I've never had to take meds until now.

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Mom tricked me into taking antidepressants (called my doctor because she was concerned about me since I've had daily mental breakdowns for the past week, I had to pick up the prescription myself so she told me it was just a sleeping pill). Specifically, Zoloft. I haven't taken them yet but I'm really scared. I've taken Xanax once before for anxiety, and I had a depersonalization moment that lasted all day. The effect happened even with a quarter pill. I'm worried that Zoloft will do the same thing or worse. I have to take the pill now because it's bedtime and I have to start tonight, so I guess I'll let you know later what the effects are.

I feel like a failure for taking medication. I've always prided myself in being able to power through depression without needing any. After my friend's suicide my mental health has nose dived and I'm worried that I'll now become dependent on pills. I'm not as strong as I thought I was. I'm not strong at all. I shouldn't be this affected by her death. This isn't a normal reaction. Something's seriously wrong with me and I thought I had overcome it but I guess I was lying to myself.

I drank soda before looking up whether I could have caffeine or not, and apparently drinking caffeine too close to taking the pill can cause the caffeine's effects to amplify. So I guess I'll take it tomorrow night and not drink soda ever.

For the sake of your health (both mental and physical and otherwise), keeping sugars out of your system is a better idea, and I can tell you for a fact that the «most depressing» years of my life were when I had consumed a lot of sugars (doesn't matter whether it's soda, candies, chocolate-bars, sugar-bars, sugar-drinks etc).

I also wish people weren't so quick to believe in taking the psychtropic-medications route; it's quite disturbing and alarming to me that so many «parents» (well, not just parents, but the whole entire «main-stream» population in general) continue to be so extremely ignorant about the dangers of psychotropic-medications. You might want to print out this article and make your mother read it in its entirety including a detailed print-out of Figure 1...

I'm generally against them but I would never accuse someone of being a failure for taking them. Especially in relation to something like the death of a friend. That would get lots of people down. And you won't necessarily become dependent - maybe this is just a short term measure to improve how you feel while you can work on getting through your reaction to your friend's passing when it's not so intense. It doesn't make you weak, either. Maybe you're just a nice person. There's nothing abnormal about feeling down about the death of someone you cared about.

I had horrible heart palpitations, ticks and depersonalization increased in frequency and duration and constantly upset stomach/nauseated feeling using Zoloft and moreover I was not able to fall asleep at night. But have heard that some people benefit from it just fine without these side effects. If you'll see it's doing you more harm than good try changing into a different medication or a different coping method. Antidepressants are not really that addictive chemically.
Xanax is another story since it's not an antidepressant but a benzodiazepine, which is associated with addiction, therefore the side effects and the effects are kinda different.

Ban-Dodger, are you seriously blaming a complex problem on sugars? I have hypoglycemia. If I cut sugars out of my diet, I pass out. I do use moderation when eating, but my mental health is not affected by my diet. I've been living with it long enough to know that. And I do take vitamin supplements. They help, but they're not enough right now. And they're hardly more natural than any other medication, the amount in the gummies/pills does not exist in nature and they've caused kidney stones in some people.

C2V, thank you for not being as judgmental. I guess you have a point. It wouldn't be so bad if I could go home but it's too late in the semester for that. Mental health takes time to maintain and I don't have as much time for self-care as I normally do, so maybe antidepressants could help lift some of that burden for a short while.

komamanga, it's good to know that Xanax and Zoloft are different so maybe I won't get the same side effects.

i agree with CV2, taking medication for mental illness isn't a failure or lack of trying. medications and their side effects can be very dangerous but i think the key to it is that if the need outweighs the risk it's okay. don't worry on becoming dependent, either, zoloft is not addictive like xanax is. the main problem with your situation might be that your mom tricked you into it.

Hi rats_and_cats,

On the one hand, taking medication that you need is not a sign of weakness.

On the other hand, Ban-Dodger makes a good point about the severe side effects of certain medications, and how some can be highly addictive.

I used to work in a group home and can personally describe the side effects of psychotropic drugs that I witnessed as experienced by a client who did indeed need to keep taking medication at a certain dosage, based on what happened when the doctor tried cutting the dosage ... I also personally witnessed what happened when the meds were cut.

Not trying to be judgmental, just pointing out a couple of pros and cons. Simply saying that it's good to research a medication before you take it.

On a more personal level, having lost my best friend to heart disease, ... yeah, it can be really rough going.

In any case, I wish you the best, and will keep you in my thoughts and prayers.

...

I decided not to take the meds because I really don't like that I was not involved in this decision. The doctor says it's supposed to just help me sleep since melatonin isn't working, but I think there's some middle ground. Maybe I'll try Zquil or something first. I'm actually feeling a lot better today. Moments of anxiety but no mental breakdowns, and I had the energy to get a bunch of things done. Maybe spite is the best medicine.

Everybody is different. Meds work wonders for some and cause horrible side effects for others. And finding what works for you can be a tricky and hellish process. I've been on the same combination of meds for sleep and depression for 20 years. It started after my cousin's suicide which was extremely hard for me to handle. I don't think I could function without the meds. I am definitely dependent on them but I have never had to increase the dose. I did feel like a failure at first for taking drugs but they help me to live a more normal life.

Having to take medication is not a sign of failure. Having both your doctor and your mom lie to you about the meds especially at age 21 is just unacceptable. Zoloft would not help you sleep. If anything it is a stimulating antidepressant and should be taken in the mornings or it would probably interfere with your sleep.

Sorry, I think I need to be more specific, the refined/processed sugars;
That is what I meant; you can still get the necessary sugars from various/certain fruits that may help you.

It's just that I've had such terrible and severe experiences with those «drugs» (psychotropics) that were definitely the cause of the extreme deterioration of my health around a decade ago, plus the fact that a good friend of mine around that time suicided due to the withdrawal-symptoms of attempting to quit his Prozac cold-turkey, before I started doing my intense research into the pharmaceutical-funded drug-industry of psychotropic-medications.

Also, emotional-control has more to do with thought-control, and it seems that very few people in the Western-cultures either know or accept this, but «spirits» or «discarnate-entities» can and do in fact, have an influence upon the living material-world, and by teaching everybody to control their minds/thoughts, the spirits who unknowingly and inadvertently «spirit-possess» people into states of depression or suicide via their «intrusive-thoughts» into the minds of still-living mortals also learn to control their thoughts, so that they do not end up causing problems in the mortal-realms. Unfortunately, not a lot of «scientific-literature» exists on this topic, but one of the few examples that has been recorded/stenographed/documented is from the work of Dr. Carl Wickland, author of 30 Years Among the Dead.

Additionally, although I did not save the direct-links to the posts from even members on these forums who have made mention of it being true for them in the past, a number of people do find that «hypno-therapy» has managed to help them where all other methods to deal with their psychological-issues had failed. Yes, even members of this very forum have admitted to the success of hypno-therapy themselves, but as my «time» has become extremely busy as of late due to unlawful-interference into my life that forces me to spend a lot of time on Legalese to protect myself and others from the tyranny of evil men who prance around in government-clothing with their «merry» men of bandits, I am going to be forced to leave the research and reference-checking to the other members of these forums who read these kinds of posts and let them do the work that uncovers and provides the compelling evidence that what I've written is factual.

Anyway, I hope you manage to get your issues resolved, preferably in a safe manner that is without side-effects.