Lovely Medication Can Be Your Friend Or Your Worst Nightmare

[SakuraYume]

Has anyone else gone through the frustration of trying med after med after med to find that not only do most of them not work, but some can push you to the brink of insanity.  I had a very bad experience with a medication called Zoloft, I know a lot of you are familiar with this.  This was given to me with the doctor believing I had depression and PTSD.  The PTSD part is correct.  On the bad side, this medication put me into a severe agitated manic episode (including suicidal thoughts, cutting, crazy thoughts I can't even explain).  The repurcussions of taking this med eventually led to my first time being hospitalized, where under several days of excrutiating medication trials and errors, the doctor diagnosed me with Bipolar II. 

O.K., so this ended up being good in a way because I finally understood why I felt the way I did.  And they were able to find a medication that did help to stabilize me for some time; however, it was so painful to have to go through that to figure this out. 

Now I am in no way saying that Zoloft is a bad medication, many people have found it very helpful, but it is the experience of feeling like a guinea pig, not being able to explain to people around you what is happening to you, and suddenly cutting myself (which I have never in my life done or had any urge to do) that still to this day haunts me.


Has anyone else experienced something like this?

[Ramji]

Well ... I've experienced something like that .... ended with ECT

Want to chat?

[Paz]

 The first med that was tried on me was Celexa, an Antidepressant much like Zoloft. It made me a total maniac, it was very scary, I was totally out of control, I wanted to die. Then they figured out I was Bipolar 1 and I also have other Dx's.....ADD,OCD,& PTSD.
 Antidepressants can really send a BP into manic hell. You are BPII? Usually BP1 gets manic off of Antidepressants. There are some BPII's here that take other Antidepressants with their mood stabilizers and other meds. Everyone is different. Some stuff works for some, some get very bad side effects, and some meds just don't work on some people. It takes a long time to figure out what works best, or if anything works at all.

[Phyllis]

When I was first diagnosed they put me on Zoloft. Didn't help at all. I ended up on Wellbutrin. I guess I'm lucky that an antidepressant hasn't swung me into mania. But I'm a classic BP2 way more depression than mania. I really believe that by them having me on an antipsychotic has helped quell my mania. I have been  teetering on the edge a couple of times, but haven't had any full blown mania in a good while.

[D13C]

Reading your entry reminds me of what happened to me on Zoloft. I went completely crazy on it.
For the record, I still have the scars on my arms from the experience. I've worn long sleeves ever since.
In my opinion I only just survived Zoloft nearly killed me.

D13C.

[dm52]

Zoloft was the first medication I went on too. Took probably 2 months before there was any change (had no will to live when I started). Problem was when I finally did start to feel better went too far the other way. It certainly broke the depression and I did not have any really bad effects from it, but not so good for BP as sent me manic (well probably hypomanic).