DD in crisis - think anti depressants might help but no experience of these?

[Houseplantmad]

Long story short, we’ve brought DD, 20, home from uni as she is having what I would call a mental health crisis. She had a terrible time last year with stress/anxiety and we got her regular therapy, uni was brilliant and she got through the year and passed her retakes in the summer. She felt back on an even keel over the summer holidays.

Now she is in an awful place where she describes herself as either being rational or totally irrational - nothing in between. Although she’s keeping up with uni work, and seems to be doing well, she’s so stressed about negative possibilities and says she is getting no enjoyment from anything, and feels so guilty as these are what’s she believes are supposed to be the best years of her life.

She is not sleeping, feels sick and anxious and can’t eat properly, which obviously isn’t helping. More worryingly, this morning she has said she has recently had thoughts that it would be easier if she wasn’t here, although she’s said that’s not a possibility because of what it would do to others.

We plan to get her in front of a GP tomorrow as this is beyond our capabilities and is more than therapy can help with. I think it sounds like (and from what I’ve read) she has a seratonin/dopamine imbalance and anti depressants could help with this.

I have no experience of anti depressants so would welcome what questions we should ask GP, or what is useful to know at this stage.

Thank you if you’re able to share.

@TeenDivided promethazine is good over really short time periods. You can get habituated to it and I’ve really extremely abused antihistamines to get that knockout effect in the past so I’d be super cautious about giving them to teenagers when anxious. It’s easy to start seeing them as a go-to.

I'm not a doctor, I am only saying what DD was prescribed. She hardly ever uses them at all any more, and even then we cut the pill in half.
However when she was at her worst, melatonin and propranolol were not enough to cut through the anxiety so she could get to sleep.

@DarkChocHolic Is she a) taking fluoxetine in the morning, and b) having food with it?

@TeenDivided
Yes she does take it in the morning with breakfast.
She is back from school in an hour and went straight to bed.
I had to wake her up and told her to watch TV so she can hopefully sleep in the night.
Don't know if any of what I do is right.

She normally never has trouble sleeping and recently has been sleeping loads (one of the signs of depression)
So her struggling to sleep is something triggered by fluxotine I suspect.

@Houseplantmad
Sorry to hijack your thread

@DarkChocHolic
Oh gosh it’s fine - it’s all very relevant and really useful information/experience.
I’m sorry to hear about your child and am grateful to you for your support and for you sharing your experience.
My DH has gone to pick up DD this morning to bring her home as she’s not in a great place and there’s too much at risk to leave her there dealing with this alone.
Thanks again.

@TeenDivided of course, I’m not a doctor but have studied pharmacology to university level and have years of experience of different depression treatments. Sorry, the name of a drug I could easily have killed myself with just made me prick up my ears a bit. I agree that melatonin and propanolol aren’t always even approaching enough, melatonin did nothing for me and I’m on 60mg daily propanolol and still having panic attacks, let alone sleeping.

Obviously again, not a doctor but Mirtazapine is the most modern soporific AD and you could ask your doctor about it? It knocks me for six (honestly excessively so and my ex pretty much turned into a zombie on it but better that than unable to sleep etc).

I have tried and not managed the side effects of anti depressants...they can often make people feel worse for quite a while (sometimes months) before feeling better. The alternative for me was a combo of meds from a medical herbalist (it's a degree, I am not talking about a visit to Holland & Barrett and my herbalist was also an NHS trained/experienced mental health nurse), tapping and CBT. However, although I tried the tapping and CBT first, it wasn't until the meds kicked in (less than a week) before my mind was calm enough and the physical anxiety symptoms had calmed significantly, that I could start and use the cbt techniques. I was a total sceptic but notwithstanding that it worked. I hope your daughter is able to find something because it really is the worst when you're in that place and you cant find peace.

@Houseplantmad

I'm sorry you are also going through this. It's truly awful. If you use Facebook please consider joining the private group Parenting Mental Health.
It's a life saver in more ways than one.

Sorry to hear @Houseplantmad
You are doing the right thing.
Look after yourself!
Xx

I would advise read up all she can on anxiety, anxiety disorders and panic attacks.
I suffered with this as a young woman and what helped me more than anything was becoming aware of my negative thought patterns. It's not about becoming super positive, rather staying more neutral and open minded and being mindful of what kind of thoughts you are attaching to. Also being confident to know that you are more than capable of dealing with whatever life throws your way. When push comes to shove you will know what to do and say, so no point worrying. Anxiety is based on future thinking.

Thanks all. It really helps to know I’m not alone in this.
@LearnFromMyMistakes you have hit the nail on the head re future thinking causing anxiety. Without exception, all of the things DD has articulated anxiety thoughts about are what ifs/what could happen (worst scenarios). DD isn’t in a calm state of mind at the moment (no sleep for two nights) to appreciate this even though she has real examples of success eg today she got the result of an assessment which is 30% of a module. She predicted failure but got 70%! Even having got that affirmation she thinks she’s going to bomb on the other 70% essay but I know she won’t.
If there any reading you’d particularly recommend please?
I’ve also been reading about ADHD burnout in women today. DS has ADHD, and I suspect DH too, so it’s not unreasonable to think DD might as well but has masked it. She can’t contemplate this at the moment but the burnout articles I’ve read really resonate.