Misc SSRIs causing/worsening depression?

[nancy145]

ive got depression(diagnosed) but it isnt a constant thing, once every once in a while i fall into a really deep depression for a few days to 2 weeks. i take lamotrage which helps a bit with it, it makes me fall into depressions less often and makes them not as bad. i smoke weed daily too(my psychiatrist recommends it) which helps with my depression too, before i started i had constant depression and now its just once every month and a half or two. i take 5htp too and that helps a bit. i just got prescribed a new SSRI, idk the name, about a week ago. at first it made me feel great, but after a few days i felt a little down which usually happens before i fall into a depression and yesterday and today I've been absolutely miserable. is this just a coincidence or could it be the SSRI?

 

[SixBuckets]

It's a known side effect that SSRIs can increase some symptoms of depression in the first few weeks of treatment. It doesn't happen for everyone, and it's usually temporary, but for some people they 'make you worse before they make you better'.

If you can last through it, it's probably best to wait out a month or two on the SSRI before deciding whether or not it's helping.

 

[Fornax55]

Yeah - the first few weeks of SSRI's can be brutal, and it sucks. I hate SSRI's because of the slew of side effects that they cause me, but you've gotta push through the first few weeks before the serotonin regulation actually settles in and your brain starts doing what the meds want it to do. :/

That said, if you push through it for a month and don't feel like it's helping, run! Run away! In the meantime though, try your hardest to look for benefits. Now is a VITAL time to practice optimism because it could better you for the rest of your life. Maybe the antidepressant will just give you a push in the right direction; maybe during this new phase of depression you'll learn something, realize something, some cog will click into place that will help you face your depression with a new vigor and maybe you won't even need antidepressants after that. Who knows?

Antidepressants work differently for everyone and can sometimes work differently than the way they're intended to. Maybe your depression won't get better, but you notice your anxiety (which you may or may not have, I'm just hypothetically rambling) gets better which allows you to face situations you couldn't before - going to help groups, asking out that girl you've liked, etc etc.

Think, too - if your depression worsens, and as you continue taking the drug, ultimately returns to where it was before... after experiencing worse moods, your previous state of mind will feel like a walk in the park which will enable you to work on finding new solutions with more motivation and confidence.

You can do it!