I have been going through a rough spell for the past 5 months & was gonna go back on celexa until i can get my extreme crying jags under contro;.

has anyone been down that road? what was your experience? any bad side effects?

last time i was on celexa (mum had passed away)...i found it kind of "numbed" my feelings & killed my sexual drive....(that is why i stopped )

i just need something to get me through the next few months...

TIA~

I now understand why you want to be put on meds. I saw your other post. I have no advice to give, I have never been on any anti-depresant. All I can do is send prayers your way.

I was on celexa, got off it a couple times and went back on. After a year of taking it, I felt relaxed during that time and was able to focus on school really well, but I also started being really aggressive and hypersensitive and acted out if things didn't go my way, and felt like the drugs were changing me because of altered circumstances aroudn me, like when I finished school and felt like everything was gone cause I wasn't working immediately and felt misunderstood for it from everyone. I decided to slowly wean off it and eventually stopped altogether. I would take half the tablet for a month or so and then stop and only have it if I'm acting up and slowly got off it. For awhile I couldn't feel emotionally attached to anything like before, but it's coming back slowly. I feel like I can't concentrate much anymoer though I've always had low attention span since I was young, and I forget things all the time, but I'm not sure if it was from the drugs or not, but though I still get upset and anxious over things, I think I'm a lot stronger than I used to be. I've been off it for over a year now. I've studied a little bit of psych, but even I'm not too fond of going on meds, I hate the facts that doctors hand them out like candy instead of referring them to counselors to get to the bottom of the issue first. I felt like they were fucking me up after awhile of being on them consistently and being fine. I really hope my low attention span is not as a result of this, I was like that when I was younger anyways. Sometimes I wonder if I'm bipolar or ADD, but honestly, I learned ways of coping so I never have to rely on substances, I know what provides me comfort and how to go about it, and I want to learn how to help those less fortunate who have also faced issues. Getting to the bottom of the underlying issues including health and ecological factors is more important, drugs should be a last resort if anything, in my opinion.
[Edited 2/13/08 22:03pm]

I've been on prozac, zoloft, effexor, and citalopram. Right now i'm taking
citalopram and have been doing so for about 3 years. in total i've been on
anti-depressants for 8 years and i probably need to take them or the rest
of my life since my depression has no other underlying reason except for a
kind of short cirquiting in my brain.

the main thing with anti-depressants is that you need to have a really good
feedback with your doctor. i know that in america you can buy a lot of that
stuff over the counter but really, you should always talk to your doctor if
that's at all possible.

first of all there's two main sorts of them that both effect your brian in
a different way and you need to know which one you should be on before you
start taking any kind of them.

second, even if you take the right type, there are so many out there that
it usually takes a bit of searching before you find one that really goes
over well with you personally. i had severe side effects from some of them
and with others i felt like the pills put me on some sort of auto pilot,
where i felt good but also felt like i wasn't really experiencing my own
life and motions like before, as if something else was in the way.

then there's lots of people who react quite violetly to some of them when
they first start taking them. especially if you get the dosage wrong when
you first start taking them you could actually see all the symptoms you'd
be hoping to cure with them increase dramatically. you could get hugely
more depressed and even suicidal or suffer wild panic attacks.

a friend of mine went onto them a while ago, in correllation with his md
and after only 4 days, he got so scared and upset that he actually went
to his parents house in the middle of the night and had to sleep in the
bed, inbetween his parents. this is a 30 yr old guy.

he picked things up with his doctor the next morning and went onto a new
type of AD and since then he's been feeling better and better with far
less side effects.

i don't know, i just don't really think that handing out AD's like candy
is the right way to go especially now that so many people take them when
they feel bad over something and don't have a chronic disorder. it seems
to me that they do more harm than good to people who take them as a way
to overcome some recent grievance or upset.

fcuz they are in fact good for those conditions as well, but only when
you are monitored closely by your md.

Paxil - HORRIBLE! I fully support taking this atrocity off the market. I felt MORE depressed, had short-term memory loss, became impotent (at 26!), and couldn't sleep. I got addicted to the stuff, too.

Celexa - Better than Paxil, but still carries a strong sexual side effect.

Wellbutrin - A good one. No real side effects.

Thanks for the replys...

i have done my share of trial & error..& celexa seemed to be the one with the "least" side effects for me. but i still hate the numbing effect it has on me.
sometimes i feel like i would rather have TOO MANY emotions than none at all, & sometimes I cant stop crying.

I was also considering St Johns wart or 5HTP. i dunno....

what do you mean by strong sexual side affect? do you mean increased or decreased? I'm worried now cause my sex hormones have been raging this year, and I'm not even into that.

I was on paxil when I first started and I got off it and then back on it after switching to celexa

SnakePeel said:

I was only on Paxil for a few days, I couldn't eat or drink, lost my sex drive, sweated & stank, couldn't sleep, could only stare at the wall, and I had odd feelings of unreality (for example I found reading weird--translation of someone's thoughts into symbols that I then translated back into my own thoughts was tripping me out, the different levels of reality involved in reading was too much for me to process).

I wouldn't tell anyone that pills don't work, only warn them that I hated Paxil.

But personally, I think pills are last resorts after exercising, eating well, relaxing, getting sunshine, doing things that you enjoy, trying to remove negative influences from your life. If none of that works, or you're an immediate danger to yourself or someone else, then try medication, (just my opinion!)

Went on prozac in '97 - was yanked off almost immediately as it caused week long headaches and bruising all over my body.

I went on Effexor about 4 years ago, been off it for about 3. It didn't kill my sex drive, but my memory was completely fucked up and in general I didn't feel much better. Getting off it was total hell as the withdrawl was out of this world.

Since being off it, I feel much better. I'm just recently realizing that I am not 100% better (like I thought I was) but I'm definitely better than I was on these meds.

SnakePeel said:

I agree with you on Paxil. I felt worse on it. I have also been on Zoloft but am now on Cymbalta. At first, it made me sick to my stomach but that went away. I am trying to give it a chance to work, it doesn't seem like it's doing anything.

Oh, I was on Prozac for a while. It killed my emotions.

alphastreet said:

if you're a man, shriveling up like a raisin and not much caring.

I think key is finding the right anti depressant that suits your body

I was put on prozac and it was fine, suited me, but put on some other drugs, and completely ruined me, my sleep, my days, my everything
I am pro anti depressants to help but it takes more real work and one cant rely soley on anti depressants to overcome depression/problems one is facing..

Oh and you can suffer really distressing nightmares..

REDFEATHERS said:

If you can fall asleep. I kept feeling literally like I was falling, and would jerk awake constantly.

NDRU said:

Yeah insomnia is a bitch with anti depressants.. why is that any meds anyone takes for whatever ailment there are always really BADDDD side effects?

I was on Celexa (for depression) and Depakote (as a general mood stabilizer) for about 6 months or so. I noticed no marked difference in my mood cycles and my wife told me I was actually slightly more irritable while I was on them.

I had no drop in sex drive or ability to perform, but I did find it tougher to reach climax. I also noticed an aching in my extremities.

I couldn't say which of the medications caused these symptoms.
[Edited 2/15/08 12:53pm]

REDFEATHERS said:

At the time I was still smoking pot, but stopped while taking Paxil. But since I couldn't sleep I took a puff to try and help, and immediately my heart started racing at a very rapid pace. It mellowed after 10 minutes or so, but it was a very scary 10 minutes.

Last summer my mothers GP prescribed me Prozac but told me I should think about it before taking it, I did alittle research into it and got the impression I would be doing more harm than good to myself. My ex GF has been taken St Johns Wart, with varying effects and results for about 2 yrs now, although it is difficult to measure just how effective that was in her case as she had a baby last summer and stopped taking it. The last time we talked she had decided to take up counseling, which was also recommended by my own GP.

From people I have spoken to, most recommend counseling, although it is also a very long road but has less of the side effects. It is I imagine also the most expensive method.

Having read what some here have experienced, I am glad now I didnt take Prozac, seems very like substituting one problem for another.