed) is non existent through covid as events based so struggling financially too (one of the 3 million excluded from Sunak’s schemes).

I fell apart last Spring as was so stressed with the effect on my work and schooling the kids, since then I haven’t felt crushingly low or ‘actively’ depressed, but I certainly don’t feel myself. Tried exercise and mindfulness meditation which helped a bit but even finding the motivation for that is hard.

Keep getting to the verge of contacting gp and pulling back. Just don’t know if I feel ‘bad enough’ to warrant antidepressants but then I have no idea what that even means!? Anyone had similar feelings /experience and found something that works?

Thank you x

Whether you are willing to take antidepressants or not is cultural. There is no level of badness it has to be at to take them x

I'm sorry you feel so low.

I went on Sertraline in May 2020. I was how you described except I was crying every day. Over nothing. I couldn't hold it in and was sobbing in front of my kids.

The last straw was when I took them out for our daily walk and just cried the whole time. I just had a moment and I thought 'wow, that's not normal'.

I initially started on 25mg to ease me in and since then I've gone up to 100mg, which seems to be the best dosage for me.

I understand the hesitation when starting things like this, but just think of it as yet another tool to get you through this tough time. There will come a day when you don't need it anymore and you can wean yourself off it.

It's to help you manage and cope, and you must look after your mental health.

I take them for minor anxiety - they make my life so much better. Just take them, you can always stop.

Yes. Take them. I'm feeling very similar and am going to the doctor on Friday to ask for them. I know when I need them. It's when normal coping mechanisms work. I've found lockdown hard but coped in the summer with nice weather and easier opportunities to meet up outside. Winter and total lockdown has taken all of my normal coping mechanisms away. So I basically can't cope. I've not slept for a week and I'm in a bad place.

There's no shame in anti depressants. You'd never say to someone with diabetes to deal with it naturally you'd give them meds. Do not be ashamed. Get the help you need.

Thank you so much, all 💐. I just didn’t know whether I ‘qualified’ for them iykwim, whether they’d be of any help for how I’m feeling, but as you say it seems well worth a try. Thanks for being so lovely x

You sound depressed to me OP

I was in a similar place to what you describe, and had got to the point where I didn't really have it in me to keep going much longer because everything seemed so pointless. So speak to your GP about it when you can, IME they'll help.

I’ve been off my sertraline for a month and have decided today to go back on them. I feel miserable and detached and it’s getting to the stage where nothing is bringing me joy at all. I thought I was “better”, but looks like I was ok because of the sertraline. I’ve been on them since august 2019 as had PND and they changed me so much x

Oh so to answer the question, if you feel you need them then go for it. Sending you love in these shit times xx

OP please go to your GP, you don’t need to self-assess if you need them or not that’s what they do. Depression is quite misunderstood, for many it feels exactly like what you have just described in numbness/lack of interest instead of “sadness”. Good luck

I've just been online and made an appt with my gp. Thank you for the support :-) x

Good move OP. Don't forget they can take several weeks to start working, and it may be that you have to change the dosage, or try a few before you find the one that works for you.
I had to start taking them last year, partially pandemic related, and they've sorted me out

After a while you’ll just suddenly realise you don’t feel so shit any more. I think with them I feel like most people normally do. I’m not embarrassed one iota about it.

I'm so glad you've made an appointment with your GP. Don't forget to tell him/her everything you've been feeling, don't minimise or feel embarrassed. When you say you feel no joy in anything, no motivation, no joy in sex, just numb that does sound very much like you're depressed so you're doing the right thing.

Re. your original post - you asked if you're "bad enough" to warrant antidepressants. I know you know this but you won't be judged, and there is no "marker" you have to reach to qualify. This kind of self doubt and repetitive critical thinking is something that happens when you feel very low. Well done for booking the appointment when you did and hope it goes well x

Well done on booking that appointment. Be brutally honest with your GP, there is no shame in it.

I hope everything goes well at your appointment OP. I hope you get some medication that will lift your spirits.

Just want to say thank you again for all your kindness and encouragement x

I think @Walkerby that you will find that the best practice for dealing with low mood, is to offer counselling first, not drugs. This is medical advice.

It sounds as if you are reacting to the current situation so maybe you could benefit from talking therapy or CBT- again, that's what GPs are supposed to offer.

ADs are not going to change anyone's circumstances and they do often just blunt emotions, rather than dealing with the root cause.

Have you looked at the website MIND? I guess you have if you have tried mindfulness and meditation. What about exercise? Some GPs who are more enlightened are prescribing green exercise- walking in open green spaces.

If I were you I'd keep an open mind about what might help because there is a lot of research to show that ADs really only act as a placebo and there's concern that too many people use them when they aren't rally necessary.

ps Have you thought about SAD? It might be worth thinking about a lamp to give yourself light therapy.
Good luck with it all.

Defo agree with the other posters to take them if you can. Hopefully it wont be forever for you but theres no shame in needing a bit of help sometimes. These are pretty desolate times and ways to pull ourselves out of a low mood are pretty limited. Good luck OP I hope you feel better soon x

I agree with the other posters. There’s no level of how bad you need to feel to take antidepressants.
The key to recovering is a mix of things: antidepressants if you need them but also CBT or other therapy, self care, regular sleep, exercise, diet etc. The problem is when you feel really bad, you can’t do any of those other things and the antidepressants can give you the ability to do them and start the recovery process. At least that was my experience.

What I’d also add is that a lot of people think antidepressants are just to be taken whenever you think you need them but they don’t work like that - they work over a long period of time and so you need a few weeks for them to build up and start working effectively and then ideally a few months to very slowly come off them so they don’t upset your brain chemistry and cause a relapse.

I never realised how ill I was until I’d been on anti depressants for months and looked back. If you’re feeling bad enough to consider taking them then I strongly recommend going to see your GP.

Not this claptrap about ADs really only acting as a placebo again .... that is absolutely not what the research says. They show clear, demonstrable benefit in moderate to severe depression. It is impossible to tell from someone's posting online whether depression is mild and circumstantial, moderate, or severe.

If I were you I'd keep an open mind about what might help because there is a lot of research to show that ADs really only act as a placebo and there's concern that too many people use them when they aren't rally necessary.

Yeah, claptrap. I was at the point of giving up a few months ago and now I feel like an actual human being again after starting ADs).

Well done OP for making the appointment.

Not being able to cry can be a sign of depression.

Nobody can tell you whether it's right for you, I would read up about how they work and the side effects, pretty sure your gp will prescribe so it's a case of do you want medication. Everything you say above is to be expected at the moment, that treadmill feeling especially I can identify with - though the analogy I used to my mum was putting crosses on the wall on a desert island to track days, but not knowing what day the rescue ship will appear on the horizon (both mum and myself are the least depressed people you can meet but we are down!)

Most of my loved ones are on antidepressants, I'm certainly not anti drugs but at the moment I would say for most people (who haven't had problems with clinical depression or anxiety before) your feelings are not medical, they are because it's really crap at the moment! I would personally in your situation try non medication techniques for next month or so, because that chink of light is getting brighter. I'm not a doctor but I'm familiar with the fact most of the drugs make you feel worse before you feel better and aren't a panacea anyway. My dd is on 3 medications currently and had tried out a few more over the last 7 years - current ones make her sleep 12+ hours a day