# Self-medication with SSRI's?



## coeus (Jan 11, 2010)

Hi all,

I'm going to blunt with this question here: has anyone self-medicated or is currently doing so, with SSRIs?

My highly incompetent GP still refused a prescription for clonazepam. So, I'm thinking of trialling Lexapro (very conservatively - I'm even considering starting a very small dose) that we have at home. It was never prescribed for me.

I'm slowly accepting and moving on with anxiety but I need some short-term relief from the physical symptoms.

Any experience?

Thanks.


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## ZachT (Sep 8, 2008)

Lexapro got rid of my panic attacks....


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## S O L A R I S (Dec 24, 2009)

I have not self medicated with SSRI's. But what will you do once you run out of lexapro?

SSRI's are very effective for anxiety, im currently on a low dose of zoloft/sertraline. it works very well, certainly gives you a boost to deal with the the anxiety. They are also easier to get off of than benzo's, so you could look into visiting a GP/psychiatrist who can prescribe you an SSRI.


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## coeus (Jan 11, 2010)

S O L A R I S said:


> I have not self medicated with SSRI's. But what will you do once you run out of lexapro?
> 
> SSRI's are very effective for anxiety, im currently on a low dose of zoloft/sertraline. it works very well, certainly gives you a boost to deal with the the anxiety. They are also easier to get off of than benzo's, so you could look into visiting a GP/psychiatrist who can prescribe you an SSRI.


Thanks for the replies, guys.

I've been making slight improvements but thought that medication and therapy might work well together. By the way, Mum threw away the Lexapro. She never needed it in the beginning but had to exaggerate her condition to the psychologist for another matter. What a waste of an SSRI, ugh.

St John's Wort only mildly helps. You can never tell with supplements. My GP said that if my therapist/psychologist advises that I should be on an SSRI/Benzo then he'll prescribe it. Otherwise, he'll need to refer me to a psychiatrist. Again, teased by the waiting game!


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## AutumnFalls (Feb 8, 2010)

I don't know about self-medicating or how that would work, but I've just started on Citalopram (Celexa). It's only been a couple days so I can't say how effectively it's working. But, how do you plan to self-medicate. I'm a bit confused as to how you'll accquire SSRIs when you doctor refuses to give them to you.


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## Absentis (Jul 10, 2007)

My impression is that you're young. Doctors are reluctant to prescribe benzodiazepines in general because of their liability of abuse. They are even more reluctant to prescribe antidepressants to minors because of the whole SSRIs-might-cause-adolescents-to-complete-suicide thing. Cuz if there's anything that ruins a doctor's day, it's having one of your patients off themselves because no patient = no money.

Okay so I'm being facetious, but the fact remains that your doc is taking the safe route of allowing a better trained individual make the judgement call on whether or not you should be taking pills.

I know you may thing his decision is stupid, or that he's incompetent. And you'll probably think that I don't know anything myself, and that you know everything, but for what it is worth, don't self-medicate. You are better off receiving psychotherapy or psychopharmacotherapy from a trained individual than thinking you know what's best for yourself.


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## Ivan Hawk (Jan 22, 2010)

I've been prescribed to 2 SSRIs years ago and all of them failed causing 2-3x more side effects than their gains. Zoloft and Paxil. First word of advice: Taking these for a long time leaves a very lengthy withdrawal process and I've described a good method of getting off them near the end of this post. Never quit cold turkey off after taking an SSRI for several months.

Pros were like:
increased focus
moderately masked anxiety in certain areas (give or take some days)
decreased fear/anger

The side effects were like: 
Decreased/Shot Libido (you'll seriously hate them for that)
Decreased Emotions (well, you might hate everything less tho)
Decreased Creativity (and you'll have writer's block more often)
Strange Sleep Patterns (along with going to bed at 5pm, 3am, and 12:00pm)
Foggier mind to mask the overactive anxious mind (you might wonder if your high)
Weight gain (pockets will get tighter, pants feel too small)
Mysterious crashes (like it failed to work sometimes)
Extremely addictive - Extremely difficult to get off (you'll know immediately if you forget a dose one day)
(Addictive by chemical dependence)

depression was a funny symptom with them though. Sometimes they reduced it, sometimes they increased it! mostly they didn't affect it all though or increased it more so than reducing it. And by reducing it, i mean they only reduced it leaving me feeling blank and did not improve my happiness.

Sometimes I wonder if long term use of them leave permanent changes in the brain.
They certainly masked the anxiety by increasing brain functions relating to it such as increasing talkativeness, focus, and a creepy decrease in all emotions to reduce the bad emotions (sometimes like the movie equilibrium when you have decreased love/libido as well). Funny part was the overall general anxiety was still there, but just harder to notice with all these other changes occurring around it. Over time, I got tired of the side effects and decided to get off of them. This definitely took some time and I had to get a bit creative with breaking the doses to gradually get off of them without the severe withdrawal symptoms I had when I tried to quite cold turkey twice.

The withdrawl symptoms were pretty extreme including: 
*Disorientation* (trouble balancing), 
*Major Electric Shocks* in the Brain and Heart (common extreme withdrawal symptom - DO NOT EXERCISE WITH THIS, YOU COULD FAINT), 
*Severe Irritability*/Anger Problems (you might knock over trash cans, literally - no, i'm serious), 
*Depression*/ Increased Fatigue (this will seriously suck)
Etc

One very helpful piece of advice for successful withdrawl for users who've taken them for over a year:
No matter what the recommended withdrawal plan is for you, make sure you don't suffer through the withdrawal symptoms. Break some of the pills into approximately 1/8 sized doses to take along with a 1/2 dose or 1/4 dose when the withdrawal symptoms appear too strong.

I recommend a week of 1/2, week of 1/4, then 1/8 for a week or more until you don't get the terrible withdrawal symptoms. You might have to go more than a week on any of these sizes until you can lower the dose without withdrawal symptoms - don't worry, everyone is different and requires their own pace to get off of them. You really want to just make sure you decrease them slow enough to not get the withdrawal symptoms by the time you stop. The libido by far takes the longest to return for most people I hear, and will probably take another month or 2 after you stop taking the medication completely. 
BUT REMEMBER: Don't ever quit cold turkey if possible - you could seriously hurt yourself from a fall or emotional hostility. Quitting cold turkey won't rush the process of having other sensations return as well. I tried going cold turkey for almost 2 solid weeks with absolutely no reduction in the extreme withdrawal symptoms, but 4 weeks of gradually decreased dosages (enough needed to not have the withdrawals) left me feeling very comfortable the entire time till i didn't take them at all.

My conclusion. Worth a try for extreme cases of anxiety. Anyone with mild anxiety wanting to be perfect should stay away from them - the side effects will literally reduce your mental health and make you feel worse. I'm sure there are cases of anxiety so extreme though that these might possibly be more of a benefit than a loss though. ALSO, these could be taken temporary to help one transition into talk therapy and then withdrawn from as soon as they are not needed (remember the withdrawal process takes a length process of precision and time to complete correctly). The most important thing is to have more benefits than side effects, else you'll soon want to reconsider taking them.


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## Livingthenightmare (Jan 12, 2010)

I've been on quite a few SSRIs one after the other for a while. It wasn't pretty. Before starting on them I dismissed the "suicidal thoughts" sideffects and classified them in the it's not gonna happen to me category, heck the doctor said whoever reported that just had their own issues that made them suicidal and not the drug. But I got more and more depressed until the only thing that kept me from jumping out the window was not being certain the fall would kill me right away and instead leave me in pain with broken bones, ruptured organs and internal bleeding. Of course everybody thought I just needed a higher dosage cause it was just me deteriorating, but I got the picture: if I didn't get off the SSRIs quick they were going to kill me. During this time I also took some anafranil when I felt worst (which pretty much ended up being all the time) and it seemed to help a bit. So I just stopped taking them cold turkey just keeping the anafranil, no gradual dosage reduction or anything, withdrawal warnings be damned- it couldn't possibly get any worse. And it didn't: instead instant results- no more SSRIs, no more uncontrollable crying, no more intensely wanting nothing else than somebody to kill me somehow and that one immediately.

I'm sure they must make some people feel better. For me they were just another nightmare on top of the existing one (dp).


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