Posted by Shelley in Seattle on April 26, 1999, at 13:53:04
In reply to Re: buspar , posted by jeff on April 25, 1999, at 16:40:26
Hi Jeff:
It took a full month for the Celexa to start working for me. It probably took longer than normal because I started with a very small dose & worked my way up. I think this really minimized most side effects. The one SE that I forgot to mention in the last post, and the only side effect which is truly persistent & sometimes a minor annoyance is very dry mouth. I try to drink a lot of water, and I keep sugar-free hard candies around, but I figure that this is a small price to pay for felling SO much better!When I did notice the Celexa was working, I felt like a totally different person! Not even like my 'old' self, but a new & better self! I know it sounds trite, but it's true... I had been so depressed for so many years that I had forgotten what joy & happiness actually felt like. I remember writing lists of words in two columns in my journal, on one of the many occasions that I tried to reason or logically think my depression away… In the first column I wrote down everything I thought the depression was -- all the feeling words. I needed to try to separate out what I was feeling into parts, because I felt like I was using the word depression as a blanket statement for all the negative feelings that seemed too big to face. In the second column, I listed the kinds of feelings that I wanted to have, and missed having. Words like joy, happiness, contentment, and feeling comfortable in my own skin. Etc. When the Celexa kicked in, it happened all at once and I hardly felt like 'me' inside -- I was this miserable misanthrope just the week before, and here I was smiling for no reason and feeling comfortable just 'being'. I remember describing the feeling to some as having 'mental whiplash': It took me a couple of weeks to get used to myself. Side effects were fairly mild, though I may have been made a bit anxious by it (which is counteracted by the BuSpar). The I think I started to tell you about the sexual SEs, it was extremely frustrating at first -- first I couldn't have an orgasm (this was the main problem I had with Zoloft), then I lost all desire to even try to. I think I went about 3 weeks where I can't remember thinking about sex at all (which is unusual for me!). Then, all of a sudden the numb feeling and delay just went away, and I have only had one or two occasions since where I had a slight delay (a mere 5 or 10 minutes extra -- no big deal).
I tried Zoloft, and my then-doc started me on too-high a dosage. I got all the side effects right away, and it seemed to take forever to kick in. I felt really detached on Zoloft, and I had horrible insomnia. I could only stand it for 3 months. I then tried amitriptyline (sp?), which made my mouth and nose painfully dry & constipated me. Then it was onto Trazodone to try & help with sleep. It made my head feel all woozy, and I can't stand that feeling. I felt nauseous. I did not give Traz a fair trial, I couldn't take it more than a week.
Sorry if that ran kind of long -- I hope it was of some use.
:-) Shelley
poster:Shelley in Seattle
thread:5145
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/19990401/msgs/5319.html