short-term medication

[Liv]

Hi everyone,

So, I used to take fluoxetine (20mg increased up to 40mg, but neither dose seemed to make any difference), which I stopped taking for a few months because I had felt fine for about 18 months after my last serious episode of depression. Now I'm not on anything although I do currently have a prescription for 10mg citalopram (I asked the doctor to try some new ADs), which I didn't want to start taking because I had a couple of pretty important job interviews coming up and a) I know that starting ADs can give you funny side affects and b) if I got a job I was worried about having to do a medical questionnaire or something and didn't want to either say I was taking ADs or lie. Anyway, now I'm pretty much at rock bottom. I lie around all day in bed or on the sofa sleeping, crying or trying to watch tv or read a book. I can stop thinking about how I have f***ed up and how I would rather be dead. I don't know if I can cope with this although at this point I am way too scared to try anything actually suicidal. What I want to know is whether if I go to the doctor whether they could give me anything that can help at least until any ADs would potentially kick in. I need some respite. Anyone know anything about this kind of stuff?

[SteveW]

Medical questionnaires can be a real hassle. I decided very early on that I would simply tell the truth about my depression. I can't say it ever lost me a job. The worst I ever got was a long phone call asking about my various symptoms. But I still got the job.

In a lot of ways saying "Simply take the Citalopram." is the best advice. Citalopram is the number one anti-depressant in terms of number of prescriptions. As side effects go it is pretty good. Nausea is the most common side effect but you can get something over the counter from your local chemist if that troubles you.

Your GP could in theory try and treat some of the symptoms of depression. He could prescribe something if you are prone to anxiety and agitation. He could also prescribe something to help you sleep. But I use the word could deliberately. Lots of GP's stick to just prescribing anti-depressants for depression and avoid anything else.

There is the herbal anti-depressant St Johns Wort which you can just buy from your health food shop. That might help you if you just can't bring yourself to take Citalopram. Personally I would just be taking the Citalopram at the earliest possible point.

[Liv]

Thanks for your reply Steve. I took the first Citalopram pill last night, I figured that what would be the point in even getting a job if I'm so depressed that I couldn't do it anyway.

[SteveW]

Taking the Citalopram seems like the best idea. With any luck you will be one of the majority that doesn't get any side effects at all. For information I once experienced nausea from an anti-depressant, not Citalopram. After some discussion the Pharmacist recommended the drug Cyclizine.It doesn't require a prescription and did the job of getting rid of the feeling sick extremely well. When I was in hospital once I needed a powerful pain killer, and ended up on Morphine. Morphine has a reputation for causing  nausea and vomiting. I was given cyclizine before the Morphine and didn't experience anything unpleasant at all.

With any luck you will be a Citalopram responder and the drug will kick in, in a couple of weeks. In the meantime good luck with the job application.

[camron]

oh the drugs dont work, they just make it worse, we should look at the cause of depression and this is usually bevause we dont have a relationship with our creator, i was like this before untill i read the Qu'ran