Posted by ventus on April 3, 2004, at 0:02:11
Hello all!
I was referred to see a psychiatrist by my college counselor and went in today. To cut the undoubtedly familiar story short, she figures I'm depressed, which I suppose she's right about. I am to take Lexapro 10mg for the time being, and continue counseling. (Whatever people say, talk-therapy *does* help me.)
I've read that SSRI's tend to cause sexual side-effects, but it seems that everyone has conflicting experiences with which ones are worse than others -- one person in a newsgroup even claimed to have lost libido while on Wellbutrin and regained it on Lexapro, which for all I know is completely against medical orthodoxy. Can anyone give me an idea as to how long it would take before you notice that sort of side-effects? Do they sometimes subside, or can you assume that if you have sexual side-effects that you're stuck with them unless you change/quit medications?
I told her that sometimes when I'm badly depressed, I get these sort of "dry crying spells", which I couldn't describe very articulately; she thought it was panic attacks. It took a while to convince her that no, I did not actually experience panic attacks. I know what it feels like to be panicking: it only really happens to me very occasionally, moderately, in obvious situations (before job interviews &c), and I know full well how to deal with it. The doctor wanted to give me some Xanax anyway, "just in case, for emergencies", but I held off on that. When I later went back to talk to the counselor, who knows me much better, she confirmed that she did not have the impression at all that I was anxious, let alone subject to panic attacks.
Oh yeah, and to add yet another one, she thought I might also have ADD (her words not mine), but she says what I have can easily be the consequence of depression, so we should first try to deal with the depression. Does anyone have experience with the combination ADD/depression and how one may look like the other?
poster:ventus
thread:331979
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20040402/msgs/331979.html