Help has anyone here seen any real benefits from antidepressants?

[tr.m!]

have been on antidepressants for almost a year now, i am yet to feel any kind of benefits from them. i have taken multiple kinds of antidepressants any none have done anything. i want to stop taking them but wanted to hear other people's experiences beforehand

 

[UKscotty]

Not really no. I have tried all of them I think over the past 25 years.

Some are just too strong and stop all feeling. Some do tame it a bit.

Its just too complicated as there are so many and changing between them takes a couple of months. It's a long struggle just to find a decent one.

You definitely should seek the advice of a medical professional though. People here like me will only have doom and gloom so are not the best advocates for medical intervention.

 

[Ash]

I didn't think I did. I came off them without consulting anyone. It wasn't until I went back on them a year or so later that I realised what a horrible person I'd been during that time. It's up there as one of my massive regrets. Sure, I don't feel "better" while I take them but they do stop me from being the worst version of myself. I know that now.

 

[Orange Cat]

I have a friend who had severe depression and it got to the point where she couldn't even get out of bed. Her doctor prescribed her an anti depressant and an anti anxiety medication. They helped her a lot. She isn't completely cured, but the meds alleviated the worst symptoms. She is now able to work and have a normal life.

Antidepressants can help some people. You just have to find the right combination of meds. My friend tried several antidepressants before she found one that helped her.

 

[Darkover]

Antidepressant didn't do anything for me I was on Fluoxetine Prozac for 1 year

 

[divinemistress36]

I've tried them all . Some helped for a little bit then stopped working and some made me worse

 

[Throwawayacc3]

No. Sertraline. Made things way worse and took it for about 6-8 months(3 months to come off it). Unfortunately they don't change your environment so what's the point? It's like you beat an animal and the vet says give it some drugs so it doesn't feel depressed anymore. Clown world.

 

[LilysAngel]

I've been on a lottt of meds. My most recent regiment consisted of 7 before I stopped. They help slow my mind down and help minimize the extent to intrusive and obsessive thoughts.

 

[Alexei_Kirillov]

Wrong place to ask. People for whom antidepressants work usually aren't browsing suicide forums.

 

[persimmon]

Overall I can't complain too much. Escitalopram took the edge off things when they were bearable, mirtazapine helps me sleep now things are unbearable.

 

[lastexit717@proton.]

Kinda, im on prozac but it takes a lot of time to make effect and even then is not as effective as benzos ..but then again those are very addictive so i dont advise you start on them , try to give normal anti depressants a chance, hang in there, we are here for you

 

[Callie Arcale]

Yeah. I tried 3 types of SSRI. They put a lid on my depression and stress and they lowered my anxiety. I toom them on and off for 10 years or so. In the end I had to quit them due to the fact that after aprox 3 years they all caused the same qruesome side effect: restless legs syndrome.

So they get thumbs up from me, as long as you are lucky enough not to have bad side effects.

BTW restless legs syndrome is probably the worst thing I have ever experienced. The sensation was so intense, I felt like I wanted to chop my right leg off.

Which reminds me of a joke I once read: "Anti-depressants don't help, but the side effects put your problem to shame."

 

[homesoon.]

have been on antidepressants for almost a year now, i am yet to feel any kind of benefits from them. i have taken multiple kinds of antidepressants any none have done anything. i want to stop taking them but wanted to hear other people's experiences beforehand

I've been off and on a number of antidepressants in my lifetime. I would say they haven't worked very much for me, considering I'm on sasu and still wanting to cbt. For some people, they work just fine and they affect everyone differently on a neurological and biological level. For some of us who have more treatment-resistant or major depressive disorders, it can be a lot harder to find something that works, especially on its own without an additive (like a mood stabilizer or anti-psychotic). It doesn't help that most antidepressants (such as SSRIs) can take up to 4-8 weeks to show any affects or may have some side effects, which you'll have to deem are worth it in comparison to the underlying problem.

In short: psychopharmacology involves a lot of trial-and-error to find the "right one."

 

[vitbar]

I was never sure if the first one I tried really helped. The second lot leave me with no doubt that they help. What depressive episodes I still get are nowhere near as bad as they had been. I still get ideation, I think, because it has ingrained itself in my personality over so many years, or at least become a habit.

 

[Nikitatos]

Wrong place to ask. People for whom antidepressants work usually aren't browsing suicide forums.

I found SSRI and MAO inhibitors completely useless. Adderall is the only thing that helped......at least temporarily. Not sure how much adderall has contributed to my terrible health.

 

[tr.m!]

Wrong place to ask. People for whom antidepressants work usually aren't browsing suicide forums.

i get that. i'm not asking if antidepressants make miracles happen, just if they have made things a bit better for anyone.

 

[returntothevoid]

I've probably tried around 3 different anti depressants in my life and none of them worked. The last one, escitalopram, just made me get PSSD and it made everything worse. I know it's a rare and understudied condition but it's a possibility they will fuck up your sexual function. It came back after a long time but it never really fully recovered, and then I lost it again to something completely unrelated. My doctor has described me as "treatment resistant", lol.

 

[halleyscomet]

Yes, I take 50mg of sertraline daily and it helps me quite a bit. It took a while to find the right dose, but it makes me feel more calm and level headed. However it doesn't cure anything, my depression is still pretty severe and my autism is still a pain in the ass. It just ensures I don't do anything rash and I don't completely rot.

 

[Roseate]

Wrong place to ask. People for whom antidepressants work usually aren't browsing suicide forums.

Not really completely true. They've helped me somehow. They help me lessen my anxiety and my mood swings, just the side effects I hate and the fear of having to take them for the rest of my life to do basic things normal people can do. I'm like the worst person without them, I'm an anxious overthinking depressed mess with extreme mood swings just snapping at everyone. But least I don't have to worry about weight gain or nausea or the first two weeks sleepiness side effect. I don't have to worry about feeling weird inside.

 

[Alexei_Kirillov]

Not really completely true. They've helped me somehow. They help me lessen my anxiety and my mood swings, just the side effects I hate and the fear of having to take them for the rest of my life to do basic things normal people can do. I'm like the worst person without them, I'm an anxious overthinking depressed mess with extreme mood swings just snapping at everyone. But least I don't have to worry about weight gain or nausea or the first two weeks sleepiness side effect. I don't have to worry about feeling weird inside.

Thanks for sharing, I didn't mean to imply that it hasn't helped anyone on here, just that this site is not a representative sample; whenever variations of this question are asked, the responses skew towards "They didn't do anything for me." Then again that skewed sample could be exactly what OP is looking for (ie. the experience of people who are persistently suicidal and/or "treatment resistant").