I don't think I've ever started an antidepressant and not experienced a jittery nervous feeling. In a few cases I had to stop and change to a different med. Give it time to settle down but don't hesitate to tell your doctor when it just doesn't feel right. For me, I can usually feel some improvement in just a few days. Some meds may take longer just depends.

Thanks Rees. I can usually tell if they aren’t going to work pretty quickly. I understand they want you to be on them for a couple weeks but waiting for two weeks to see the dr again to be put on something else irritates me.

I know what you mean. That can be a lonnnng two weeks of waiting! But you don't have to wait until your next appointment. You can call your doctor's office and leave a detailed message if you are experiencing bad symptoms or bad side effects from the medications. Then they will call you back and advise you what to do next.

Hope you feel better.

Ask your doctor for a small prescription of Valium just a few to help you adjust to new meds and don’t take the whole thing break in half just to take the edge off I’ve been on antidepressants over 20 years and usually working up to the full dose over a couple of days to help decrease the added anxiety

GirlinCalif,
Yes, I have had to do that before but they tell me to quit taking the med and then on the next appt date we will decide what to do next. I was just on Effexor. The side effects weren’t that bad so I was hopeful. It caused me some added anxiety but I stayed with it because he wanted me to be on it for two weeks. When the two weeks were up he took me off because he said the added anxiety should have gone away if the pill was working. It’s like two weeks is suppose to be a magic number or something.

lemon_dropz,
I am on clonazepam which is suppose to ease me onto the drug but it has never worked.
Right now I am on hydroxyzine and nortriptyline I am better but would sure like to feel like my old self again. I can at least go to work again.

Hmm. This is why keeping a journal with what works when and where and how gives a measure of what combination might be effective.

If you react quickly to medicine as some people do, then two weeks is an excellent marker.

For me, the two week period gave me time to see what works and I keep track in order to be able to say yes or no.

Best wishes.