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Nervous of meds after feeling suicidal on ssri

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Teasel

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A few years ago I was prescribed Citalopram by my GP and I gave them a good chance to work - 2 months.

But they didn't agree with me at all well. I felt so physically sick I barely moved for the whole 2 months. It felt like there was a tornado in my abdomen.

Changing to taking the tablets at night only mildly reduced the nausea symptoms.

But the worst thing was how suicidal I felt. Having previously never really felt suicidal in my life it was all I could think of in the 2nd month.

I couldn't bear it any more and stopped taking them - with the full knowledge of my Dr.

I'd lost a lot of muscle tone in 2 months mostly in bed and got sciatica soon after.

Doctors have since suggested trying other SSRI's but I've not wanted to take them.

And a psychiatrist did recently suggest lamotrigime which is a mood stabiliser - so not an SSRI.

I'm really nervous of trying it though.

Can anyone relate? Or anyone had Lamotrigine?
Thanks
 
A few years ago I was prescribed Citalopram by my GP and I gave them a good chance to work - 2 months...
I have started a mood stabilizer (oxcarbazepine). Only doing 1/2 a pill seems plenty, though my anxiety creeps back in 12 hours after taking it. I couldn't handle zoloft. Made me sick. Then tried wellbutrin. Had great energy/mood but it affected my heart/blood pressure and made me more anxious. I have taken Prozac before/made me flat.

My P-doc knows that I will not accept side effects. This one has been good so far.
 
I relate to your experience. I've had bad side effects with both SSRIs and SNRIs, and wouldn't risk any meds now. I'm much more stable off them. The only thing I will consider is a seven day course of the lowest dose sleeping pill when things are at their very worst, and even then I don't use them all.

I do sometimes wonder if I am depriving myself of something that might help, but then I think of how bad I was when I was taking them and realise it isn't worth that risk. I don't want to be back in a state where suicide appears a good and feasible option, or where I have inexplicable and irresistible rages. My psychiatrist agreed that I was very sensitive to meds, but even starting the last one I tried on a lower dose than the recommended minimum I started to get unwanted effects.

However, that is just me. I think you should base your decision on your experience and your doctors advice more than on our individual experiences.
 
I can relate. I've never had the guts to try another SSRI after being on Paxil (Paroxatine hcl).
The closest I've been willing to attempt was Effexor, which is an SNRI. Even that didn't go well. I stopped being able to eat after a few months. I would have starved myself to death if I didn't stop taking them.

I didn't mind being on Paxil, other than some of the stranger side effects, some visual disturbances and ridiculous amounts of sweating, it wasn't too bad.

When I lost my job after being on it for a few months, I couldn't afford it any longer.
The discontinuation syndrome nearly killed me. It was physically miserable, but the random intense suicidal urges were the worst thing.
After I'd finally gotten off of it, I thought I was done with the worst of it. Then out of the blue I got one of those urges and acted on it. Came very close to succeeding. After it passed while I was in hospital, I couldn't believe I had done that. I didn't want to 5 minutes prior to the urge, nor did I want to five minutes after it passed.
During the urge, it was the only thing I could think to do. Took about as much thought as going to the shops for milk.

I have had some success with Amitriptyline. Made me eat too much, but it worked fairly well. It's a tricyclic antidepressant.

Remeron was unpleasant, not terrible, but it was weeks before I could focus my eyes on anything for more than two seconds (lack of accommodation is literally the inability for the muscles in the eyes to focus the lenses.) Other than that, headaches, vertigo and nausea.
Didn't do much for my mental state one way or the other.

That's been my experience with those types of drugs.
 
I was prescribed multiple anti-depressants (etc.) through the years and had bad experiences with each. I"m another one whose body is highly sensitive to chemicals of any kind, most especially artificially created synthetic ones. I remember Cymbalta, Lexapro, Abilify, and Effexor right off the top of my head, but there were more. Each one made things worse instead of better and I wasn't interested in trying to force my body to keep trying to work with them. Had I not found the "alternative" healing methods that did work wonders for me, I'm not sure how I'd be trying to treat things.
 
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