Hi Luna,
I have been on anti-depressants for awhile; personally I could not get through the CFS without them. I definitely think it's worth a try. If you don't like them you can always stop. Have had no side effects in 28 years! Remember, if you do try one, there are often side effects the first few days, so don't give up too quickly.

I was on anti-depressants for a long time before I was diagnosed with CFS. They kept saying I was depressed and needed them. Now I know (or at least this is my theory) that I was frustrated and confused, not depressed, because of the early development of CFS. Sometimes the antidepressants seemed to work and other times they didn't. There is weight gain with some antidepressants. I have been off of them for many years now. I still have teary moments when I am more fatigued, but counseling sessions have been the best help for me.

I think antidepressants caused my cfs. Was on them for about 3 yrs, they were crippling. Gained 40lbs in 3 months on one of them. Others caused heart palpitations, dizzyness, fatigue, brain
Fog...

Side effects can be horrible. But i also think there are times when your brain chemicals are out of whack and you need antidepressants to bring them back into balance. I have one (zoloft) that works for me so i keep a store on hand for when i feel i need it, cant take it all the time tho because of side effects.

I,ve read that ad meds work for 85% of patients. Dont fear, find what works for you.

Hi Luna!

Here's the deal, as I've been told by my CFS doctor. If you have a chemical imbalance (actual brain chemistry problem causing depression) then you need an antidepressant. If you are "sad" "down" "feeling poorly" due to life circumstances (such as having a chronic illness that ends your life as you knew it)...that is situational depression, not chemical, and antidepressants can do more harm than good.

My daughter is bi-polar. She takes an antidepressant and does well. It helps her. She also has anxiety. For that, she has anti-anxiety meds.

I have anxiety, but only situational depression. Antidepressants made me very sick, very quickly. I didn't have a chemical imbalance. I was diagnosed with this ridiculous illness and my life changed in a bad way...thus, I was depressed. MAN, was I sick on antidepressants.

So if you try one, and it helps, then possibly you do have the imbalance and need meds. if you try and they make you feel worse....you probably will never get a good result. Can't hurt to try though. We all have to keep trying!!

Hang in there! I'm so sorry you are having trouble with this. What does your therapist suggest you do??

Hi Luna, if you find you suffer side effects from the antidepressants, or decide you just don't want to use them, you could try St Johns Wort as an alternative . It's used as a natural antidepressant and is reported to be a good therapeutic herb.Wishing you well.

Luna, I take anti-depressants & have for years with no side effects except for with Zoloft. It was the first one I tried & I gave it a good try but just couldn't get past the side effects. Since then I have had no trouble. My depression is a chemical imbalance, a family problem, & I have dealt with it since I was 11 years old. Like you have been told, just give it a try, you will know shortly if you will have side effects. AD take 6 to 8 weeks to come to full benefit so don't give up to soon. But if the side effects are just too much, talk to your dr. & maybe try something else, they are all different. I didn't think I needed AD, I didn't think I was bad enough. I also didn't want to take any prescriptions for it but I soon learned how wrong I was. Now, I don't want to be without it. Hugs, Denise

Hi, Luna,
Just adding my two cents. Never took an antidepressant until developing fibro/cfs, and at that time my doctor put me on Cymbalta which is recommended for people with fibro/cfs. It helped with mood and pain. I have not gained weight from it but have virtually no sex drive anymore which can be a side effect. Had minor nausea the first day of taking it but that disappeared quickly. Did notice sweating more the first few months of taking it, but that, too, disappeared.The generic for Cymbalta (duloxetine) came out in December, and I've tried it (for only two days now), but it seems equivalent to the brand name.

I tried the natural route which I think is always best but went on the Cymbalta with the recommendation from my fibro/cfs doctor and also a therapist that I was seeing. I was trying to work another school year in a high stress environment (teacher) and feel like the Cymbalta helped me get through it. But, as I was saying earlier, go for natural if you can. Have you had your hormones checked? That was part of my problem, too, and I've benefitted from taking bioidentical hormones from a compounding pharmacy. You can also buy them OTC.

There's an informative website put out by Dr. Sarah Myhill there in the UK; have you checked it out? You might want to try some different approaches to treatment before you get on any antidepressants. Wishing you the best with it. Keep us posted!

Each person is different with the anti depressants and there are different groups. The SSRI's like Prozac and paxil can be effective but one common side effect is drowsiness - not good for CFS sufferers.


I take generic wellbutrin which is an anti depressant that has stimulative properties. In the US, many regular doctors are willing to prescribe these drugs as there is low risk, and they have a long history of being effective probably the same in the UK.

I have CFS, FM and Irritable bowel and have taken 20mg. of Elavil( a low dose of an antidepressant)for the irritable bowel with really good results. I do sleep much better which probably helps the CFS be less. I'vebeen on it for 20 years and the only side effect was drowsiness only for the first month. Hope this helps. Isabelle1954

I disagree with the "it can't hurt to try it" comments. First of all, if you got sick from 5 HTP, you are highly likely to have problems with antidepressants, as 5 HTP is a serotonin precursor. The body uses it to make serotonin, so it's basically like a gentler version of the antidepressants that up serotonin levels (which are practically all of them).

2nd, ADs can and do make people very sick (sometimes just when starting, but a lot of the time they do the whole time people are on them), and that is a stress on the body. Anything that stresses our bodies, when we have CFS has the potential to make us crash badly for a long time.

3rd, the risk for serotonin syndrome is there and that can be life threatening, though, it is a low risk unless you are on a high dose. 4th getting back off of an AD can be incredibly horrible, esp if you stop cold turkey, but even trying to titrate down doesn't always work. I know of quite a few people who are on them because they were unable to handle getting off, even trying to do it slowly. (Even the drug companies admit this is a problem.)

5th, many people with CFS have too much serotonin, so taking more is not a good idea. And, 6th, there is a good amount of concern that ADs and other psych drugs harm the mitochondria, and the mitochondria are already screwed up in CFS....in fact several Drs consider that the main issue or cause of CFS.

And, on top of all that, many people with CFS are also extremely sensitive to meds. And, many of the potential problems caused by the meds can be permanent. There are a lot of natural alternatives to ADs and to anti-anxiety drugs. Some are not without their own issues, and it's best to try them starting at a very low dose, too, but in general, they are a lot safer than psych meds. And, things like progressive relaxation, deep breathing, visualization, and meditation, etc can all help, too.

Try googling alternatives to antidepressants or alternatives to anti-anxiety drugs and see what comes up. There are many, many things worth trying that won't cause the potential issues that the meds will.

Another issue with ADs is that there is evidence that the brain adjusts to the level of serotonin that is increased by the meds by decreasing its own production. The result is that the levels pretty much return to what they were before taking the AD, but now the only way to even maintain that level is to stay on the AD, and the only way to increase it is to up the dose of AD. Eventually, the brain again down-regulates its own production of serotonin to try to maintain its prior homeostasis, and thus the AD dose has to be upped again. People wind up on high doses because of this process and they are NOT harmless, mild little drugs, despite the prevalence of people who believe they are.