Question About SSRI I felt good for a month, then I started to get worse.

[gmz34]

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Hi i have been using lexapro for 6-7 months
In the initial days of using this medication, I felt that it was very effective. However, currently, I am not emotionally stable at all. I am more depressed, sluggish, and unable to engage in physical activities. I get tired easily, and my muscles ache when I walk outside. I wonder if stopping this medication would lead to improvement.

Have you ever experienced something like this, or am I just naturally a strange person and starting to doubt myself?

 

[SpiralusSancti]

Hi i have been using lexapro for 6-7 months
In the initial days of using this medication, I felt that it was very effective. However, currently, I am not emotionally stable at all. I am more depressed, sluggish, and unable to engage in physical activities. I get tired easily, and my muscles ache when I walk outside. I wonder if stopping this medication would lead to improvement.

Have you ever experienced something like this, or am I just naturally a strange person and starting to doubt myself?

I don't have much experience with SSRIs but what you are experiencing isn't rare. I suggest you learn about specific SSRI you take and see what else it significantly does along being antagonist at 5ht receptors. I assume you in fact got good effects from that and not primary mode by which SSRIs are supposed to work, and developed tolerance to that effects.
Like mirtazapine making you sleepy cuz of anticholinergic effect. So if someone uses it for that effect switching to something that doesn't have so broad mechanism of action is a good idea I guess.

 

[RxVeritas]

Speaking from experiences of my own, as well as many others, SSRI's are largely a crapshoot; I'm not saying that there's not (at least) one that may work for you, it's just that the process of getting there is usually one of trying a bunch of drugs that your body doesn't necesarily agree with along the way. Throughout my twenties I tried most SSRI's, several tricyclics, and SNRI's, and am currently taking cymbalta and mirtazapine which I feel I do benefit from for depression.


Also, they say that SSRI's generally take a mininmun of 4 weeks to start working, so if you're getting positive results so early after starting the drug it's not unlikely that you're experiencing some degree of placebo effect there.

Depression is awful, although admittedly my issues are much more with anxiety and OCD tendencies, and Xanax ER and IR do a pretty good job of keeping those more or less in check.

If a drug doesn't work for you don't get discouraged, because most drugs don't work for most people. Excersize and diet are also extremely important.

I believe and hope that things will get better for you.

 

[Snafu in the Void]

I've had immediate reactions from SSRIs before. I knew it was probably placebo, and it still worked... for a day or two.

It has been demonstrated that knowledge of taking a placebo strangely does not stop placebo effect from working.

Mind over matter.

Placebo effect is baked into SSRI drug design, otherwise they would never allow a drug with only 17% efficacy but 90% side effect ratio to be widely prescribed to basically half of all people in the US.

It has been recently shown that low serotonin has absolutely nothing to do with common depression. The entire model SSRIs were based on is incorrect. However, that does not necessarily mean raising serotonin levels with SSRIs cannot treat depression.

anyways, if taking a pill made you feel better almost immediately, it is likely you can fix your depression without a pill as well.

turn pain into a tool

pain is the greatest motivator we will ever have

 

[SpiralusSancti]

SSRIs can have at least some immediate effects. Be it making one more sleepy or postponing ejaculation or whatever. It's surely harder to notice any of the subtle effects while also feeling strong depression but sometimes, like it might be the case with OP, they provide some initial relief to that too.
I think anyone who starts SSRIs should definitely be doing life-style changes immediately after starting therapy or at least the moment any relief is felt. Actually I think that's a must with absolutely any drug used to cure depression, including dissos and psychedelics, as otherwise end result might be worse than don't starting therapy at all.

 

[CFC]

Yeah SSRIs have acute effects from immediate changes to neurotransmitter levels, and longer-term changes induced by increased neurotrophic factors and a gradual 're-wiring' that takes much longer to seem perceptible. The acute effects inevitably diminish comparatively quickly as the brain balances things out, and that probably explains why it no longer seems to work for you.

You'll probably want to discuss this with your doctor, and perhaps consider switching to one of the many other options if things continue to stay in the doldrums after a few more weeks. It may just be that it's going to take a little bit longer for the long-term effect to kick in for you though, so don't necessarily give up hope with escitalopram just yet.