Best SSRI for depression/aspergers

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I don't enjoy anything anymore, i am unmotivated, i am tired, i can't sleep, and i cannot focus.

But i also hate taking ssri's because of side effects and the fact that they've been proven to be no better then placebo.

I am supposed to take add medication but i can't because i'm extremely anxious and my stomache turns into knots, i become paranoid, i definately can't sleep then, just don't feel right on them.

I excercise, i eat right, i take supliments.

I still feel like a bag of crap. Not even for any reason, i just do. I'm tired of life it's just such a stupid life, atleast mine is.

I am back in school and really want to do good but i am unmotivated and cannot focus on my homework. So even when i do my homework it is crap work that you can tell i was not focusing on.

I can't relate, but have you tried taking 2 fish oil tablets 3 times daily?

plus a diet high in banana's and natural sugars?

I personally take 20 mg of Prozac every other day and it seems to take the edge off things and keep me motivated. I'm definitely not nearly as depressed as I used to be, so in that respect, it's doing it's job. I have learned to accept the things I cannot change and go with the flow. Before, I had a hard time accepting those things and was an emotional wreck like 90% of the time and I also used to have massive mood swings. Prozac has basically helped to eliminate those things for the most part. On top of that, because of my autism and gullibility, I was taken advantage of and used a lot. I had a hard time moving past that and there are still times that it haunts me to this day. Antidepressants won't totally get rid of your depression and remember, there is no magic bullet. The first couple weeks were hell for me. I experienced my first panic attack while adjusting to the medication. I thought I'd have to check myself in to a mental hospital or something. I was losing my mind and was really close to just throwing the rest of my pills in the garbage and say the hell with it. But, I kept going, and in a couple weeks that all went away and I started leveling out. I started out at 20 mg a day, then went down to 20 mg every other day after my panic attack. Then I went back up to 20 mg every day and I felt it started getting too intense and I started feeling worse. I ended up reducing to a pill every other day and have been at that since. This is my perfect dose. Hope this all helps and good luck.

There is no medication for AS.

SSRIs are probably shown to work no better than placebos for depression because they are overprescribed and thus a large number of people taking them actually don't actually have a depressive disorder. They may have some other disorder or may be depressed but not for reasons of a biological nature.

If the study was done on individuals who were only depressed, and for no foreseeable reason, for example, there isn't necessarily anything wrong in their life, then the SSRIs might prove to be effective.

Different SSRIs will produce different results in different people. For example, many people have had horrible experiences with Paxil, but some people have been helped substantially by it. Many people have had a lot of success with Prozac, but some people have developed serotonin toxicity from it. Similar things could be said of all SSRIs.

An SSRI with fewer side effects is Escitalopram or Lexapro. It just went off patent last month, so it should be substantially more affordable now.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Escitalopram

First of all, the SSRIs are NOT to treat autism related disorders. They are to treat depression. I have been on Prozac for the last roughly 6 months. It did not get rid of my autism nor did it make me less autistic. It simply treated my depression.

sorry i was rude, i know there is no medication for aspergers....

but maybe depression+aspergers vs simply depression might respond better to a specific ssri.

granted i wasn't very clear...

I was just prescribed cipralex, but am currently on a really low dose that hasn't kicked in yet. Has anyone else tried that one before?

1. Antidepressants have been shown to be no more effective than placebos BUT placebos have been shown to work on all sorts of things
2. Wherever I have seen this statement it has been in mild to moderate cases, which I take to mean in severe cases they either work or else the jury is still out

I don't know what meds you're taking for ADD, but I have been taking concerta for about 3 yrs and zoloft right now for depression. I have chronic depression, so I've had a fair bit of experience with anti-depressants.

Note that not all anti-depressants are SSRIs. Those mainly work on serotonin receptors, which - if you're main problems aren't related to modulating seritonin levels - won't help you much. There are also SNRIs (serotonin norepinephrine), NRIs (norepinephrine or adrenic), DRIs, (dopamine), among others... Since you sound like you're having problem with motivation, you might want to look at something that works on norepinephrine as well. While SSRIs can help you sleep, they could just as easily make you dozy.

I've taken cipralex (SSRI) a couple of times. The first time, it was actually celexa (essentially the same drug but an isotope I think?) - which seemed to work well but made me sleepy much of the time. I ended up on Wellbutrin (a DRI) eventually; and it worked quite well on its own and even helped me quit smoking.

The second time on cipralex didn't work out as well. But I was having a number of problems at the time and depression was further down the list. (Anxiety being at the top.) I also tried wellbutrin a second time and ended up having a lot of scary nightmares and what might have been a psychotic break. I think that was about the time I started getting treatment for ADD - so I'm sure there was a drug interaction problem there. - So I wouldn't recommended mixing wellbutrin with anything else. In fact, I imagine any DRI wouldn't not react well with any ADD medication because they would both act upon dopamine receptors.

I'm currently taking the minimal dose of zoloft (an SSRI) for depression and it's been really good and seems to work well with concerta. I tried prozac previous to that and it also worked quite well at first, but I found the libido issues got really bad with that. But if this isn't a concern for you, you might want to try prozac first..

With zoloft, right away I noticed a reduction in my obsessive thinking which seems to be where a lot of the depression comes from.) They prescribe it to people with OCD a lot, and I can see why. It's been quite a while now and I'm doing much better, but I think I've plateau'd and might need to switch to something else. I would rather not go up a dose as I still have the libido issues and I often have this "flat" feeling where I don't seem to care as much about things; and I don't have as much motivation as I used to. This has only started recently, so don't take it as a bad thing. Overall I've made a lot of progress.

You might want to look into an NRI, such as strattera, which I've heard is good for ADD. Anyway, do a search for these terms on wikipedia and you'll understand more about how these different drugs work with brain chemistry. It takes a while to find the right one, and you probably already know this, but it generally takes a few weeks to a month before you notice any difference.

Final note, medication is most effective in conjunction with therapy. And its very often ineffective without. (Hence the "placebo" comparison.) So if you aren't already, I would look into some form of counselling. As a matter of fact, I've been able to get along without meds entirely for quite some time. But only as long as I have access to some sort of counselling.

Hope that helps...

Ah.. Yeah, I hate those "waiting to see" periods too.. I only have so much patience when I'm not feeling well.

And I'm actually the opposite with talk therapy. I'm great at talking about my problems but often it makes it seem like they're not that bad. I've become so good at hiding my moods, that I sometimes hide them from myself. I tend to do better with CBT.

But it sounds like you're doing a good job of taking care of your needs and that's great! I hope you find the right combination soon.