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I've been taking antidepressant medication for almost twenty years solid, with the exception of the period when I was switching antidepressants and when I was pregnant. The first antidepressant my depression was treated with was Norpramin, also known as Desipramine. I was very lucky, as it worked ver...
I've been taking antidepressants for the last 20 years too, since the age of 23. I probably needed them as a kid - I was always super-sensitive to criticism, cried easily, and got very angry and black moods as a teenager. The tricyclics didn't work for me, so they put me on prozac shortly after it first came out. That was a life-saver, though I still had massive mood swings. I also had lots and lots of therapy, which kept me going, but didn't fix the problem. Since then I've tried lots of different antidepressants, mood stabilizers etc. The antidepressants are not effective enough alone, but the mood stabilizers (lamictal, depakote, etc) often have intolerable side effects. I'm on an SSRI currently and it's not very good, so may try to augment it with a bit of Abilify. I've been diagnosed with different labels - chronic dysthymia, cyclothymia, atypical depression, etc.
I think the augmenting of antidepressants shows promise. I was happy with the boost my mood got from Lamictal, and I'd still be on it if it weren't for the weight gain/uncontrollable eating.
I tried this one - it worked OK, but killed my memory - literally I could not retain anything and work became a little too challenging . . .
as for weight gain, I didn't notice a pbm with Lamictal but do with Seroplex alone, which I am on on now
I also take a SSRI...luvox and have had a very hard time with mood stabilizers...been on 4 so far & all had side effects...but Topamax made me lose weight. It is a side effect of it...it really messed with my vision..otherwise my mood was better...