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Mental Health Do you regret taking SSRI's?

Jabberwocky

Jabberwocky

Frumious Bandersnatch
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For me I have been on meds now for the last 3 years ever since I had a nervous break down and got fed up of feeling depressed constantly. However taking meds has adjusted my life into complete laziness as I always feel numb thus couldn't be bothered doing anything. Can anyone relate?

I have tried getting off the meds but automatically feel the sense of reality I am due to face. Mixed cycles of depression where I isolate myself etc. However I feel the meds have taken away a part of me. The part where I was forced to do the copying, instead I feel it's now the meds that do it.
 
Not really. Well, I was on them around the ages of 16 and 17. I gained a lot of weight and really secluded myself. It wasn't a good time for and I lost a lot of friends and was being bullied at the time. It was only around six months I was on them. So, not I don't regret taking them.
 
weekend addiction said:
Not really. They never worked for me but I had to try and see if they would ya know?
Click to expand...

Same goes for me. If I hadn't been prescribed the majority of available SSRIs with pretty much zero help, I don't know if I would have ever even tried the MAOI route which was a true lifesaver for me. They taught me a thing or two about how my body works as well, so at least something positive came out of them directly.
 
No, but I haven't been on them in 4 years. I tried every SSRI except Paxil and Zoloft (plus several tricyclics and Risperdal), finally settling on Prozac because it seemed the most benign. Until I tried to quit. Different story for a different day.

Anyway, I took meds for 9 years before deciding to quit. There was zero improvement in my mood, energy levels, anxiety or behavior after almost a decade on SSRI's. People commented on how "flat" I seemed on them, though I didn't feel any different inside. May as well have been taking a sugar pill.

SSRI's seem to flatten emotions rather than improving them. Might be good if you're on the verge of suicide but not if you're already feeling numb/anhedonic like many depression sufferers do. "Numb" does not = "better".

I find stimulants far more suitable for my type of depression. Been self-medicating for the last 5 years now and don't regret a second of it.
 
i personally have to take an ant psychotic to keep my moods stable without taking illegal substances, but when i was on various ssris they gave me a headache all the time. and they really did not help with my low periods, hope this helps!
 
Doctors tried having me on and off them since I was 16. Seemed to only ever produce apathy in me, a feeling that has never gone away entirely. Yes, I regret taking them, very much so.
 
I regret just not manning up and just ignore ppl and what they thought plus my voices where background noises so they never really bothered me. Ya I was in a nasty break up...But I would of gotten over it either way. I just hate the mistake of getting on these pills.
 
I was on fluoxetine for about 18 months, and had some pretty bad side effects from it. Amongst other things, it COMPLETELY killed my libido. I have documented my experience of this elsewhere on BL before. But basically, even after I stopped taking it, my sex drive didn't come back for another two and half YEARS.
Yes, yes I very much regretted taking SSRIs at the time.
Now though (like, 6 years later), it's fine :)

On one hand I understand why SSRIs are the first port of call for physicians dealing with depressed patients, because often, serotonin deficiency is the culprit. But on the other hand, the side effects profile of SSRIs is so vast and profound, I do not understand why they get prescribed so frequently!!

noonoo, if you feel like you're not getting adequate relief from your symptoms, please go back and see your physician or psychiatrist and discuss trying something else.
 
I seem unable to tolerate then at all and I have tried at least 6, they all make me very nauseous, fluoxetine makes me violently vomit with an hour. Citalopram just wiped me out, I was hallucinating and very suicidal, Sertraline gave me an internal bleed.

I could tolerate them for long enough to see of they helped with depression, some have suggested that my heavy previous use of MDMA may be the reason why I react so badly to them, I'm not sure if there is any evidence for this but I wlould not take then again.

Tri-cyclics seem to cause me few issue but don't help with my mental state, Mitazapine just amplified my derealisation.

After tring all of these I went onto Venlafaxine which although does cause me some side effects does seem to genuinely help with my depression, particularly suicidal thoughts. I stopped taking it at the beginning of this year and within a few months had deteriorated quite badly. I went back on abut 6 weeks ago and have been significantly improved.

I'd rather not take ADs and in he long term I'd like to stop but currently I feel they provide the stability I need to address deeper seated issues as well as enabling me to lead a fuller life, I find the constant thoughts of suicide very upsetting and can't function properly in that state.
 
no i can come off them quickly without withdrawls.... but i still am on them now though lol :D
 
Not really because I think they initially helped my anxiety quite a bit (for around 3 years). After around the 5 year mark, however, I realized how apathetic and drowsy they were making me, so I slowly tapered off. I switched to a stimulating anti-depressant (Wellbutrin), which was a freaking nightmare, and spent almost a year completely suicidal. Now I'm back on the SSRIs, along with adderall and klonopin.

I guess I do regret taking them quite a bit because they were like a gateway pharmaceutical for me. I don't know if I would have gotten through highschool without them though.
 
I regret taking SSRIs in the past because they caused manic reactions - mainly overspending and not caring about school or work. The first time was many years ago and a regular family doctor prescribed them; I didn't understand what was happening w.r.t. getting the manic reaction, but knew something was wrong, so I stopped taking them. The second time was more recent and I started giving up with work, spending a lot, and going on trips when I shouldn't; once again it was prescribed by a family doctor, and I quit taking it once I realized what was happening, but then I started getting actual psychiatric care and a bipolar diagnosis.

The doctors who prescribed the SSRIs never explained to me that mania was a potential side effect and didn't recognize that it was happening.

Now I'm on an SSRI again along with Lamictal... better so far, except I've had some sleepless nights alternating with days of excessive sleep.
 
I was anti anti-depressants, until I experienced severe depression and ran to the doctors, begging him to make it stop, lol. That's something I will never regret, because it helped me so much. I still take lower doses of anti-depressants 8 years later, and I know I need them. I'll take anti-depressants for the rest of my life because I can live a better life with them. It must be very painful and horrid for people who are treatment resistant.
 
No I don't. They didn't really help me too much but they still acted their part in the journey to recovery. If I needed them in the future I'd be willing to give them another shot as well. I'm not going to refuse to try something if it has a possibility of making me feel better.
 
Yes.

They made me gain weight, made me anxious, and killed me libido, aka did nothing good for me.
 
i was on sertraline for about 12 years, about 5 weeks ago i switched to Mirtazapine, which isnt an SSRI. All i can say for sure is that i feel a lot calmer now so sertraline must have been increasing my anxiety. Sertraline helped me only enough to prevent that bleak, hollow, empty, nightmare, almost a terror of depression. I had no idea how i was ever going to be able to get off the stuff as i had heard that the withdrawals when you stop taking it (even with a proper taper) are quite horrific.

So im now on Mirtazapine, medium strength dose. I feel calm. But still depressed, and demotivated. Im struggling to establish a regular getting up and going to bed pattern. I think i need something else to combine and complement it. Im kinda self medicating with Bupe and ethylphenidate which do lift my mood without taking any apparent toll on my body.

to answer your questuion more directly : SSRIs can literally be a nightmare to withdraw from but Mirtazapine seems to make it possible and bearable. But noe of course im stuck on Mirtazapine and a host of other things. All for the sake of taking away that terrible feeeling that 'the bottom has fallen out of your world' and theres no way of knowing how far you can sink.
 
^ Why do you think the SSRI's were increasing anxiety rather than the Mirtazapine is reducing it?

Most people who regret taking SSRI's seem to not realise you don't have to take them (/that one).. If you don't like what the medication is doing tell your doctor you don't want to take them / you want to change or just stop taking them.

I don't regret taking them. Was on high dose citalopram for around 7 months two times.. i managed to just stop taking them with absolutely no withdrawals. They seemed to help at first.. but i didn't stop abusing drugs (MDMA + various stimulants) while on them.. so..
 
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