Anti-depressant Meds that work? | ADHD Information

Add or not, or aside, I have been in and out of mild depressions most of my adult (20 YEARS) life with the most recent one lasting about two years and then dove into a deep depression I am still climbing out of.

I have only ever used Elavil aka Amytriptyline which I started 20 years ago.  It got me out of a sever depression when I was 27 and had to stop working and went and stayed with my sister for 11 months.  It took about 3 - 4 months to get to the point where I felt able to work again.

I continued using it most of my life but always had to fight with sever grogriness, disorientation and fight back ruminations with a vengeance, before starting my day.

As I had two small children, one who is handicapped, I got little sleep and Elavil w/out adequate sleep is twice as hard to fight the drugged feeling when you get up.

Being a busy mom I just kept trudging along because I had to tend to my kids - I just told myself, this is the life of a mother with young kids.

As the years went by I still had this constant struggle and would go to bed early, to get lots of sleep to offset the horrible drugged feeling.

Coming to the present I became so stressed over going back to work and carrying for family that I started spinning out of control, was getting deeper depressed and had to stop work, am slowly gaining control of my thoughts again, feel a little less anxious but have not been able to return to work yet.

I reduced the amount of Elavil to 75 mg. and have started started taking Welbutrin, 100 mg per day, (it's only been two weeks) so can't really tell yet, however the reduction in Elavil is making it much easier to shake off the druggedness in the a.m.

Any advice or stories to share from other Depressives?

Much obliged

Buzz (47 Year-old Woman)

Hi Suzanne....I've been on antidepressants for 12 years (only dx'd recently, and finally...for adhd). I was first put on Prozac when I was going through recovery for alcoholism. I continued on it, discovering through counseling I'd been depressed most of my life (I'm now 55, woman). I'm now on Paxil (last 3 years), which also helps with OCD (I have Tourettes, too). and I've never had any problem with groggyness on any of my meds.

I'd like to ask you whether all these years on antidpressants you've been under a doctor's care in managing your antidepressant and meds? Have you ever had counseling at all. Unfortunately, too many drs DO Rx antidepressants without the proper follow up and counseling if possible. So I was just curious. It took me several different antidepressants in order to find any that worked for me.

Having the depression pretty much under control, I'm now trying to work on the ADHD, which most likely was the cause of my depression to begin with. Understandable, since I've lived most of my life undiagnosed with ADHD, thinking there was something wrong with me since childhood, not fitting in, unable to keep jobs, etc.

And now that I'm getting that help, I'll never be able to get a job, having been out of work so long (7 years, I think) and my age to be considered.      In this area (Seattle), nobody will hire anyone who's been out of work longer than 6 months...they even advertise that exact requirement. Sounds discriminating to me.

I'll take a breath now, let you read this.
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