PND antidepressants making me worse

[Forgottenwhatsleepfeelslike]

Hi, have after a long internal struggle accepted that I am suffering from PND. Have a 7 month DD who is not a good sleeper and so sleep deprivation is playing a large part. Went to GP today who prescribed paroxetine (Seroxat). Have taken first dose and almost immediately feel worse. Even more tired than normal, very depressed, feeling like I can't cope. Have begged DH to come home from work as terrified I'll get frustrated with DD and unintentionally hurt her. Is this normal? Does anyone else have experience of Seroxat? I am bfing so ADs are limited. DD won't take a bottle so as much as I'd like to stop bfing I can't! Feeling very isolated as we moved to a new area when I was pg and I don't drive so I have no friends I can just pop and see or who can come round. Terrified of going out anywhere as DD's nap schedule is incredibly demanding and if I don't stay in and ensure she naps properly, she gets overtired and doesn't sleep so I don't sleep and everything is exacerbated. Really feeling a bit at the end of my tether and not sure how to cope.

the medicine
Increased anxiety, nervousness,headache, loss of appetite, sleep loss and dry mouth are moderately common with this treatment and often recede over the first couple of days. You haven't mentioned your dose and some of these are dose related....guessing you've started at 20mg?? You could 'phone your GP (in fact I would recommend) they will probably suggest that you either persevere and the symptoms will probably reduce over the next 2-3 days or they may reduce the initial dose...s/he knows you and will base their decision on that.

you
Now to you...well done for accepting you have depression...it's common but still somehow we blame ourselves for it???Why, we don't fight against a diagnosis of Asthma or blame ourselves when we have 'flu'?? It's a biochemical imbalance in the brain..and you can be treated and it will (eventually) help...tho' never fast enough. Hang on in there!!!

milk
Breastfeeding, wow you have done brilliantly to get to 7 months..especially with how you are feeling. I am a great advocate of breastfeeding but it sounds like you've really had enough. Your daughter is 7 months so she doesn't need to drink from a bottle...presumably she drinks water from a cup...she can take milk (either expressed or formula) from a cup too...you can completely bypass the bottle. It just needs to be cleaned as thoroughly as you clean a bottle. None of mine ever had a bottle...they hated them, when my first daughter was dreadfully ill in hospital she took expressed milk from an open cup (about the size of the clear plastic lid of a feeding bottle) whilst sitting on the nurse or my knee and she was much younger. Breastfeeding is exhausting, maybe you need a break or a reduction?? There are loads of well designed cups out there...I always used the really simple Tommy Tippee plastic beakers myself. Get DH to introduce it and let her play with it and don't worry about measuring how much milk she takes...you can't measure breastfeeding! She will self-regulate her calories between food and milk.

Be strong and courageous and ask for LOTS of help..casseroles, babysitting, ironing...we women are good at supporting each-other and if you get the support you will be able to provide it in a happier time in your life.

I wish you all the best

I was given paroxatene initially and I knew from that first tablet that it didn't suit me. I felt very, very weird. I phoned the gp and they prescribed citilopram which was better.

Thanks for your replies. Joruth I'm so grateful for your supportive comments, it's been a struggle but am glad I'm hopefully on the up now that I've accepted it as a problem rather than ignoring it. Regards the milk, she will take water from a beaker but not milk. DH is going to try this week!

Madlizzy I'm tempted to do the same as you, have been hearing a lot of bad things about seroxat.

Thanks again :)

You've done so well to ask for help, try to keep strong and keep asking.

With any antidepressant you'll feel worse before you feel better, IME after a week the start up side effects start to subside, most are gone within a month. You shouldn't expect to start to feel better for at least 3 weeks, often it takes 5 or 6 weeks. Where I am (non-UK) a lot of people are prescribed light doses of Oxazepam (a benzodiazepine) to help in the first couple of weeks. AFAIK it is OK when BF, it'd be well worth asking your GP if (s)he'd give you some.

Hi, I was diagnosed with PND at my babys 6 week check and was prescribed Fluoxatine. I was told that it would take atleast 3 weeks to start working and on top of that they would probably make me feel worse for the first few days, including more panic attacks than I was already having and feeling eve more on edge, I was prescribed Diazapam alongside the AD's to help with this but found they made me feel awful, everything felt very surreal and weird and I felt unable to look after my baby properly which made me feel even worse so I layed off those and rode out the feelings from the AD and now 3 weeks on I feel they are starting to help. The panic attacks have stopped and I am able to eat a little now but I still feel quite down which im hoping will get better as the time goes on.
I hope the AD's start to work for you soon!

Take care x

Hoping you are coping and getting the support you need. Best wishes