Aspergers and SSRIs?

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I was put on Sertraline (Zoloft) in 2006 for panic attacks. I came off it in 2008, only to be put back on it again in 2010 due to being diagnosed as having Fibromyalgia and told it would help.

Having done some research, and come off it for the second time, I discover that fibromyaliga like symptoms are actually withdrawal symptoms from coming off it......along with nausea, panic attacks, and much more symptoms. I am now 1 year 4 months off it and still nowhere near right - my digestion is very bad and I have burning pains all over my body.

If you are prescribed any SSRIs please make sure you know that they can be very hard to come off for some people (some seem to have no problems), and have a doctor who will help you withdraw very slowly to decrease chances of withdrawal syndrome. The longer you stay on them, the harder it is to get off them, so a slower taper is needed.

There's alternatives to SSRIs, Please don't take the decision to go on them lightly. Its your body at the end of the day. SSRIs affect so many systems in the body.

I haven't taken citalopram, but I'm taking paroxetine (Paxil) and lorazepam (Ativan) for my Panic Disorder. They help my panic attacks, but I kinda feel like I'm MORE depressed rather than less. And I'm sleepy most of the time. As for effects on AS, I'm not sure but I seem to be more fidgety -- moving my hands more, shaking my legs more. Can't for sure blame the drugs, but it's possible.

I'm on valdoxan. It's not an ssri though. The weather no longer affects my mood so it definitely helps with seasonal depression. I fall asleep faster, but I wake up pretty often. I also see nightmares almost every night, I'm so jaded that I don't feel horror anymore but they are still a little uncomfortable.

I just started taking Citalopram im on day 5 of taking it and I think im going to stop. its making me hallucinate bugs crawling around and clicking at me. now im starting to have chest pains and im having memory loss

I have taken both Paxil (mid-late 90s) and Wellbutrin (2002) Zoloft (aughts) but nothing since around 2009 - all with several years inbetween. My reaction to them was rebound - I would feel great for a few months/a year and then downhill without warning, so the Docs would try something different.

I was just diagnosed with Aspergers last week (comorbid Depression and Anxiety). Anxiety never entered the picture before when on depression meds, but I have a prescription for Ativan that I take 2-3x a month for stress.

Just today, my Doc has decided to put me back on 50mg Zoloft with Ativan "as needed" and I have quarterly followups to watch for rebound and make adjustments. Am hoping that the rebound had to do with not addressing the anxiety element (that was a separate dx by another Doc last fall) and the combination will be manageable.

One can hope.

Another note - these are not dime store cheap, but my doc recommended one a decade ago. Full-spectrum lighting. (You can google for suppliers that serve your area)

When I am feeling depressed (which I describe as 'overwhelmed') I get up early for work and sit in front of it for 30 minutes each morning. Bonus - it is good lighting to get ready in the AM, so that helps. My Doc's wife (also a Doc) has Seasonal Affective (SAD) in the winter, so they bought one eons ago and are both huge fans as to how much it helped.

I was on Celexa, then switched to Zoloft. Was on each one for over 6 months, and they did nothing for me. They switched me to Prozac which made me space out and sleepy. Then they put me on Paxil which landed me in the ER with seizures, so now I'm afraid to take anything.

I just started on Cymbalta about 2 weeks ago. It's helped to clear my mind quite a bit, much of my anxiety is gone, and I don't have mutiple thoughts racing through my mind and clashing with each other all the time. I don't pace as much as I used to either, and my memory has gotten much better. I'm glad I started on it, and I hope this continues. I still have some pain in my lower back from my depression, but I used to get pain and stiffness in all my joints, and that's gone now, making the now milder back pain easier to deal with.

The first few days on it, I really didn't feel high, or a rush from it, but I kept noticing sights, sounds, smells, I hadn't really seemed to pay attention to before, it's like I was more alert and aware of what was going on around me. After about the first 4-5 days, I leveled off though. I just feel more peaceful, and my mind is so clear now.

Now that my depression is under control, I really want to find out for sure if I do have Asperberger's, I have suspected it for some time now, and after reading many of the posts here at Wrong Planet, what many people have said sounds like how I am, and what I have experienced, which has made me wonder even more.

In the next few months, I'll find out. Does anyone have any advice? Should set up an appointment with a psychatrist or psycholgist? How were many of you diagnosed if you have a formal diagnosis?

I was put on Citalopram a few years ago. It made me sleepy and spaced out for the first week or so, but then things settled down. My only side effect was brain shivers. Unfortunately, after a couple of years, I stupidly decided that I no longer needed medication. I stopped taking them and became suicidal. After being admitted to hospital for overdosing on Citalopram (oh, the irony), I was put on Prozac, which I've been taking ever since with no major side effects at all. I guess it's just a matter of finding the right medication.

I've been on a few SSRIs, and all they really did was make me gain weight and put me in a fog. They really had negative effects actually, they made me manic and really messed up my sleep cycle. I'm somewhere on the bi-polar spectrum though, so I do better with mood stabilizers.

Prozac saved my life without a doubt. Had some side effects but they went away after a while. These helped me gain control of my life, express myself, be a good mother, co-worker, partner. I have been taking them now over 10 years. 20mgs daily and am very stable and people have no idea I have AS. I will take them for the rest of my life. They are amazing.

I was on citalopram once, and for a short while it worked well for me, but partially due to circumstances in my life at the time, during the last few months that I took it, I noticed that it no longer had a "pleasant" effect, and I rather abruptly went off of it. Shortly afterwards, since I had moved to a new town with a new doctor, I got a prescription for escitalopram, and while it was fine for a week, its effects wore off for me much sooner, and I went off of it and back on it several times, until one day I just said "screw it" and quit trying.

I should also clarify, when I started citalopram, I was taking it for depression and anxiety, and when I started escitalopram, my main problems were anxiety and OCD moreso than depression.

I would like to find another doctor someday and look into some other meds, preferably non-SSRI-based, but until then, I'll keep self-medicating with caffeine and alcohol.