Hi Genie,
I experienced problematic issues with antidepressants and increasing my alcohol consumption. My depression initially started out as situational (dealing with toxic family members) and feeling extremely helpless in feeling obligated to quietly continue to take their abuse because they were family. As an adult I secretly drank to ease the pain and stress and mask the depression, and my drinking wasn't what was *normally* considered excess. Instead of relieving the depression, the alcohol obviously only made it worse. After some additional setbacks and continued drinking, my depression and anxiety attacks spiraled completely out of control. My doctor prescribed an antidepressant (Celexa). Initially it was great because I didn't care about anything anymore. I didn't cry, but I also didn't laugh or take part in life. I just slept all day and drank (I worked from home). I didn't care about how much I drank and I didn't care if I spoke to anyone. I became a complete recluse, drinking and sleeping and only leaving the house for groceries. I was alone and even slept through 2 Christmas and Thanksgiving holidays and I didn't care. In that 2 years I gained 20 pounds, became extremely unhealthy, I looked like a different person and felt like I aged 10 years. I also lost all sense of joy and aspirations for anything, ...I was essentially giving up and didn't even care. I decided to quit Celexa. I also decided to cut off all contact with my toxic family members, except for an occasional courteous email. It took me about a month to quit the antidepressants, but I continued to drink very heavily for another 2 years. The depression was still there from the alcohol, but wasn't nearly as bad as it was with the antidepressants and toxic family situation. This past January I finally decided to quit alcohol, and the depression is now basically non-existent.
For me, while on antidepressants, I didn't seem to care enough to stay away from alcohol, and therefore I drank like a fish which made my situation increasingly worse. My depression was in large part caused by allowing toxic situations/people in my life, and of course alcohol. But the depression was at it's worst when I combined antidepressants with alcohol. SSRI's works great for some people,(and I've even tried them in the past with no alcohol) but they just didn't work for me.