Psych drugs: So what is everybody taking?

I know most of us aren't taking any kind of medication but I know some of you are. So how's it working? Did it have to be changed? Any side effects?

I was diagnosed with clinical depression about a year and a half ago (I'm much better, thank you) and started on Wellbutrin. It took me about 6 months to realize it wasn't having any effect on me whatsoever so my psychiatrist added 5 mg Lexapro every other day. Wow! This I felt. It was a miracle drug. I felt better and had so much more energy. I wasn't having mood problems, more of a numbness and complete lack of energy. So Lexapro wasn't so much a happy pill (though I did feel happier) as one that gave me boundless energy. It really helped me dig out of the hole I had fallen into and gave me the energy to accomplish several practical things, like cleaning the house for example.

Strangely, after 9 or 10 months it seemed to stop working. I worked with my doctor on increasing the dosage but nothing seemed to work. When my father died I forgot to take any of the medication for about a week and I noticed I didn't feel any different, so I tapered down by myself and stopped taking anything for a couple of months without feeling any different.

I think my doctor was a little cross with me because at our next appointment he told me to start taking it again and after two weeks to add 2 mg of Abilify. Well that did the trick and now I'm happier and have more energy. The Abilify did wind me up a little bit for awhile but now I'm feeling fine and again taking care of all the things I let lapse when I had no energy.

So that's me: Wellbutrin, Lexapro, and now Abilify. And not a single side effect to report. How about you? What are you taking? Afraid to take anything? Morally opposed to psych drugs? Drugs too expensive? Bad experience with side effects? Don't think you're problems are serious enough for drugs? Let's talk! All points of view welcome.

I don't take any meds. I was coerced by a shrink into taking some Buspar once, but it did not seem to have any effect. A large 20mg dose would make my head swim though. After a while I started pretending to take it by putting it under my tongue and spitting it out later.

Sometimes I think it might be a good idea to get some ativan for situations that give me the most anxiety, but there is no way that I am going to ask a doc for it. Alcoholism runs in my family and I do not like the idea of taking ay drug anyway.

As I have just say in another post, Zoloft. I use to take in it when I was younger - late teens, early twenties - for depression and anxiety. I still take them now and again for month or so to get me tough patch. Like last year when I move out of home for the first time. No real side effects besides feeling a little nauseate for the first few days being on them, but I didn't lose my appetite because of it. Around one Australian dollar per pill, so they're not too expensive.

Ha, funny you would ask this because I just discontinued Zoloft a couple of weeks ago. I started taking it in April before the last April (so April of 06') and was on it for a year and five months.

I don't think it had much of an effect (aside from the side effects), if any. The peak amount I took was 150 mg and I still did not feel much of a difference. Maybe a decrease in depressive thoughts but my anxiety was always there. The only side effect I experienced was some drowsiness.

I think I'm one of those severe anxiety cases. All I worry about is my future, specifically my career.

It's not a drug but I started to take 5-HTP(a natural supplement) a few days ago. It's a serotonine precursor so it's supposed to increase the amount of serotonine in the nervous system.

Judging from the good results I have so far, it can be useful for mild depression/OCD as a 1st try before going for anti-depressants. I noticed I'm more focused, more prone to effort and have less negative or obsessive thinking(thus less anxiety). (150mg/day)

Other than that, I took Klonopin(Clonazepam) a few days(1mg/day) in the last weeks. Great help to have control over your body and mind... better to be taken "as needed".

It's funny. I grew up in a family that hated and distrusted doctors. But my father was so over the top on the subject that all us kids learned to just ignore him. So as adults we don't hate doctors and visit them as much as anyone else. But I did inherit my dad's distrust of drugs, even aspirin. I, like him, tend to look at most drugs as a sign of weakness. Weak people cannot tolerate any widdy biddy little bit of discomfort and run for their drugs if they have a sniffly nose or an owie. Legs feeling a little restless? There's a prescription for that! And why should you tolerate a weak urine stream if a magic pill will make it a waterfall again?

I was extremely leery of starting the first prescription. I didn't want to become a drug user, I didn't want to be part of the feel-good generation. I didn't want to think of myself as needing a happy pill. But honestly I was so desperate at that point that I was willing to try anything. It made such a difference and life was so much more tolerable that I learned to embrace it. When it stopped working I had no problem adding a third drug on top of the other two. Sometimes they make it so I can't go to sleep at night so I take a Lunesta if I have to. Sleep is important to me and if my allergies keep me up then I'll take an antihistamine. Better living through chemistry! Yeah!

I think when I get in better shape, lose about 30 pounds, exercise regularly, eat better, quit smoking--all things I've been making great strides at--I'll look at weaning myself off drugs. But for now I simply refuse to feel weak for using something that has helped me so much.

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The only psych drug I've ever tried is my girlfriend's prescription of Adderall*. I don't know if I have ADD or not (but I've suspected it since I was about twelve) but my constant feelings that I suck at everything and little or no motivation to try go away completely when I'm on it. It just makes me good at whatever I'm doing - school, work, conversation, small talk, sex, following movies or books that I'm reading, cleaning my apartment, etc. Sometimes when I'm being really productive in one area it makes me feel like talking to people even less than I normally would, but it makes me feel good at the same time as feeling like a robot. I don't think I'd want my own prescription to take every day or I'd feel like a strung-out zombie all the time, like my girlfriend did in high school when her dad forced her to take it. But it's nice to have a backup when I really need to get stuff done or go out and meet new people (I don't use it to party much like I did when I first tried it, but I'm planning on using it next week at a Halloween party because lately getting drunk just makes me sleepy and emotional for some reason, and I'm going to be meeting a bunch of my girlfriend's old friends and I want to have a good time with them).

*Yeah I know, bad me, but if I can't make doctors understand that I have a problem, I guess I have to take matters into my own hands.

I self medicate a lot. I'm a pretty big druggie. My depression and AvPD are still a secret and I can't seem to bring myself to go to a doctor, though I desperatly want to, so I haven't ever had any legitimate psych drugs.

After a while the back alley pharmacy doesn't work like it used to, I dream about a pill that could make me normal. I know it's not that simple but I wish I wasn't scared to try.

hannnnaa wrote:The only psych drug I've ever tried is my girlfriend's prescription of Adderall*. I don't know if I have ADD or not (but I've suspected it since I was about twelve)

Hmm, my shrink mentioned Ritalin once to help me concentrate at work (I was afraid of losing my job at the time) but I didn't go for it. After my new attitude toward medicine I've hinted I'd like to try it a couple of times but he didn't go for it. Damn. I like the idea of a drug as-needed rather than the once a day whether you need it or not variety I'm taking now. Jeez, I'd like to try this Adderall. It sounds very cool.