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Hi,
I went to see my doctor and he gave me a daily dose of 10mg of Citalopram, also known as Celexa for my depression.
When I got home I researched the medication on the internet and found out that a lot of people have had pretty horrifying experiences with that medication. I also watched a bunch of documentaries on psychotropic drugs, SSRis or whatever, as well as psychology and pharmacological institutes.
Now I'm quite scared to begin taking my medication.
I've never taken any form of medication before, not a single Tylenol or Advil, ever. Except when I had a pneumonia when i was much younger. I'm a little scared of any form of medication, especially one that affects your brain and the neurons receptors... I don't really care much about the side-effects, that's not what's scaring me. I'm more scared of the long-term biological effects. Like maybe this type of drugs can make you have Alzheimer disease down the line, you know ?
The following is a little unrelated: [What if I deserve to be depressed, I mean I'm depressed because I'm worthless, or at least feel like it. But if I feel that way it's because my thought process leads me to that logical and thought of conclusion you know. So if these pills can help change that, than that means they must affect my thought process, if they affect the way i think they affect who I am as a whole. I'm not sure if I want that. A repression of my character.]
I guess I'm looking for more feedback on the drug, please share your experiences on that medication, that would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks for listening and sharing. Means a lot.
(If you would like to share privately, feel free to PM me)
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lol this is pretty funny, I'm on citalopram right now.
Here is my advice. Talk to your doctors about your concerns to your long term health, and remember that no one is going to post online, "I took drug A and everything was totally okay" - Its a non-story.
In terms of short term sideeffects, it makes me quite nervous at times, at the point of being a lil paranoid, I have also had problems with sleeplessness and drowsiness, but other than nothing major.
Now I have to ask you, even if your doctor comes back and is like "citopram can causes a slightly higher rate of kidney failure in the over 60 bracket" or some doctor type garbage like that, are you really not going to take them?
Yes anti-depressants aren't the whole answer, but I know when I'm on them, I have less days where I feel like I'm drowning, and its generally easier to cope.
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There are a couple of things I want to throw at you, to give you something to think about. There's no need for you to answer, just think about them for yourself, but do feel free to write something if you want to.
- Weren't you just looking for an excuse not to listen to the doctor, not to take the medicine when you were looking up those documentaries? They do actually work you know. People take them, and it helps them with their depression. That is something you surely won't deny.
- So is this maybe connected to your feeling that you deserve to be depressed? Do you feel that the treatment is not helping, or will not help, or should not help? Isn't that just your depression speaking right now, not yourself?
- Isn't the reason why your depression is being treated, why you thought you needed help with it in the first place, that it is actually a constant thing in your life? Being depressed in itself is not a bad thing, as you rightfully pointed out. There are reasons to be sad, perfectly logical ones, or feelings that make you sad. The problem occurs when being depressed is all you ever are, when it becomes who you are rather than a part of you that occasionally gains the upper hand.
- So therefore, isn't it the correct thing to reduce depression to balance out the constant negativity? Is that medication not going to do exactly that? How is it going to change you as a person if it will reduce the time you feel negative about yourself?
- The medication will not change who you are, it will uncover the person you always are from under the oppressing cloud of depression.
- Do not look for excuses not to take it. This is not you. This is your depression speaking for you.
- Also, nothing in your brain will change more than it already has under depression. Your depression is destroying your brain right now and you should stop it.
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Thank you for your answers.
I'm not looking for an excuse or anything, I'm just scared and I have a hard time making up my mind.
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I'm on celexa and it's done wonders for me. Medicine and therapy work really well together and you'll see results. When I first started taking it I was incredibly tired all the time for about two weeks. Celexa is pretty popular because so many people have positive results with it. It's pretty safe. I don't think you have much to worry about.
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Benefits are greater than risks is why medications are prescribed by good doctors. Nothing is absolutely risk free but for medication to be licensed it has to pass pretty stringent testing. In the case of Citalopram the common side effects are minor, frequently go away after a few weeks on Citalopram, and will go away once the drug is stopped. The half life is short so it does not hang around your body for very long at all (half life of 35 hours from wiki, therefore it would be pretty much completly gone at 175 hours).
Pretty much every drug has horrifying side effects if you look in the manuals. Discuss it with your doc if you have doubts. I've seen lots of people on it and they have been fine. I would bear in mind that people post on the webs (or any news site) only when shit goes bad. While this is useful, it means you do not see the hundreds of thousands of people that use Citalopram (for example) and are fine with it.
But it is important that you feel comfortable starting any new medication so definately discuss it with your doc. I will add that I am a doctor, but that said this post is just an opinion and does not constitute "medical advice", do not take my advice above that of your physician.
Edit: www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmedhealth/PMH0004898/#consdep.s10 is a nice site about meds in general.
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I think you have a misconception about medications and their effects on your psychophysiology. SSRIs prevent the serotonin from being metabolized as quickly which leaves it in an active state to bind with serotonin receptors. This lengthens a naturally occurring process instead of adding a neurotransmitter substitute to fill in for your serotonin deficiency. In plain English, you are simply helping your natural chemicals stay in action for longer...this is a good thing if your body is wanting to break them down too quickly. Every drug comes with side effects but most are extremely minor/rare. If they weren't, the drug would have never passed inspection.
As for your fears about long-term damage from taking any drugs...I wouldn't worry about it. Alzheimer's in particular is more closely linked with age itself than anything else at this point. Plaques and tangles are an unknown quantity regarding the disease but a prominent hypothesis is that humans have done so well at keeping our bodies alive for longer that our brains haven't been able to keep pace. It actually seems more likely that Alzheimer's is nearly unstoppable as we age and the older you get, the more people within that older demographic will have the disease. Neuroscience hasn't caught up yet but the disease has been around for so much longer than our generation of mass medication.
Most issues with SSRIs come down to withdrawal. Withdrawal is a problem due to your body not being used to the abrupt change in neurotransmitter activity. Most times this term refers to addiction and recovery but your body always has withdrawal to some extent when any change in neurochemical balance occurs. Your doctor should have a plan for your prescription and most likely it will involve a gradual tapering of the drug at the end of your period of medication. This should help your body to adjust slowly and begin to regulate itself...someone else mentioned SSRI discontinuation syndrome. This tapering prevents just that. The drugs on the market today are so much better than past medications. It's a great tool to have at our disposal.
If it was the 1950s I might hesitate when considering whether or not drugs were safe to take. Back then pharmaceuticals designed to affect the brain were blanket drugs. They not only affected the abnormal psychology but also suppressed many other bodily functions. That's not the case anymore...with the advancement of neuropharmacology we can target specific receptors and limit adverse symptoms.
My opinion...you were prescribed it for a reason and these drugs are safe when taken as directed. Ask you doctor about any contraindications (other drugs that shouldn't be taken in conjunction with Citalopram). Most issues arise when people start piling on supplemental medication so if you avoid this, which it sounds like you would, there's nothing to really worry about. I'm not a doctor (yet) so don't take my word over any physician. However, I am currently going to grad school in Cognition and Neuroscience so if you have questions about how SSRIs, MAOIs, or other similar drugs work feel free to PM me.
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well if you're afraid of taking meds, studies have shown that fixing your diet and starting to workout at least 3 times/wk has pretty much the same rate of taking people out of depression
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Thank you for your great post Grohg, really appreciated.
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I wonder how long you have felt like that for your doctor to prescribe a medicine, even if you are diagnosed with the DSM-IVs depression, giving out medication that affects the neuro transmitters for something like feeling worthless, which is only 1 part of the puzzle for which you must have at least 6 out of 9 different symptoms. In general depression meds do not beat the placebo in many cases and its one of those psychological issues that have come up recently because of marketing and lobbying by pharamacuetical companies. Anyways, there are some sideffects, but they will most likely be very minor. Talk to your psychiatrist, so do not worry about it until he says something about how it may cause a stroke in your family which has a history of stroke.
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A few things on side effects. Generally they're pretty rare.
Generally, you can give you'reself a negative placebo effect and make yourself have side effects you really shouldn't, so stop worrying in advance, because frankly youll just end up thinking and worrying about those things and youll have itches you dont actually have and notice a red spot and think its you dying or something.
Generally they're pretty rare.
Generally they're pretty rare.
The really serious ones are extremely rare.
AND, it's really important to note that with psych meds there is an adjustment period. Even if you take it really slow, there is going to be a period where your body has to adjust and there ARE some side effects. maybe they're positive, maybe you have random energy you didnt use to have. maybe you have headaches. maybe you arent hungy. maybe eating makes you sick for a week...but then it goes away.
And some give things like, reduced sexual desire. but...its a common enough thing that it's going to be mentioned by your psychiatrist. And if you dont like it you can switch to something else. So try not to worry too much.
the chances of you spontaneously dying or turning into goo are basically zero.
And you don't deserve to be depressed. That's silly.
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EPT
