ive had depression for so long now and been on so many medications, i have been on citalopram, escitalopram, paroxetine, sertraline, cymbalta, venlaxafine, mirtazapine and im now on moclobemide along with propranolol, all with a few dosages. none have worked very well at all, after months of pestering i got a counsellor and that helped but on the nhs i only got a few sessions.
I got prescribed moclobemide after being sent to a physcologist, it has helped a little, but not greatly, if anything im starting to feel even worse. I dont know what to do, ive never heard of none working very well, anyone any ideas what i should do?
i do not have any ideas
but just though id let you know you are not alone as i have been on antidepressants for over 9 year and have also been on that many and that many dosages that i also feel like none work.
I try so hard to smile, to laugh once in a while...but no matter what I do the pain wont leave
By the sounds of it, u've tried alot of the modern anti-depressant meds. Maybe you can talk to your psych and ur psych might explore the older anti-depressant meds (tricyclics) and or even mood stabilisers if necessary. But the combination of psychotherapy and meds does work better than just having one or the other separately.
I guess the final alternative is ECT, but like i said, last option if nothing works at all and uve tried all options available. Hope that helps a bit.
Anti-depressants are not designed to be a complete cure. Most are designed to take the edge of the worst of the symptoms in order to enable to individual to participate in therapy which can look at the under-lying issues behind the depressive illness.
It is not un-heard of for anti-depressants to be unsuccesfull for some people and the best thing to do in these circumstances is to talk to your prescriber about what other treatment options there are for you - Whether this is alternative medications (no, you have not yet tried them all) and whether you should be having further counselling or therapy.
As annoying and frustrating and drawn out as the process is, it could be that you have just not yet found the right combination for you as an individual - and that is worth keeping going for.
Roiben x
If the Human brain were so simple that we could understand it, we would be so simple that we wouldn't.
thanks for the replies, i just dont know what to do exactly with my physc shes hopeless, shes late for my appointments and it takes her a month to forward any info on to my doc to prescribe me the meds, and nevermind physcotherapy shes forgot to send me questionnaires, then lost it, then forgot about me completly and this has been going on since feb, and i do ring up quite often to find out whats happening. I know its bad but now im just hoping for meds to work because i realy cant afford to pay for some therapist or something.
But thanks for replying :D
Are you in the UK as there are options for therapy?
I've tried the whole range of medication ADs, APs and mood stabilisers. They didn't work as for me it is a psychological difficulty.
iv taken quite a few, and iv settled with peroxatine which keeps me going, im on maximum dosage, have you maybe thought about asking to try one youve already tried but with a higher dose?
i think the trouble is that all they do is take the edge off, which is invaluable when your at rock bottom but long term really you need is the therapy, could you ask to get reffered to a different person? i know it would be alkward but its your health at stake and thats the most important thing
xxx
"scars remind us where we have been, they do not have to dictate where we go"
i got to the highest dose of most the meds they gave me hahah they just didn't realy do anything. ive had a counselor from the docs so they wont do it again aparently. i just dont know anymore, i keep ringing this physc about when im being referred to have some form of therapy, shes never in, her secretary just keeps saying shes mentioned things to the physc and said itl get sorted and shell ring me, useless. Ive got an appointment with my doc in a few weeks so m going to see if she can send me somewhere else but i dno if she will took me ages to get to this physc. going have to have to start begging soon haha
Sometimes drugs that aren't usually considered anti-depressants do the trick, best probably to see a psychiatrist.
Whatever you do, you it's probably best to look after yourself. Stay clean, groomed, and active. I know I haven't been doing these things, but they are a good idea.
I have been on and off (mostly on!) ADs for 8 years and they have never worked that well for me - I ended up on reboxetine for 4 years because it was the only one that had impact on me, but all it really did was get me to my CBT - which was a godsend and helped so much. It can take a long time to get CBT through NHS so if your docs think it's for you then it's worth getting on the waiting list asap. If you don't find your psych helpful then perhaps your GP could try? I'm not sure if GPs can refer directly though. Atm I am paying privately for counselling - they have a 'sliding scale' depending on what you can afford - its meant to be £40 a session but can go as low as £10. Would this be an option for you?
And just a word of hope - I have not tried quite as many ADs as you, but nearly as many. I was losing hope that any would work and just resigning myself to struggling through the counselling unsupported by ADs. However, my new pysch told me that even though it was possible that I was one of the people for whom ADs don't do much, there was still a possibility that we might find one that works and that we should keep trying. He put me on imipramine, which is a much older tricyclic AD, and having spent a few weeks getting the dose up to a therapeutic level I feel quite a lot better. It's not a suitable drug for eveyone, and it does have some side effects, but I am quite noticably more cheerful as well as sleeping better and SHing less. So don't give up - it could still happen that you find an AD that works!
Best of luck, I know how frustrating it is, be kind to yourself as much as you can. Bx
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