Forum: Poop-out Panic

very similar results myself, effexor worked for short period, replaced w/welbutrin,effexor pretty scary to get out of system, now on cymbalta and it is not doing well (40 mg.) I need help too Rod

I have been on Effexor for 5 years ,i have had to come of it at times was hard but did feel that it helped me a lot while on this drug.

I was on Prozac for several years and I felt they weren’t helping anymore. Dr. changed me to Lexapro and it makes such a difference.

I was on effexor for a while. the Dr. had to keep increasing the dose then it turned on me and made me worse.. now I’, on welbutrin for about 6 months now and I’m doing better

I have been on many anti-depressants..they all stop working for me eventually or not all….I wish I had the answer…

i have been on several antidepressants, starting with Prozac, and am currently on the highest dose for both Wellbutrin and Effexor that my doctor feels i can handle. And still the depression and lethargy, etc. Don’t know what will be next.

Have been on meds for depression 27 yrs. All have pooped out at some point. Now on small dose of elavil (antidepresant that worked 27 yrs. ago) and Lamacital. Almost at highest dose now. So, from all of my experiences for me, I optimistically wait as new drugs continue to beome advailable. I have asthma which was unevenlly controlled all my life for lack of better drugs, but in the last 5 yrs. use a new inhaller (advair) and I don’t even know I have asthma. This has been a godsend. So because of this I remain hopeful new meds will continue to be developed for depression, and eventually maybe some that wil not poop out.

Hi!
How interesting to read this post this morning. I have just started a cross taper from Pooped Out Paxil to Prozac. Tried switching from Paxil to Lexapro but Lexapro didn’t help me. I was on Prozac years ago and it really helped. I only went off it because of weight gain and acne – great combo of problems! I am not worried about that anymore – I just want something that makes me feel better. I suffer from OCD and depression. I don’t know the answer to your question but I sympathize with your fear.
Elizabeth

Are you getting counselling as well? Are you seeing a therapist as well? I think that just taking drugs alone is not the answer. We need to look at why we need these drugs and how else we may deal with it. WE can take all the drugs we can until our bodies build up a tolerance to them…then what? WE need to look to our own abilities to solve our problems and have our bodies adjust.

It has been my experience over nearly thirty years of taking anti-depressants that they all will invariably poop out or become less effective. The key is telling your psychiatrist as soon as your start to experience symptoms, so that you can try increasing dosage, add an additional medication or switch to something else. Unfortunately, all of these ideas have negatives attached to them; however, there is no other effective choice. Staying on a medication that has stopped working will not help you.

It is true that sometimes you can go back to medicines that you have taken previously, but pooped out; however, my experience is that if they do work again, it is not for as long a time period as the first go around.

Best of Luck,

Jeff

I took prozac for years with very good effect. Soon insurance would only allow me the generic, thats when I started to go downhill again. My P.D has now verified, that after months of strugling,Brand Name Is Medically Nessesary,for me.

Has anyone thought that healthier nutrition habits might help in any way? For me, I noticed a huge difference by not eating sugar (horrible sweet tooth) while taking anti-depressants! I have a bi-polar disorder as well as depression, the sugars and bad carbs are poisonous. I hope you will find answers to lessen your “pooping-out” concerns.

Forgot to include this earlier, being totally honest and upfront at your counseling sessions. The results will be really astounding once you unravel whatever it is inside of you. Meds cannot do all the work itself, only you can. Wish it was a much easier way not having to face anything scary, unpleasant, upsetting, mortifying or what have you…it is worth the journey. Peace.

I TOO HAVE TAKEN ANTIDEPRESSANTS FOR YEARS AND YEARS. I THINK I HAVE BEEN ON EVERYTHING. DON’T WORRY THE DR CAN MIX DIFFERENT ANTIDEPRESSANTS TO GET A BETTER EFFECT. BUT YOU NEED A DR THAT IS VERY GOOD AT THIS.
YEARS AGO I WAS PUT ON A MIX THAT DIDN’T MIX BY A DOCTOR THAT MUST HAVE BEEN JUST GUESSING. I CAN’T DESCRIBE THE FEELINGS I HAD WITH THIS. ONE SIDE OF MY HEAD WAS COMPLETELY NUMB.
THEN I FOUND MY PRESENT DOCTOR AND THINGS HAVE BEEN SO MUCH BETTER. I STILL HAVE TO CHANGE MY MEDICATION FROM TIME TO TIME AND SOMETIMES I STILL FEEL A LITTLE DEPRESSED. I HAD RATHER BE DEPRESSED THAN SUFFER WITH THE ANXIETY THAT I HAVE. I ALWAYS TRY AND TOUGH IT OUT AT LEAST A WEEK BEFORE CALLING MY DOCTOR. I HAVE NOTICED THAT SOMETIMES IT GOES AWAY AFTER A FEW DAYS SO THE MEDICATION MUST STILL BE WORKING.
I ASKED MY DOCTOR WHAT WOULD I BE ABLE TO DO IF I GOT TO THE END OF THE MEDICATIONS AND WAS STILL DEPRESSED AND HE SAID THEN, WE WOULD START ALL OVER AGAIN AND SOMETHING MIGHT WORK. IF NOT THERE IS SCHOCK THEAPRY THAT DOES A GOOD JOB FOR A COUPLE OF DAYS OR SO. I HAVE A FRIEND THAT HAS HAD THAT AND SHE SAID IT WAS WONDERFUL! SHE FEELS IT SAVED HER LIFE AND IT IS NOT PAINFUL LIKE IT USED TO BE. I WOULD USE IT AS A LAST RESORT THOUGH.
HOPES THIS MAKES YOU FEEL BETTER.
CAROL

I MUST CORRECT DAYS TO YEARS IN MY PREVIOUS POST. SORRY
CAROL

i have been on and off depression meds ( have been asthmatic since birth so also use inhalers but have been on shots and pills in younger years)for 12 years now…crashed after birth of second daughter. have worked with 4-5 different therapists,eat very well and always have(vegan or vegetarian) and excersize as well as practice yoga and meditation.i worry that years of allergy and asthma meds have totally screwed up my system…but after reading posts i am not so sure…what i mean is that i get to a point (6-12 months) where meds no longer work…i fell like an idiot explainning this to md’s. have had them switch on me or have moved and started with new ones. sometimes feel like i am better informed than they are! hate having to take anything but i am so sad and depressed without it…no matter what i do! had a friend tell me i should be talking to dr. about add as she had gone to the original clinic in concord mass and we have so much in common.she was given meds for add and her life changed dramatically…thinks i have been misdiagnosed.i have no energy or confidence to bring this up with dr. . am so tired of all the different meds and am feeling like a hypochondriac.don’t usually use internet but am so glad i found this site! am on 100 zoloft now and it really isn’t helping…feel edgy and fuzzy. HELP!

I’ve been on antidepressants since 1996, 10 years now. I started with Prozac, which pooped out in about 1 year. Then Paxil, same thing (also I should mention here that I had terrible withdrawal symptoms getting off of Paxil, which was considered anxiety at the time but is now documented as something that seems to happen a lot. Stay away!).

Every year or two things seemed to stop working. Now I’m on Wellbutrin which has been the longest stretch at about 4 years, and it is just starting to not work. I’m so disappointed as it gave me the most energy and lowest sexual side effects. But my psychiatrist is always willing to work with me and adjust my meds/dosages. I may try increasing the dosage to start.

Nothing is more frustrating than feeling like you are back at square one after finally feeling better, but I’ve learned there’s always another solution. Also, they say if you are off something for a while you can go back to it with the same effects as before. Stay strong everyone, all we can do is keep trying!

So I guess I’m not alone. Everyone is becoming immune to their meds. Soon it will be a nationwide epidemic.You know things are getting bad when you start seeing commercials everyday for new improved medications and solutions to replace the defective ones that hit the market five minutes ago but just can’t seem to get the job done and they quit on you 12 weeks in,, leaving you standing there going back into your wallet again because your being bamboozled by these depraved and corrupt physicians and pharmaceutical companies dressesd in sheep’s clothing into thinking that you have so many serious issues and problems that medication is the only option,the only viable one at least. And now you’ve convinced yourself that you need a brand new drug, the right one that could change your life and save it. If you just keep all that hope they tell you to have and keep trying,well Hell, who knows, it may even be the right pill and dosage this time, so let’s do it again.And of course, to your doctor’s delight,you keep playing and paying the completely pointless but lucrative (to your doctor) game of trial and never-ending error, because it will never be right, while he has a good chuckle and sends you home with a few samples to start you off, and again he’s pushing,just a little, the defective by design dope. At first, before the commercials, I really thought I was going crazy this past year with the one-step forward,two-steps back shuffle of progress in limbo or just had an extremely high tolerance for drugs, because I wasn’t improving, if not regressing and nothing was working for me at all, other than a couple of ok months,sometimes, with somewhat noticable results, nothing was lasting long-term, to help me cope and get through my life every single day, so I could be normal and functioning and happy just like every ACTOR in all of the many advertisements for these sickeningly overpriced placebo pills that they refer to as “Anti-depressants”, Pills that don’t work, at least not ever for me And a year later guess what? It still doesn’t.And I am still in the same miserable place I was a day ago, a week ago, six months ago. Like Nancy, everytime a certain medication would quit I would just keep upping the dosage with my doctor’s(the legalized dope dealer) reccomendation. but nothing ever really changed, I wasn’t getting the results I was promised. I would plateu everytime and it made the whole thing- medication and therapy seem like a big waste of time and money, because the meds might as well be placebos and the conversations never made feel anything but annoyed. So where do you go from there? When the only two things that can help this disease that you battle everyday, drugs and therapy, are completely useless and ineffective. How are you supposed to live and function? It’s soo depressing to realize that no one can fix you or put you back together, or has a magic answer or cure. All of a sudden it feels like there is no way out and you are trapped in all of your failures and misery and it’s going to be that way forever, you,the defective model that will soon be discarded because it just didn’t have what it takes to make it in life. This is your world without proper and effective medication.

I have been taking zoloft since 1997. It does seem to be “pooping out”, although I am still much better than before I started taking it. It just seems to keep me on a level ground instead of ups and downs. Prozac was not good for me and effexor made me have nightmares! I have been taking the highest dose of zoloft (200 mg) for a long time and would love to be able to stop taking it altogether! It’s pretty expensive stuff, even though I get the generic from Canada now.

I also have been on antidepressents for over twenty years.
I have been on zoloft, effexor, paxil, prozac, cymbalta, wellbutrin.
Each of these, I have gone up to the maximum dosage for most.
I have now gone on lexapro. I think us people with poop out should list their drugs and which have work better than others. It’s more scientific than going to different doctors and using their favorite brand. Zoloft was the best for me but ultimately pooped out. Lexapro
is working for me now. Ive only been on it for two weeks and had to go from 5 mgs to 10. I’m experiencing that golden moment when a this new A-D drug that starts to work and everything is beautiful and I want to get out of bed. The only answer is to go through comments like these and do your own comparison. Lexipro is a left handed isomer. I remember (from Issac Asmov) that only left handed isomers can do the lock and key phenonomen to link up to an enzyme. For that reason, I think, it is stronger and there are less side effects. I imagin that this drug will poop out too but I have another 10 mg to go.
I can’t describe how great I feel from this rekindled feeling of life. Half of these posts, it seems that people don’t have major depression. The other half, I can relate to. Not wanting to get out of bed for two weeks is my indicator. Every 5 years I go through it again. Hopefully lexapro will serve me well. What we really need is a website so we can list people with major depression, their symtoms and what works for them. I never had any use for doctors and especially thearapy. Reading these posts has helped me relate to the poop out effect. I just hope that some magic bullit will be developed. In fact, maybe it has already be developed and won’t be released. My only other comment is that major depression might be from cocain use. I hope its not, but
it might be…