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Mental Health Which SSRI/SNRI do you take? or used to take?

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strity1994

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Jul 28, 2016
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Hi, this a thread to gather everyone's experiences with anti depressant medication.

I will go first:

I used to take Effexor at the max dose (300mg) and then switched to Paxil (20mg) they both worked wonders for anxiety. The best part is that they numbed my emotions and gave me apathy/asexuality. Almost felt like I was not human (pretty cool, right?)

I came off them due to silly reasons such as fear of weight gain and interfering with the effects of other substances.

Which med are you on? (Or have been on in the past)
 
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I'm on Sertraline 100mg. The side effects are awful, fortunately the only ones that stuck are dizziness/fainting when standing up and GORD when I don't take it at exactly the same time every day with food. It's great not being way too anxious constantly so it's worth it though and after the last GORD episode I haven't been eating right so I've lost a bit of weight.
 
antonomasia said:
I'm on Sertraline 100mg. The side effects are awful, fortunately the only ones that stuck are dizziness/fainting when standing up and GORD when I don't take it at exactly the same time every day with food. It's great not being way too anxious constantly so it's worth it though and after the last GORD episode I haven't been eating right so I've lost a bit of weight.
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Hi, thank you for sharing. I might try Zoloft next as ive heard good things from people on here. Or Lexapro, I heard it's one of the few ads with minimal side effects.
 
I was on the max dose of Zoloft for ten years - the side effects were a complete dulling of my emotions, it escalated my alcoholism, and it killed my libido. All in all, not worth it as I feel like it did more harm than good.

I was on Effexor for about a year and it didn't improve my anxiety or depression, but it did dull my emotions and kept my libido in the gutter.

Neither of those had any effect on my weight. I am not currently on anything and feel the best I have in over 15 years. Personally, I think I was scripted these prematurely and should have worked on my OCD with CBT but was only given a choice of Zoloft and Xanax which was too much for my situation imo and made my situation significantly worse. Doctors hand out meds too quickly without really listening to the patient and considering their issues.

I'm not against medication, but I recommend you thoroughly investigate any medication before beginning it. Good luck!
 
Moreaux said:
I was on the max dose of Zoloft for ten years - the side effects were a complete dulling of my emotions, it escalated my alcoholism, and it killed my libido. All in all, not worth it as I feel like it did more harm than good.

I was on Effexor for about a year and it didn't improve my anxiety or depression, but it did dull my emotions and kept my libido in the gutter.

Neither of those had any effect on my weight. I am not currently on anything and feel the best I have in over 15 years. Personally, I think I was scripted these prematurely and should have worked on my OCD with CBT but was only given a choice of Zoloft and Xanax which was too much for my situation imo and made my situation significantly worse. Doctors hand out meds too quickly without really listening to the patient and considering their issues.

I'm not against medication, but I recommend you thoroughly investigate any medication before beginning it. Good luck!
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Thank you for sharing.
 
I've been put on sertraline/zoloft 100mg twice and both times it made me manic or something (felt higher than I've been on any street drugs) as well as making the psychotic symptoms I had worse
 
I've tried:
citaopram (celexa)
escitalopram (lexapro)
sertraline (zoloft)
venlafaxine (effexor)

Two of them (I know for sure Effexor and I think Celexa as well), I took once and could not take again. I was lightheaded, passed out, threw up, etc. after taking ONE tablet (lowest dose as well).
Lexapro I took for a week or two. Didn't throw up or actually faint but was very lightheaded, confused, etc. It was not fun.
Finally tried Zoloft. It was the "best" of the four. I was on it for a couple months. Lightheaded, confused, yes. Hardly ate at all too. It also made my anxiety much worse.
So I quit zoloft cold turkey. I was still on a very low dose, we only increased it once. Anyway for OVER two months, I had the withdrawal symptoms. I threw up 10+ times each day, couldn't eat anything, could hardly exist. It was TERRIBLE.
Ended up at a mental health emergency room because I couldn't go on like that. Got a referral to a psychiatrist. (My doctor gave me a referral but the appointment was for a year later.....) They gave me two options. 1) try zoloft again but use clonazepam DAILY with the zoloft until I got used to it then wean myself off of clonazepam. Or try something different, Lyrica (pregabalin).
This is actually the best med I've had yet. Very few side effects. Sometimes I'm forgetful but I can't tell if it's the lyrica or not. Food cravings which isn't great for me (I don't want to gain weight) but they are okay to handle. Oh and it makes me very tired. But being tired is better than being anxious. It's not an SSRI/SNRI - it's commonly used for nerve pain and also seizures. But it helps me!!!!
 
iv tried all of them, over 5 years. none have worked besides pregablin.
 
Cymbalta. I take it and it hands down works the best for me. I've been on off with ssri' , snri meds for about ten years now. I've tried them all and hands down my once daily dose of Duloxetine is a GODsend. I have horrible joint pain and body pain from living one hell of a rough life. This stuff works miracles for nerve and muscle pain.
 
May I please get some input on how SNRIs affect sleep? I'm considering Cymbalta (duloxetine) but I worry about it worsening insomnia and excessive thoughts.
 
Hmmm Cotcha, I'm a bit surprised you asked that.

The SSRIs and SNRIs definitely can cause some hypomania if people with bipolar disorder take them without also taking a mood stabilizer. Insomnia and excessive thoughts aren't uncommon in this respect. A lot of the time people get diagnosed with depression, whereas they're really bipolar, because few people are going set up an appointment with a doctor to tell them how good they're feeling. But of course I'm no expert.

I would expect the SNRIs to cause more sleeping issues because they're additionally significantly noradrenergic.

That said, Effexor is used for lots of kinds of anxiety, so perhaps it's anxiety that's keeping you awake, and some form of OCD. Who knows.

You might want to ask your doctor about Remeron. It's sort of an SNRI with serotonergic antagonism mixed in (reductively speaking), and it frequently makes people sleep. Maybe check it out.
 
I see you brought up the topic I was wondering about - SSRIs/SNRIs seem to generally cause insomnia (always less sleep in animals) but if it's anxiety or OCD genre thoughts keeping you awake then maybe SSRIs would be the lesser of two evils? So maybe there are exceptions? I guess I was looking for anecdotal evidence of those exceptions. I suppose with correction of genuine depression pathology sleep might improve as well in those poor people.

Historically fluoxetine caused insomnia for me so I don't know... Mirtazapine is indeed an interesting one, might consider going back on that one..
 
I've been on Lexapro, remeron, and Cymbalta. Cymbalta has worked best for me. Doesn't completely numb the pain but makes managing it.
 
I reinstated Paxil for the second time, and once again, Kratom stopped working. This blows.
 
I've been on a few, mainly Paroxetine (Paxil)

I went off it because of fairly significant side effects, even at quite reasonable doses. I was always tired, sometimes had really bad nightmares and eventually couldn't have an orgasm unless I achieved some kind of pseudo-zen like state. It cuts my appetite and also sometimes gave me stomach upset.

I will say that for a time it helped me be more positive and suffer less from social anxiety, which is a big problem for me. But the side effects eventually overshadowed the benefits, which seemed to wear off eventually anyway.

I've been interested in trying sertraline (zoloft) but not sure I can even get it here, they seem to push strictly SSRI's pretty hard where I am. On the whole, modern anti-depressants seem to be about as effective as placebo, which isn't wildly encouraging.

@strity1994: I read somewhere that SSRI's have some sort of negating effect on Opiod action. But I don't know a whole lot about it, just remember reading something on Erowid, I believe it was.
 
Fluoxetine is usually an energizing one.

Things get pretty specific and nuanced so really only a doctor can appreciate what's really going on. Even then, it's trial and error.

Trazodone is an SSRI but doesn't work very well for that until the dose reaches hundreds of milligrams, which is why it's used for sleep.

Excessive/uncontrollable thoughts and insomnia also occur in the bipolar, which lithium is the gold standard for (a bit more effective for the manic side). Then of course depakote has a name for being great against mania, and lamictal against depression.

Who knows, maybe even abilify, rexulti, or latuda, could help.

These questions are pretty general is all.
 
Ho-Chi-Minh said:
Fluoxetine is usually an energizing one.

Things get pretty specific and nuanced so really only a doctor can appreciate what's really going on. Even then, it's trial and error.

Trazodone is an SSRI but doesn't work very well for that until the dose reaches hundreds of milligrams, which is why it's used for sleep.

Excessive/uncontrollable thoughts and insomnia also occur in the bipolar, which lithium is the gold standard for (a bit more effective for the manic side). Then of course depakote has a name for being great against mania, and lamictal against depression.

Who knows, maybe even abilify, rexulti, or latuda, could help.

These questions are pretty general is all.
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I thought trazodone was an SARI?
 
A friend on here had an insomnia/hypomania type reaction to fluoxetine as well. I realize they're all "SSRIs" but then they have other effects as well, and I suppose I should be better read than I am on those other effects. Wiki for example says "Fluoxetine is considered the most stimulating of the SSRIs (that is, it is most prone to causing insomnia and agitation).[37]"

Thanks for the insight.
 
I take duloxetine 90mg. Mainly for trigeminal neuralgia but it's an excellent anti-depressant. I always develop insomnia with every anti depressant I take, so I also take 50mg trazodone before bed - it's very effective.
I also take Phenibut 1g once a week which, in my opinion, is also an excellent anti-depressant, but shouldn't be used daily due to dependence issues.
 
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