Side effects of Medication vs Physical Treatments

[StrawberryRed]

I'm not sure I'd this is better to post in the recovery thread but I thought here made more sense because this is kinda negative. I've been wanting to try some type of treatments lately and cant decide between mainly doing
meds or therapies ( ive never done either) - like talk, ECT, yeah. I have never loved the idea of talk therapy and doubt it would be very helpful, but the use of meds scare me. The side effects and the withdrawals. I'm also scared none of it will work and I'll end up exactly where I was before but this time with life long side effects. I've tried more holistic ways ( halfheartedly I'll admit) and no help. Anyways I was hoping to ask about the side of effects or I guess pains that either of these things have caused you. I have read articles, but I was hoping for more real stories ig. I was just wondering how bad these symptoms can actually get.

 

[onthefence]

Abilify made me super compulsive about my weight- I was weighing myself 8 times a day but it definitely helped with motivation. I was getting up early every day and running 2 miles. This triggered a recurrence of my anorexia that I am still partaking in 5 months later. Hopefully this will end it for me. I have lost 7 lb in the past week and am having palpitations.
Lamictal made me want to CTB. I completely felt like it was a great idea even though I wasn't 100% ready- almost did and now I threw out the meds so I can't make it easier now.
Zoloft made me fat (50 pounds gained) and tired. No thank you.
And the weirdest of all; Latuda made me lactate. Not cool.
Ketamine may have caused the bladder issues I'm dealing with now. 2 surgeries and 7 months of problems.
But I seem to have all of the side effects/ reactions to medications. You may be able to take meds with no problems and may benefit from them.
Talk therapy was helping until I was encouraged to try mushrooms- I have been seeking to CTB since then and it has been almost 2 years. The black nothingness is always calling my name.
If you are interested in trying meds and therapy it is a good idea to at least give them a try.

 

[NonEssential]

Lamictal made me want to CTB

How did you know it was the medication that did it? I have to take 200mg Lamictal every day, so I sometimes wonder about that even though I've wanted to ctb before having to take them.

 

[onthefence]

How did you know it was the medication that did it? I have to take 200mg Lamictal every day, so I sometimes wonder about that even though I've wanted to ctb before having to take them.

I was wanting to ctb before but after a week of the lamictal was totally ready to CTB - as in I was putting things in my car to go do it when I have never done that before. I had to call my therapist and had a 2 hour session on a Sunday. After I stopped it I went back to my usual ctb level. My prescriber did this to me twice just because they were sure it was other factors the first time it happened. Listen to your own gut when it comes to meds like this.

 

[Shroomsonmyhead]

If you've never tried traditional therapy before, then I would definitely give that a few months by itself before bothering to get into medication or worrying about it.

The trouble with reading about antidepressant/antipsychotic side effects online is that the only people actively talking about their experiences on said drugs are the people who have had notably negative experiences.

If you do end up deciding to get medicated, take care to remember that permanent negative side effects from popular antidepressants are exceedingly rare. The most common bad experience is just that the drugs don't do much of anything at all. (Which was my personal experience.)


Best of luck strawberry!