Herbal anti-depressant?

[2sure]

I suffered from anxiety since grammar school. Of course, I thought it was normal or at least just the way I was. Chronic anxiety is BRUTAL. It leads to becoming overwhelmed , depressed, and often self medication like alcohol or drug abuse - which then leads to all kinds of life issues.

 

I eventually came to find out that this type of anxiety was genetic in my family - meaning that there was real evidence that it was a physiological thing (which of course then becomes a Nurture thing).

 

Meanwhile, I & my sisters , etc. had between us tried every natural course of action offered. Therapy of course. Exercise like running and yoga. Nothng worked. I eventually became pretty much drug & alcohol dependent, one sister went on disability, and the other is still a nutjob.

 

Other women in my extended family were taking meds. After self medicating for so long I didnt want to go that route.

But I hit bottom and did.

 

LIFE CHANGING. Yes, it can be trial and error. But when you get the right one...well, you realize how you suffered. You realize that you are alright.

Its been amazing for me, to be myself for the first time ever. And I take a very very low dose.

 

I do add Vitamin D3 & give it to my teen daughter. It cleared up her skin & took the edge of her teen drama.

 

Its worth it. If nothing else works - OR - if it isnt in your nature to do the other things...go for it. Life Changing.

[CopingGal]

Coffee, be careful, because if these aren't standard medicines, they may not be regulated by the FDA. There may not have been a lot of research done on them.

 

I'm on Lexapro. When I first started, I was SLEEPY, but that was only a temporary side effect. It lasted about a week maybe two.

[CopingGal]

A great book about the tactics of the FDA and BigPharma is Overdosed America, written by a doctor who had access to the pharmaceutical companies' own clinical trial information, including stuff that showed their products were dangerous. Read the reviews at amazon.com, many written by physicians. It's all about the money, honey! The public is finally waking up to the fraud.

 

 

The FDA may be fools and do things at fault...but right now, it's the only medicine regulating body we have that I know of. That might be better than taking herbs on a daily basis for certain conditions.

[Coffee20]

Coffee, be careful, because if these aren't standard medicines, they may not be regulated by the FDA. There may not have been a lot of research done on them.

 

I'm on Lexapro. When I first started, I was SLEEPY, but that was only a temporary side effect. It lasted about a week maybe two.

 

with Lexapro, have you experienced other side effects? like nightmares, hallucinations, stomachache, headache....or slow reactions?

[FitChick]

The FDA may be fools and do things at fault...but right now, it's the only medicine regulating body we have that I know of. That might be better than taking herbs on a daily basis for certain conditions.

You mean herbal medicines that are cheaper than pharmaceuticals and have been taken thousands of years by many people with good results? Can't imagine why anyone would want to take them when there are FDA approved meds that cost a fortune and which seem to be recalled every other week and the subject of multi-million dollar class actions lawsuits.

[CopingGal]

with Lexapro, have you experienced other side effects? like nightmares, hallucinations, stomachache, headache....or slow reactions?

 

 

Actually no. The only side effect I ever experienced was sleepiness and that lasted about a week or two. That's it. It has been great for me and it keeps me from going down....way, way down when things happen.

[CopingGal]

I hate trazodone too, it also lost that sleeping effect and same as you I was awaken most of the time and another side effect - I had hallucination.

I heard that Prozac is very aggressive pill, so you say that it was good for you.

I still don't know if I want to take anti - depressant, they still seem to me like brainwashing pills.

 

 

UGH! UGH! UGH! Trazodone was the worst. It made my heart RACE!!

 

Anti-depressants really are not brain washing pills. They don't keep you from being depressed. You are allowed to feel what you feel. When bad things happen, they don't prevent you from being depressed. The job of an anti-depressant is not to prevent you from total depression. It's not meant to keep you from being depressed when bad things happen. It's meant to keep you from going way, way, way down. It keeps you more even, but usually you still feel. You still cry.

 

Let's say you suffer from depression and something terrible happens. Because you suffer from depression, your reaction may be more extreme than others- you may cry all day long, contemplate sucide, don't eat, don't sleep, etc.

 

An anti-depressant usually will not prevent you being depressed in that situation. You will cry and feel bad. But it should keep you from going to say down that you have extreme reactions.

 

If you are Dysthymic and suffer from a mild feeling of being blue every day, the antidepressant will make you feel not so bluesy on a regular basis. It keeps you more even.

 

I heard that Prozac can cause strange reactions with sleep- sleep walking, attacking the person next to you while you are actually asleep, etc.

 

A friend of mine is on Prozac. He's okay now. But before, for the longest time, when he slept, he would have horse-like snores. Seriously, he sounded like a horse when he slept. It was scary. It took a long time to stop, but he doesn't do that any more.

 

I've been on Lexapro for years. During that time, there was only one incident when something bad happened to me and I could not cry. I felt stuck. It was unpleasant for a while. Was it the Lexapro? I don't know because at some point I cried and cried. It's possible that I did not cry because I was all cried out. I don't remember.

 

I will say that some anti-depressants are not for children. I heard of bad side effects in teenagers.

Edited June 9, 2012 by CopingGal

[Feelin Frisky]

UGH! UGH! UGH! Trazodone was the worst. It made my heart RACE!!

 

Anti-depressants really are not brain washing pills. They don't keep you from being depressed. You are allowed to feel what you feel. When bad things happen, they don't prevent you from being depressed. The job of an anti-depressant is not to prevent you from total depression. It's not meant to keep you from being depressed when bad things happen. It's meant to keep you from going way, way, way down. It keeps you more even, but usually you still feel. You still cry.

 

Let's say you suffer from depression and something terrible happens. Because you suffer from depression, your reaction may be more extreme than others- you may cry all day long, contemplate sucide, don't eat, don't sleep, etc.

 

An anti-depressant usually will not prevent you being depressed in that situation. You will cry and feel bad. But it should keep you from going to say down that you have extreme reactions.

 

If you are Dysthymic and suffer from a mild feeling of being blue every day, the antidepressant will make you feel not so bluesy on a regular basis. It keeps you more even.

 

I heard that Prozac can cause strange reactions with sleep- sleep walking, attacking the person next to you while you are actually asleep, etc.

 

A friend of mine is on Prozac. He's okay now. But before, for the longest time, when he slept, he would have horse-like snores. Seriously, he sounded like a horse when he slept. It was scary. It took a long time to stop, but he doesn't do that any more.

 

I've been on Lexapro for years. During that time, there was only one incident when something bad happened to me and I could not cry. I felt stuck. It was unpleasant for a while. Was it the Lexapro? I don't know because at some point I cried and cried. It's possible that I did not cry because I was all cried out. I don't remember.

 

I will say that some anti-depressants are not for children. I heard of bad side effects in teenagers.

 

Whoa. I never ever heard anything like that about Prozac--I've taken it since 1989 and read a lot. The drugs that have gotten ink for actions taken while sleeping are the "hypnotics" like Ambien, Lunesta, Sonata. I have experience with Ambien and I think it's very dangerous. Among the things that happened with me is that I took the rest of the whole prescription without knowing it. If I had deadly drugs I may have ODed. (I suspect that Heath Ledger may have fallen victim to that as Ambien was one of the drugs he took. Also Jack Nicholson said he almost drove off a cliff while sleep driving and I heard a story of a guy finding a human arm in the wheel well of his car after an Ambien excursion.) At that I was discovered taking mouths full of Ibuprofen as if i were a machine on a mission to ingest everything and anything. Ambien is of course not an anti-depressant. Other than that you seem to have a pretty good handle on AD's--not too many people know what dysthymia is. I have that.

 

AD's deal with neurotransmitters and there are really just a few: serotonin, norepinephrine, GABA, dopamine that most AD's deal with. When a person experiments with a doctor's help they should speak up if a medication seems to be bothersome right away. I for instance can not hach the ones that deal with norepinephrine like Effexor, Stratera. It gives me a kind of electrical giddiness that makes me very self conscious and I feel like I can sense the cycles of alternating current in fluorescent lighting--it's jittery and feel like a low level acid trip. Prozac on the other hand just deals with serotonin. After I first acclimated to it where for a week or so I felt somewhat tense, the tenseness went away and I frankly felt "smarter"--as if I had choices over my feelings. I don't have sentimental tears as much as I used to which i kinda liked--like sy watching a heroic movie and tearing up, but that's a small sacrifice to be so much better in control of my emotions. I still get angry at things that piss me off but I don't go around telling everyone how much this or that pissed me off. It dawns on me very quickly when I've given something as much attention as it deserves. I can't imagine Prozac causing sleep walking or acting out in that way. If that is true that must be a very rare exception. Some people do however find Prozac somewhat sedating whereas I find it a tad of a pep pill.

[CopingGal]

Hi. I have dysthymia too. Actually, it was the pharmacist that told me about the strange sleep occurences in some people who take Prozac. But he did not tell me about people in their sleep actually attacking others. I read that somewhere and I have no idea where. It could have been on the internet.

 

Serotonin Specific Reuptake Inhibitors seem to be pretty good. My friend has been taking Prozac for a long time and he does not want to switch. Lexapro is in that class of meds too.

[Coffee20]

Ok I am going to take some anti depressants for a while, thanks for your tips CopingGal, I am definitely not OK and want to be stable a little bit, I will post later which pills I have and how I feel

[frozensprouts]

my daughter takes elavil ( it's an older type of anti-depressant...i believe it's referred to as tricyclic)...

 

it has helped her a lot with her depression and anxiety... her sleep pattern has greatly improved ( melatonin helps too)

 

st.john's wort ( Hypericum) has been helpful for some people, but can often caused photosensitization, which can be serious

[CopingGal]

I think the older meds can have more side effects...esp. the tryicyclics.

[Feelin Frisky]

my daughter takes elavil ( it's an older type of anti-depressant...i believe it's referred to as tricyclic)...

 

it has helped her a lot with her depression and anxiety... her sleep pattern has greatly improved ( melatonin helps too)

 

st.john's wort ( Hypericum) has been helpful for some people, but can often caused photosensitization, which can be serious

 

I used to take Elavil too (amitriptyline) which is a tricylic but that is considered an older med falling into disfavor. I actually can produce feelings similar to being stoned and some folks abuse it. For me it sometimes cause tardive akathisia which is very uncomfortable wen trying to sleep. Tricyclics can cause seizures and I have had them--they were just momentary shocks in the brain but when they happen they will wake you out of a heavy sleep they are so scary. Sinequan is like that. The tricylics work in ways that are not as consistent as other meds and they do have these side effects. I had a lot of lucid dreams with Elavil too.

[Coffee20]

I finally found out what was the second pill I took - Venlafaxine Hydrochloride, in or country under the name Venlafaxine Mylan, I felt so bad after this, shaking, couldn't sleep and feeling like in the mist all the time.

[Feelin Frisky]

I finally found out what was the second pill I took - Venlafaxine Hydrochloride, in or country under the name Venlafaxine Mylan, I felt so bad after this, shaking, couldn't sleep and feeling like in the mist all the time.

 

 

 

I just looked that up. That is also known as "Effexor". That is a compound that treats two neurotransmitters instead of one. It treats the norepinephrine system as well as the serotonin. I did not not that AT ALL. And by taking it I learned to avoid any meds that have a norepinephrine component. That is something to always ask your doctor if he or she prescribes something and you don't react well to norepinephrine drugs. That's the one that made me feel like I was very self-conscious, extremely sensitive to light, a low level feeling of being electrically charged. It's very unpleasant to me and it takes a few days to get out of your system which is a bit of a bummer when you find it's not for you. Another one that worked that way is called "Strattera" and I flushed the script as soon as I felt that tell-tail malaise. A simple straight-forward serotonin re-uptake inhibitor seems to be my ticket. I don't feel its presence at all, I just notice over time that I don't sweat the small stuff and am much more emotionally disciplined (and happy, or at least pleased with how I'm coping.)

[D-Lish]

I took Wellbutrin for depression and had no side effects besides weight loss. It worked wonders for me. I once took a med called Cipralex and I did not sleep for an entire week- I was such a mess on that one.

[Coffee20]

I took Wellbutrin for depression and had no side effects besides weight loss. It worked wonders for me. I once took a med called Cipralex and I did not sleep for an entire week- I was such a mess on that one.

 

I just thought that I will ask for Cipralex, now I am not sure after your experience :/.

[D-Lish]

I just thought that I will ask for Cipralex, now I am not sure after your experience :/.

 

My mom takes it and it's been a great fit for her. That's the thing about meds, you have to try them on. I couldn't function on Cipralex. It made me dizzy, made my depression much worse.

[Coffee20]

My mom takes it and it's been a great fit for her. That's the thing about meds, you have to try them on. I couldn't function on Cipralex. It made me dizzy, made my depression much worse.

 

I know, I would like to be more sure with a med, the will give me this time, but maybe they will give me something else.

[frozensprouts]

I used to take Elavil too (amitriptyline) which is a tricylic but that is considered an older med falling into disfavor. I actually can produce feelings similar to being stoned and some folks abuse it. For me it sometimes cause tardive akathisia which is very uncomfortable wen trying to sleep. Tricyclics can cause seizures and I have had them--they were just momentary shocks in the brain but when they happen they will wake you out of a heavy sleep they are so scary. Sinequan is like that. The tricylics work in ways that are not as consistent as other meds and they do have these side effects. I had a lot of lucid dreams with Elavil too.

 

maybe that's why it helps my daughter ( allowing dreaming). She takes it for mild depression and pain relief ( she also has fibromyalgia and an anxiety disorder as well as aspegers syndrome). Both fibro. and aspergers interfere with REM/delta wave sleep, and the elavil (25 to 50 mg at bedtime) helps with that. Taken alone it didn't seem to help. but combined with Lyrica ( an anti seizure drug that also helps with the pain from her fibromyalgia) she seems o get relief, and is able to function again...she took the elavil on it's own a few years ago, and it didn't do much, so we took her off of it ( she was 10 then)...

 

one thing that i have noticed is that when combined with counseling/therapy from her psychologist and the fact that we have an excellent family doctor who takes the time to talk to her about how she's feeling so he can make sure she's getting the medication she needs without being over medicated( and not just talking to me, as her parent) and her pain team that she sees ( social worker, psychologist, anesthesiologist, physical therapist) and our having a really good pharmacist who makes sure we totally understand the benefits/risks of the meds. she takes, she's getting much more relief that she ever would rom the medication alone...each part helps in it's own way, and when combined, that's really what helps the most...

 

my final advice...meds. alone may help, but combine them with other things like therapy, exercise, activities, relaxation, massage therapy, physiotherapy, etc. and you'll probably get much more relief than you ever would from meds. alone.

[denise_xo]

I just thought that I will ask for Cipralex, now I am not sure after your experience :/.

 

I've taken that, too, (sells as Escitalopram here), and I've had great effects and no side effects. Like others said, it really is quite individual and the only way to find out is to try.

[D-Lish]

I've taken that, too, (sells as Escitalopram here), and I've had great effects and no side effects. Like others said, it really is quite individual and the only way to find out is to try.

 

Very true, my mom uses it and it's been a positive experience for her. It almost drove me off the deep end! In my experience with Cipralex the side effects started within 24 hours. I was told to push through it, but after 10 days of not sleeping and feeling like I was on LSD I couldn't deal with it anymore.

[denise_xo]

Very true, my mom uses it and it's been a positive experience for her. It almost drove me off the deep end! In my experience with Cipralex the side effects started within 24 hours. I was told to push through it, but after 10 days of not sleeping and feeling like I was on LSD I couldn't deal with it anymore.

 

Oh, that sounds awful. My mother got suicidal from one particular brand of ADs (can't remember which one now, she's been on several and others did her good). I've only tried this and Prozac, but both worked well for me.

 

To the OP, I second what someone said on the previous page about combining it with theory, exercise, healthy living and so on. It's powerful as a package. Good luck

[Coffee20]

I have just contacted a doctor, she told me she will eventually give me some anti - depressants, I will of course have to go there, so I will probably ask for Citalec or Cipralex. I searched for Lexapro, but I couldn't find any information about it in our country.

[denise_xo]

I have just contacted a doctor, she told me she will eventually give me some anti - depressants, I will of course have to go there, so I will probably ask for Citalec or Cipralex. I searched for Lexapro, but I couldn't find any information about it in our country.

 

Lexapro and Cipralex are the same thing, just with different labels.