Help for Depression?

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Hi, I'm a long time member who has a now 22 year old son with AS. My son has done well since high school. He graduated with an Associates degree in his field of interest, was able to buy his own car and has been working full time in the same position for just a little over a year. He's done well for himself.

Unfortunately, he has struggled with depression since he was in middle school. It appears to me to come in cycles but he tell me that he struggles with it every day. He just can hide it better some days than others. When he first started going through it, he tried a couple of different meds. (It was years ago but I believe they were Luvox and Celexa).

Unfortunately, when he tried them, he started hallucinating within 2-3 days of taking them. Coming off of them was difficult and made him very headachy, dizzy and nauseated. He was taken off all meds at that time and we were told that if he were having a reaction to either of these drugs, he would, most likely, have a reaction to any other antideppressant.

He did ok for awhile but lately, his periods of depression seem to have increased in frequency. I've suggested he ask his therapist if there might be some other new meds he could try....or if the meds would have the same side effect now that he's an adult. He is extremely wary of trying meds again because of his initial experiences. I don't blame him for that at all but the alternative of just waiting for the depression to pass seems to be less and less of an option.

Has anyone experienced similar side effects on either drug but found a med that worked better?
Any ideas for non-med interventions? (I did read the thread, "Ways of Coping With Your Depression and Building Self Esteem" and plan to copy at least some of the responses for him to read through. Unfortunately, I've suggested most of them and he just shoots them down. I've also suggested he join this group, area social groups, etc. for support but he just can't bring himself to do it.

Any suggestion on how I can best support him? Thanks for any help you can offer!

Long standing problems like that are difficult to treat without meds. To me they are more indicative to real chemistry problems in the brain. The brain is not producing enough of something, or too much of something else, essentially physical problems that mess with mental function, etc. That at least is the prevailing scientific theory and I find it the most plausible of explanations I have heard.

There are a lot of different meds for depression and new ones come out regularly. One of the developmental priorities in the field is finding new ones with less side effects. It sounds like he has only tried a very small sample of what is available.

You can do quite a bit of research on the meds yourself online. and then share what you find with him. By doing searches you can find what meds are out there, and then look them up individually to see what they do and what side effects have been recorded and at what prevalence. Lastly look the med up to find what people that have taken it experienced. You will probably come accross this in your previous searches but can also target it by experimenting with search terms, such as 'Has anyone tried med X?' 'Med X side efects' "Med X works' etc. There are numerous sites and forums centered on medical issues and should have no problem finding a whole lot about it.

Hopefully this info will help him be willing to try a new med, as it will take some of the uncertainty out of it. Taking something cold wondering what the heck will happen is scary if you have had a negative reaction to things in the past.

Also being he's only now coming out of the rapid physical development stage its even possible the same med he took years ago that didn't work then, might possibly work now. The brain can be that sensitive. I wouldn't however suggest that, because there's plenty of others to try.

I've heard people here say that they seem to be more effected by medication than average. So, maybe your son could ease into trying a new med, first half a dose, then three-quarters of a dose, something like that.

And I've read that it's perhaps even more important to come down from the medication in stages, even if it doesn't seem to be working.

Back in the days, around the time of my serious suicide attempt, I was put on Sinequan, Elavil and Lithium. The lithium turned me into a balloon. I stayed off meds for a while. These days I've been taking Risperdal. I've been on it, I think, a year already. I just recently upped my dose because I've been feeling down. Makes me sleepy when I take it during the day, though.

It's actually hard to know if the Risperdal is working. Am I suicidal? A little, but I don't plan to hit the bridge any time soon. Maybe it is working.

This is simply untrue. Both the AD's you mention are SSRI's. Many people experience profound differences when switching to a different class of AD; many experience differences when switching within class. Your son has tried 2 SSRI's and did not get on with them; I've tried 3, inc Celexa, and didn't get on with them. For your son - research switching classes. The first class you might consider is an SNRI such as Effexor which is recommended for "treatment resistant depression", but, having had an 18 month nightmare on it, I wouldn't wish it on my worst enemy - and getting off it involves strength and a padded cell. Closely related to Effexor is Wellbutrin which many speak highly of. I've not tried it. Won't. Scared.

I'm now on Mirtazapine, which is working really well for me - I'll let you research the name in your country and class. Unfortunately it is impossible to recommend an AD cos all psych meds affect different individuals differently. There is no "missing chemical" in one's head that a psych med is going to fix - we are all different, psychologically and physiologically, and finding the right psych med is all about trial and error. All you know now is to avoid SSRI's.

And think about an anti psychotic. Risperidone (Risperdal) is a popular drug for aspie anxiety issues. It's doing well for me but the same qualifications apply as for AD recommendations.



It's what depressives do. We lock into a deeply flawed mind set that tells us that nothing will work so there's no point doing anything.



Listen to him empathetically and don't try to "fix" him. His reality is very real - it is way outside of your understanding - and your (understandable) inability to comprehend it helps to compound his sense of isolation. Listen to him non judgementally - try to "hear" him; let him feel "heard". One of the cripplers of depression is the sense of never being "heard". Try to understand the illness, the torment, that is depression so as to further understand him. The best book on depression that I know is Dorothy Rowe: Depression - The Way out of Your Prison (or similar). Read it for your benefit, don't ask him to.

Parenting a depressive must be quite extraordinarily difficult. My daughter is 20 and I am scared of her ever becoming seriously depressed. It would be much easier supporting her through a terminal illness.
I can but repeat: try, learn, to let your boy feel "heard".

Effexor I did not like.
I felt wonky all the time and it dehydrated me so much that it hurt to pee and I thought I might have an std or something and I ended up going to a clinic to get checked out.

Quitting it cold turkey sucked.
I spent the next month feeling like my blood pressure was dipping then going back up every few seconds.
It was very uncomfortable.

Celexa was ok, except it had me walking around grinning like a fool all the time and I couldn't stand how happy and upbeat I was because I knew it was fake and that the reasons I was unhappy hadn't actually changed.
The short time I was on it did, however, cure the panic attacks which prompted it being prescribed to me in the first place, so I guess it did its job in that sense.

Hi, by suggesting what your son ask his therapist, or pitching ideas to him only for him to shoot them down, you might be too involved in the details. It might feel cloistered to your son, and it really might be cloistered.

Maybe you can just make sure your son feels comfortable with his therapist. As I'm sure you've read here, some of us have had good experiences with mental health professionals, and some of us haven't. I'm in the latter category. I was more helped by a speech therapist who just gave some advice along the way.