People with depression on meds - I need you

[Nosleepingclub]

Hi all,

The reason I need your help is I need to see if my feelings are ‘normal’.

Had depression and anxiety for around 15 years, only been medicated the last 5 years. At first the meds helped a lot, but since giving birth nearly two years ago, suffering with PND and psychosis afterwards, my mental health took a massive downturn.

I still take my meds but they don’t seem to be doing much anymore. I have ridiculous amounts of anxiety now, my chest feels like it’s about to cave in. I can barely drift off to sleep as my mind is rushing about thinking about everything I’ve ever done wrong in my life 🤦🏻‍♀️

I feel like I’m the worst mum in the world, when I know deep down, I’m a wonderful parent to my beautiful son (who is an absolute JOY to be around!).

If anything goes wrong or if I feel like I’ve done something silly, in my head, I tell myself I should kill my self. I don’t want to kill myself and I definitely wouldn’t but it’s more that this voice straight away says this that makes me think, is this normal?

People on meds, do you still feel anxious and depressed? I feel like there’s no point taking them as I’m still overwhelmed with these horrible thoughts and feelings.

Anyone else been in a similar situation?

I just want to know if I’m being over dramatic.

Thanks in advance.

If you are feeling like that please contact the GP ASAP.
You may need a dose increase or to be swapped to something that works better.

I have only had that happen once and a change in medication made things better again.

I hope you feel less overwhelmed again soon

Are you having any therapy alongside the meds? I would also recommend having another chat with your GP about your medication but I think talking therapy would help with the entrenched thinking pathways that are taking you straight to suicide. I understand you have no desire to kill yourself but for some reason this is your current 'go to' solution and it might help to pull apart why.

Yes I can relate to this OP, it'd be worth a conversation with your GP.

I don't know what meds you are on but people feel depressed for different reasons. There's quite a lot of research now into nutritional psychiatry if you think you might be up for a more holistic approach but certainly having a conversation with a therapist as suggested by @coffeeisthebest would be worthwhile to help you recognise the triggers and see if you can intervene at the point of interpretation. Wishing you all the best.

Sometimes antidepressants just stop working. I used to take sertraline. It really helped with anxiety and depression for a couple of years. Then earlier this year I became depressed again. I had a couple of increases in dose but it had no effect. So I was switched to a different antidepressant.

Therapy/counselling alongside medication is always wise the medication can give you a helpful boost so that you can benefit from the therapy as much as possible.

Don’t stop taking your medication until you’ve discussed it with a doctor - it might be doing more than you think and if you stop it things could get worse - but it may be that you need a change of dose or change of medication so best to contact your psychiatrist/mental health team (or GP if you are not currently under mental health).