What's the worst side effect(s) you had from medication(s)? *might trigger?*
I gained 30 pounds (am I allowed to say that in this board? edit if I can't, please!), get horrible tremors... just randomly I'll start shaking and can't stop. makes it hard to draw. Then I have memory lapyses, and tiredness. By memory lapyses I mean thinking it's April in December and forgetting what I was saying in mid-sentence. What's really hard is when my lil cousins were here (7 and 10) and they have so much energy... I just couldn't keep up with them. They were like, "You're old!!! " and I was felt so upset.. I'm seventeen and I have no energy. Enless I'm on a mania.. then I'm crazier than them.
I'm aware that this thread might not be a brilliant idea for someone to read just starting on meds. I know that for me, if I read about someone's really bad side effects it makes me anxious when starting new meds.
Everyone is different when it comes to side effects, and most of the time starting meds is pretty much fine (apart from the odd headache or a bit of nausea).
Isn’t it funny how day by day nothing changes but when you look back, everything is different…
you once called your brain a hard drive, well say hello to the virus.
The sedation is pretty bad sometimes. But I would say that the shakes and the violent twitches are pretty bad too. I am also certain that my meds have stopped me from growing in height because I started taking antipsychotics at 15 and I haven't grown in height since I was 15, so I am shorter than I should be. My meds also affect my co-ordination and my handwriting is terrible (before I started the meds, my handwriting was beautiful). I get horrible muscle stiffness too.
But I got a Procyclidine prescription today, so that should hopefully put an end to some of these side-effects.
PM me if you want a PDF copy of the ICD-10or the Mental Health Act 1983/2007. I ALSO HAVE THE DSM-V BOOK and am a pharmacology student.
I have a visual impairment / neurological problems so I need people to type in clear text and no funny fonts. Also excuse any typos, my vision blocks things out.
I have autism and have problems communicating, PMs included.
Just becasue I type well doesn't mean I speak well. I am only part time verbal.
Definately the dystonic reaction I had to sulpiride, it hurt so much and I looked like Igor out of Frankenstein.
Otherwise none have been too bad, except the dry mouth that procyclidine gave me made me have panic attacks. SSRI's didn't have too bad physical side effects except making me a bit shaky, but made me really impulsive, dangerously so.
The sedation is pretty bad sometimes. But I would say that the shakes and the violent twitches are pretty bad too. I am also certain that my meds have stopped me from growing in height because I started taking antipsychotics at 15 and I haven't grown in height since I was 15, so I am shorter than I should be. My meds also affect my co-ordination and my handwriting is terrible (before I started the meds, my handwriting was beautiful). I get horrible muscle stiffness too.
But I got a Procyclidine prescription today, so that should hopefully put an end to some of these side-effects.
My hand writing was better before I took meds too, now that I think about it... I started medication when I was nine, lol! Which is rather sad. My boyfriend is the only other person who can read it I didn't have a problem with growth... co-ordination, definately, though! I've fallin' down the stairs at least seven times and run into absolutly everything! But I'm also slightly autistic... -shrugs- I didn't know muscle stiffness could be a side effect.. I'll ask my psychotrist about that!
My handwriting is awful now, i get the shakes if i dont take my procyladine and ive gained a lot of weight. They also make me really tired to the point where i have to wake up at 6 in the morning to take my meds so i can sleep them off before half 8 when i wake up for college.
My worst side effect was from Citalopram. I ended up practically psychotic, constantly agitated and very unaware of what I was doing much of the time. Basically it made me incredibly impulsive and very suicidal. I ended up in a psychiatric intensive care unit because of it.
Apart from that though another awful side effect is weight gain. I find it really distressing.
Citalopram gave me severe anxiety attacks, my GP took me straight off them.
Amitriptyline - i had such severe diarrhea i was passing blood (sorry TMI to some) - i was so determined to stay on them, praying the side effects would end, but it was getting worse to the point of me passing out. I had to go on quite a high dosage, and they were the only tablets i ever felt any effect from, but the physical effects made me so poorly i couldn't continue.
Clomipramine - Felt like i'd drunk a 4 litre bottle of vodka every night, i was so hungover by them i couldn't function.
I've been on about 11-12 meds since being ill - all anti-depressants, when none worked they looked into my diagnosis and i got diagnosed with BPD (side effect is depression/extremely low moods) which is why none of them really had any effect.
I've had side effects on the majority of my meds - but nothing major like the above ones. Just the usual..agitation, insomnia, headaches, upset tummy..but that's usually to be expected when starting new meds, it's just until they settle down really.
And i have to say - although this thread is good to share experiences, PLEASE no one look at this and put you off taking medication. Once the right one is found you will feel the benefits. It's very much trial and error and side effects don't happen to everyone.
Violent shakes, (chlorpromazine)
Weight gain 10kgs in around a week (zyprexa)
Extreme anxiety
Involuntary eye muscles staring at ceiling (ariprazole)
Uncontrollable hunger (zyprexa/sometimes seroquel)
Heavy sedation, zyprexa
Heart slowing to the point of needing hospital, chlorprom with? seroquel
Psychosis.... (forget)
Panic attacks and racing heart were bad especially as i get anxious anyway.
The one i'm on now seems to have stopped my periods... which is weird.
"Because you don't notice the light without a bit of shadow. Everything has both dark and light. You have to play with it until you get it exactly right."
Not so much from the meds themselves, but coming off of them I get horrible withdrawal symptoms. SSRI's seem bad for me in this sense, I get very dizzy, sick, headachey and nauseous and tend to need to lie flat for it to go away. That and I get very disorientated... I have to come of meds very slowly and be careful and observed by someone. Doesn't help that none of them have worked so far... But, as with posts mentioned above, do not let this thread put you off - the right one is out there, somewhere.
If the Human brain were so simple that we could understand it, we would be so simple that we wouldn't.
The drowsiness / tiredness
The foggy feeling
The nausea
The literal inability to function i.e intense confusion and memory loss
The weight gain
The increase in appetite
The lack of emotion
The inability to care about anything
The lack of co-ordination
I presume you mean medication for mental health issues - I could go on forever about the side effects of the meds I was on when having chemo.
But apart from that:
increased anxiety and panic attacks - fluoxetine (first time round)
drowsiness and tiredness - risperidone
lactation - risperidone
I have no effects from citalopram.
Sometimes the way in life seems cloudy...But remember, after the storm comes clear skies
It wasn't so much the medication in itself, it was the wrong medication for me, and the GP who prescribed it for me didn't ask enough about my symptoms for it to be of benefit.
Anyway. I lost a LOT of weight, and I was already underweight and borderline-anorexic.
It took away my appetite, and I felt constantly nauseous.
It gave me insomnia, more than I already had.
I'd get puffy face and eyes if I was even an hour late taking it.
The first week taking it, I had hugely dilated pupils, wobbliness when I got up to go to the loo in the night, and weird electric shocks going through my body when I lay in bed. Plus a slight rash, which did go.
And then the withdrawal.....
The medication the psychiatrist put me on has however been side effect free for me. Amazing! I've been on it just over 3 years, too.
weight gain, weight gain, weight gain!!! (my favourite peeve! being a recovering anorexic!.
inablility to read more than a paragraph (uses to read several books a week, can read a little more now that am off lithium!)
agitation, tension (caused by effexor and lexapro mix) that led to sh
which i am still trying to conquer even off these meds
tiredness
apathy
constipation (so many of them cause this so if you're on four or five that do you're pretty much screwed with it!) (am i allowed to say that??)
dry mouth
thirst
either too much sleep or too little.
nausea
yet i still live in hope that they will come up with the right combo that will work for me!
weight gain. horrible horrible horrible.
sleeping too much. as in take meds at night, will be knocked out for the bare minimum of 12 hours. not good when before the meds i only ever needed 4-6 hours sleep. then being constantly tired.
the "zombiness" no feelings, just bleugh. and all cloudy.
constipation horrible!
shakes
memory worsens.
i'm living in the hope that they will soon change the meds i'm on and find something that works for me!
They put me on Lexapro first and that made me feel so sick. Like physically sick. Then they put me on Wellbutrin and that gave me really bad headaches. And it made me suicidal. So they took me off that and put me on Zoloft and that was when I tried to commit suicide for the first time. Obviously I was taken off that and put on Prozac which made me crazy. There were days I don't even remember what I did or where I went. Finally they took me off that and put me on Celexa which actually worked for me. I was fine on that. And eventually they took me off it because I didn't need it anymore.
I've had a crazy ride with meds but just remember it affects everyone differently.
The worst was when i was on olanzapine.. Weight gain!
Abilfy was horrible i was dizzy , blurred vision , the shakes , constant tiredness and hallucinations *which it was supposed to ease not make worse*
Citlopram i just had no emotion.
The zopiclone arn't to bad. Apart from HAVING to get enough sleep or i end up just being really shaky and having slurred speech all day. other than that just the usual metal taste and dry mouth but ive been on them for nearly a year so im used to it.
The PRN i was on in hospital used to make me sick the say after , but i cant remember what it was.
So do whatever it takes
‘Cause you can’t rewind a moment in this life
Let nothin’ stand in your way
Cause the hands of time are never on your side
" and I was felt so upset..
I'm seventeen and I have no energy. Enless I'm on a mania.. then I'm crazier than them. 
I didn't have a problem with growth... co-ordination, definately, though! I've fallin' down the stairs at least seven times and run into absolutly everything! But I'm also slightly autistic... -shrugs- I didn't know muscle stiffness could be a side effect.. I'll ask my psychotrist about that!
