Do you take medication? (for disorders?)

[chibibunnyx]

I'm only ask this to get experiences from people who do or don't, because I may end up taking medication for anxiety and depression myself, my therapist just recommended it again and I decided to go with it, and she sent the into to my general doctor to choose one that fits for me.

I've never taken medication for this even though I've been in and out of therapy since I was a child. So I'm hoping it makes me feel a whole lot better.

My anxiety and depression has gotten really bad, especially the anxiety, to the point where I can be really sad and don't have the slightest idea why, I'll just feel like I should be sad or worried about anything deep down. So I'm hoping this helps take that feeling away and make me less anxious.

If you've taken anything, has it helped?


(if you're going to start arguments in here, I'll just close the thread.)

 

[Antonio]

Yes, i do. and yes, it's legal, sort of, i mean...yes, it's totally legal....

 

[chibibunnyx]

Yes, i do. and yes, it's legal, sort of, i mean...yes, it's totally legal....

lololol. totally convinced

 

[Antonio]

lololol. totally convinced

Whew...wipes sweat

 

[tae]

as someone who just started my medication journey a few months ago i can say they're a process.
i have MDD and MPD w/ acute agoraphobia and i take 150mg effexor rx and .5mg ativan for my anxiety / depression.

you just have to go into it knowing that side effects can and most likely will happen, many of them fade after a few weeks but i suggest taking up writing in a journal about how you feel before you take them, a few hours after you take them, and so on so forth to help you keep documents of side effects and feelings of distress. it was a life saver for me when i first started my medications.

also, be 100% honest with your doctor at all times about the medications and how you feel on them. sometimes you need them tweaked right away so just listen to your body and be honest with yourself and your doc. i wish you the best of luck in your journey.

- - - Post Merge - - -

Yes, i do. and yes, it's legal, sort of, i mean...yes, it's totally legal....

if you take someone elses' prescription medication you're only hurting yourself, i don't know why you'd post something like this.

 

[Antonio]

as someone who just started my medication journey a few months ago i can say they're a process.
i have MDD and MPD w/ acute agoraphobia and i take 150mg effexor rx and .5mg ativan for my anxiety / depression.

you just have to go into it knowing that side effects can and most likely will happen, many of them fade after a few weeks but i suggest taking up writing in a journal about how you feel before you take them, a few hours after you take them, and so on so forth to help you keep documents of side effects and feelings of distress. it was a life saver for me when i first started my medications.

also, be 100% honest with your doctor at all times about the medications and how you feel on them. sometimes you need them tweaked right away so just listen to your body and be honest with yourself and your doc. i wish you the best of luck in your journey.

- - - Post Merge - - -



if you take someone elses' prescription medication you're only hurting yourself, i don't know why you'd post something like this.

It was a joke ;p

 

[namiieco]

no i don't, i'd never have the courage to get help for my problems anyway...

 

[chibibunnyx]

as someone who just started my medication journey a few months ago i can say they're a process.
i have MDD and MPD w/ acute agoraphobia and i take 150mg effexor rx and .5mg ativan for my anxiety / depression.

you just have to go into it knowing that side effects can and most likely will happen, many of them fade after a few weeks but i suggest taking up writing in a journal about how you feel before you take them, a few hours after you take them, and so on so forth to help you keep documents of side effects and feelings of distress. it was a life saver for me when i first started my medications.

also, be 100% honest with your doctor at all times about the medications and how you feel on them. sometimes you need them tweaked right away so just listen to your body and be honest with yourself and your doc. i wish you the best of luck in your journey.

- - - Post Merge - - -



I figured that it would be very trial and error as well, I'm just hoping they don't make me drowsy cause I can't be drowsy with a toddler running around the house! :s

 

[Rizies]

Yes I am. I've been on antidepressants for over a year now. And I also take Ativan for my anxiety.

It was a rough road finding the right medication but I have been generally good since I've found the right one and gotten passed most or the side effects.

I've also done individual therapy and group therapy for anxiety and depression. Some has helped a bit, but there would of been no way I could of gotten better without any medication.

 

[tae]

I figured that it would be very trial and error as well, I'm just hoping they don't make me drowsy cause I can't be drowsy with a toddler running around the house! :s

if they put you on an anti anxiety like ativan you might get drowsy at first. i did but like i said everyone reacts differently so you might not have a drowsy side effect at all.

 

[debinoresu]

no im personally like... anti medication for myself

like its okay to resolve that medication isnt for you, which is what ive done (similarly with therapy). i find that stuff way too much fuss and stress than its worth for me. im glad for the people that helps but it aint for me. its fine to resolve that something isnt for you and theres no point in forcing yourself to do something that doesnt help at all, which is something ive noticed a lot of people do. i guess i came to this thread just to say if you try it and it doesnt help, thats perfectly okay, and to not get too beaten up about it. crossing off potential solutions just gets you closer to the answer. if something isnt working, stop doing it and try something else!

everyones body works differently, for me personally i desensitize to medication way too quickly for it to be worth anything. i saw no point in taking it on-off so i just didn't try it anymore. similarly with therapy, it just didnt work like right off the bat, so i dropped it. it didnt mean i was hopeless, after all, im doing really well right now. eliminating possibilities is a good thing. if you find the stress of looking for a solution making you worse, youre just walking into a dead end. its fine to turn around and try to find another way

other people absolutely need medication for recovery though, so it really depends. keep hopeful either way ^^

 

[chibibunnyx]

I'm going to try it out and see how it goes, I denied it for months because I was still breastfeeding and refused to choose that over my daughter, but now that I stopped I decided to go for it and see if it helps ^_^

 

[Rizies]

I'm going to try it out and see how it goes, I denied it for months because I was still breastfeeding and refused to choose that over my daughter, but now that I stopped I decided to go for it and see if it helps ^_^

All I can say is be patient. Sometimes it can take 6-8 weeks to notice the effects of the medication. With that being said, also listen to your body.

I first tried welbutrin and I took that for two weeks. I had to stop because my anxiety went through the roof, where I couldn't function from day to day. Then I tried a different medication and the improvement was slow but I felt much better than on the first Medication

 

[chibibunnyx]

All I can say is be patient. Sometimes it can take 6-8 weeks to notice the effects of the medication. With that being said, also listen to your body.

I first tried welbutrin and I took that for two weeks. I had to stop because my anxiety went through the roof, where I couldn't function from day to day. Then I tried a different medication and the improvement was slow but I felt much better than on the first Medication

hopefully I find the right one! I'm just scared of being drowsy, not good for a mom :s

 

[Rizies]

hopefully I find the right one! I'm just scared of being drowsy, not good for a mom :s

Either way you will be a good mom. Some medications, like welbutrin, act as an upper and give you energy. Just talk to your doctor about your concerns.

To be honest, there will be side effects no matter what. It's usually the first initial weeks that are the worst than they subside. I have had everything from migraines, to nausea, to insomnia and even dry mouth. The most annoying was the dry mouth tbh and all of those went away or became tolerable after the first week or two.

 

[GingerGypsy]

I avoid western medicine when at all possible. Doctors like to prescribe whichever meds they get paid the most to distribute.

Most of the time, simple herbs and whole foods can help.

For example, if I were having anxiety issues, I'd take some Valerian Root, or sip either Catnip or Chamomile Tea.
Marijuana is also really great for anxiety, just be sure to obtain it legally (if it's even legal in your area)

 

[chibibunnyx]

I avoid western medicine when at all possible. Doctors like to prescribe whichever meds they get paid the most to distribute.

Most of the time, simple herbs and whole foods can help.

For example, if I were having anxiety issues, I'd take some Valerian Root, or sip either Catnip or Chamomile Tea.
Marijuana is also really great for anxiety, just be sure to obtain it legally (if it's even legal in your area)

I've tried teas, they don't do much at all for me to relax. and I don't smoke at all, :s

 

[hamster]

i've been taking medication for almost a year now & i don't even know if it's working.

 

[AnimalCrossingPerson]

i've been taking medication for almost a year now & i don't even know if it's working.

I sometimes offer bad advice, but just stop taking it and see if anything changes. These medicines can contain some funny mixtures, so I really wouldn't recommend taking anything if it offers no benefit to you.

 

[CloverCoin]

Hey I can get this being super scary. Right now I'm actually in the process of working out my dose of anti-depressants I just started about a month or two ago. I was extremely skittish and put it off to years because as a child I was diagnosed with chemical depression and various other learning disabilities. It was hard on me as a child to be force fed all these different medications which only seemed to be making my life a whole lot worse. I stopped taking nearly all medications as a teen and refused to try them at all for the rest of my teen life.

Funny how that worked out... My stubbornness actually has now crippled me. Literally. During the teen stage I apparently was beginning to show signs of Rheumatoid Arthritis. Because we never sought treatment it got to a pretty severe stage before finally taking me to several doctors who at that point wanted nothing to do with me because I had no insurance and wrote me off as a "pre-existing condition". So I went 4-5 years more without any treatment on only bare minimum treatment a GP very reluctantly gave me.

During this hardship the depression was in full swing. PTSD, anxiety, it really was a whole slew of them at that point and getting worse. I tried to go to my doctor for anti-depressants but because I was a chronic pain patient they told me to not ask for depression medication or else other doctors won't take my chronic pain seriously and tell me it's all in my head. So I didn't for another several years...

Finally my cranky doctor left town and a new one came just this summer. They did a general suicidal/depression type survey on me and they were shocked people had left me in this condition for so long. It was pretty amazing to see a doctor actually give a damn for once! They immediately started me on Cymbalta, lowest doses possible of 20mg? Because I was terrified of side effects remembering how bad they got when I was just a little kid.

It's been 2 months now on Cymbalta, we've upped my dose once to 40mg at the moment. It's really working well. I honestly don't feel much different. It's not that it's making me less sad or anything, I still have moments of random bouts of sadness which I will discuss with my doc, but I feel like I have a lot more energy to think about other things now too. So far my biggest problem(?) has been cymbalta has given me a little too much energy! It's making my picking and leg bouncing habits go through the roof because I have so much energy that doesn't know where to go! Being disabled now as an adult is tough because you can't run around your house cleaning and working like a normal adult. If I were to do that I would get sick very quickly from over-exertion, which has actually happened once or twice. But it really felt good to be sore and sick from doing too much good for once. c;

So far the main concern the doctors showed for me was "Is it disrupting your sleep? Are you sleeping okay? You have more energy now but do you plan to do anything bad with it?" So far... Not at all? I'm sleeping great after using up all my spoons (energy) for the day and I have much more controlled self harm urges now as an adult. I haven't felt any needs for that kind of negative relief and it's been wonderful.

Your doctors will probably want to start you off like they did me, or if they don't I highly suggest this. Try 1 medication at a time, give it roughly 3 or so months to kick in and settle into your system. If it's working you or people around you will notice, if it's not make your doctor up the doses or change to something else.

Right now I'm only on anti-depressants, at the end of december will be my 3-4 month marker and so far no huge negative side effects while taking it. So we'll begin testing an ADHD medication for me at that time now that we know the cymbalta is having a positive effect on me with no real bad side effects. If you start a bunch of medications all at once, you'll have a very hard time deciding what one you're reacting badly too or your body might just be a little overwhelmed. If you're scared about side effects like I was, tell your doctors that and make sure they work with you on low doses and work your way up. Takes a little longer but it's worth it to find out if you have negative effects or not in the long run.

I hope this helps in some way!