Published on 12, July, 2020
Hi all,
Does anyone here have experience of the antidepressant venlafaxine making suicidal thoughts/ideation, hopelessness, anger, etc, worse while lifting mood? It appears we've swapped one set of symptoms for a couple of others which are just as dangerous! Getting the right monitoring from mental health services is proving impossible - I'm sure these drugs have made him more likely to attempt suicide than less likely.
Thank you :-)
Melita, I hope you've found some support and help with your son.
I'm a long term user of Venlafaxine, for me it is lifesaving, but I've observed that in my family there are those who do well on SSRIs (e.g. Prozac) and those who don't but do well on Venlafaxine.
The other thing I've recently observed is sometimes people prescribing these drugs assume that a poor response needs an increase in dose. My SIL worked out recently she does better on 5mg fluoxetine, when the starting dose for adults is 20mg.
I had a horrible time with suicidal thoughts just over 2 years ago after mucking around with my meds because my GP was worried about some of the funny side effects I get. I've since learned a lot about suicide prevention work and would encourage you to find out about things like safety plans for your son. I "accidentally" created one during my worst period through acknowledging that my death would distress my cat! It sounds crazy but I felt that he was worth living for.