Panic attacks/Depression Anti-depressants a bad choice?

Hey there, I guess I will give a quick story of my life since early december 2014.

I am a 28 year old man. I have ulcerative colitis and ankylosing spondylitis. (Form of arthritis) I was on a drug called Remicade, until I had a bad reaction in October 2014. I recovered thankfully, but it was found out I could no longer take Remicade. I had my first panic attack in early December which was immediately followed by depression.

I started seeing an "alternative psychologist" almost immediately. The panic attacks would happen everyday, and I always had this real bad feeling of almost too much adrenaline in my system, extremely negative and fearful mindset. I've developed health anxiety as well. February my Ulcerative Colitis acted up and I was basically bed ridden for 3 weeks. I am just starting to recover a bit now, because I've started on a new drug similar to Remicade called Humira. I am CONSTANTLY worried about the effects that Humira are having on me. My panic attacks, while not as bad are before, are still very able to happen. I rarely, if ever leave the house now... I'm afraid to do anything, incase a panic attack comes on. Obviously that adds to the depression....

I was prescribed Zoloft in December but have never taken it. My psychologist feels anti-depressants aren't good, and they generally aren't more effective then a placebo. I'm always hearing negative things about anti-depressants..... I don't know what to do, because while the therapy is helpful, I'm not getting that much better... (I couldnt see him for a few weeks) and my money from an aunt is running out... So I cant see him that much longer, and I'll be referred to a psychiatrist from the doctor.

Are anti-depressants really that bad? I had an experience when I was 17 with zoloft for a year. I had some intense depression and social anxiety back then. It did take the depression away, but I somehow developed an anti-pill mentality. The sexual side effect kinda sucked as well.

My question is.... Is there anyone who has had a successful time with anti-depressants? Are they really as terrible as people seem to make them out to be? My psychologist seems to think I don't need them, or that they're not worth it.... I'm so conflicted because part of me just wants to take them..... I'm constantly worried. Even my sweat smells different. I am depressed. But am I chemically unbalanced? I don't know... and is chemically unbalanced actually a real thing? I feel like a switch went off that night, and I'm broken now. I feel I'll never get better and live a normal life again..... I'm basically in the same room in my parents house everyday.


Sorry for the length and thank you for reading.

Hello I take fluoxetine which is prozac and I have zero side effects from it. Anti depressants really are not bad at all if you are truly clinically depressed. Psychiatrists are generally different from psychologists. Psychiatrists generally only prescribe medication while psychologists only use therapy. I will never understand why people are so against medication. Everyone also reacts differently to different medications so while I do not have any side effects from prozac, you might.

My own, rather cynical view. Is that some psychologists don't like meds. Because they can't take all the credit if you get better. Obviously that isn't always the case. Sometimes meds aren't right for a person's situation. And the psychiatrist has missed something in their prescribing. But where someone says "all meds fpr X are bad / ineffective." That's a red flag for me. That's so rarely the case.

My own experience is mixed. I took fluoxetine first. And that numbed my emotions even more than usual for me. After that I took mirtazapine. That didn't seem to affect me emotionally. And I felt like I came back to "my normal." I wasn't obsessing about harming myself. And felt more like tomorrow could be better than today. Rather than the rest of my life looking like one long grey trudge until I could legitimately die of natural causes. This is just one data point. Some people will have the opposite experience. Others will find no benefit from either and need to try something different again. Some will find the same but be blocked by the mirta side effects. In terms of it being a placebo. Definitely not. I've taken maybe a dozen supplements for various reasons. A couple of them worked well, the others not at all. Likewise, the fluoxetine didn't work, mirtazapine did, very noticeably. If it was just about "getting a prescription" then the fluo should have worked first time round.

There are other med options which don't have sexual side effects. So it might be worth talking to your prescribing doc about that. But it IS OK to think about this. And explore the options. There's a lot of hype about what drugs can and can't do. But where they work, they can make a big difference.