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Leafpool
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22 Jul 2012, 8:12 am

Firstly my apologies if there's already a thread similar to this. I didn't notice one and I felt like making this because this is a big issue for me.

Alright, so about 2 years ago I was prescribed Sertraline for my severe depression. I took just 3 or 4 50mg pills before experiencing intense chest pain, muscle spasms and excessive sweating. Terrified, I freaked out and stopped the pills. Now, years later, I am still suffering from these symptoms. I overheat all the time and my sweating is through the roof (before the pills I was one of those people who pretty much never sweated. I rarely ever needed deoderant and only used it because it smelt nice rather than for sweating), my muscles (particularly in my chest and abdomen) spasm often, and spasms in my lower abdomen and groin area have caused me to suffer loss of bladder control (again, I had above average control of it beforehand, often holding it in for 8-9 hours during things like school without difficulty).

I am obsessed with being healthy and any abnormal symptom terrifies me. This has destroyed my life almost as badly as my depression has. I want to be back to how I was before. My psychologist and doctor both lie to my face saying it wasn't the pills that caused it, but I know it was because I never had this until I took them. They're just afraid I'll sue them or something. Please, has anyone else suffered long term effects from anti-depressants? If so, did you manage to find a way to cure them? I'm terrified my chest spasms is a sign of damage to my heart or something. If these don't go away I'm probably going to off myself. I can't handle this, I'd rather die than live crippled.

Edit: Sorry if I was unclear about this, but I'm not looking to sue anyone. There's no way I'd win and to be honest I'm not interested in getting compensation, I just want a cure. I'm young (17) and just don't want to be suffering these symptoms all my life, since I hope to live for some time longer. Sorry if I sounded hysterical, I'm not trying to get sympathy or revenge on my doctors I just wanted to ask if anyone else had experienced long term side effects from these sorts of medications and what they did about it. If anyone's found some sort of cure I'd be interested to hear it.



Last edited by Leafpool on 22 Jul 2012, 7:42 pm, edited 1 time in total.

WhiteWidow
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22 Jul 2012, 8:36 am

You can't sue a doctor for prescribing drugs in your situation



MightyMorphin
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22 Jul 2012, 9:25 am

What Widow said.

When you get new medication, Google the side effects to hell and back. Even the rarest of rare. I have rejected so much of my medication because of side effects people have gotten, even if it's 1 in 10, I still won't risk it.

You should have checked the side effects, and judged then. You are allowed to reject them and ask for another kind.



Sweetleaf
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22 Jul 2012, 1:12 pm

I tried prozac for about 3 and a half weeks once, all it did was make me feel more anxious and it got to the point where I started hearing people whispering about me or thinking they were talking crap and it was pretty much like a mental breakdown. If anything it increased my anxiety and PTSD issues.

Anyways, could you possibly talk to a different doctor about it and get help elsewhere. I mean sounds like your doctors kind of a pill pusher type if they denied that the anti-depressants did that. I mean what other explination did they offer? I would think a medical doctor would know that if symptoms start after the use of a drug it could very well be the drug that caused it.

Also sure it is a good idea to look into medications yourself and make a choice based on as much information as you can find, but the doctors should do a better job of explaining the possible side effects and such.....after all isn't the patient supposed to trust the doctor to help them? Unfortunately one cannot always assume that will be the case, but it does no good being told what you 'should' have done once the damage is done you're probably more curious about what you can do now and in the future.


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Sweetleaf
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22 Jul 2012, 1:13 pm

WhiteWidow wrote:
You can't sue a doctor for prescribing drugs in your situation


That seems pretty stupid, no rights for patients I guess.


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22 Jul 2012, 1:36 pm

I have sexual dysfunction. I'll kick someone's ass if it's permanent. Or I'll at least take Viagra. :lol:


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1401b
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22 Jul 2012, 1:47 pm

 Firstly, *hugs* I'm sorry for your plight. This sounds like such a completely horrible experience for you.  =(

   Secondly, Ice-Cold Reality Check via Heartless Computer Thinking.
         -you might not want to read the rest of this...   =(
     _____________

Leafpool wrote:
[...] about 2 years ago I was prescribed Sertraline for my severe depression. I took just 3 or 4 50mg pills before experiencing intense chest pain, muscle spasms and excessive sweating. Terrified, I freaked out and stopped the pills. Now, years later, I am still suffering from these symptoms. [...]

Are you saying that these symptoms have been (mostly) continuous since that day, and you've been consulting your doctors about it all along,
   OR
Are you saying that they recently restarted?
-If the first, then you have documentation of attempting resolution, meaning you've been working on it and can prove you have been.
-If the latter there may be (doubtlessly is) a 'statute of limitations', meaning "shoulda brought it up earlier, too late, too bad".

Either way, if you might wish to take legal action you must talk to an attorney immediately to protect yourself.  A web posting is (nearly) pointless. We can sympathize and console, but the Judicial System wont care a wink for what's posted here.
If you can't afford one or can't find one to take it on, then you're just burnt.  =(
     _____________
Leafpool wrote:
[...] I rarely ever needed deoderant and only used it because it smelt nice rather than for sweating), my muscles (particularly in my chest and abdomen) spasm often, and spasms in my lower abdomen and groin area have caused me to suffer loss of bladder control (again, I had above average control of it beforehand, often holding it in for 8-9 hours during things like school without difficulty). [...]

You are aware this is probably "unprovable" in a court of law?
At best the "unprovable parts" are pointless; More poorly, it's likely to be a distracting/derailing;  At worst makes one look "hysterical".
 (don't look hysterical)  =(
     _____________
Leafpool wrote:
[...] I am obsessed with being healthy [...]

You are aware that this "could" cloud your own judgment? It does for me, and for most other people too.
Whom ever you talk to (doctor, attorney, judge, jury) is likely to assume it does for you as well.  (so don't bring this up; act rational =)
     _____________
Leafpool wrote:
[...] I want to be back to how I was before. [...]

Everybody does, nobody can.
It minimizes your own argument. So don't bring this up either. =/
     _____________
Leafpool wrote:
[...] My psychologist and doctor both lie to my face [...]

If you can prove this AND damages, this alone would probably be actionable.
     _____________
Leafpool wrote:
[...] I never had this until I took them. [...]

You will need stronger logic than this -preponderance of evidence- to get this to stick.
You will have to agree that it IS possible to be caused by a long list of unrelated things. You will have to eliminate most of the list to have a chance.
     _____________
Leafpool wrote:
[...] They're just afraid I'll sue them or something. [...]

Probably not, they're insured.
     _____________

What do they say is the reason?  What are they doing to help you with these symptoms, regardless of the 'original cause'?
Are you letting them try?   Are you working with them, helping them discover a solution (not cause) to your problem?

Or are you insisting that they confess their evil/incompetent ways, and feel guilty/sad about how they nuked your life, and all the while preventing them from remedying the issue?
   I have done this.  What I am saying here is not an attack on you.

It is hard to notice, hard to admit, and is totally pointless because I didn't establish any way for them to fix it and ramming the guilt pill down their throat with my foot makes it very hard for someone to swallow. I didn't care because my "life" was f**k ed up "because of them" . . .   which didn't change reality one whit.
Be cautious of this, because the only one that really gets psychically damaged -from always stressing about it-  is me   (you)

Edited to add: Figure out your goal. Given the way things are, what do you want to happen?
     _____________
gotta run,
I don't know if it's any help to you, but examining things this way helps me sometimes.
Good Luck =)


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Leafpool
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22 Jul 2012, 7:50 pm

Sweetleaf wrote:
I tried prozac for about 3 and a half weeks once, all it did was make me feel more anxious and it got to the point where I started hearing people whispering about me or thinking they were talking crap and it was pretty much like a mental breakdown. If anything it increased my anxiety and PTSD issues.

Anyways, could you possibly talk to a different doctor about it and get help elsewhere. I mean sounds like your doctors kind of a pill pusher type if they denied that the anti-depressants did that. I mean what other explination did they offer? I would think a medical doctor would know that if symptoms start after the use of a drug it could very well be the drug that caused it.

Also sure it is a good idea to look into medications yourself and make a choice based on as much information as you can find, but the doctors should do a better job of explaining the possible side effects and such.....after all isn't the patient supposed to trust the doctor to help them? Unfortunately one cannot always assume that will be the case, but it does no good being told what you 'should' have done once the damage is done you're probably more curious about what you can do now and in the future.


They just tell me the pills can no longer be in my system after this amount of time and therefore it couldn't be caused by them. They don't agree with me that the pills could have caused long term damage during the time that I was on them. I strongly believe it was the pills because like I said I had none of these symptoms before taking them and got them while on the pills and they've never gone away since.

I know now I should have checked the information for myself but I was only 15 or so at the time and I thought they would know best so I just went along with it. I'm not looking to play the blame game though. I don't hate my doctors, the past is past. I just want to know what can be done now.



Leafpool
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22 Jul 2012, 8:03 pm

1401b wrote:
 Firstly, *hugs* I'm sorry for your plight. This sounds like such a completely horrible experience for you.  =(

   Secondly, Ice-Cold Reality Check via Heartless Computer Thinking.
         -you might not want to read the rest of this...   =(
     _____________
Leafpool wrote:
[...] about 2 years ago I was prescribed Sertraline for my severe depression. I took just 3 or 4 50mg pills before experiencing intense chest pain, muscle spasms and excessive sweating. Terrified, I freaked out and stopped the pills. Now, years later, I am still suffering from these symptoms. [...]

Are you saying that these symptoms have been (mostly) continuous since that day, and you've been consulting your doctors about it all along,
   OR
Are you saying that they recently restarted?
-If the first, then you have documentation of attempting resolution, meaning you've been working on it and can prove you have been.
-If the latter there may be (doubtlessly is) a 'statute of limitations', meaning "shoulda brought it up earlier, too late, too bad".

Either way, if you might wish to take legal action you must talk to an attorney immediately to protect yourself.  A web posting is (nearly) pointless. We can sympathize and console, but the Judicial System wont care a wink for what's posted here.
If you can't afford one or can't find one to take it on, then you're just burnt.  =(
     _____________
Leafpool wrote:
[...] I rarely ever needed deoderant and only used it because it smelt nice rather than for sweating), my muscles (particularly in my chest and abdomen) spasm often, and spasms in my lower abdomen and groin area have caused me to suffer loss of bladder control (again, I had above average control of it beforehand, often holding it in for 8-9 hours during things like school without difficulty). [...]

You are aware this is probably "unprovable" in a court of law?
At best the "unprovable parts" are pointless; More poorly, it's likely to be a distracting/derailing;  At worst makes one look "hysterical".
 (don't look hysterical)  =(
     _____________
Leafpool wrote:
[...] I am obsessed with being healthy [...]

You are aware that this "could" cloud your own judgment? It does for me, and for most other people too.
Whom ever you talk to (doctor, attorney, judge, jury) is likely to assume it does for you as well.  (so don't bring this up; act rational =)
     _____________
Leafpool wrote:
[...] I want to be back to how I was before. [...]

Everybody does, nobody can.
It minimizes your own argument. So don't bring this up either. =/
     _____________
Leafpool wrote:
[...] My psychologist and doctor both lie to my face [...]

If you can prove this AND damages, this alone would probably be actionable.
     _____________
Leafpool wrote:
[...] I never had this until I took them. [...]

You will need stronger logic than this -preponderance of evidence- to get this to stick.
You will have to agree that it IS possible to be caused by a long list of unrelated things. You will have to eliminate most of the list to have a chance.
     _____________
Leafpool wrote:
[...] They're just afraid I'll sue them or something. [...]

Probably not, they're insured.
     _____________

What do they say is the reason?  What are they doing to help you with these symptoms, regardless of the 'original cause'?
Are you letting them try?   Are you working with them, helping them discover a solution (not cause) to your problem?

Or are you insisting that they confess their evil/incompetent ways, and feel guilty/sad about how they nuked your life, and all the while preventing them from remedying the issue?
   I have done this.  What I am saying here is not an attack on you.

It is hard to notice, hard to admit, and is totally pointless because I didn't establish any way for them to fix it and ramming the guilt pill down their throat with my foot makes it very hard for someone to swallow. I didn't care because my "life" was f**k ed up "because of them" . . .   which didn't change reality one whit.
Be cautious of this, because the only one that really gets psychically damaged -from always stressing about it-  is me   (you)

Edited to add: Figure out your goal. Given the way things are, what do you want to happen?
     _____________
gotta run,
I don't know if it's any help to you, but examining things this way helps me sometimes.
Good Luck =)


I'm not looking to take legal action, sorry if I wasn't clear about this.

The symptoms are continous, not recently restarted. I've been to various doctors and spoken to various people and I thought I'd ask here just because it couldn't hurt.

I am trying to work with them, but there's been no solutions found so far. I've had some routine blood tests and therapies done to rule out or try to fix certain conditions but there's been nothing really abnormal found so they don't want to do any further tests. I'm not trying to rage against them or anything but I would like them to help me now and being refused further tests or being pretty much told it's all in my head isn't helping.

Really though, I just wanted to know if anyone here had any long term adverse effects with similar medication and what they did about it. I gave a lot of information just so I could compare with anyone who might have had similar symptoms, not in an attempt to be consoled. I'm sorry if I sounded hysterical, I'm just a bit frustrated with it all.



Sweetleaf
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22 Jul 2012, 8:45 pm

Leafpool wrote:

They just tell me the pills can no longer be in my system after this amount of time and therefore it couldn't be caused by them. They don't agree with me that the pills could have caused long term damage during the time that I was on them. I strongly believe it was the pills because like I said I had none of these symptoms before taking them and got them while on the pills and they've never gone away since.

I know now I should have checked the information for myself but I was only 15 or so at the time and I thought they would know best so I just went along with it. I'm not looking to play the blame game though. I don't hate my doctors, the past is past. I just want to know what can be done now.


Just because it's not in your system anymore does not mean it couldn't have done damage...all that means is its not doing more damage since its not in your system. These doctors you're talking to sound like frauds. But yeah no need to play the blame game, but they should be more competent.


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Raziel
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23 Jul 2012, 12:57 am

Leafpool wrote:
My psychologist and doctor both lie to my face saying it wasn't the pills that caused it, but I know it was because I never had this until I took them.


Well but for me it also sounds that the Sertralin maybe started something, but that your mainproblem there is and was something different: your fear and your obesssive thoughts to it that something has changed.
Fear goes very often along with obsessive thinking or obessive compulsive behaviour.

I can understand you. The doctors once started by me too a huge fear with obsessive thinking. But in a different situation.

And you should get treated because of your psychological symptoms. If you don't want to try medication anymore (what I could understand) than with good therapy. You probably have difficulties trusting a doctor after that. But if you are still by the same psychologist, maybe changing to another would help.

You got side effects from the medication, okay. But you hardly can blaim you psychologist for your fear and you obsessions.


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VAGraduateStudent
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23 Jul 2012, 1:49 pm

Sounds to me like you're talking about SSRI discontinuation syndrome, which is common, especially for teenagers.

Here is a wikipedia link describing it.

It can take up to a few years to feel completely okay after taking an SSRI. I'm a sociology grad student, certainly not a medical expert, but I've known a lot of people who've taken SSRIs and I myself took them when I was a teenager. They made me feel weird too.

Something you can do in the meantime, which I can tell you DOES HELP is to go to a health food store and get Niacin and like Omega oils or something of that nature (they should say something about brain function on them). Take the MAXIMUM daily dose. These work as natural antidepressants/concentration aids and have zero side effects.

Another thing you can do in the meantime if it's really a problem is you can get your family doctor to refer you to a special physical therapist who can help you retrain your bladder. Losing bladder control is extraordinarily common and is fixable via physical therapy I think like 85% of the time. It happened to me when my neurological condition worsened. I got control back in a week.

I have family members with AS who were also put on Zoloft and they hated it as well. I don't know why they give it to people.



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23 Jul 2012, 3:04 pm

I completely stopped taking Setraline by tapering the dose in February. I still have wierd headaches and nausea every day, and my anxiety has increased dramatically. I'm panicky all the time. It's very frustrating.
My psychiatrist says my body and mind adapted to the SSRI, and now has to readapt because I'm not taking it any more. I was taking SSRIs on and off for the past 6 years.
I'm finding sleep helps, as does eating natural (not processed) foods. My psychiatrist also said that foods that boost serotonin can help too.
serotonin increasing foods link



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23 Jul 2012, 3:51 pm

That's not even close to SSRI discontinuation syndrome. To have symptoms of SSRI discontinuation syndrome, you have to take SSRI at least 4 weeks and suddenly stop and you get the symptoms afterwarts.

But Leafpool wrote:

Leafpool wrote:
Alright, so about 2 years ago I was prescribed Sertraline for my severe depression. I took just 3 or 4 50mg pills before experiencing intense chest pain, muscle spasms and excessive sweating. Terrified, I freaked out and stopped the pills.


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24 Jul 2012, 10:18 am

I've been on antidepressants since I was 12 years old and when I'm not on them and they're out of my system I still have a faint tremble and I get body zaps when I'm lying down. Now, I don't know if this has to do anything with my anxiety but since I started antidepressants so young and I've been on a lot of different things I wouldn't be surprised if it's a long-term side effect. Also, sometimes I wonder if starting antidepressants so young had something to do with my learning disorders and slowing my brain down in terms of brain development.



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24 Jul 2012, 11:05 am

Leafpool wrote:
Firstly my apologies if there's already a thread similar to this. I didn't notice one and I felt like making this because this is a big issue for me.

Alright, so about 2 years ago I was prescribed Sertraline for my severe depression. I took just 3 or 4 50mg pills before experiencing intense chest pain, muscle spasms and excessive sweating. Terrified, I freaked out and stopped the pills. Now, years later, I am still suffering from these symptoms. I overheat all the time and my sweating is through the roof (before the pills I was one of those people who pretty much never sweated. I rarely ever needed deoderant and only used it because it smelt nice rather than for sweating), my muscles (particularly in my chest and abdomen) spasm often, and spasms in my lower abdomen and groin area have caused me to suffer loss of bladder control (again, I had above average control of it beforehand, often holding it in for 8-9 hours during things like school without difficulty).

I am obsessed with being healthy and any abnormal symptom terrifies me. This has destroyed my life almost as badly as my depression has. I want to be back to how I was before. My psychologist and doctor both lie to my face saying it wasn't the pills that caused it, but I know it was because I never had this until I took them. They're just afraid I'll sue them or something. Please, has anyone else suffered long term effects from anti-depressants? If so, did you manage to find a way to cure them? I'm terrified my chest spasms is a sign of damage to my heart or something. If these don't go away I'm probably going to off myself. I can't handle this, I'd rather die than live crippled.

Edit: Sorry if I was unclear about this, but I'm not looking to sue anyone. There's no way I'd win and to be honest I'm not interested in getting compensation, I just want a cure. I'm young (17) and just don't want to be suffering these symptoms all my life, since I hope to live for some time longer. Sorry if I sounded hysterical, I'm not trying to get sympathy or revenge on my doctors I just wanted to ask if anyone else had experienced long term side effects from these sorts of medications and what they did about it. If anyone's found some sort of cure I'd be interested to hear it.

Have you considered consulting a neurologist.


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