Anne1405 Long term consequences of using SSRI

[Anne1405]

Hey!

It is the first public post I have ever made about my mental health but I feel like I reached the rock bottom. I am only 21 years old and I feel that every singe day is a new emotional nightmare. I am going to start from the very beginning.

 

I used to be very shy child for whom making friends was a real challenge. In primary school I finally found my group of people where I felt accepted, liked and just good. The problems started again in the middle school. My shyness together with anxiety gave me "beautiful" social anxiety and depression of which I was not aware until I turned 16 years old. After one year in high school my symptoms got so bad that I was put on Citabax (citalopram) 20mg in 2018. My life changed completely in one year. I finally was anxiety free person, started to express myself in a way I always wanted to before. I would say that my life finally was "colorful" and I could find joy in my daily life. After one year on Citabax I started to feel worse again. I was aware of the fact that SSRI may stop working after some period of time or your body can build up tolerance to a specfific dose. In my case, I started to experience more intense anxiety, brain fog (some of the symptoms which may have appaered at the beggining of my treatment). I went to my psychiatrist and said that I feel bad again. In 2019 I was put on Oriven ( Venlafaxinum) 75mg.  This medicine gave me no physical symptoms as citalopram at the beginning of the treatment but I suffered from rapid mood swings and I got easily irritated. Again, I went to my doctor and said that someting is wrong it's not helping me and I even feel worse than before. She gave me paroxinor (paroxetine) instead but mentioned I may try with higher dose of venlafaxinum firstly. So, I did it It was probably the most stupid decision in my whole life. As you can suspect, higher dose gave me worse symptoms and even more frequent mood swings. I was totally resigned and tired of this constant battle with my mental health. After 3 months of waiting if these symptoms will go away I gave up, changed the doctor who gaved me Aciprex (escitalopram) 10 mg. It was in March 2020. This medicine was the best option for me. I was more stable and I had zero  awful symptoms as in case of Oriven. I lived happily on them for approximately 2.5 years. In May 2022 I started to experience brain fog (at that time this fog became annoying for me), mood swings, depression, my OCD came back again and was worse than ever. At that time, I thought that maybe I am bipolar. I went to doctor described how I feel and my answers suggested that I suffer from bipolar II. I stayed on Aciprex and additional I was prescribed Lamotrigine to stabilise my mood swings. I took new medicine for approximately 2 or 3 months and I got terrible rush on my leg and arm which gave me scars. I completely resigned from taking Lamorigine and stayed on Aciprex only. Now, It's almost 3 years anniversary of taking them. My mental health is again in total mess and I feel terrible. Over the time of taking Aciprex I developed:

 

- terrible brain fog - problem with concetration

- irritability

- my libido is not existing

- my anxiety got worse

- I suffer from very intense derealisation and depersonalisation

- panic attacks

- constant feeling of threat and fear

- I developed completely new phobias too

 

Taking into consideration my 5 year joruney with antidepressants I feel like I come full circle with each drug: firstly it helps a lot or not at all, over time I got a lot of side effects.

I am no longer sure if I develop tolerance or I got side effects after many months of treatment initation. I am going to see the doctor in a couple of days and I go to the psychologist regularly.

My question is: Is it possible from your own experience to develop a lot of side effects over time?

I intend to completely stop using SSRI to try if I will feel better because I think it cannot be any worse than it is now. Also, after detailed analysis of my symptoms I think that Aciprex is doing me more harm than good now.

 

I would be extremely grateful for your opinions, particularly how you felt being on drugs for a couple of years. And whether you developed any side effects over time.

 

Thanks a lot!!! ❤️

 

[Altostrata]

Welcome, @Anne1405

 

Yes, people can start to have adverse reactions to their antidepressants, particularly if they miss doses, take them off schedule, drink alcohol, or add other drugs. Antidepressants can also cause adverse effects of their own. It appears you might have had an adverse reaction to venlafaxine and clearly from lamotrigine.

 

It could be that your body does not get along with antidepressants and you would be better off learning to manage your symptoms with non-drug methods, such as psychotherapy. Not everyone needs to take antidepressants, they don't work for everyone, sometimes they cause more problems than they solve, and few people need to take them for life.

 

These do not sound like beneficial effects from escitalopram:

 

On 2/6/2023 at 5:54 AM, Anne1405 said:

Over the time of taking Aciprex I developed:

 

- terrible brain fog - problem with concetration

- irritability

- my libido is not existing

- my anxiety got worse

- I suffer from very intense derealisation and depersonalisation

- panic attacks

- constant feeling of threat and fear

- I developed completely new phobias too

 

 

For background about going off, see Tips for tapering off escitalopram (Lexapro)
 

Please let us know when you might wish to taper a psychiatric drug.

 

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