watsonc

I'm curious if people have found that their efforts in quitting/staying quit are helped or hampered by the use of say Prozac or other SSRI's.?

sicliz

I have been taking ssris since i was 14 and struggling with drugs and deppression i'm 30 now.there are hundreds of ssris out there! I think some make you feel worse-some better! I take Wellbutrin and it has helped me with not only deppression also i dont crave drugs as much. I hope this helps u!

aussieblue

I used to take effexor I have been off it for a few years now But my drinking went through the roof while I was on it I could NOT get enough . Anti depressants and alcahol should NEVER be mixed I am lucky I didn't kill myself.

NEOMARXIST

It's hard to say. In my experience then when i was on SSRI's off and on then my drinking and drug use was really heavy but i didn't want to quit, no way. drinking was my medicine and I used to think that my drug comedowns were not as bad as they should have been thanks to being on SSRI's though it's hard to gauge. What i can say is that when I got sober nearly 20 months ago then i wasn't on any anti0depressants, but I was truly ready to quit as I was beaten and sick and tired of booze and feeling so terribly emoty and hopeless. I still suffer from depression i think sporadically but my recovery means that i can keep my head above water.

Peace

Stevie1

Individual responses to anti-depressants can vary so much it's almost impossible to generalise.

Personally, times in my life I have gone off meds (mood stabilizers/anti psychotics, ADHD meds and SSRIs) generally have not gone very well. Times when I was drinking daily and doing mood stabilizers/anti psychotics at the same time were pretty much an unmitigated disaster.

Whatever you are taking, be honest about your drinking or using with your doctor!

Reset

A main reason I quit drinking was depressive tendencies, and about a month after quitting those tendencies were actually getting worse.

So I started taking paroxetine. Initially I hated the effects and was very close to quitting that too but decided to stick it out because it's supposed to take a couple of weeks for the medicine to take effect. And after 3.5 weeks of it, I am finally beginning to notice some positive changes.

But I wouldn't say that taking it has affected my efforts to quit drinking either way. My ultimate goal is to be happy. Quitting drinking was one step, and the paroxetine is just something else I'm trying to further that goal.

yeahgr8

My experience was they neither helped nor hampered...

Untoxicated

In the end who knows but...

1. I read "Under the Influence" and it had a section on this topic as it relates to the correlation (not causation) of seratonin increases and alcoholic seeking behavior in rodents.

2. I thought it was worth a shot because I had tried so many methods prior to this and I was willing to do anything to stop drinking.

3. I quit the SSRI in October 2009; my drinking patterns slowly decreased over the course of 2010 and on October 15, 2010 I took my last drink (and only twice in two months prior to that).

Was I ready to stop? Was it the SSRI? I don't know - around the time that I started taking the SSRI I gradually began to want to drink, drink more often, and drink more. Could that have coincided with a difficult time in my life and not have been the fault of the SSRI? Sure. Could the SSRI have reacted with my particular brain chemistry and caused me to crave or seek alcohol? Sure.

I do know this...I love my life and it's directly related to, and caused by, my sobriety and recovery work.

Rickie

14? Gotta say that shocks me and I studied medicine for 2 years lol. Cultural differences I guess....

Nice thread though! It's interesting to see the differing responses!

Anna

Hi,

I was depressed for decades and untreated. It ultimately led to my drinking, as self-medication. I know that I needed to be treated for the depression before I could stop drinking. Before I began taking antidepressants, I really didn't care enough about myself to be motivated to stop drinking. For me, antidepressants level the playing field so I can continue my recovery.

least

What Anna said. I've been on zoloft a long time and it works so much better when I'm sober. I never noticed an increase or decrease in my wanting to drink because of it tho.

Bamboozle

My anti-depressants are absolutely necessary to keep me well. When I am on them I have a fighting chance at remaining sober. I was a constant relapser before I went on my meds.

The meds aren't a cure-all or a guarentee to stay sober. I still have to remain aware.

Rickie

I wonder do you guys think that if you took anti-depressants earlier or even before your alcoholism went off the wall, you wouldn't have become hooked or as hooked?

Vicious cycle.

aussieblue

I dont have an answer for that but I can tell you they helped with my anxiety/depression/panic attacks .The down side I pretty much didn't care about anything while on meds and I could not quench my thirst for alcahol while on them.

least

No. I think my slide into alcoholism would have happened with or without my meds.

Rickie

This scares me in a way.

I'm pretty sure that you can all relate when I say when I'm feeling good I want to drink and believe I can handle it. All logic goes out the window. It's crazy because it always ends in the same, dismal result.

It seems like it could be a harsh trade off, because anxiety seems flipping worse than alcohol, but atleast with anxiety I guess we don't end up in a crackhouse/passed out/in jail/push away our family and friends. Meh.

Anna

Interesting question, and my answer is a resounding 'Yes'.

Had I been diagnosed and treated for depression, I am almost certain I wouldn't have begun to drink. My depression began in my teens and I didn't begin drinking till my mid-forties. I tried everything I could do during those years to help myself. Three doctors told me I was not depressed and sent me on my way. One dr told me, 'You put on makeup and fixed your hair, so you couldn't be depressed'. WTF!! And, of course, that depressed me more because I felt clueless about what was happening.

watsonc

Great responses, thanks so much to you all. Amazed how much the thoughts mirror the confusion I feel on the topic. I took SSRI's off and on for years - and felt as though I drank more with them. My not-so-successful attempt (well, for 3 months it was, but I've not achieved that since and strugglelike mad) at sobriety was off SSRI's. Could be not related of course, no scientific evidence one way or the other and proably I was just fed up with myself and horrified to try to quit. Perhaps the SSRI's made me feel better about myself - and I really needed to hit the super low self-esteem to motivate to quit. Thanks for the answers, they're helpful in my sorting out my brain.