Antidepressants keep me in a hypo state... I've had a doctor insist on them and I stop sleeping

Wellbutrin sent me to another planet with one dose..... Awful!!…...xo

Every so often I get the "How about it?" from my pdoc and I can't bring myself to go down that road again.

It seems women have more side-effects and less benefit than do men. I just can't put myself through another medication trial...

I am taking Zoloft but was previously on Wellbutrin and Zoloft together. No issues for me. But I take a lot of meds so I think everything balances me out together

Is Effexor a anti depressant?

"""Wellbutrin sent me to another planet with one dose..... Awful!!…...xo"""

Dito on that for me too, Wellbutrin gave me the heebie jeebies!!!
As I wrote earlier, I believe what we eat, exercise, someone to love, to do and to look forward to play a Huge Part in mental health Period....yes, there are chemical imbalances.....still, how I cope depends on how I eat and outside life circumstances....anxiety and fear can make me spiral down Fast...being outdoors in my garden fills me up, and knowing I'll have fruits and veggies and beautiful flowers is my something to look forward to....winter months are a bitch! I'm working now on finding activities to get me out of the house...meetup has been one start, another is my local senior center....my hope is to make 'real in person friends' that I can call up and to get my house cleaned out to reduce my anxiety should I need to move because of my health.

Effexor is an antidepressant.

Lexapro is very low side-effect and it does not cause weight.

It tends to work very well on BiPolar Depression. I only use it at certain times of year, and it does cause me a manageable manic episode while I'm tapering onto it that lasts for a couple of weeks, but thats it.

Might be worth a try.

Thanks everyone grist for the mill but I'm just too afraid to take a chance....

Ending up I. The hospital would break the bank for me....

Well you asked so we answered....

I can't take antidepressants....a long time ago at Alanon there was a saying in terms of boundaries and the alcoholic...to bring the focus on self rather than reacting...I use it in many different areas of my life.

When the pain of where you are now, is greater than the fear of where you are going, that is when you will make a change.

Currently I'm using the above for my son/his health and my mental health, and making future decisions about my home and life in general. My feet are stuck in cement often, and I'm in constant desiring state of moving past fear.

Hi Mayb, If you're taking a mood stabilizer and an anti-anxiety med they often mitigate the manic side effect for beepers taking an antiD. I gained weight on almost every single med (with no diet change) except the first time I was taking a combination of Prozac, Topamax, Xanax as needed, Vit D3 and eltroxin. This was the best combination of conventional meds I have taken Unfortunately when I met that idiot pdoc a few years ago who told me I was an addict for taking all these meds and for good measure threw in a random diagnosis of BPD after spending only a few minutes with me He ranted on about how I would seek multiple scripts from multiple docs and even went so far as to call my pharmacist and doc to tell them to only accept scripts from him. They too were stunned and dismissed him as an idiot. But I allowed him to upset me so much that I went off all meds and of course spiralled into mania, depression, suicide failures - the whole plethora of BP1(dysphoric) behaviours.
When I went back on the meds Topamax caused weight gain and I could not take an antiD on its own but being a recoving anorexic I could not cope with weight gain once people started commenting on it so I stopped them again.
Now I take Topamax at a lower dose and xanax as needed along with daily CBD oil. This has had me more stable than I have ever been in my life. All bloating has disappeared and I am pretty much back to my normal, for me, size.
I have written this before. My pdoc used to have a rule of thumb about meds of: Do you need it? does it work? and Can you live with the side effects? If the answer to any of these questions is no then we stopped the particular med.
You have to consider what works for you specifically as each of us react differently to most meds and BP is difficult to treat but no medication generally does not work for us.
At this point we all know about using a combination of meds, diet, therapy, exercise, music etc. etc but without medication most of us tend not to be able to put all the other ducks in a row.
I hope you find something that works for you because depression is beyond awful.
Keep us posted and once again, I am happy to see you back here. DS provides invaluable support on our individual paths.
I'm lucky that to date I have never had withdrawal symptoms from any med so I will admit it is a little easier for me to keep trying different combos when it all stops working as it inevitably does for me.
we can only do the best we can with the information available to us at any given time. Our best has to be good enough.
Most of us have co-morbid diagnoses and each illness ebbs and flows with flares and remissions eg. right now CPTSD contending with Fibro are standing at the top of the line for me. They are like children with each one needing individual attention at different times.
Be Safe. hugs

This is interesting and timely for me! My pDoc just took me off of Zoloft three days ago because I am having some hypomanic symptoms (see - up at 3AM!!). I have been on a combo of Abilify, Lamectal and Zoloft, with Xanax and Ambien PRN for about 8 months. This is my first real issue/episode with this combination so he advised that antidepressants can "make the bipolar seas a bit rougher". They can make episodes of both mania and depression worse depending on the patient. He said that the psychiatric community is split on the use of antidepressants in bipolar patients. So, slight increase in Abilify and take out with the Zoloft. (And, BTW, he's not a quack - he's probably the best pDoc I have had.) That being said, I am having some side effects going off of the Zoloft. I feel like there are "bubbles" popping in my head.

During my last episode of depression was when I started the regimen above and it definitely helped to pull me out along with a therapist. In February, I was having a very bad time. I was in a bad state for about 8 weeks. Therapy along with family and friend support was invaluable. Also, this forum really helped me. But, now that I am having different symptoms, my pDoc is taking a different approach (which makes sense to me but is frustrating...I just want to feel normal).

I hope, MayB, that you find some relief from your symptoms. Please continue to reach out. Keep us all posted.

The depression hasn't hit yet but it will with the loss of light. Yes I do replace light with a full spectrum light I also use to sew under.

My problem is I can;t handle mood stabilizers either you name it I have been on it and it ultimately didn't do all the miraculous things it was supposed to.

So I seem to be in the place where Western Medicine and traditional psychiatry has failed me. Gym visits and rigorous exercise does help me...but I'm not in the position to try any of the offerings psychiatry has to give....

I just can't afford to get my scales a tipping once that starts to happen hospitalization quickly ensues and I just can't afford to have that happen!

I just refuse to engage in poly-pharmacy taking 5-6 or more different drugs until something works.

I tried Wellbutrin a few decades ago. One pill kept me up for 3 days. So, I quit. But my sister suggested I cut it quarters, even though it is sustained release. So, I did, and it gave me enough to weather the SAD that was so bad in northern AB, where I lived. I usually used to stop taking it about March, then start in November. But the last couple of years, because of all the pain, med failures, etc, upped the dose to 1/2 pill. Plus, I haven't been able to get off of it in summer.

I've never tried another AD, too worried about going manic.

i would add that strenuous exercise, riding my bike, stretches and weights, really helped me mentally. But, I can't exercise much, my body is just too crippled. I would love to get those days back. I probably could get off the Wellbutrin in summer, if I could go back to bike riding. I have balance problems, which is a big issue when bicycling!