Antidepressants - the BAD! (Part 4 of 'Antidepressants, the Good, the Bad and the Ugly')
We are discussing 'the good, the bad and the ugly 'about antidepressants. The good part is when they work. If the antidepressant works, then that's good right?
Well, sort of....
It is good to feel better, we can all agree on that.
In my personal experience, when I began to feel better, I left it at that, relied on the pills and hoped to go back to living the way I wanted to.
I learned nothing about depression, read nothing, had no counseling.
I got depressed again after awhile. So, what did the doctor do? The natural thing, she upped my dosage and voila! Again, I felt better ...for awhile.
And that is good right?
Well, sort of, but I was still not learning anything about this illness.
Of course, both the doctor and I made the assumption that divorce was the cause of my depression and that someday I would get used to it, or get over it, and I would no longer need antidepressants. We didn't know that I was going to develop chronic depression. We didn't know that I had a tendency towards bipolar.
Again, I began to get depressed, again we increased the dosage. Of course you can only go so far with that, there is a limit to the dosage. After I had been on the maximum dosage for awhile, with some success, I began to develop chronic headaches.
The pills had to go. Which was not all bad since I had gained 30 pounds on effexor. We had to try something else.
This time we tried wellbutrin, one of my personal favourites because it doesn't cause weight gain and it doesn't take away your sex drive. It helped too, for awhile.
The BAD part of antidepressants is when they stop working. Some only work for a season and then it is time to revisit a new prescription. The other BAD part is the side effects, in my case chronic headaches and weight gain.
I continued to experience what they call 'breakthrough depression' even though I was taking the pills. That just means that some depression will 'break through' the effects of the medication, as if the medication is not working at all.
One thing I did learn at this stage was: Don't let the BAD side of one antidepressant discourage you from finding another one. The search for the right med for you may be trial and error and may take awhile but it is worth it if you can find something that works.
My doctor finally suggested that a bit of counseling might give me some insights into the causes of my depression and possibly give me some strategies for handling it.
It sure was a good thing I began to learn something about this illness. I will tell you why next time.
WHAT ABOUT YOU? How are you feeling today? Have you experienced some good, some bad and some ugly sides of antidepressants? What are you experiencing right now?
Don't give up! There is hope for depression.
