Posted by mtdewcmu on April 1, 2011, at 14:25:20
In reply to Re: Alpha-delta sleep and cymbalta? » mtdewcmu, posted by floatingbridge on April 1, 2011, at 10:16:37
> O.K. no on else has ever mentioned feeling that degree of being tripped out.
>
> Thanks.When I first took Prozac, I was truly shocked at how much I felt like I was on some illegal drug. And I had a lot of other weird and annoying side effects, like having this intense sensation of the air coming in with each breath, and sweating. After a week I was becoming really edgy and restless, and colors were intense and uncomfortable to look at. I was torn, because this weird trippy feeling was in some ways better than how I had been feeling, but it was also hard to deal with the restlessness, and it was changing as the Prozac accumulated in my system and I didn't know where this "trip" was headed. So I did a web search on Prozac side effects and got a lot of horror stories of people engaging in bizarre behavior and ruining their lives. I stopped taking it and refused to take another antidepressant for a couple of years.
Eventually I let a doctor talk me into taking Celexa, but only at a tiny dose, because I was convinced I was super sensitive to antidepressants. After probably a year at a minute dose of Celexa, my symptoms were so bad that I let another doctor increase it to something therapeutic. Celexa felt somewhat similar to Prozac at first, but much milder and the trippiness was in gentle soft focus.
It would have made things easier the first time around if the doctor had warned me that I might feel like I had taken half a tab of acid and some speed for the first few weeks, or had informed me that other SSRIs had wildly different levels of side effects. Even now, I doubt that new patients are getting that information. Although, many doctors have begun to prescribe a short course of Klonopin to ease the initial side effects, which is a very humane thing to do.
When someone asks me about starting antidepressants, I always recommend starting with Celexa. Lexapro may be even better, but I have no personal experience with it.
poster:mtdewcmu
thread:981150
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20110321/msgs/981654.html