Has anyone swapped antidepressants after 6 months?

[Unsureurchin]

I started on sertraline in July last year for depression and it triggered debilitating anxiety. I swapped to fluoxetine and at first it gave me suicidal thoughts (fleeting ones I ignored) so I persevered and I've been getting better with the help of therapy.

3 weeks ago I've had a bad lapse and I'm really struggling again. I'm not sure if the fluoxetine is helping but I've had suicidal thoughts again. I will speak to my GP/ therapist anyway but has anyone swapped this far into taking medication? The side effects were awful both times so I would dread swapping.

Unless you're on a high dose I'd probably ask about increasing dose first. I did many years ago go from one antidepressant to another after a couple years on the first, but these were very different ones from SSRIs. Went from amitriptyline which is a tricyclic to mirtazapine which is in a little class called NASSAs. I get a lot of side effects from medication, these two make me feel really tired, but that's a useful side effect for me so I can actually sleep at night. Didn't have a problem changing, but they're the only 2 antidepressants I've tried I didnt have really bad reactions to.

Both of the antidepressants youve been on are SSRIs, there's several other classes of antidepressants that work in different ways, it could be worth asking if a different type of antidepressant might be more helpful for you. NHS website has some information on the different types.