Hi All, I'm New

[Moore75]

Hi Everyone

I'm new here and am currently having a tough time at the moment.

I have just been diagnosed with Depression due to a toxic relationship and other situations and am stressed out badly.  Feel like I can't get a break from the bullies.  Been to Doctors, who has given me Citalopram 20mg but I can't get on with them.  My partner thinks that I am stonger than that, but he pushed me into this, and that I don't need them, but sometimes I am so bad I feel like I want to sit in a darkened corner and cry. 

Am not sleeping and managing on 3 hours a night and feel totally exhausted all the time.  How do you all cope with this?  Going out of my head with worry as I feel totally out of character.

Spoke to the Doctor today and he is giving me a new prescription but I have to take them without the support of my partner.

Thanks for reading this, and I hope to be able to get through this and help others too.

[Grace]

Hello Moore and welcome!

I think it was really a good idea to talk to your doctor again today and get a new prescription. Unfortunately depression is a sickness and has to be treated with the right medication. When one has a strong headache, like migraine, one usually takes an analgesic and does not try to get over it simply by thinking that you can be stronger than the headache! The same goes with depression ..... we manage to cope because we take the medication that best suits our diagnosis.
I really hope that the medication you're about to start will soon make you feel better, though good results can take up to 3 weeks.
But keep on writing and let us know how you're doing! A lot of us can support you here!
How about taking some relaxing herbal tea in the evening before going to bed in order to get a better night's sleep?

Grace

[Pip]

 :welcome:

I do understand how you feel.  I've suffered with depression since I was 12 / 13 which became severe when I was 19.  For many years I suffered in silence as I was repeatedly accused by one member of my family as moody, a drama queen, told to buck up etc.  In 2005 I got to the stage of not eating and surviving on a couple of hours sleep a night.  Due to encouragement of an online friend who is a nurse and her partner a doctor - she was telling him how I was - I went to my doctor.  He told me I was severely depressed and had been for many years based on what I told him.  He persuaded me to go on an anti depressant which I reluctantly took but came off several months as it made me feel like a zombie.  By this time we had moved and the doctor was one of these types who doesn't believe in depression, refused to give me a different anti depressant and told me to go to Relate  .  I told her that Relate wouldn't help due to why I suffered depression in the first place as it wasn't in their 'field' of support.  She told me she couldn't help and that was the last time I saw her. Since 2010 I have been on (mostly) and off anti depressants, the first being citalopram which stopped working for me and now I take sertraline.

How you are feeling is normal for a depressed person but there is light at the end of the tunnel.  It can be a bit hit and miss over what medication works for you but bear with it.

[stewart]

Hi Moore, welcome to the forums,
it is hard dealing tith depression to start with, not having support from your partner must make it very hard for you.

regarding the sitalopram, they are one of the first meds they often try, it can bu uped to a max of 40mg, also the same meds will not work for everyone, and often a combination of meds are needed, keep notes if you want to of how you are feeling throught the day, maybe whats going on atound you at the time as there could be a triggering thing that you have negative reactions to.
tell or show your notes to your doc, and try to remember anti d's take a few days or so to build up in your system.

[Sweetpea]

Hello and welcome to the forum  :welcome. 

You have my sympathy, depression is a very difficult illness. As others here have already said, what meds work bfor some do not work for others. It took a bit of trial and error to find what worked for me.  They do take time to work and its best to take one day at a time. Sometimes keeping a diary of how you feel beach day helps. This also helps your Dr see how you are progressing.  Lack of sleep is common and maybe it would be worth talking to your Dr to see if you could be given something to help you sleep in the short term until you can get back to a more normal sleep pattern.  Has your Dr talked about counselling? I found it very helpful and used in conjunction with medication helps.

Take care

S x