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Experience with Antidepressants

Thanks to all for your help.

I only drink 2-3 beers per night and I've not had a hang over for year, but still... not good.

Additionally, I've noticed an odd effect from beer which I think may be from the opiate like substances in gluten. Maybe not, but I'm otherwise gluten and dairy free which has helped loads, so I want gluten out of my life for good.

I think the booze just helps with what I'm thinking is anxiety, and maybe sensory over load.

I get an electrical feeling and my brain slows down. Alcohol helps with that, but probably zaps my energy and increase depression.
 
I would say take consideration of any sensory issues you have. Mine are horrible, so meds makes them way way worse. HOwever, some people with sensory issues do OK on meds, so it's a crapshoot.

Natural meds do help me as well. They are way more gentle and work with your body, too.
 
i recommend smoking CBD oil in a vape stick for anxiety,a few long puffs of that really helps me and stops me from having to reach for a so called controlled drug.
its completely legal to buy and smoke from vape shops,despite the fact it is a component of cannabis alongside THC which is what makes people loopy and high,but CBD isnt pyschoactive-there is no 'high' it just removes nerve pain and calms your feelings-which as a person with severe spinal nerve damage and extreme anxiety; is perfect for me, i made a video about CBD on my youtube channel if you would like to check it out,i dont think ive said much more than what ive said here though anyway.
i always preach about CBD as i believe it has a lot to offer auties/aspies/NTs with anxiety etc,and it doesnt come with the side effects that anti depressents come with.

ive been on quite a few different anti depressents and every one of them has made me even more anxious and manic,one of them-mirtazapine made me pyschotic and very challenging at a low dose after having it upped-i lost my home because of my behavior and the requirement of police regulary there,annoyingly my shrink said 'mirtazapine doesnt cause pyschosis' well maybe not in normal people but it sure did in me,i really hated her attitude towards me.
sertraline which im on now has that effect as well as not actually helping the depression i do not know why i am still on it,the only one that worked was an SNRI [not SSRI] called cymbalta,i didnt feel manic on it but every so often it stopped working on my depression and id have it upped,it got to the point where i was taking more than the max allowed dose and my pysch said its best to just change the medication,it went bad from there.

this is just my experience of anti depressents and everyone reacts differently to them but shrinks really need to be aware that autistic peoples neurobiology is different and we can react different to whats written down on their research papers of normal peoples reactions.
i personally believe i am bipolar anyway,not unipolar,and people with bipolar shouldnt be on SSRIs as it causes a raise in the manic and pyschotic symptoms.
but getting my shrink to recognise bipolar is like talking to a 'brick wall' as the stupid saying goes-she thinks she knows everything so isnt open to suggestion,i think i would get better understanding out of a brick wall at least when im psychotic i know i would.
 
toothless said:
shrinks really need to be aware that autistic peoples neurobiology is different
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I don't know about other people but I find at least on the three drugs I've tried that I appear to be very sensitive to them. Sertraline was very difficult at only 50 mg (the second lowest dose, the usual start dose for depression), risperidone achieved everything I needed only at 1 mg (the usual starting dose in adults) although I did need the dose upped twice to keep up with the depression. Lamotrigine was effective at 50 mg (the usual second lowest dose). Granted lamotrigine interacts with risperidone but still.

I think we probably are subjected to more variances of medication levels than the mean amount of allistics.


toothless said:
i personally believe i am bipolar anyway,not unipolar
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I'm obviously not a doctor but I would think it's very hard to tell in autistic people. I thought I went manic on one drug but I probably just had an elevated mood when my serotonin levels being higher than usual. I'm not saying you experienced the same thing though. I think the behaviour and what we feel when neurochemicals are being altered in us can really throw us off of what we think we are like as normal. You do get autism and bipolar comorbity of course with some people.
 
In my opinion, both from personal experience as a patient and as a psychiatry intern, meds can definitely be helpful, but by themselves they won't make a much difference if you're not undergoing some form of therapy as well. This has been scientifically proven, at least, that's what I've been told in med school ;)
How accessible therapy is to you depends on your country of course, although I think long waiting lists are a universal problem. If therapy is not an option I guess you'd be better off with a little medicinal help than with nothing.

I've had a few bouts of serious depression. During my first serious episode I got prescribed SSRIs when my suicidal thoughts progressed to serious contemplation. Since it takes about 2-6 weeks for these meds to take effect and I had therapy 5 days a week during that time, I wasn't sure which of the two helped me back on my feet, but I did have a lot of side effects. Most noticeably I had an insatiable appetite (gained 15 kg in 3 months), completely lost my libido and was unable to achieve an orgasm by any means possible. And to top it off, going off my medication (because my bag got stolen on holiday and I was out of mess) triggered a minor manic episode for me.

So the next time I was equally depressed I told my shrink that even though I was having suicidal thoughts, I wanted to try just therapy this time. I had the same amount of therapy, and my recovery was just as fast as before. Without the nasty side effects, and without having to wean off of the meds.
 
Do antidepressants negatively affect energy levels?

I need more energy not less.

Thanks for the Cbd recommendation, I'll try it if I can find it.
 
Thanks very much for all replies.

I woke up this morning feeling a bit down and then something minor sent me into a tail spin.

I realised that I've not been taking my vitamins to support my methylation cycle, so i started again, with a bit of 5-HTP, and this has brought me out of it.

I can now see I've been getting slowly more depressed over tthe last few days, due to methylation cycle problems.

Methylation cycle affects neurotransmitter function and if certain chemicals get low you body prioritise things like detox over creating serotonin and dopamine.

I went from feeling very low in both mood and energy to feeling great, and full of beans, so I'm not going to pursue the meds right now.

I actualy think that me considering meds is one of the first noticable signs of depression starting.

I am going to look at CBD oil though, and I also think there's a sensory and ritualistic element to my alcohol use.

I started smoking weed in college, then swapped for beer later on, but I can trace it back further, and i ate sensory foods after school.

My sensory food (I think) is crunchy food with softness in there, and I used to eat cornflakes and ice cream or pickled onions and cheese.

So I'll try replacing beer with pickles and crisps :D
 
Full Steam , I'm happy to hear that you might have found a way out without having to resort to meds.

I've been hemming and hawing over whether or not I should wade in here. I have experience with anti-depressants spanning about twenty-five years; starting with trycyclics (that's old skool!) and well into the SSRI era. If I had to do it all over again, I'd skip the drugs and focus on result-driven behavioral therapy and modifying my diet. I have now been clean for about a decade.

I have a measure of respect for, and have benefited from, the work some, not all, psychiatrists do. But the more I read about not altogether firm foundation of the biological model of psychiatry, so blatantly driven by unaccountable commercial interests, the more I'm inclined to think that one day people will look back at the crudity of treatment and say "those poor people."
 
Alcyon said:
Full Steam , I'm happy to hear that you might have found a way out without having to resort to meds.

I've been hemming and hawing over whether or not I should wade in here. I have experience with anti-depressants spanning about twenty-five years; starting with trycyclics (that's old skool!) and well into the SSRI era. If I had to do it all over again, I'd skip the drugs and focus on result-driven behavioral therapy and modifying my diet. I have now been clean for about a decade.

I have a measure of respect for, and have benefited from, the work some, not all, psychiatrists do. But the more I read about not altogether firm foundation of the biological model of psychiatry, so blatantly driven by unaccountable commercial interests, the more I'm inclined to think that one day people will look back at the crudity of treatment and say "those poor people."
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Thanks. I've never been comfortable with the idea of meds myself, but it sometimes feels like suffering in silence.

I am always very reluctant to reach out to doctors in the first place. Maybe partly as I trust myself and my research ability more than any generalised med practitioner.

In addition to which, psychiatry can only help by looking at, talking to and categorising the subject behaviours.

But we are not subjects, we are each the object of our own experience, without direct experience of objective reality (an impossibility), psychiatry can only ever been a blunt tool poking away at the most complex thing in the known universe (a human brain).
"
That said, I'm not saying never to meds though, just "not right now.
 
Full Steam said:
...psychiatry can only ever be a blunt tool poking away at the most complex thing in the known universe (a human brain).
"
That said, I'm not saying never to meds though, just "not right now.
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I agree with both sentiments. I would never say never, and I would never wish to denigrate another's positive experience with meds.

As to your first observation, I find it chilling to think that I was born less than a decade after lobotomies fell from favour; a blunt tool indeed...
 
Although I reccomend you to look for a professional opinion (psychratist) to see if you need them and which one is best for you I can say that if you're depressive and have tryed anything for yourself for a long period of time anti-depressants are your best shot, I know you probably believe nothing will work and it is useless, I've traveled on those dark roads too and when I was on my lowest and darkest place professional help and the right medicines saved my life.

Also, you can help the meds and yourself by going out with friends, making exercise daily and having goals to accomplish.

Again this may seen utopic from your actual point of view but trust me, professional help and the right medication can save your life.

PS: Remember that every med needs time to enter the body and adjust to you until you can see results, I took Prozac (well, the generic one) and it took like 6 weeks until I started to feel better.
 
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Full Steam said:
Do antidepressants negatively affect energy levels?
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SSRI's, which are still the most commonly used antidepressants, don't have a sedative effect, but they won't give you a boost in energy either. The only effect they'd have on your energy levels would be you getting more energy when the depression starts to get better.
 
If you're a guy I'm sad to tell you antidepressants affect your "libido" or sex drive but mostly on the beginning.
 
Full Steam said:
Do antidepressants negatively affect energy levels?

I need more energy not less.

Thanks for the Cbd recommendation, I'll try it if I can find it.
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That may depend on you, and the medication.

I have tried three AD's, Venlafaxine, a SNRI, caused me to lose interest in exercising, something that has never happened before. I gained 15 pounds.

Other than that, I really haven't felt much effect on any of them, positive or negative, and I'm not interested in increasing doses to see what happens. I am taking Lexapro now, since October. Don't feel much effect, though I am exercising more and have lost some of the weight I gained. I seem to be more mood-stable.
 
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