Help What's your experience with antidepressants? Looking for advice.

[fleshpuppet]

Was thinking of trialling bupropion and sertraline or fluoxetine and seeing if there's any improvement in my mood and motivation, but I've heard the side effects can be detrimental and I want to hear some opinions before I make the financial commitment. The main thing I'm concerned about is worse energy and undesirable mood changes. I'd also prefer if my dick worked but It's not like I really use it anyway so it's manageable. For people who take/have taken antidepressants, did it noticeably improve your mood? How were the side effects?

I'd be ordering the drugs off Indiamart because I don't want to go to a psychiatrist and have my parents aware of my affliction. Not sure how strict border control is in Australia, so hopefully it wouldn't get seized.

If you've had positive experiences with other substances, also open to other suggestions.

 

[hmu]

I take desipramine every night and I've been on it for around 2-3 months. In my experience it gives me a very small short term relief but it's almost better to just not take it tbh. I am generally a weaker and lower energy person anyway so the side effects fuck me up even more and I get so tired I can't even stand properly. You also can't withdraw from it immediately so id only recommend it if you don't have multiple health problems or something that would interfere with it. That's just my experience don't rely on it too much

 

[orpheus_]

I'm on fluoxetine and bupropion, and described my experiences in other similar threads already:

For me they [meds] made things a lot better, actually gave me hope that life can be worth it in *any* way. I was lucky, honestly. The first medication I got (Fluoxetine) worked for me, while sometimes people need to go test a few meds before they get anything that works. I started feeling pleasure and joy from time to time after a long time of not being to experience it at all and generally I became less suicidal, and just.. existing hurt less. Also got more energy, while before I would sleep all the time. I had no unpleasant side effects (luckily for me, no emotional numbing which SSRIs CAN cause in some cases, I actually started feeling anything other than despair again) besides total apetite loss at the beginning which was not a big issue anyway. Oh and also very vivid dreams, which weren't really unpleasant, just weird? Apparently many people get them on SSRIs??
I've been on Fluoxetine for around 1,5 year, got added Bupropion 8 months ago. It gave me more "physical" energy and drive. I'm just more often motivated to do anything. I think it made me more irritable, though, but it's not like, extreme. It's just on fluoxetine only I was the most chill guy on earth and now sometimes things annoy me but not to the point where I can't control it or anything. Honestly it's also hard to tell for me what was exactly caused by meds, and what was caused by my very unstable life situation during the last year, so it's all a bit generalized.

I still feel like shit a lot of the time but at least I get some good moments and have energy to maintain (mostly) normal functioning. I'd say it was worth it from the recovery viewpoint. Honestly I did not put much hope in meds and I was quite surprised how much that actually changed for me. I'd say it's worth trying. I have only tried two medications because for a very long time I didn't want to, and now once I got something that's working *at all* I'm afraid of switching it to something potentially better (although I was offered switching it a few times and maybe that could help), I'm just too fucking scared I will go back to not functioning at all.

The risks of taking a medication or severity of discontinuation always vary by substance. I always keep repeating that: RESEARCH the med you are prescribed before taking it. Know the most common side effects as well as its benefits, know how long it will likely take to work. That can help you determine whether the benefits outweigh the risks. Most basic antidepressants like SSRIs are low-risk though. But be more careful with antipsychotics (they are often prescribed off-label for different conditions than psychosis, and while they can help a lot, they can cause worse side effects and you need to asses the risk) and benzodiazepines (they are physically addictive, your body builds tolerance to them quickly and, while they can work great for panic attacks since they calm you down quickly, after a few hours the effect wears off and you feel worse than without them).

I have been on fluoxetine (very commonly prescribed SSRI) for around 1,5 year. It got me out of an absolute shithole, honestly, it gave me access to feeling pleasure sometimes (which I lost for a long time). Also generally I feel less of that existential pain while on it, got more energy and less urges to self harm and less suicidal ideation. These problems did not disappear completely (especially as in the recent months I experienced some very messed up life events), but I still feel better taking it than not. I also got added Bupropion around 8 months ago, it gave me more energy and motivation, functioning is easier. Meds are definitely not enough, but they helped me a lot certainly. I only tried two because I'm really scared something will go wrong if I switch to something else, even potentially something more helpful. I got no side effects besides loss of apetite at the beginning of taking Fluoxetine and, I think, more irritability from Bupropion? Not sure if it's really because of the medication or something else, but I heard it happens to some people. For context I'm only diagnosed with depression (+ semi-official suspicions of ocd and adhd), the kind that's mostly low-energy and apathetic. Also did not like the idea of being drugged at first, but I got used to it.

I'd say giving it a try is worth it. However people react differently even to the same substance - still, there are some common patterns (for example Bupropion generally is mostly energizing rather than calming). Meds should ideally be matched to one's specific symptoms as closely as possible, still it's often a hit or miss. It's good to research the most common effects (both positive and negative) of a specific medication before you start taking it so you know what you're getting yourself into, also mind that some substances require a few weeks to work.

tldr, I had good experiences, meds didn't cure me but improved some things. Got very little side effects. Some of it was luck, some - just the fact that people who prescribed me these were *actually* thinking a bit...

Please be careful if you're going to work with meds without doctor's guidance, still I think they can make things better for you but it's very individual. Start with small doses and only one med first, then eventually add the second one. If your problem is lack of energy, fluoxetine and bupropion might help since they are activating. Fluoxetine usually does not cause sedation, but still it happens; Bupropion pretty much never does it from what I know. With seratraline, risk of energy drop is higher. Also all lof them carry some risks of influencing mood in a negative way especially at the beginning, but it varies. Like I said I did not experience them besides Bupropion on higher dose (300 mg) making me more irritable, still it's not bad and idk if it's actually the med or just me being less emotionally numb/life events causing me to loose my shit lol. With fluoxetine, my mood did not get worse than before meds at any point. Also for sexual dysfunction, it's generally very common with ssris (including fluoxetine and seratraline). Bupropion never causes it, though