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SSRIs / SNRIs

theartofwar

theartofwar

Bluelighter
Joined
Jul 29, 2009
Messages
3,263
Location
Boston
All in all I should be really content with how things are the progress I"m making. Unfortunately at least a few days a week I really get depressed, the isues vary but I just feel a lot of failure and get overwhelmed by it. This stops my ambitions in their track and makes it seemingly impossible to start and finish anything i do. So i got RX'd an SSRI, and i know how some people are completely against them, crazymeds website etc goin off on how bad they are. But I really want to move on with my life which has been difficult (we all have hard lives im not trying to say my life is any worse than anyones elses) and as I get older the severity is settling in how quickly life goes by as I blink my eyes. Do you guys think I should start on the SSRI ? Those of you who know me know how unfortunately when i have unstable moments i make poor choices, I want to be mature and handle this problem in the best manner possible. ALl thoughts i appreciate, I'm really having a tough time hurting inside with this mess.
 
i take an ssri and came off it once and got the worst wd from it... its called ssri discontinuation syndrom if your going to start on them just know that they help and are worth it but if you ever wana come off them make sure you taper them down and switch to a longer acting ssri so it leaves your body slower. i went from 200mg sertiline to nothing. worst mistake i ever made
 
ya bro, i've heard the wd's are brutal and I've seen some people have the electric shocks from it. I've had depression from my PTSD for so many years but I always have a few good days that i convince myself I don't need to be on meds. I think my pride has something to do with it to tbh, stupidly I feel like I'm being less of a man by taking them. This is a direct result of how I was brought up and the trauma I went through. Dealing with my emotions and STILL moving on with life is the mature real thing to do as a man, not running circles around them.
 
It really depends. I've been on about 10 different SSRI's and 1 SNRI (venlafaxine). I do have to agree though that IME withdrawal is quite horrible. Vertigo, brain zaps, depression, panic, insomnia...However the good thing is that these symptoms mosly disappear after a few weeks. Electric shocks or brain zaps are BTW not dangerous nor scary, just annoying. They don't hurt either. I've never considered them to be a big deal.

However WD from SSRI's is nothing compared to benzo withdrawal which I'm going through at the moment. Benzo WD is the most horrible thing I've gone through in my life. SSRI WD is child's play compared to that.
 
You need to wean off SSRIs slowly, according to doc's instructions.
I've been taking Lexapro for a few years, I have no problem with them.

I've been cutting down from 20mg to 10mg recently, I'd like to see if I can get off them completely, not because of any problems, just that I'd prefer to not have unnecessary pharms in my system.
 
i used to be embarresed about taking them but if you talk about them like its no big deal youll find a lot of people will tell you they also take them. dont say that the mature thing to do as a man is move on the real thing to do as a man is address your issues and get the right help and some times that involves taking meds. im glad i went on them im just not glad i went off them for a bit.....

Symptoms described as "brain zaps", "brain shocks", "brain shivers", "head shocks", or "cranial zings" are withdrawal symptoms experienced during discontinuation (or reduction of dose) of antidepressant drugs.[3][4] The symptoms are widely variable in description and are of unknown etiology;[4] common descriptions include dizziness, electric shock-like sensations, sweating, nausea, insomnia, tremor, confusion, nightmares, and vertigo.[3][4] The MedDRA "preferred term" for coding these types of symptoms in adverse drug reaction reports (for use in pharmacovigilance databases such as under the Yellow Card Scheme) is paraesthesia.[5][6]

this was takin off wikipedia and not every one will get all the wd symptons i didn't really get the brain zaps to bad but i got the insomnia nausea sweating and involentary muscle movements and tremors. its not fun being at work and having to go to the bathroom every couple hours to puke and just randomly breaking out in sweats and actually had to show my boss on wikipedia what i was going through cus he didn't understand.... this can also last days weeks months or years for me it was about a month before it got better but then i went back on them after about 5 weeks so i dunno about long term....

also if u miss a dose wd can hit you really quick with some short acting ssri's

i would suggest seeing your doctor and talking about your options and if he says take em then you should. im glad i did i just know ill never miss a dose again
 
ive never takin benzos on a regular basis so i wouldn't know to compare im sure theyre are much worse things to wd from but it does suck eather way sorry to hear your dealing with that. wd sucks
 
I went through 7 ADs including several SSRIs before I found an AD that worked for me, right now I take 150mgs of Venlafaxine a day and have been for over 12 months. IME they are no solution for depression but they may offer you the stability you need to start working on better ways to deal with and combat your tendency to become depressed.

I've done a course of CBT, taken up Tai Chi and a regular exercise program since I got myself together with the help of these drugs. Recently I've had a big setback as I've sustained an injury that has prevented me from walking let alone doing the positive things I was doing. I sincerely believe the ADs have prevented me from falling back into the darkness, it's a tangible barrier between me and that place.

The downside is that I do feel emotionally compressed, I don't have the lows but the other side of the coin is I don't have the highs, at the moment it's easily the lesser of 2 evils but in the long term I aim to come off them.

I've beaten alcohol and benzos, at least for now so, TBH the withdrawals are something I'm prepared to face when the time comes.
 
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Which SSRI is it TAOW? I've found effects to be very inconsistent, some that worked in the past giving me a huge lift and mood boost like I got from Prozac no longer working when tried again later, some like Cipramil / Cipralex just flat-lining my emotions completely so I while I wasn't pit of despair anymore I could not be said to be any happier as a result, total lack of motivation meaning I just stayed stuck in the same place getting nothing done for months, all the issues driving the depression still there and unresolved in suspended animation just waiting to be dealt with once off the meds, which completely defeated the point of being on a med I wanted to help me tackle the shit in the first place. Thing is they're all very individual in how effective any one of 'em might be for you, kinda depends which particular symptoms contributing to the depression the med's been prescribed to address. Some are better at boosting energy levels and lifting mood, some are better at calming the anxiety levels. Which is it d'you think you most need of those? See how you get on for a coupla months, if it doesn't seem to have improved things maybe need to trial and error something else. The anti-ds are only part of any solution however well they work though. You need to have some support or counselling available running hard in hand with it, put any moments of clarity they give you to good use unpicking the underlying issues, aim for a more permanent fix so they won't be troubling you so much in future.
 
guys thanks for the feeedback - those of you who know me know I am into powerlifting and boxing so exercise is always part of my life. I'm finding since I began my fight in recovery though that the PTSD and other areas are so brutal. I am taking medications for areas correctly and I see a definet change in me, i am more myself and less and less I miss heroin and want the life I deserve.

I've been RX'd 50mg paxil as im told it is the best with social and anxiety attacks. I know it's gotten a mixed rap by people on the boards but I need the feedback, I feel like if I don't make something of myself or atleast really see myself doin what's needed for the next correct actioin.. it's instant depression and overwhelming darkness as one poster put it.
 
Also, I have therapy for PTSD once a week, specialist for addiction once a week, attend 3-4 NA meetings a week and its changed my life for certain. I knew I needed help so I reached out for it, I'm in completely new territory being honest and open about feelings and the future. Can honestly say it's exciting and scary but it brings up all sorts of my past emotions I ran from self medicating.
 
I was rx'd Paxil (20mg) and took it for 17 years. I mostly experienced ejacuatory delay and the inability to feel any of the "bad" emotions. During those 17 years of Paxil I was completely abstinent from all other drugs for two 5 year stretches that were interrupted with 5 years of heavy, active addiction.

Withdrawal from Paxil was horrible. I was violent and I self-injured for quite some time. Brain zaps were horrible but they (along with the tingly, electric shocks on my hands and arms) eventually went away.

Most recently, I was prescribed 225mgs of Effexor. I felt balanced and generally ok. I then started experiencing loss of libido, ejacuatory delay and a general "numbness" of genatalia. My doc added 150mgs of Wellbutrin to the mix and all sexual sides disappeared for a short period of time.

When I complained of a resurgence in sexual side effects, my doc brought me down to 150mgs of Effexor. This reduction in dose helped for a few weeks. I then became suicidal and found myself feeling like I would break out in tears every night on my drive home from work.

One night I was a fucking mess. I wanted to die or severely hurt myself so I self-medicated by taking 300mgs of Effexor and 225mgs of Wellbutrin. The thoughts went away but I was simply an entity going through life's motions for those two days of over-taking my meds.

I decided to say "fuck this" and cold turkeyed off the Effexor. It sucked. Brain zaps, tingles, confusion, anxiety and general self-hatred became my norm for about 14 to 20 days (my perception of time was also skewed).

I now only have mild symptoms of withdrawal but it came with a price. I lost my best friend/fiancé due to my self-medication and decision to go off a drug that made me want to die. I'm okay with this because self-preservation and acceptance of consequences are the two things I'm practicing right now.

I feel tons better now after all is said and done but it took some hit or miss solutions to be ok. I essentially gave up in that "hit or miss" medication game. Im just not willing to try a variety of meds to see which ones will work and which ones won't.

TAOW, don't stop the weight training. I'm not sure if it was the meds that influenced my 2 month break of no exercise or simple laziness. All I know is that I'm back at the gym (after having to force myself) and I feel fucking great.

I'm still on the Wellbutrin and plan to use the rest of the bottle as prescribed until its gone. During this time I plan on using the wellbutrin's effect on smoking cessation to my advantage. Once that bottle is gone, I'm done with that shit. If I hit a wall of suicidal ideation, well, I know what I plan on doing but... You know what they say...'you can plan the plan but you can't plan the outcome'

Don't give up on the meds too early. It takes 4 to 6 weeks for most of them to build up in the receptors and render their full effect
 
OD - thank you for the info brother, it really helps to have someone whose got the background I know and into the lifting as well :). Hope all is well with you homey , stay up stay strong
 
I'm going to chime in with my bias but please, to everyone that is on an AD, this does not mean that I am against them or that I do not recognize their value. I am always going to say that they should be an absolute last resort. Learning to live with the discomfort of loneliness, of fear, of anger of anxiety is exactly what gets taken away from you when your brain is on drugs--legal or not. It takes patience and practice but equate it to the lifting you do. How long did it take you to get where you are? Was it one long smooth uninterrupted continuum? Probably not. Life is always going to throw shit at you. Sometimes it feels so unbearable that it makes perfect sense that we would look for something to ease the pain. But what if, just like grunting through the next level of weights at the gym, you strategized ways to take care of yourself during the hard times, especially when it is the truly debilitating stuff inside that scares us. I think that part of this comes from my age. These were not available when I was growing up and so, without that alternative, learning to handle my anxiety and depression has been a life-long journey for me. I tried, in desperation, fluoxatine (sp?) once and couldn't take it. Like, atm, I felt it took away so much richness from my emotional life that taking away the depression wasn't worth it to me. Plus, I remember feeling out of control of my emotions---like I couldn't quite access them if I wanted to and that was scary.

Good luck with whatever you decide but I would definitely say check out a Mindfulness class or book or podcast and see if that can help first.<3
 
+1 on the mindfulness. It was heavily used in DBT group therapy and it really changed my life for the better. I've taken quite an array of SSRI/SNRIs for my depression and anxiety among other medications and nothing worked like mindfulness has for me. Part of me wishes that I would have went straight into mindfulness rather than doing the medication thing first, but I am thankful now to know what does and doesn't work for me.

Remember that a lot of this is trial and error and what works for one person may be completely different than what works for someone else. It might take a lot of time and patience, but you'll figure this out. <3
 
Be prepared to taper off of them - don't allow yourself to cold turkey no matter what. If you are going to be on a short half-life SSRI, switch to a long one like prozac - the withdrawal symptom doesn't happen as often for longer half life SSRI's as it does for short half life SSRI's.

I think you should try them. I know how long you've struggled - you deserve to be as happy as I am (relatively I can say my life is for sure not perfect but I have a smile on my face :)) if not much happier. :D

When I was on sertraline (zoloft) for about a year, I noticed it minimized my ability to feel extreme affect, like extreme happiness or extreme depression. At the biggest dosage (100mg/day) I wasn't motivated to have social interaction as I used to and it got to the point where that bothered me, and I switched to bupropion (wellbutrin) - a much better alternative for me at the time.

All SSRI's tend to have a 1 in 100 to 1 in 1000 rate of really weird/unusual side effects. Sexual side effects from SSRI's is rather well documented (delayed orgasm) and is much more common. What I'm referring to here, is that there are some people who have gotten mania from SSRI's like lexapro, and stuff like that.

If you start medication and it drastically worsens, consult your doctor.

You can always PM me if you want to reach out to someone. :)
 
It seems a lot of people have had very different experiences with SSRI/SNRI discontinuation. I've taken every antidepressant in the SSRI/SNRI class as well as wellbutrin and have never had a problem getting off them. Sure, I felt the brain zaps and a little strange for a few days- but it just was never anything more than a slight nuisance.

For me, AD's are a temporary fix- they all stop working sooner or later for me. I'd definitely recommend you do some therapy at the same time. Therapy combined with drugs is an awesome 1-2 punch to the head of depression. The drugs allowed me to.....carry out the lessons I learned in therapy....if that makes sense.
 
I've been on SSRI's as well as Tricyclic antidepressants -- never been on an SNRI unless we count tramadol.

I found that Zoloft worked the best for me, but it lasted only a few months. Withdrawals for me were terrible...I had the brain zaps, insomnia, dizziness...but I also didn't taper...

I think you should give antidepressants a shot and see how they work. You deserve to be happy. If you find they make your condition worse or after about 2 weeks (that's usually how long they take to "kick in"), consult your doctor.

Best of luck <3
 
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