Antidepressants have no impact on me, it feels like nothing can help

[LowLimbina]

I’m really suffering from depression and anxiety. If I speak to my GP she says try antidepressants but they just have no impact on me.

Over the last 6 years I’ve tried Citalopram (40mg/day). I took it 6 months, felt it wasn’t helping so just stopped taking it and actually felt a bit better. Didn’t taper at all, just decided to stop. Also before that Fluroxitine and then Sertraline 100mg. Again I took both about 6 months (not at same time) then just stopped I’ve never had withdrawal effects or anything that even indicated the medication was having any impact.

I suffer massively from anxiety and was given propranolol and Diazepam for really bad days. Due to a mix up the pharmacy delivered 84 tablets of Diazepam instead of 28 so I took it 2 x 14 consecutive days but it just seemed to have no effect on me so I just stopped. Same with propranolol.

I just don’t know how to make myself better. I hold down a senior level professional career job and seem smiley, well put together and confident on the outside but as soon as I finish work I go to bed. I spend all weekend in bed with the curtains shut. I tried running for mental health as everyone said it would help but it didn’t. I even ran a marathon feeling miserable and anxious every step of it. I gave up running after that as it felt so pointless.

I’ve tried therapy, CBT, doing “self care” but it doesn’t help.

I just don’t know what else I can do. I feel people can take medication that helps them but it has no impact at all. I took four antihistamine earlier to see if it would make me even a bit drowsy, along with two diazepam and it literally had no effect at all despite saying may cause drowsiness. I just want this feeling of anxiety to stop.

Then again no matter how bad a headache things like paracetamol or codine also seem to have no impact. It’s always been like I’m immune to medication.

I used to self harm but I’ve not done that for several years, and I’m not suicidal, just very unhappy.

What's the origin? Finding the root cause of your anxiety, the 'mother' of depression, is the key to dealing with it.

Interesting article in The Times yesterday about the impact of food on our mental health. I hope the share token works for you.

Also, are you using any hormonal contraception/HRT? They can also cause issues.

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/8236a588-6839-4496-9ba7-2b507f31a076?shareToken

The only med I found that helps my anxiety is mirtazapine. Like you OP nothing medically gets rid of the depression for me either 😢

The origin was to do with bullying at work I think, I was completely manipulated and lied to. I’m no longer in that job and got paid off, and it’s a long time ago now but I’ve never really been the same.

I’m not on any contraceptive or HRT. My diet could definitely be better. I can’t read that article as it wants me to subscribe.

I don't know what to suggest, I am resistant to meds too.

Medication never helps me either. I thought it was just me , my ex used to be off his head on codeine , it didn't affect me at all . Same with alcohol really tho I hardly ever get drunk and if I do I sober up within half hour and that's my night done.
I always put it down to my ADHD brain
Lol .

Those three antidepressants (sertraline, fluoxetine, citalopram) are all basically the same type of medication working in much the same way, and tho there are some people who find one helpful and not others, there are people for whom that whole class of medications just doesn't do much. There are other types of antidepressant you can try, ones that work in different ways, including some newer ones and also some much older types too. You could investigate those, but IMO ideally you'd be seeing a psychiatrist for exploring less common medications.

This is a bit out of left field, so ignore if it's not useful, but I was wondering if the lack of apparent effect you get from taking several other different types of medications might have something to do with a difficulty with identifying or understanding how you're feeling, both emotionally (sometimes called alexithymia) and physically (people can have specific difficulties with interoception, or the senses that tell you what's going on inside your body). These can both be common in autism (as can anxiety), so if you look them up you'll find a lot of stuff about ASD, but people who aren't autistic can also experience difficulties in these areas, which can make it hard to know what you're feeling, or what helps and doesn't help.

Does this mean that add / asd people don't feel drunk? When others can see they are drunk?

Differences in interoception might mean that a person never notices when they're getting hungry or thirsty, or feels their heart thumping so intensely it feels like being hit in the chest. I suppose there could be people who have difficulties noticing or identifying sensations of being drunk? I've never looked into that specifically TBH.

I’m going to read up on interoception thank you. I’ve never felt that I may be autistic or have ADHD. I’m not sure (outside my depression/anxiety which has only been prevalent in the last six or so years, and I am 49 now) what traits I have that would meet that sort of diagnosis.

Alcohol definitely has an effect on me although I am an occasional social drinker, and tend to not drink at home often. I definitely recognise when I’m hungry / thirsty / tired as well as excited / happy / sad etc.

When I’ve said to my GP that I don’t feel medication is working she has only offered me those three ADs so interesting they are all similar and work in the same way. Obviously that doesn’t account for other medication having seemingly no impact.

I just don’t really know where to turn next.

Therapy (if possible) and try Effexor. It's an antidepressant that helps with anxiety. I've been on it for 12 years and it's better than anything else I've had before.

My DH has had depression for a long time. He has been off anti depressants for 2.5 years and honestly hasn't even had a bad day for almost 18 months let alone a depressive episode. He puts it down to diet. Since being with me he started eating home cooked meals with lots of fresh veg (as I am a good cook, I enjoy it and have always cooked from scratch) and he has chosen himself to cut out ultra processed food and refined sugar. He used to eat a lot of prepackaged convenience food. He basically now eats no seed oils, no UPF, no sweet snacks apart from occasional fruit fresh or dried, no meat or fish (though all his research suggests fish is fine/good for you, he just chooses not to as vegetarian). He snacks on nuts and fasts until lunch time most days.
i know that sounds restrictive but it's not really and all evidence points to the gut micro biome having a massive impact on mental health. We were reflecting yesterday while watching the new Netflix programme (recommend!) that changing your diet is really hard when you're depressed but he honestly credits it with fixing his mental health.

If you’re 49 then I’d definitely be looking at HRT. Your hormones will def be fluctuating and they have a massive impact on everything

I read this thread about microdosing for mental health with interest

Sorry to hear this. I can't believe in this day and age you're supposed to just crack on with it, that there are no better solutions other than 'mindfulness'.

I was completely manipulated and lied to

Did you understand why that happened, at the time or later? If you didn't then the 'trauma' will have stayed with you and it's that that's causing your anxiety, because until your mind can make sense of what happened it can't let it go. I recently worked with someone in very similar circumstances, with a very good outcome. Have a look at my AMA.

There are people that (some) meds don't work on.

As pp have said all three of the anti depressants are in the same class or group of drugs so maybe try one not in the group? Amytriptyline worked for me although it made me very sleepy so I needed to take it at night.

On a side note, why they don't work is quite interesting in itself. In general drugs work by disrupting chemical pathways in the body and if you don't have that particular pathway they don't work.

I know people who paracetamol doesn't work for.

Have you thought about perimenopause? I developed paralysing anxiety and depression in my late forties and it’s entirely caused by perimenopause. It has disappeared, without any other intervention, since I started HRT just over a year ago. Fight for a trial, just to see if it helps.

Apologies, I didn't mean to suggest that you have ASD or ADHD (I mean, you might, just as anyone might, but that wasn't what I was trying to imply). I just wanted to give you a heads-up that if you happen to look up either of the terms I mentioned, you'll come across a lot of stuff linking them to ASD, but difficulties and differences with sensing or interpreting your own internal state can be part of the picture in a much broader range of people.

I second HRT. The GP can also prescribe along with it, mirtazapine perhaps or push for a psych referral to explore other meds. Go private if needed. Best of luck.

I'm also struggling with anxiety after a difficult experience and reading a book called the Body keeps the score which is really interesting.

Take a look at this. Antidepressants do not work for some people, it is actually quite a high number, so it is not your fault.

I'm bipolar and have particularly stubborn depression at times and in those episodes unfortunately it has taken a lot longer than 6 months to see and effect.

I had a depressive episode during my PhD that took 9-12 months to come out of and I had 4 months off from my course. It took an antipsychotic used as an antidepressants and mood stabilisers with an antidepressants to get me back to work but I had to stop the antidepressant because it was starting to make me high. Alongside medication I had a combination of CBT and CFT therapy, I had a support worker who I saw to help me get back into being active and enabled me to return to my course and whilst doing the PhD I saw student support for counselling. The medication allowed me to sit up the rest got me moving

When I had my daughter I developed severe treatment resistant depression had multiple antidepressants at the same time plus the antipsychotic as a mood stabilisers. I was admitted into hospital at 10 months. To recover from this episode I needed high dose lithium, quetiapine, mirtazapine and lamotrigine. I did CFT as group therapy in the community and in hospital. I had therapy in hospital and 18 months of bonding therapy out of hospital. It took 3 months after my mat leave finished to go from off sick to working 4 days a week where I stopped and switched to part time taking Wednesday's off because I can't work more 3 or more days in a row. I got to 4 days a week 15months after the start of the episode and it was 2years before I was close to my normal levels of functioning.

When my mood goes low it is bloody hard to get it back up again. It takes a mulitpronged approach to get it back up encompassing medication, therapy and support with life including time off work and support getting back into the work place. I'm in a post doctoral role now so it requires a lot of cognitive attention even though it isn't particularly stressful. Diet and exercise for me don't have much of an effect until I am mostly right again and can get me from doing okish to doing ok but when I'm practically bed bound it's overly optimistic that they are going to be the panacea!

The meds you have tried are all in the same class and also the starting meds for depression. If these haven't made a difference I would be looking at mirtazapine or venlaflaxine next, it might be worth reading about these and others in this class if you want to give medication a go again in the future. A mood stabilisers such as lamotrigine or lithium might be appropriate too. They can help regular unipolar depression not just bipolar depression when the low moods aren't responding to antidepressants

Are you aware that it is widely admitted that many, perhaps most, people are not helped by antidepressants?

Are you aware that the single best thing for depression is considered to be exercise?

Since it sounds like you seriously have tried different avenues, have you considered a nutritionist?

Could it be more complexPTSD/EUPD type illness which are traits & learned maladaptive coping mechanisms rather than 'ilknesses' like depression or anxiety & so doesn't respond to medication. Can you access DBT?

I’ve not heard of DBT before. I’ve had a tough week, still not really sure how to just deal with everyday life.