Despite years of reading hordes of books about Depression, learning about myself, going to weekly therapy sessions (with a terrific caring therapist), and forcing myself to bike ride, keep the house tidy, cook, etc. I still have no motivation to do anything. It's extremely difficult to get myself to do things. So, last week, I decided to give an anti-depressant another shot. I gave up on anti-depressants several years ago because I disliked the side effects—increased blood pressure, nausea, weight gain, loss of sexual desire, drowsiness, nervousness, insomnia, blurred vision, etc. etc.
So ten days ago, my Psych/MD prescribed me a low dosage of Wellbutrin (37.5MG). Anti-depressants are fascinating because they seem to slow your brain down. This one does it, but without making me drowsy, which is a good thing. It's also supposed to be good for attention deficit disorder (ADHD)—which I also have. When I take the drug each morning it gives me a stomach ache, but then it goes away after an hour... It seems to suppress my anxiety a bit, but not sure if it improves my motivation. I'll be monitoring this drug the next couple of weeks. If this doesn't work then I have officially given up on anti-depressants.
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StressBuster
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When I was a young teen my family would not allow me to have antidepressants- when I was a young adult my then boyfriend stigmatized me not to taking antidepressants. I told my doctor and he said I will feel so much better I won't even care what people said! Well I tried Paxil and Zolft. And it was so awful I quit antidepressants for over 15 years!
Then four years ago I was so tearful all the time over nothing that I feared I would loose my job. The person I was dating was very cruel to me over my depression signs and symptoms. Then I was prescribed Wellbutruin. I started at 150g and then went up to 300g a day. I take them before Ingo to bed with a glass of water. It is easier for my stomach to take them at night.
I know we both are on Wellbutrin but some people might need another brand- it all depends on a person's physiology. I also have Lozapam to take as needed. Lately I have been taking maybe three a month. But it feels good knowing I have it if I need it.
Th symptoms I had after taking Wellbutrin substided after a few months. I believe it is said to be one of the antidepressants that won't hurt your sex drive. I had a rough spot earlier this year and went cold turkey from 300g of Wellbutrin to nothing. And it was something I knew then and really know now was a stupid thing to do! But after 6 weeks or so of being off Welbutrin I decided I wanted to go back on them again. I quit because of just overhearing others talking about what they thought of people on antidepressants- and I told myself I was feeling so good that I didn't need them anymore. I see I do need them and feel so happy their is something like this medication that can help me function normally. Crying all the time and feeling hopeless was going to loose me my job and it was putting a strain on my relationship too. I can sleep better too. I hope you continue to feel better! If you want to discuss anything at all including Wellbutrin I would love to help anyway I can.💐 I didn't have weight gain and it restored my interest in intimacy. But I did get a bit of tremoring in my hands in the beginning. And definately a dry mouth- but now I am pretty much free of any bad reactions.
It can take weeks for anti depressants to work properly. If it works for you then sometimes its what is needed to kind of kick start the brain into remembering how to take joy and pleasure in life. It worked for me and I took 18 months before I started reducing them. Please remember that if you decide its not for you stopping suddenly is not the way. Do it under doctors supervision.
hope this works for you, don't forget it can take up to 6 weeks to have an effect, so give it a fair trial. also medication is changing all the time, so never say never. wishing you the best x
Not all anti depressants work for everyone, sometimes you have to try a few different ones to find out what works for you. I took Fluoextine (Prozac) for a number of years and it worked well for me, some people didn't respond well to it. It stopped working after a while and I changed to another anti depressant that made me very sleepy and didn't work for me. I then changed to citalopram and for me I think it's working well. It may be worth going back to the GP and trying something else. Don't give up anti depressants work for a lot of people, sometimes alone they are not enough and you need additional therapies e.g counselling, CBT etc.
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