Medication, friend or foe?

[chilliconcarnage]

Hi all,

Ive recently been thinking about my depression/anxiety. Now when I first had my sudden severe depressive episode I was just SO down in the dumps, crying etc and found each day a struggle. Ive been on a few meds (Citalopram, Mertazapine and now Sertraline). But I would say about a month into taking the meds was when I started getting Intrusive thoughts that I obssessed about. And feeling of being ultra on edge, creeped out, weirded out and generally feeling a bit hyper vigilant etc, feeling that I didnt have before going on the meds. What I was wondering was this...

Does anyone have experience of coming off the meds fully (gently over time..) and feeling better? Avant garde I know, but sometimes I wonder if the meds (although they have helped the depression), actually cause some of the other horrible feelings? Which I find harder to deal with than the actuall depression itself.

Any thoughts or experiences on this greatly appreciated.

[KateG]

I came off my meds 5 weeks ago. I went cold turkey. I was on mirtazapine.

This was after my GP told me that they would not help my depression, which is reactive, they were only helping me sleep. And I was sleeping so much that I was no good to anyone, I was a zombie.

So I got some hypnotherapy CDs and although my sleep isn't great, I am getting just enough to keep me functioning. I have good days and bad days. I used to be worse in the mornings, now there's no pattern. I have started going for long walks to clear my head

I'm not sure if I feel better or not, but at least I don't feel spaced out and numb anymore.

[whiteadder]

Interesting thread. I'm currently off mental health meds but I expect to be put back on them once they work out what's appropriate.

First meds I took for stress and anxiety must be about 2002. Can't remember what  they were called (Sorry). But they made me totally wired. All jumpy and excited. I kind of enjoyed that at first but after a week or so I was exhausted and felt like I needed to be incapacitated. Doctor took me off these of course.

Then later it was cipralex and citalopram. Scary how I don't remember much about these. I lasted longer on them but on reflection I think risk taking behaviours may have increased.

Then more recently sertraline. Think this just made me feel utterly blank.

So to answer your question, for me at least, coming off meds has been ok in the sense that I didn't have withdrawals and was glad to be rid of side effects. But relapse was always just round the corner it seems.

As I'm not sure I ever had the right meds, I would honestly take my views with a pinch of salt. I flirted with meds but never found the right ones to settle down with.

[Zaf]

The only meds that gave me problems were steraline (spelling?), they made me hyper

[chilliconcarnage]

Interesting....

I have an appointment with the Psychiatric Nurse in a week or so. I put the idea to her and see what she says. In a way perhaps im just searching for answers to this depression/anxiety and the weird symptoms i get. In total im on 150mg of Sertraline and 300mg of Pregabalin. Ill discuss with her what the best thing to do is. And ill report back :) Thanks for the replies :)

[mrmoody]

I am really not sure and for years I would have said more foe but its like asking how people react to say cannabis or alcohol. There is a lot of common reactions to both and a lot of cross over how people feel on those substances but everyone differs. Hence why we have so many anti-depressants, to try and find one to suit everyone who is depressed which isnt going to happen in reality. Everyone reacts differently I guess. They do help and I have gone cold turkey just last week and it was a big mistake. I used to be quite anti medication at one point thinking it was more noble to suffer and hence you would bounce back quicker than if you werent on any meds