Just recently I stopped taking opiates and started taking a medication called suboxone to alleviate the withdrawl and craving symptoms. This medication has worked great but I am mentally in the dumps. I was using opiates for about 3 years. I felt depressed before taking the opiates and when I took them I felt awesome. Euphoric. After stopping though I realized that I am very depressed. Even worse then before. Not suicidal or anything just helpless and always expect the worse. Part of using that long is that seratonin and or dopamine is now not being made naturally in your system. When you stop using you get super depressed because of a lack of both. I would like to find out from anyone in here that may have gone thru something similar or just has had a great experience with a certain med working for them what it was and how it helped them. I took Wellbutrin XL for 7 days. I could not sleep. I felt nothing from it because I stopped taking it because of the insomnia. Thx
Hey Guys,
Thanks for all of the good info. I do understand that everyone is different and what may work for some does not for others. I just wanted to see what the consensus was. Gimp, I wish you the best man. As for my plan, I am going to spend the next 6 weeks working out and eating right as a start then try to start weening off of the suboxone if possible. During that time I want to start an antidepressant. Someone was talking about fish oil? That seems a bit weird but it’s something to look at I guess. The only things I hate about the anti depressants are you usually gain weight from what I hear and your sex drive goes down. Screw that. Also you cannot drink on them at all? That’s crazy. Thanks again though.

My anxiety is really horrible. Especially my social anxiety.
I’m in therapy, and every time I ask a doctor about it, they give me anti depressants or tell me my anti psychotics should help me with my anxiety. (I was diagnosed with schizoaffective disorder last year).
And I take them, but nothing has ever helped me with my anxiety at all.

How do I get my doctor to listen to me?

Why would anti depressants help someone who doesn’t have a chemical imbalance?

How does someone react if they don’t have a chemical imbalance and they still take anti depressants and don’t have situational causes that cause them to be "Depressed."

Ditto for if they do have situation depression, how would they actually help them?

No, I’m not wanting to get anti depressants. I’m just confused how anti depressants still help people who aren’t chemically challanged.

My psych has just put me on this as I am sensitive to anti-depressants.

Has anyone had a positive experience with any anti-anxiety drug (not anti-depressants)?
My main question and concern really is does it increase your weight? (Ex: Ativan)
don’t plan on using them all the time
just when necessary
(I get very edgy durng pms)
don’t plan on using them all the time
just when necessary
(I get very edgy during pms)
I don’t plan on using them all the time
just when necessary
(I get very edgy during pms)

Are there many options out there? Or is there hardly any variety? I am going to the doctor soon to be put on anti-depressants, and want to know what to expect.

Also, could you name one with the best effectivness? I know not all medications are the same for everyone, but I still want a little bit of an idea.

Thanks in advance.

Right so im bipolar have been for quite some time now, but anyway..
My mood stabilizers and anti – depressants, i feel like they don’t work, im still having all the mood swings and then all the different feelings.

I just want to know what i could do, so i feel that they are working again?

Would I be hospitalised (I despise the thought of not having control over myself and being hospitalised would humiliate me in the worst way possible!)?

Extra info: I am under anti-depressants and anti-psychosis.

And if I tell my psychiatrist that, would it mean my scholarship (I’m in college) would be terminated and I can’t finish my degree?

This is a VERY hard question. Experts only, please.

I have a wife who suffers from depression. She has been on anti-depressants and they worked, but left her feeling neutral while on them, rather than happy and sad.

She is now off the medications (and has been for a couple years). Lately, she has been having depression strike in place of emotions like happiness or love. Instead of feeling the good stuff, she feels that feeling we get when we break up with someone.

My theory is that we could find a substance for her to take when she improperly dips into that pain (the breakup pain), and that alleviates it just like an aspirin alleviates a headache, then it might free her mind to feel happiness again.

Does anyone know of a substance that works fairly quickly that she doesn’t have to stay on, but can take more like an aspirin? Something that alleviates the symptoms, but isn’t an "anti-depressant" like Celexa or something?

Natural substances, illegal substances, medications
A little addition, in response to some of the first answers (and thank you VERY much for these first answers!):

Yes, ideally we would like something that isn’t addictive. That’s a bad problem. Also, won’t being on anti-depressants her whole life kill her? What about the liver damage?

Thanks.

My memorys gotten very bad over the past few years. In 08 i started psychiatric meds after being diagnosed with major depressive disorder with pyschotic features. From then till now I’ve gone on and off multiple anti psychotics and anti depressants cold turkey. I know i shouldn’t have but i did, i couldn’t stick with meds. Could this be a cause for why my memory has gotten so bad?

I have sever social anxiety and some depression. I have been taking sedatives which help with the anxiety a little but my anti depressants are not working. They are actually making me more depressed. any help with what kinds of medications will make me better?

I know most anti-depressants work by balancing the brain’s seratonin and norepinephrine. How do bi-polar medications work?

I have tried anti depressants and conventional drugs they dont work for me. I used to smoke pot years agio and It would work for me.
I am not a "troll" I am newly returned to the state although a CA native. I am trying to understand the system. There do not seem to be very many Docs in my area who would be willing to try this. (I have gone to the NORML site) I would rather be "Legal"

I think I may have social anxiety disorder, and because of it I have fallen into temporary periods of depression.
I tend to avoid intense social situations (parties, etc) and in the past it has interfered with things like school and getting a job. If I know I have to speak with someone I don’t know, I mull about it and am incredibly nervous about it for days.
Blahblahblah, would anti-depressants help me?

Just over a year ago i suffered a nervous breakdown due to a lifestyle which consisted of too much drugs experimentation. I dont believe in anti depressants because they work on placebo’s and on the relationship one builds with his doctor or psychologist! i want to go natural.
What did you do to get your body in balance again?