7 years bad luck

[toni]

hi my name is toni, i have had the worst 7 years of my life, since the birth of my second son 7 years ago i have been suffering with anxiety, panic attacks and depression. i was not diagnosed for the first 2 years and for the last 5 been on and off of anti depressants, sertraline, the medication does take the edge of things but makes you feel numb, no emotion, i have been trying to come off them recently but i have had those awful feelings again, nervousness, anxious, cant sleep etc, is this just something i have to ride with or shall i stick with the tablets, how long should you take antidepressants for, is their a time scale. i do have good days, really good days and i think the illness has gone, i start to come off the tablets and i start getting the anxiety back. i am really getting fed up of this now, 7 years bad i am due 7 years good, can any one suggest anything to help, or just be a friend, i live in uckfield east sussex and would love to be friends with someone who understands what i go through. thanks for listening
toni

toni

[nomorepanic]

Hi Toni

Welcome to the message forum.

I have suffered for 11 years so I know how hard it is to cope. I took two different anti-depressants, the longest one was for 9 months. I just stopped taking it 6 years ago and I did feel bad for a couple of weeks then I felt no better or worse than I did before.

Are you getting advice on how to come off the medication from the doctor?

The medication relieves the symptoms but does not cure the underlying problem. That has to be tackled as well.

Relaxation, breathing etc can all help.

Have you had time to read the website atall - the coping page, the natural remedies one and most of all the "First Steps" page will all help.

Would you be able to get some CBT or other form of therapy from the doctor?

Welcome aboard and I hope you can find some answers here to a lot of the questions and get some great advice from us all.

Nicola

[imported_n/a]

hey toni,,do hope you are having a good day today,,i have myself suffered with anxiety and panic attacks for nearly 10 years and throu avoiding the attacks i have made myself suffer with a degree of agraphobia,,never found the courage to take my meds,,i was prescribed the same,,sertraline but couldnt take,,anyway look welcome here i have only been here 3 weeks myself and have found this site so helpful such wonderful people here toni,,anytime you wanna talk compare notes ,,e-mail me ok or leave a post,,chin up tonixxdarrenxx

[sarah]

Hiya Toni

Welcome to the site
I was on Sertraline for about a year and I can totally identify with your saying you feel emotionless. When I came off them I cried virtually non-stop at silly things as I think the sertraline must have blocked my emotions so they came flooding back. Im now on Citalopram and they dont make me feel so numb and they seem to be levelling me out a bit more.
How slow are you coming off your medication? Coming off too quick will definately make you feel worse.
Im not sure how long is recomended for being on anti-d's but I do know that while some people can be on them for life, others just need a pick up for a couple of months.

love Sarah
xx

we arent mad, just the next stage of evolution

[benoo5]

hi toni,
welcome to this great site,as has been said,theres a lot of information to read,and digest,but its all very usefull.

as nicola,has said,a/ds are fine to take the edge off of anxiety,depression etc,but you do need some form of therapy,to combat the underlying ,longterm problems.

i think two years of a/ds should be a maximum amount of time,but shorter term,would be advised...whatever you do,dont come off them,unless supervised,by a doctor,and i think it should be done by decreasing the doseage,over a period of weeks,this well limit the amount of withdrawal symptoms,which can be very distressing.

best wishes........bryan.

[Meg]

Hi Toni,

The recommended average is now about 18 months, but peope can be on antidepressants ad infinitum - there is no defined limit. It's between you and your GP.

The antidepressants only mask the symptoms and when you come off them - if the original cause is still present, then within weeks you will see the symptoms returning. If it was PND and because it wasn't diagnosed quickly , you may have developed a fear of the fear and this is what is being manifested when you reduce your dose. Only you know whther it is this or another cause .

The proven Gold standard of treatment is medication with CBT . (See homepages)

Come off them slower than your doctor recommends - they usually try to rush these things and the slower the better.

So ride with them slowly and also try alternative methods to relieve your symptoms and any issues.

Keep posting


Meg

'There can only be true courage when first there is genuine fear'

Dr.David Livingstone

[me]

hi toni, welcome to this wonderful site, its full of great infomation and lovely people. do you talk to your doctor about your antidepressants im on citalopram the same as sarah, i think this is a better one, although none of them are good!! i also have counselloring (sorry if im not spelling things correct, im a rubbish speller hope you can understand it all ha ha)which i find really helps me, the tablets cover up the problem but the counsellor helps unfold them.... mind you i do feel alot better with the tablets. when you do get good days dont stop taking the tablets see your doctor about reducing them, i have heard its really awful if you just stop. do you take vitamins when i first came onto this site meg told me about vitamins, i started taking them straight away and im sure they do help i take vit b complex, vit c omega, 3 fish oils. i hope you are havin a nice wekend take care love from mary x

[seh1980]

Hi Toni,
Welcome to the site!! It does indeed sounds like you have had a very hard 7 years!! I started having panic attacks just under a year ago and these last 10 months have definetly been the worse ones of my life!! I am on a medication called Cipralex which does take the edge off the panic but hasn't got rid of it completely. Like you said, it is difficult to know if or when you should come off medication. We all have bad days and good days so it's hard to tell. Some people only need to be on medication for a year whilst others need to be on it for longer, sometimes for life. Just take it one day at a time and don't come off the medication until you feel ready.
Take care.
Sarah (seh1980)