Anyone taking Antidepressants???

[vontech]

Bottom Line: if you have been on effexor for 5 years and you wish to change ANYTHING regarding your medication, you MUST check with your doctor first.

Coming off an antidepressant, or even changing an antidepressant, is something that ONLY should be attempted under doctor's care.

There definitely is something that will work. Believe!

Get thee to a doctor!! Stat!!

Regards,

Tom

 

[James S]

Before you change the important drug, get the diabetes or blood sugar tests. It might be that the tiredness is not the side effect of the drug but something totally separate. So rule that out before you mess with a drug that is working.

though this bit of advise is of no real value since I'm not on these drugs, but i can definitely say that since I slowed down on the carbs and quick fixes of cake and sugar and soda for little energy bursts during the day I've had a much more stable energy and blood sugar value. So you can at least improve the situation by eating more protein and peanuts and that sort of thing. Though this might not help at all if this isn't the problem. But again it's worth trying as the side effects of eating a little better are nil /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif

And then your doc has LOTS of different drugs available to try, and can also adjust your dose on the current one to get you the most benefit for the least side effect. People with severe depression often start with a very high dose and then reduce it over time until they find the point where it stops working so well, or depending on the doc you may have started at a low dose and worked your way up until you get relief. If you haven't tried different doses of this then thats probably what you want to do first if this drug is working for you. Or at least that is the first thing you'll want to ask your doc about doing, and then do what he tells you, or if you don't like what he tells you get another doc /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif

 

[joecandlepower]

Definitely please take Tom's advice. Especially concerning going on and off the meds the way the doctor tells you.
I used to take Luvox and wanted to sleep all the time.
I now take Zoloft and much of the sleepy feeling is gone though I still have a memory recall problem and it affects my thinking process somewhat. Try different meds as I imagine most meds are cheaper than Effexor and shouldn't be an issue with insurance providers. These meds seem to work differently for different people. So it probably wouldn't hurt to talk to your Doc about trying a different med.
I'm still in the trying different meds mode but have definitely noticed an improvement this time.
Good luck to you on finding the right med for you.
Ken

 

[PhotonWrangler]

[ QUOTE ]
picard said:
My body seems to run low on carb. I am not diabetic. I test negative several times. I lost 7lbs this year. I don't know where it disappeared. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/confused.gif I have problem maintain steady weight or gaining weight.

[/ QUOTE ]

Picard, if you're very slender you might have a tendency towards hypoglycemia from a lack of enough glycogen storage in your tissues. I've been told that glycogen is the short-term fuel that the body keeps on hand to provide energy upon short notice. After an extended period of energy expenditure, the body starts to mobilize other forms of fuel metabolism, but it always starts out looking for that glycogen first. An average healthy person carries no more than 1-1/2 to 2 pounds of glycogen stored in tissues. You might be carrying somewhat less than that.

I know this because I'm slender and I struggle with bouts of hypoglycemia. I keep glucose tablets or some other small snack with me most of the time to avoid those annoying sugar crashes. And no, I'm not diabetic.

Sorry for going off topic. We now return you to your regularly scheduled program, already in progress.

 

[picard]

I think you might be right photonwrangler. I never thought of hypoglycemia. I have to ask my doc about it.

 

[nikon]

Ask your doctor about a drug called PROVIGIL to take along with your antidepressent. It's a safe drug with very few potential side effects. It's not related to the amphetamine type of drugs and won't make you feel jittery, but it should keep you much more awake and alert. Also, it won't keep you from sleeping when you want to.

 

[Catman10]

Hi Picard,
You may also want to consider some traditional therapy. Studies have shown cognitive therapy to generally be as effective as anti-depressants, and to last longer. But there are many other types that may also fit you better. CT has been shown to actually change brain chemistry in disorders that are largely organically based.

 

[PhotonWrangler]

Hypoglycemia is somewhat of a self-inflicted disorder rather than a disease per se as I understand it. In other words it may be related to weight (lack of), diet and habits more than an underlying pathology. Fortunately it falls in the category of a benign nuisance. The only time that it becomes dangerous is if you're in danger of falling or crashing into something from passing out.

The glucose tablets are over the counter here. I'm sure thery are in your area also because they're just a complex sugar. Pick up a roll of them in the dietetic or first aid section of your drugstore and see if they help. If they do, you're probably hypo.

BTW, it also helps to cut out the simple sugars (sucrose). I stopped using regular sugar in my coffee and it's made a tremendous difference. An inrush of simple sugar causes a sudden rush of insulin production in order to metabolize it, and the body usually overshoots on the insulin, causing a subsequent sugar crash as your blood sugar winds up being lower than it was before you took in the sugar in the first place.

 

[James S]

[ QUOTE ]
An inrush of simple sugar causes a sudden rush of insulin production in order to metabolize it, and the body usually overshoots on the insulin, causing a subsequent sugar crash as your blood sugar winds up being lower than it was before you took in the sugar in the first place.

[/ QUOTE ]

Yup, and it doesn't have to take much sugar to do this either.

I have a good friend who is very skinny. He works tech and acts and when he's working a show he has to drink a slimfast shake between regular meals to get enough calories and protein and stuff to keep from loosing weight.

 

[StevieRay]

Speaking of sugar, does anyone know of any "safe" sugar substitutes?
I am not a fan of Nutrasweet or any of the sucralose varieties.

 

[James S]

StevieRay, well, any of them are "safe" with the number of attacks that they get from folks that are worried about them on principal nutrasweet has undergone more testing than any food additive in history. So unless you have the genetic disorder that keeps you from metabolizing it, you have nothing to worry about. There are those that might be allergic to it causing headaches and such, but this is not a serious life threatening situation.

Then there is the more important problem that I just don't like how any of them taste. But there are no sugar substitutes that taste better than the splenda types, and even those taste strange to me.

<moderator mode on>
if folks want to argue that nutrasweet really is dangerous and suggest that if you drink diet soda you're going to explode, please start a separate thread for that. We've had discussions about this before and they rapidly deteriorate and end up getting closed. If you want to discuss which one you like, or which one you don't have any headaches from or, which one you think tastes the worst /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif something like that in this thread that would be fine.
<moderator mode off>

 

[jtr1962]

Maybe I'm missing something here but wouldn't going after whatever is causing your depression be the more prudent course of action, given the side effects of antidepressants? There must be some reasons you feel depressed enough to be on this medication. Long term, taking any medication is problematic due to the strain it places on your liver and kidneys, and whatever other side effects it may have. Far better to go after the root causes. Sometimes just time is a cure for depression.

I was horribly depressed from about my second year of college for various reasons. I'm talking about depressed enough to have actually attempted suicide by planning to hurl myself in front of a 125 mph Metroliner (thankfully the train was late and I lost my nerve soon after). It took a good ten years to completely get over the depression, but I did it without taking drugs and without any professional help whatsoever. Often a year or two off away from everyday pressures will give you enough time for introspection and let you cure whatever it is that's bothering you. When you're in the everyday rut of work or school it's difficult to find the time for this. I took a year off from school after my 3rd year for that reason. My depression had just gotten to the point that I would have been nonfunctional had I not done so. I finished my last year in a much better frame of mind. Despite many setbacks since, and very little in the way of monetary success, I don't really get depressed any more. Now I make sure to set aside enough time for myself to take care of my own needs first. If friends or family start to interfere, then I let them know in no uncertain terms. Without knowing your background maybe that's the problem-you might feel too pressured by the demands of other people. At some point you just have to let them know that their neediness is affecting your health, and act accordingly. I stopped taking personal phone calls from friends several months ago for that reason. I got tired of having to drop everything I'm doing to talk at a time that was convenient for my friends. Now I do everything via e-mails and PMs at my own convenience.

Please try your hardest to get off these pills. Long term they're merely a band-aid for a larger problem. Best of luck.

 

[James S]

JTR, I'm very glad that your depression was completely, or mostly situational and you were able to grow out of it. But please don't assume that other folks are in the same boat that you are.

While I have friends that took anti-depressants for a while that probably didn't need to, they eventually were able to get off them and no harm done. But I also have a couple of friends that are of the real, medically depressed variety. For these folks the drugs are the only option. I've seen these people depressed, and I've sen these people on the drugs. for someone that actually needs the drugs the difference is night and day once they find a particular drug and dose that works for them.

When you go to a doc about depression the first thing they are going to do is start you on an anti-depressant. This gives a lot of short term anti-depressants to people that don't need them, but it also saves the life and health of those that really do. There is no way for a doc on an initial visit to spend the time with you necessary to decide if you'll benefit more from drugs or therapy or if you're just going through a difficult time in your life, so the err on the side of caution which I think is perfectly valid in these cases. In a few months of visits or therapy they may decide you can stop the medicine, or they may decide that you cannot.

If the doctor cannot decide if someone should be on pills long term during an initial office visit, we certainly cannot tell from their posts of a few paragraphs here.

but I can say with the authority of someone who only knows anecdotes /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif If you're not chemically imbalanced, then the drugs won't really help. The drugs don't make you "happy" they give someone who is genuinely depressed the ability to cope with their real life situation rather just drugging them to be happy which seems to be what some folks think.

I think I'll start a moderator campaign to add a new CPF rule against suggesting, no matter how politely or how good your intentions are (which I know they are)that someone stop taking their meds /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif

 

[jtr1962]

I still don't get it. Are you saying that people get depressed because of a chemical inbalance even if everything is going great in their life? That's the first I ever heard of this. I always thought when people get depressed that there is a reason for it, so I figured curing what caused the depression in the first place alleviates the need for drugs. Also, given the side effects mentioned here, to me it seems like taking antidepressants would give you even more problems and reasons to be depressed. Now I can understand taking drugs for a condition like schizophrenia where you'll literally go off the deep end if you don't, but this new trend of prescribing drugs to deal with all sorts of other psychological conditions seems ill-advised at best. Most behavoiral conditions have a root cause not related to a chemical inbalance, even if the condition ultimately manifests itself as a chemical inbalance. To me using drugs to treat them is like pouring something to clot blood on an open wound instead of simply stitching the wound closing. You may stop the bleeding, but you're not getting at the root cause.

I'm not suggesting anyone stop taking their drugs based on my advice. Rather, I'm suggesting that they carefully examine their life and remove whatever may be causing them to be depressed, and then consult an MD about stopping the drugs for a while to see if they really don't need them. It may be good to err on the side of caution, but from where I stand it seems like everyone and his brother is on some sort of drug to alleviate one psychological condition or another. I've even seen a commercial for a drug to help "social anxiety disorder". Again, I don't get it, just as I don't get it why people eat food that they know disagrees with them, and then they take drugs to cope. If something is unpleasant or otherwise causes problems, just avoid it. Few things in life that can't be avoided outside of death and taxes.

P.S. I've also known people who were on these types of drugs. To me as a layman they seemed zombified for lack of a better word. Sure they were able to get on with life once on the drug, but it seems the drug took most of the highs and lows out that really make life worth living. I have an aunt who never had problems with depression until she discovered her husband was cheating on her. Now she's totally dependent on antidepressants and goes off the deep end if she stops taking them. My possibly incorrect layman's assessment of her situation is that the drugs let her avoid coping with her problem initially, and as a result she completely lost the ability to cope with anything. She would have done much better with cognitive therapy of some sort but it seems that has fallen out of vogue since giving a pill is so much easier.

Sorry if I'm coming off as a little harsh, but our "a pill to cure everything" culture is one of my pet peeves.