just started antidepressants - side effects

I can't do antidepressants because of the side effects (I'm too sensitive to all medicines though, to the point where my last Very proactive medicine mongerer eventually saw that medicines don't work for me and make me too miserable.) And I've tried many differeny ones- not just a couple. Do you know if you're sensitive to medicines? Although, even so, they make most people feel like zombies and feel weird for a while. Also, for some reason, on the lower doses, or starter doses, the side effects are alot worse until you go up more doses.

 

Oh, and I'm not sure which one you're on, but there is one I took that can do thr opposite of the zombie feeling and can make one more anxious and energized (in a not great way).

 

It isn't just for them to start working that takes some time during those first few weeks. Your body needs time to get used to the medicine, and in that same amount of time the medicine levels out in the body. It is relatively common to feel "off" during that adjustment period. Give it a little time to adjust.

That said, if you begin feeling allergy symptoms, or after the first 8-10 days or so the things your noticing are not starting to ease up? You need to speak to your doctor about possibly either adjusting the dose (it could be too high, or too low), or trying a different medication in its place.

 

I agree with @Twist . Once you get adjusted to the dosage things should start to feel better. That being said, don't be afraid to talk to your doctor if you feel like something isn't right.

I was on them several years ago and the biggest side effect I had after things balanced out was the "zombie" feeling.

Hang in there!

 

I have tried various antidepressants but some i did have some bad effects like bad restless legs when trying to get to sleep so had to be taken off them. I am just looking at the side of effects of pregabalin which recenlty just started taken for anxiety and it lists all the side effects , 1 in 10 a litst , 1 in 100 1 in 1,000 etc.. I think they list as many side effects as possible to cover their asses. but just looking at the list in the 1 in 100 is panic attcaks abnormal dreams and reslessness.

I think as the others have suggested try for a few more days and keep talking to your doctor and maybe try something else as different medicatiomns effect people differenlty.

 

Which one are you taking? It's sadly perfectly normal to just feel worse in the beginning lots of various symptoms, the beneficial effects takes weeks to set it. Side effects usually lessen a lot with time and/or you get used to living with side effects, I've been on various antidepressants for the last 12 years so I can barely remember how it was before now it becomes a sort of new normal.

 

I'm just saying it can vary even so, I was on one for years and the effects didn't get better, thr other ones I tried, I gave them a good two months at least, and so in my case, those medicines tend to not work with my system, no matter how long I stayed on them to give them time to adjust. And, with the doctor, even tinkered with other medicines during certain ones to try to balance out the bad effects, and those caused other problems. My very pro-medicine therapist, after seeing the years of trying different ones eventually chsnged her mind (for me) about medicine. Believe me, I gave it the time to try to work and get used to it!! I'd say the sum of my trying throughout my life is a good 10 years.

 

They pretty much have to list any possible side effect no matter how small of a chance in someone getting it. I forget what my sister was on, but she got super bad nose bleeds, which was something like 1 in a billion chance. And my wife always gets the opposite of what the medicine usually has. Like she gets narcolepsy instead of insomnia... its weird.

Being on them a month, you should be pretty well adjusted to them. So you might talk to your doctor about how it seems to be working and how you feel on them. Mental health is an on going thing and little adjustments here and there are going to be normal.

 

Yeah, real anxiety isn't the same as casual-term anxiety. It's crippling. You might want to reconsider the Xanax. Although I understand the reasons for hesitation: habit-forming, hard to get off of, etc. But benzos have made my life livable. Or ask your doctor about specific alternatives. Some antidepressants (are said to) act on anxiety too, but it's a hit-or-miss thing.

There's always meditation too, which does work, and I should do more of it!

 

This is something that once you are on a steady dosage and are taking your meds religiously, will probably slacken off. I take Prozac, and it does the same thing. I've been on the same dose for a few years now and the only time the vivid dreams "act up" is when I start a new bottle of brand new pills, indicating the old bottle's pills had lost some of their "ooomph" toward the end of the bottle and the new bottle is fresher stock.