Are there any antidepressants that don't make you feel like ***? (sensitivity to side effects)

Thanks for sharing Becky. It's nice to hear a positive experience with medication for once. I know a lot of people don't get on with anti anxiety and antidepressants so it's positive to see they helped you.

There's a lot of people on here offering their own negative personal experiences with antidepressants so I wanted to balance that out with my own positive experience.

To put it simply, I wouldn't be here today if the antidepressants I've been prescribed didn't work. I've been suicidal, I've made plans and started to act on them. It's taken me a while to get to what works best for me, and now with possibly more understanding of why I struggle with things (suspected autism as well as depression and anxiety) I'm hopeful that I'll be in a position soon to be able to start coming off them.

My husband is also on them, and without them he'd be harming himself again, or worse.

We're both examples of the effectiveness of antidepressants, and because of them our son still has two parents, who for the most part are able to go about their normal (for them) lives.

I'm also another vote for not messing with illegal drugs, there may well be some benefits to them and if there are, no doubt a drug company will be doing trials to come up with something they can market and sell, but until that happens you can't guarantee the quality of the drugs, their source or what they might have been cut with.

How are you now? I know the feeling medication can have a real negative effect in a lot of ways so if they're affecting you then best to avoid. Your doctor might be able to prescribe you a different one or a lower dose. I think rather than trying to cure us they should be looking at ways to properly help us... Hopefully it will change in the end.

I get depression sometimes really don't want to be here but good days will come it's just remembering that. Don't give up on yourself Jakey it will get better.

Hi,

This is a reminder of our rule This breaks our rule 12 ‘Posts which are deemed by the moderation team to be promoting illegal activity or putting a person at risk will be deleted without warning.’

Please take the time to read our rules in full here https://community.autism.org.uk/p/rules 

Failure to follow online community may result in your account being moderated or deleted.

Kind regards,

Clare Mod

Interesting. The author of Uncomfortable Labels (a book about being autistic) says the same thing about E, that it turns off the sensory stuff related to autism for a while, although she doesn't recommend regular use either.

I personally find that SSRIs even at half the lowest dose give me symptoms similar to serotonin syndrome. I recently started taking a medication that blocks the effects of serotonin (kind of the opposite to an SSRI) to treat IBS and am feeling good on that. The only side effect is that I'm sleeping longer and deeper at night, waking after 8-10 hours instead of 6-8. My mood is better and calmer than usual, so I'm very skeptical about the idea that more serotonin is what autistic depressed people need.

From the Patient Information Sheet for Citalopram >

" Thoughts of suicide and worsening of your depression or anxiety disorder
If you are depressed and/or have anxiety disorders you can sometimes have thoughts of harming or killing yourself. These may be increased when first starting antidepressants, since these medicines all take time to work, usually about two weeks but sometimes longer.
You may be more likely to think like this:
• If you have previously had thoughts about killing or harming yourself.
• If you are a young adult. Information from clinical trials has shown an increased risk of suicidal behaviour in adults aged less than 25 years with psychiatric conditions who were treated with an antidepressant.
If you have thoughts of harming or killing yourself at any time, contact your doctor or go to a hospital straight away.
You may find it helpful to tell a relative or close friend that you are depressed or have an anxiety disorder, and ask them to read this leaflet. You might ask them to tell you if they think your depression or anxiety is getting worse, or if they are worried about changes in your behaviour."

I know, how many of us actually read all the PIS, even if we are autistic?

No doubt that happens in some cases but certainly not in my case. I was put on them for severe anxiety. I was not depressed and not experiencing suicidal thoughts in any way prior to taking them. As I stated in my post above, within a couple of months of starting Citalopram I was experiencing constant suicidal thoughts. Thankfully all those suicidal thoughts went away within days of stopping them.

I was not warned that they could cause suicidal ideation in non depressed patients. In my view they are potentially very dangerous indeed and shouldn't be prescribed so freely by GPs. Sure patients on inpatient wards can be monitored closely in that environment. GPs prescribe them after a 5 minute chat, often never having seen the patient before and possibly never seeing them again.

Jakey, I agree. Only everyone here is anonymous. We are not allowed to use our real names, so we cannot respond in real time.

There are probably dozens of people on here who have had training ranging from Mental Health First Aid to fully qualified counsellors and psychotherapists ... but the rules of this forum prevent them from sharing their details, or you sharing yours.All anyone here can do is sympathise/empathise and suggest someone in the "real world" who you can talk to, and hope that works.

As we do not know who or where you are, all we can do is offer a generic national service like the Samaritans or NHS111.  I hope you also have details of your local mental health team and their out of hours services, and that you find a support system that works for you. It is not about "looking good" it about trying to be helpful and supportive.

I was at a lecture where a psychiatrist was talking about the risks of changing antidepressants. What he said made sense ... basically, if someone is very depressed they don't have the motivation to even kill themselves. Starting or changing medication results in the person still having suicidal ideation, but being less depressed. As a result, they can act on the negative thoughts before the full antidepressant effect of the medication takes effect. Certainly on in-patient wards patients who were changing their medication were supposed to be monitored more closely at such times.

SSRIs work by reducing the reuptake of serotonin at the synapse between neurons. Serotonin is involved in passing electrical "messages"  across the junctions (synapses) in the chain of nerve cells. In non-technical terms, serotonin is like the acid in a car battery -  it is needed for the cell to "spark". The body then reabsorbs the excess and the cell returns to what you might call the "off" position, waiting for a new signal to come along. SSRIs leave more serotonin in the synapse. It takes time for the neurons to get used to the new level of serotonin. It is a bit more technical than that, but that is a rough analogy.

it was the first line of a post I made up thread (Which I wonder if you've actually been able to see, as this site makes it easy to not see some posts, if you use it how I do.

To "warm to someone" is to begin to like some aspect about them. In this case of course, i admire your ability to be a bit skeptical about MHS and the NHS in general.Plus I note the fact that you seem to have tried a lot of things already, and are looking to find something that works.

Simply making an effort to work a problem, rather than "complaining or blaming" is more than halfway to winning the battle...

Hang in there. Take it one day at a time Jakey. Enjoy the good days and on the bad remember that another good day is just round the corner. X

Thanks. I appreciate everyone's input though. It's hard when I'm in the wrong mood, I can acknowledge more positives today than I usually can. I acted different for ***** sake. I wish I could be like this all the time. I'm nuts. I've nuts. 

[Edited by Moderator]

I'm relieved to hear today has been better :) I am signing off now but my moderator colleagueEunice Mod will be online tomorrow - Also, I'll message our team leader as well so they can reach out to you in private as well.

As you've seen from the responses to your first post, this community can offer a lot of warm and knowledgeable support in times like these, so stay strong and reach out here when ever you need.

Best,

SarahMod

I feel a lot better, best I've ever been today as I'm in a WhatsApp group for autists worldwide. 

I'll probably need some help later because apparently if the citalopram is still having side effects, I'll need someone to talk to in those dark moments. 

I'm not sure what you mean by that quote? 

Hi Jakey - sorry to read how distressed you have been these last couple of days, I've been there too. How have you been today? I can refer you to our team leader to contact if you feel your in need of that today? I'll be online for the next hour so let me know what you think 

I Sperg said:

I'm really starting to warm to you Jakey.

Just out of curiosity, did you read the post I made up thread that starts with that quote?

I'm genuinely curious as to how you found that one...

Your last line resonates strongly, and is indeed a good reason to keep going. 

I've been given those links, hundreds of times, people only use it to look like a good guy. 

I'm of the belief that we have to help each other in order to help ourselves. Short term and long term help come from that. My advice to people, comes from the heart. If I found someone who was suicidal, I'd do my best to pick at that to get to the source, and address the source. Not give them a useless number/email they probably won't use anyway then call it a day. And everyone's different, the numbers/emails aren't a one size fits all solution. I mean all that in the nicest way possible, and I was really pissed off, having a meltdown over it because this isn't what helps me. Unorthodoxy is my middle name I think. 

I've had to refute my reasons to not live many times, I only realized a few years back why I should live. It's to help others, and bring kindness to a very unkind planet.  

I don't think they're deliberately trying to kill us but it can seem that way.

Like others on here have reported I also had an horrendous experience with Citalopram. I experienced severe agitation, restlessness, a massive spike in anxiety and panic attacks, insomnia, horrific nightmares when I did manage to sleep.

My GP kept telling me that was normal and that I should stick with them. After a couple of months on them I was experiencing constant suicidal thoughts and obsessively making actual plans to act on them. I had not experienced such suicidal thoughts prior to taking the Citalopram ( I was put on them for anxiety not depression) and it was terrifying.

Finally I saw a locum GP who had the sense to take me off them immediately and prescribed a non SSRI antidepressant instead. I was no longer suicidal on those but they had other intolerable side effects and had to be stopped. I genuinely believe I would not be alive today if I had not seen that locum GP.

In my opinion they are potentially very dangerous, should be used with extreme caution and only if the patient requests them. Of course some people do find them tolerable and helpful and I can only speak from my own experience.

I think you are right that they don't understand us. These drugs have not been adequately tested on autistic people and we can have atypical and adverse reactions to them. Here on the NAS website it says:

"Although guidelines consider antidepressants are generally useful and safe, there is very little research into whether they help treat depression specifically in autistic people. What research there is suggests autistic people may be more likely to experience side effects"

Much more research is needed. Scientific research indicates that a significant proportion of autistic people actually have high serotonin levels in their blood already.

https://www.spectrumnews.org/news/serotonins-link-autism-explained/

"researchers have consistently found that about one in four people on the spectrum has high blood serotonin"

The doctors prescribing these drugs do not understand the impact they could have on autistic people. I believe the effects I suffered were as a result of SSRI induced activation syndrome.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Activation_syndrome

"Serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRI) have been associated with a state of restlessness, lability, agitation, and anxiety termed "activation syndrome". In some people, this state change can increase suicidal tendencies"

There was a BBC Panorama documentary recently about SSRI antidepressants. It covered some of the long term side effects people were experiencing, even long after they had stopped taking them. It also showed how difficult withdrawal could be. https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m001n39z

Ultimately it's your decision if you take them or not. If they're not helping or the side effects are intolerable for you then it's perfectly understandable if you decide not to. Good luck whatever you decide.

Jakey, I truly get that, but try to cut people some slack. Most of us in this thread are trying to be helpful, and Kevin does come up with good links form time to time.

Can I ask you, what do YOU think would be most helpful to you? In the short term and in the long term?