Psychotropic medication discussion thread

shadowfox75 said:I didn't call her. I'm going to wait until my appointment on February 10th and see how things go. I take Helix to help when the symptoms get intense. We'll see, but until then, expect me to bug you all with questions. :-D

David Lopez97 said:I’m feeling so incredibly depressed and low right now—it’s actually hard to put into words how heavy this feels...

I just need something to get me through the next few hours, because my head is spinning with a million different thoughts and I feel like I’m genuinely losing my mind.

I honestly just need something to take the edge off, something to numb the noise so I can finally drift off and sleep...

shadowfox75 said:Oh my god😲

Amanda Parker2 said:Nausea, zero appetite, brain fog, the shakes, tingling sensations... Honestly, how much more of this can one person take? And I guess we’re only just getting started.

Amanda Parker2 said:Nausea, zero appetite, brain fog, the shakes, tingling sensations... Honestly, how much more of this can one person take? And I guess we’re only just getting started.

David Jackson22 said:Hang in there, man, I honestly think it'll be worth the wait. It took me forever to finally get my Valtrex working right after my Prozac stopped doing anything for me after ten years on it.
In my opinion, for those of us dealing with postpartum depression or anxiety who have been stuck on meds for years, it takes way longer for a new antidepressant to actually kick in.
Your body basically needs time to flush out the old stuff before the new stuff can even start working. After I finished Prozac, I tried pretty much every antidepressant under the sun and none of them did squat, so my psychiatrist just left me on Valtrex, even though it felt like nothing was happening even after three months. Switching therapies just wasn't worth it anymore because I had to go through that whole hellish cycle every single time, and I was just too exhausted to deal with more new side effects.
It’s been six months now, and I’m finally feeling okay. My doctor and I just stayed the course, slowly bumping up the dose and waiting, waiting, waiting...
It sucks, there's no other way to put it, but when you don't have any other options, you just have to suck it up and be patient.
I really hope things move faster for you, but I just wanted to say this so you don't lose hope if you don't feel better in a few weeks. Sometimes you just have to play the long game.

Brandon Lopez6 said:Man, I’m sorry. I really wish I had some good news to share here.
I totally blanked on mentioning this, but then I saw your other post below. Back then, I actually bumped my dose up from two Helix to four, and honestly? Even that wasn't cutting it. Trying to taper down from five Helix to two was a total nightmare, and then—boom—within a month, I was right back at square one. That second attempt at tapering was way easier, though, mostly because once the Cipralex finally cleared my system, the actual craving for it just kind of vanished. It took me about two months the second time, but that first go-round dragged on for almost four.

shadowfox75 said:The battles we fight are intense... yet all we receive is a mountain of unsolicited advice.
Yesterday, I received the latest feedback from my boss. Honestly, sometimes I wonder if anyone truly understands us... or if we even understand ourselves. Personally, I feel lost regarding what is happening to me; I can no longer distinguish which symptoms are psychological and which are genuine physical ailments.

Do you ever get the feeling that you won't live much longer than a few years? It is as if I have entered a phase where everything has fundamentally shifted, though I struggle to put it into words.

Brandon Lopez6 said:I started doing some deep self-reflection lately and realized that nobody could really help me before because even I didn't know what I was trying to say. While digging through my own head, I uncovered a whole different side to my issues—stuff I’d never told anyone because I wasn't even aware of it myself.
Now I'm in a decent spot that keeps me pretty level-headed, except for the OCD. And man, that stuff is brutal. It makes you want to lose it sometimes.

Had some blood work done the other day to check my liver enzymes and thank God everything came back fine. My meds haven't messed with it at all. 🙂 🙂 🙂

Brandon Lopez6 said:I started doing some deep self-reflection lately and realized that nobody could really help me before because even I didn't know what I was trying to say. While digging through my own head, I uncovered a whole different side to my issues—stuff I’d never told anyone because I wasn't even aware of it myself.
Now I'm in a decent spot that keeps me pretty level-headed, except for the OCD. And man, that stuff is brutal. It makes you want to lose it sometimes.

Had some blood work done the other day to check my liver enzymes and thank God everything came back fine. My meds haven't messed with it at all. 🙂 🙂 🙂

wearycyclist17 said:So, how did you stumble upon that subconscious layer? What were you analyzing—your past, the present, your personality, relationships, deep-seated traumas? Or just everything at once? How EXACTLY did you get there?

I've done plenty of self-analysis myself, but I've never actually landed on any concrete answers or conclusions.

shadowfox75 said:That is an interesting question. When I speak with my therapist, she usually asks me to identify what I believe is causing my symptoms—why I am experiencing dizziness or fear at that specific moment.
The truth is, I don't know. It could be a million things. I suspect work is the biggest factor, though I can't just quit on a whim, or perhaps it is the fear that something is physically wrong (even if that doesn't mean I'm immediately demanding an MRI).
In the past, I dealt with significant trauma, such as losing both of my parents. The difficulty lies in the fact that there are so many contributing factors, and I cannot pinpoint the primary one.
By the way, I am looking for a girlfriend. 😛
Everyone tells me that once I find a partner, I won't dwell on these trivialities anymore because my life will feel complete. 🎉
However, besides being in debt until I'm 50, I also have a negative balance in my checking account, so if anyone is interested... I'm free.

Kevin Nguyen3 said:Not my type.🤣

In psychiatry, we rarely encounter a problem that is strictly and clearly defined—take panic attacks, for example.
If it were that simple, it would be wonderful; we would just apply targeted medication or psychotherapy and consider the problem solved.
But it’s never that straightforward. It is always a complex web of various disorders or underlying issues that precede specific conditions.
Most laypeople don't actually grasp the distinction between heightened stress and clinical anxiety. We end up deceiving ourselves with random information gathered from the internet, clinging to what we imagine is "knowledge," which is frankly pathetic, especially when you're acting out of fear.

Things have to be resolved step by step; it is truly the only viable way to alleviate or reduce certain symptoms.

For instance, we feel depressed, so we can't sleep; then comes the anxiety, followed by headaches as the icing on the cake; for women, irregular cycles; for men, impotence or loss of libido, and so on and so forth..

Where do you even begin??

Naturally, we start with medication, often experimenting with various antidepressants... and we might even end up on antipsychotics simply because we "heard somewhere" that they work.
Only then do we mask the actual problems, dragging ourselves deeper and deeper into the hole.

The foundation of treatment, or at least an excellent starting point, is lifestyle. If we don't change our habits in that regard, we can kiss our health goodbye.
Trying to normalize sleep, nutrition, interpersonal relationships... reducing stress wherever possible, reflecting on oneself and one's needs regarding things like money, socializing, honesty, morals, love...

As long as we fail to address these fundamental areas, we are merely helping the illness progress to its full extent.
Once that happens, even doctors will be able to narrow down the list of causes. They often don't bother telling you what would actually help because it's futile; bad habits are stubborn creatures, and breaking them is incredibly difficult.

shadowfox75 said:Isn't amyzol a tricyclic antidepressant, from the older generation?
Hasn't a single SSRI worked for you?
How many different antidepressants have you tried?
How are you managing to get through life? Are you working?
Sometimes I wonder how much longer I can function like this. How is it possible that we have to experiment with these medications so extensively?
It is difficult to distinguish what is purely physical from what is psychological. My primary care physician refuses to attribute anything to a psychological phenomenon. Every time, they insist on ruling out a physical cause, but I know I cannot constantly demand endless tests throughout the year while symptoms are active.
That is the only thing keeping me going... the hope that they won't just dismiss everything as "all in your head" and overlook a potential physical issue.
I am in a total coma today... I am not depressed, just extremely anxious. I have this massive dizziness, and I have to work the next two weeks of night shifts because my colleague is on PTO.
Well, I am about to go on PTO myself, though I am worried I might pass out during a night shift... or whatever happens.
In my opinion, if you were actually going to faint, you would have passed out a hundred times by now. This dizziness wouldn't have lasted this long. I read somewhere that if there is a physical cause for vertigo, it resolves within a specific timeframe once the brain compensates for the damage (whether it's the vestibular system in the ear or something else). Anything persisting beyond that window is considered psychogenic vertigo.

I’ve cycled through four different ADs now, and honestly? Every single one of them hit me with some absolutely nasty side effects. The only thing that actually worked without making my life miserable was Amitriptyline. It’s been a total game-changer—I feel so much more level-headed since I started it. I can actually handle being by myself for a few hours without that instant wave of panic hitting me, and I’ve even managed to go for walks around the neighborhood on my own lately. Small wins, I guess.
I’m working full-time, and I only get about 12 days off the entire year. Plus, there's zero sick leave on my contract, so I really can't afford to mess around experimenting with meds that might end up being a total bust. I just don't have the bandwidth to go down any rabbit holes searching for physical illnesses, either.

My doctor is always nagging me, asking if I want to go get this test done or that one checked out, but honestly? Most of the time, I just don't feel like dealing with it. I know it’s probably just my mental state talking—if I actually had any drive, I’d be out there crushing my goals instead of sitting here. To be real, reading some of the stuff on here about Amyzol actually freaked me out a bit, especially that part about it being like rat poison. But then again, I don't have any actual symptoms of poisoning, so maybe I'm just overthinking things. 🤷.
I've been on this stuff for almost a year now.

Since things have been pretty much a downward spiral since 2010, I just went ahead and accepted this antidepressant. Honestly, even after reading all the horror stories on the forums, I think it’s probably for the best. My psychiatrist definitely wasn't trying to put me in harm's way; they were just doing what they thought was right for me.

wearycyclist17 said:So, how did you stumble upon that subconscious layer? What were you analyzing—your past, the present, your personality, relationships, deep-seated traumas? Or just everything at once? How EXACTLY did you get there?

I've done plenty of self-analysis myself, but I've never actually landed on any concrete answers or conclusions.

I’ve been sitting here chewing on everything you asked me. Just really digging into the whole thing—my past, how those old relationships actually bleed into my life right now, and how all that baggage shaped who I am today. Basically, I'm trying to figure out why I act the way I do when I'm out in the world with people.

When people ask about my childhood, I usually just recall a few scattered bits—mostly positive things. It’s only when I really start digging deep that I unearth these tiny, seemingly insignificant fragments that somehow perfectly patch together the holes in how I act today.

Ever since I was a kid, I’ve been obsessed with order and keeping my stuff organized. Mind you, I’m actually a pretty messy person; I don't really care what my room looks like, but I always fixate on one specific thing. For me, it was often magazines. I remember this phase where I’d go visit my grandma—she lived maybe fifteen minutes away from us—and I’d lug around this massive backpack stuffed with books and notebooks (not even school stuff, just my own).
I also had this strict ritual for reading. Like, if I had three magazines, I decided the exact order they had to be read in. If I was halfway through the first one and someone would just grab the third one without asking, I’d feel this insane, indescribable discomfort. I even used to get into full-blown arguments, insisting that nobody was allowed to touch *my* magazine (emphasis on "my").

It sounds like trivial nonsense, but I think it shows just how deeply OCD is baked into who I am. I never actually mentioned any of this to my psychiatrists; I only realized the connection long after I’d stopped seeing my therapist.
Then there’s this other thing. When I was really little, maybe two or three years old, we were living with my grandparents and a few other relatives while the war was going on. My grandpa and I had this game where he’d tell me stories about what my teddy bears did that day. They always, always had to follow a specific sequence. Whether that was his idea or mine, I have no clue, but Teddy A couldn't "speak" before Teddy B because that just wasn't how it worked. That wouldn't be the right order, and he simply wasn't allowed to do it.

The weirdest part of these fixations is how I tie emotions to physical objects. I can feel this sudden rush of euphoria just by holding a piece of paper that feels important to me. I’ll end up carrying it everywhere I go.
To me, looking back, it all seems totally warped. Honestly, I wasn't even aware of this side of myself for a long time. It’s like I’d just blocked it out.

I finally pieced it all together through conversations—sometimes with my parents, sometimes with my husband. We’d start off talking about something totally mundane, and then as the conversation drifted, I’d suddenly find myself remembering something much bigger.
I guess that’s how therapy is supposed to work, right? A doctor asks a question and you slowly navigate your way to some deep realization. But I’ve never felt that kind of calm, steady ability to pull anything from my past during a session with a doctor.

This might sound like a bunch of random junk, but I feel like I need to tell you absolutely everything—every single thing I've unearthed—and then explain how it all connects. Honestly, I feel like I’ve gotten to know myself so much better over the last year. I’m planning to write down all my memories, anxieties, and conclusions so that one day, if I decide to go back to psychotherapy, I can just hand the whole thing to my doctor.

restlesstiger49 said:So, I’ve been on Effexor for about five months now (taking 35.7mg in the morning). What makes this one unique compared to other antidepressants is that it seems to have a much shorter half-life—around 10 hours, if my memory serves me right. Over the last week, I've been dealing with this wave of anxiety right when I wake up; it hits hard, then slowly tapers off, especially about an hour after I take my dose. On top of that, even though I'm getting a solid 7 to 8 hours of sleep, I still feel completely wiped out and exhausted. I suspect the anxiety might be linked to that shorter half-life. I'm curious to know if anyone else taking Effexor, or antidepressants in general, has dealt with similar symptoms.
Thanks!!

shadowfox75 said:That is an interesting question. When I speak with my therapist, she usually asks me to identify what I believe is causing my symptoms—why I am experiencing dizziness or fear at that specific moment.
The truth is, I don't know. It could be a million things. I suspect work is the biggest factor, though I can't just quit on a whim, or perhaps it is the fear that something is physically wrong (even if that doesn't mean I'm immediately demanding an MRI).
In the past, I dealt with significant trauma, such as losing both of my parents. The difficulty lies in the fact that there are so many contributing factors, and I cannot pinpoint the primary one.
By the way, I am looking for a girlfriend. 😛
Everyone tells me that once I find a partner, I won't dwell on these trivialities anymore because my life will feel complete. 🎉
However, besides being in debt until I'm 50, I also have a negative balance in my checking account, so if anyone is interested... I'm free.