Discussion If any, what meds are you taking? Are they working?

[WornOutLife]

It's actually quicker and easier to list the ones I haven't been on, lol. The only antidepressant class I haven't tried is the MAOIs. I've also only ever had one of the typical antipsychotics/major tranquilizers, which was thiothixene. I'm fairly certain I've been on all the others over the past 30 years. At least all the other major classes of psychotropics, plus some orphan drugs and off-label things.

I had a clear positive response to 3 drugs: Serzone (nefazodone), an atypical antidepressant that is no longer on the market in my country, which had terrible side-effects but gave me a kind of semi-remission for about three years; Provigil (modafinil), a stimulant that worked fantastically well for a week and then quit; and Trintellix (vortioxetine), some kind of weird orphan drug whose mechanism I don't understand at all, which provided about 4 years of decent quality of life before fizzling out in 2019.

I wouldn't trade the years where Trintellix was working, but I'm actually more suicidal now than I was before I tried it, because now I understand that there can be more to life than severe chronic depression. I no longer have endless patience for sitting around in misery. I'm just like, "Oh, this again? No thank you. Check, please."

I can relate so much.
I've been really feeling like a guinea pig during the last two years lol. I've tried like 10 different meds.

 

[Dutchyala]

I take Xanax and this is the only medicine that works so far for me. It doesn't make me happy or motivated but it helps relaxing and shut up intrusive thoughts so I can at least function as a human being.
It also helps me sleeping. My insomnia is terrible and I can spend 2, 3 days without sleeping and then sleep just a little. With Xanax I can sleep daily.
As an autist I have meltdowns, a horrible feeling of irrational despair I can't describe. I feel desperate for some relief I don't know where to find so I often harm myself bumping my head in the wall, cutting myself. Xanax don't stop them but helps decreasing the frequency.
It also makes the physical pain my chronic illness give me a little less painful, more like it takes my focus away from it for a while.
Side effects are few. Being forgetful, absent-minded. But nothing makes me happy anyway without meds and I don't have a social life so it doesn't bother me.
The bad thing is how quickly you become addicted to it and need higher doses to work.

All medications I took, including Xanax caused me dry mouth and increased thirsty.

I have tried the following medications:

Amytripiline: It used to work great to sleep, even better than Xanax. I could sleep 12 hours straightforward and wake up refreshed. But it didn't improve my mood in any way during the day.
It also helped with physical pain a little.
It stopped working for sleeping fast, I decided to take more to sleep by myself and I had the worst chest pain of my life. Maybe it could have worked as a CTB method but it didn't feel pleasant at all.
Side effects were minimal before. Feeling like a zombie during the day, taking it only to sleep stopped that.

Sertraline and Escitalopram: Both are the same. SSRI meds don't work for me. It made me more depressed, anxious, agitated. It worsened my insomnia and made me sweat and extremely hot inside in a very uncomfortable way. It gave me strong headaches. Worst kind of medication.

Trazodone: Helped me sleep and only that. Better than nothing but the sleep was not much restful and gave me mild headache and an ill feeling when waking up.

Bupropion: It didn't make me feel anything good and caused insomnia and an uneasy, agitated feeling. Strong headaches like the ones SSRIs give.

Klonopin: I tried it before Xanax. It is basically weak Xanax so not much effective for me, it helped me relax a little back then and just that. Side effects were the same as Xanax.

 

[Rustysoupcan]

I've tried, Zoloft, Prozac, Wellbutrin, Clexa, Pristiq, Lexapro, and Effexor for depression. Tried Buspar for anxiety.

Now I am on Pamelor + Abilify. It seems to be working as its much easier to do things, though I still get suicidal thoughts. I also take Hyroxyzine prn for anxiety and Sonata prn for sleep.

 

[nolongerhuman]

I'm currently on desvenfaxine which I haven't taken regularly long enough to know if it works but I don't have high hopes. I also have trazodone for sleep which definitely works and treats my insomnia. I can't sleep without it. I have a long list of past medications I've tried that did nothing or made me feel worse.

 

[charlotte greentea]

When I was younger, I took Sertraline, then venlafaxine, then added quetiapine. None of these helped. I quit the last two cold turkey and felt like I was dying so I used kratom while I was getting used to not taking them. I do not think that any drugs can really help me, but sometimes smoking pot will make me feel better. I think the outside world is really just too much and it's not a problem with my brain that can be resolved.

 

[LONE WOLF.]

Clonazapam 2mg! Can only take once every 3 days or has no effect,and 53mls of Methadone! None of the Anti depressants worked,if anything they made me worse, Clonazapam is the only drug that has worked and really helps with my Anger issues! Mental health services were as much use as a chocolate fireguard!

 

[JGT1]

I have been on most of the anti depressants and they were terrible

 

[OblivionSeeker]

Prozac, Lamictal, Neurontin, Klonopin, and lots of medical marijuana.

Psych meds don't make ya happy. Mostly they just keep ya from killing yourself. but sometimes they just don't work anymore.

 

[Chesswiz2002]

Right now, I'm on 30 mg Lexapro which isn't doing shit but I can't stop taking it without a proper taper plan. I'm also taking Mirtazapine 30 mg and I haven't noticed any significant difference other than having a voracious appetite.

I'm pretty sure I have undiagnosed ADHD so I'm planning to get myself prescribed stimulants next time I make a consultation.

 

[RedHarlequin]

I have tried almost all groups of antidepressants, including antipsychotics and lithium probably more than 20 medication. They don't make a difference, it's a nightmare. The only medication where I noticed anything was a MAO inhibitor parnate but it stopped working after half a year.

 

[loopylou]

Currently taking

300mg Quetiapine
30mg amitriptiline
7.5mg zopiclone

I have cut out 300mg pregabalin and 40mg dulexotine in the last 8 weeks

 

[Bedrock48]

30mg Mirtazapine
50mg Quetapine
2mg Melatonin

Definitely the best combination I've had so far, no nasty side affects I've noticed so far. Makes me sleep like the dead too which is always a positive. Quetapine makes you feel low key a little high which makes life a little more bearable. Meds have also decreased severity and frequency of hallucinations for me but not completely. My mood is not super stable though, even on medication. Quetapine withdrawal is ROUGH, gives me more motivation to order my prescriptions though so that's something.

My old psychiatrist was very much a believer in less medication and more therapeutic activities hence why my dosage is still pretty low. The combination of the two does indeed work best although covid screwed that over.

 

[DeadButDreaming]

450mg venlafaxine
15mg mirtazapine
0.5 a beta blocker tablet

 

[calssilva]

I've been taking fluvoxamine and sertraline,,,both are acceptable, but forget any sexual desire

 

[LenkaX]

Lurasidone 111 mg, Quetiapine 200mg and Trazodone 150 mg. All before sleep. Since psychiatrists introduced me to lurasidone, I have troubles with falling asleep. My opinion is that if you have to rely on psych drugs, then your life is already over. Just ctb.

 

[Moose.000]

Medicines that haven't helped me are wellbutrin, paxil, seroquel. Lithium, vistiril and trazodone together do help me. I had a good routine going. I actually felt good, then my insurance company decided to stop covering certain meds, of course lithium and vistiril being two of them. Now I'm only taking trazodone at night and prozac during the day. I was supposed to start effexor but my insurance shot that down as well. The trazodone works for me at night but I'm not sure about the prozac. I mostly resort to an ungodly amount of chewing tobacco for the nicotine high during the day and 4 to 5 grams of kratom 3x a day for mental clarity and energy.

 

[Decidueye]

I've been through a lot of meds since I was a kid. Things like welbutrin made me very angry, celexa closed up my throat. Everything else (lamotrigine, buspirone, sertraline... I know there are more but I can't remember) just made me a zombie. Everything was so muted that I didn't realize emotions were bottled up until I'd explode. I lost job after job because of that.

Now I'm on nothing. I'm finally losing weight gained from all those meds (wasn't told about side effects, and honestly the weight gain negated any positive effect on my mind). Exercise is hard but it helps. I keep to myself so triggers are minimized. I have some klonopin for emergencies, but the insomnia from it is insane.

 

[Celerity]

I thought about starting a thread like this.

For several years, I took Wellbutrin/Bupropion XL 300 mg. Beyond that, I have also taken Zoloft/Sertraline, Celexa/Citalopram, Ambien/Zolpidem, Trazadone, and Buspirone. Without a prescription, I have also taken Adderall, Valium, and Xanax.

Now, I take Seroquel/Quetiapine as needed for sleep. Out of all of them, Quetiapine, Zolpidem, and Adderall are the only ones I would recommend.

 

[saltshaker]

I tried way to many pills and they're mostly useless, seroquel was a decent sleep aid.

I also suck at taking pills regularly, i've never been able to remember to keep taking them. I always go nuts and come off my meds, or just get sick/paranoid of them.