too scared to medicate

[girlfromla]

Doctor swears I have anxiety. I do not want to take the celexa 10 mg she prescribed. I'm scared of dealing with the side effects and not being able to function for my kids and husband. I do want to feel better but how do I get over this? Maybe I should find a therapist instead of letting my gp throw drugs at me. I function with whatever is wrong with me just takes a little effort. I was planning starting the celexa tonight so my hubby is home all weekend but I am really struggling with it and don't know if I want to

[gypsylee]

Doctor swears I have anxiety. I do not want to take the celexa 10 mg she prescribed. I'm scared of dealing with the side effects and not being able to function for my kids and husband. I do want to feel better but how do I get over this? Maybe I should find a therapist instead of letting my gp throw drugs at me. I function with whatever is wrong with me just takes a little effort. I was planning starting the celexa tonight so my hubby is home all weekend but I am really struggling with it and don't know if I want to

Hey there,

You really have to weigh up the side effects of the meds and how bad your depression/anxiety is. I haven't been on Celexa but I've been on and off SSRIs for the last 20 years. They do tend to make you feel worse at first but they can really help. In my case the anxiety was so bad I was willing to try anything (and did try a few anti-depressants that didn't work before going on Prozac which was like a miracle).

The SSRIs seem to take about 3 to 6 weeks to work. The first couple of weeks can be pretty bad but after that your system starts to get used to them and then eventually they kick in and you feel a lot better. Well they don't work for everyone but I've heard a lot of success stories.

What I've usually done to get through those first few horrible weeks is get my doctor to prescribe something like Valium which is good (short-term) for easing anxiety.

But as I say, it depends on how bad you feel. If you think you can manage it without meds then try that. You can always go on the meds if that doesn't work.

Hope that helps :)
Gypsy x

[Jemma8286]

I feel exactly the same, I'm petrified of swallowing anything incase I am the 1 in 100000 if you get me.

My psychiatrist said to me "if I told you that you had type 1 diabetes would you deny insulin injections"......

says it all really ....

[Ponder]

If your psychiatrist told you to jump off a cliff, would you? :)


___________________

I decided to go meds, because I wanted to know for myself and not what others told me.

In the beginning they helped - but then I ended up worse off.

The professionals who prescribed and recommended - docs, therapists, and astrophysicists (lol what a typo) - did not follow up as they should of nor warn me appropriately.

I wish you the best what ever way you go ... just don't rely on what others tell you ... even the so called professionals ... follow the advice to start with ... but YOU make the decisions and if you need to change them ... then you change them. If others do not support you ... then they never did.

Be well.
Dave.

[girlfromla]

Well I called my insurance to find a therapist and of course there are none in any of the 3 closer town's. There are tons in the one place I can't drive to because of construction on the interstate and driving at 70 mph that causes me to have more anxiety. And I really don't want my hubby to drive me because I hate having to rely on people because I can't drive somewhere. Its so frustrating. So maybe I should just take the celexa and see what it does.

[gypsylee]

I feel exactly the same, I'm petrified of swallowing anything incase I am the 1 in 100000 if you get me.

My psychiatrist said to me "if I told you that you had type 1 diabetes would you deny insulin injections"......

says it all really ....

Ha, I agree with Ponder on this. Diabetes is a bit simpler than anxiety/depression. I'm diabetic and on insulin and it's clear cut, whereas mental illnesses are complex and not nearly as well understood as diabetes.

That said, I've never been scared of medications. I'm kind of the opposite in fact. If you start on a low dose there's not too much that can go wrong.

[smartscrutiny]

Doctor swears I have anxiety. I do not want to take the celexa 10 mg she prescribed. I'm scared of dealing with the side effects and not being able to function for my kids and husband. I do want to feel better but how do I get over this? Maybe I should find a therapist instead of letting my gp throw drugs at me. I function with whatever is wrong with me just takes a little effort. I was planning starting the celexa tonight so my hubby is home all weekend but I am really struggling with it and don't know if I want to

Hey there! Whether or not to give meds a try can be a tough decision. I've tried both being medicated and not being medicated, and I find that I function much, MUCH better on a small dose of an antidepressant. (I currently take 20mg of prozac a day, and I've taken zoloft and wellbutrin in the past.) I also think therapy can be really valuable in conjunction with the meds (meditating and other things like relaxation and hypnosis in conjunction with the meds can be good, too.) I think it truly varies from person to person, and probably the best way to find out how you'll feel is to try the medication. You're under a doctor's care, so if you find that the drug doesn't agree with you, your doctor should be able to prescribe something different or tell you how to stop the medication so you can go back to not taking anything.

Did you end up giving the celexa a try over the weekend?

[girlfromla]

No I haven't started the meds yet. I have a hearing appointment to see if my ears make me dizzy I guess and celexa is on the long list of what not to take before the tests. This is on Wednesday so I'll see afterwards. I'm so glad I didn't start them tho. My 11 year old son just got the flu and mommy's work is never done. I have 2 girls now that I hope stays away from their brother lol. I am congested now so it seems to be always something

[smartscrutiny]

No I haven't started the meds yet. I have a hearing appointment to see if my ears make me dizzy I guess and celexa is on the long list of what not to take before the tests. This is on Wednesday so I'll see afterwards. I'm so glad I didn't start them tho. My 11 year old son just got the flu and mommy's work is never done. I have 2 girls now that I hope stays away from their brother lol. I am congested now so it seems to be always something

Oh no! Hope he gets over the flu fast and keeps the germs away from the other two!

[TW4569]

I don't want to try to influenece you or anything, but I took Citalopram (which is a generic equivalent of Celexa) for about 4 years and didn't have any side effects that I noticed. I went off of it recently for reasons unrelated to problems with the medication itself and I can definitely say that I felt a lot better while I was taking it than I do now.

[Ponder]

For those easily lead:

One persons experience can never be viewed as anything close to a gauge of whether to take a certain type of medication or not.

Judging ones state of mind to how it was on a medication previously taken, to how it is whilst no longer being on it, requires MUCH more feedback than two or three lines of text -> in order to narrow down whether it's a case of being off the medication or not.

Medications Mask other complications and require a very lengthy recording process.
None the less - thoughtless statements go a long way to the feeding frenzy of commiserations, self loathing and so on.

I felt great smoking crack - Eventually I stopped smoking it ... but not because of problems associated with the drug itself.
I don't feel so great since I stopped taking it.

That's about on par with most peoples comments with regard to medication these days and or the in-depth discussions that take place in here for the most part. But that's just my observation ... you'll have to go spend the time reading yourself in order to find out ... just like taking the drugs to really know - and then you've still got your homework cut out for you -> if you want to be anything more than than just another pacified self medicating long term reliant patient.

Bit hard I know ... but not if you don't want to get snared in the current traps that abound and or escape the maze. ;)

[TW4569]

That's just the experience I had, never claimed to be " anything close to a gauge of whether to take a certain type of medication or not.".

[Thriple]

I was on 40 grams of celexa and it gave me hardcore arrhythmia. I went to the hospital and they suggested for me to go off of it. 2/12 months later which is today i go to my dr. He didnt believe me so i told him to take at ecg records. He pushed zoloft at me. The pharmacist asked why i was going on this bc it is an ssri just like celexa. Well i did try it. I got arrhythmia again and i felt like fainting. So i decided, fuck antidepressants and pills. They do more damage then help.

[girlfromla]

I've decided I'm not taking the meds. I know my doc will be aggravated with me but I don't care. I'll find another. I feel good now even tho I'm just getting over the flu I caught from my son. I think I will talk to my doctor about testing my vitamins. Years ago I was vitamin d deficient. I really think that the cold weather and me not getting out the house has contributed to me feeling so blah. I am just not willing to risk the side effects of these meds and I can not be down trying to get used to it for any time because I have 3 kids to take care of. I've got to find a therapist too my hubby is only supportive to a point. He thinks I'm silly for worrying about everything but he has no clue how my mind races. Thank you all. You guys have been really supportive

[gypsylee]

I've decided I'm not taking the meds. I know my doc will be aggravated with me but I don't care. I'll find another. I feel good now even tho I'm just getting over the flu I caught from my son. I think I will talk to my doctor about testing my vitamins. Years ago I was vitamin d deficient. I really think that the cold weather and me not getting out the house has contributed to me feeling so blah. I am just not willing to risk the side effects of these meds and I can not be down trying to get used to it for any time because I have 3 kids to take care of. I've got to find a therapist too my hubby is only supportive to a point. He thinks I'm silly for worrying about everything but he has no clue how my mind races. Thank you all. You guys have been really supportive

No worries :) glad you made a decision you feel good about.