Shall I stop taking my antidepressants?

You should not discontinue medication until you speak with your healthcare provider.

Neuroanatomy and neurochemistry are complex systems. A high level symptom like depression could be coming from any one of a myriad of causes. A given medication works against specific causes, but will not work if your symptoms are being caused by something not targeted by that medication.

Until our technology and understand improves to the point that we can do some kind of neuroimaging to diagnose, the only thing we can do is to listen to your symptoms and make a best guess. If it doesn’t work, it means that guess was wrong, and you either need a dosage adjustment or a medication change. If it does work but has unmanageable side effects, that’s the same. Any continuing symptoms or side effects have diagnostic relevance, and you need to work with medical staff to dial it in.

Bad idea. If you can, talk to your therapist, pharmacist, or GP, and they should be able to either give you advice, increase your dosage, or put you onto some different antidepressants.

In the mean time, try following [email protected] to see nice things; and/or [email protected] for memes, discussions, and advice.

Also, please consider calling the Samaritans at 116123.

Hang in there, mate.

Best case scenario I become suicidal again and kill myself

Oof. Run, don't walk, to go see your doctor or therapist ASAP

All the answers will (or should) be along the same lines.

Don't stop any medication without speaking to your GP and that is especially so for antidepressants. You may not think they are working but stopping cold can be hard. There are a lot of different pills available and it can often be a case of trying a different one and seeing if that works better. Also don't be afraid to ask for this to be escalated to mental health services.

There's plenty of different ones to try. Go to your doctor and see if they can put you on something else. You don't want to quit cold turkey, that's a rough experience.

Head zaps are only meant to be around for the first 2-6 weeks, if it sticks around longer you should consult your doctor.

That's also about the same time it's supposed to take for you to feel some relief, and through that be able to actually improve your situation and learn resilience and strategies to manage your symptoms.

Make sure you take your dosage as prescribed for the whole period, it takes time to build up the ssri levels in your body, and the sooner they get up to par, the sooner the zaps stop, and you can get started getting better.

I think you've got all the advice you needed and I don't want to leave this open which could attract trolls.

So basically:

• Set your alarm for 8:00 on Monday and hammer the appointments line at your GPs.
• If you are struggling to make it through until then, phone the Samaritans.