To fully work? About a year. To some improvement, 3 months.
Depends on the meds, and they can have a drastically different effect on people.
Duloxetin: days, full effect after about a month (side effects after a year or so)
Sertraline: never worked, in fact made stuff worse
Prefaxine: about three weeks to feel noticeable effect.Define ‘working’ becsuse a lot of strife can come from the differences between what you’re expecting it to do and what will actually happen. For me, it just made it easier for me to lift myself out of bed in the morning and that’s about where the progress ends. And that’s the one I found after years of trying ones that were worse. They’re not happy pills, they just let you deal with the horrible shit instead of becoming immobilized by it.
Never. Turns out my issue was undiagnosed ADHD and trauma. Therapy and adderall have done wonders for me. I was trying to treat depression by itself, not as a side effect of another issue.
Me too, only add autism
I’m not officially diagnosed autism but my doctor said I meet the criteria but didn’t want it written down due to the political climate.
Similar case for me, but I would recommend OP or anyone reading to work it through with their doctor (or even switch), being honest with them and oneself.
Yes exactly. It took me a few doctors to figure out what was going on because the first couple didn’t ask the questions that the doctor who diagnosed me did.
They never worked. For some unlucky people, anti-depressants just straight up don’t work. If you’re new at it, keep at it, but if it’s been a few months it might be time to switch medication. if you’ve already switched a bunch of times, they might not work for you and your only option is probably therapy
There actually are other options for treatment-resistant depression, which is defined as depression that has little or no response to standard treatments like antidepressants.
- Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS): uses magnetic currents to stimulate the brain while awake, typically provided 5x per week for 6 weeks (although there are now newer protocols that are much shorter in duration)
- Ketamine: a general anesthetic drug typically provided via a nose spray 1-2 times per week for 8 weeks
- Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT): uses electricity to induce a small seizure in the brain under sedation, typically provided 2-3 times per week for 3-4 weeks
I try to spread the word about these treatments when I can because TMS helped me immensely after trying just about every antidepressant out there with no luck.
“Some unlucky people” turns out to be 85% of people with depression. What that suggests to me is that depression is a syndrome with multiple causes, and typical antidepressant drugs treat one of them.
Seems to only mention SSRI specifically, not about antidepressants in general
Also this: “suggested that the active ingredients in 10 of the most popularly prescribed antidepressant medications made a meaningful difference in only 15 percent of the patients who took them, almost always in those patients suffering from the most severe depression”
So yeah… that’s me lmfao…
Hey OP, I’m glad you’re fighting this fight. You’re worth it and I’m glad to have you around.
Escitalopram took only one day for me. For both anxiety and depression.
Bupropion took 3-4 weeks. For depression.
Trintellix took about 2 weeks. For anxiety.
Escitalopram fixed my Raynaud’s at a low “taper up” dose basically immediately. Although it wasn’t prescribed for that, this was just a happy side effect. I guess some SSRIs do that.
For depression, it took about a month to ramp up enough to see a difference. It did ease the anhedonia, but it also masked my emotional flashbacks until it was too late to disrupt them.
I also had SEVERE issues with my sodium while on it, which is why I didn’t stay on it past a month. However, I don’t snack or eat salty stuff so someone with higher sodium intake might have fared better.
I would have tried to get used to it to see if the masking of the early signs of flashbacks got better as I got used to it if it hadn’t messed up my sodium so badly.
Also, the sexual side effects are real.
Escitalopram also worked quick for me, but killed my libido
It was my miracle cure until I switched to Trintellix. Yes, it killed my libido as well, but Trintellix is not as bad.
I’ll talk to my Dr. Thanks!
I, too, would like to talk to your Dr. Thanks.
Dr thanks is the most greatful person I’ve encountered
I took estrogen for depression, it started working within a week :p
Sounds like I should test if going on testosterone does the same someday.
Depression. Sertraline/Zoloft. Months.
Initially, it helped a small amount. Possibly placebo. It was well-tolerated, so the dose was doubled. Then months (maybe 3?) of slight improvement.
But when it really took hold it felt sudden.
Zoloft, it took three days to start working. It had been an absolute gamechanger for my anxiety and I love it. 10/10
Fluoxetin: ~7 Weeks, 12 full effect.
Seratrelin: pretty much instant (side effects) main effect like never idk
Venlafaxine (SNRI).
Took a couple weeks to settle into side effects, and about half a year to dial up the dosage (with side effects being a few days to a week after dosage changes).But it was pretty immediate. I think a big part was the act of treating it, the act of getting help.
Had a lot of ups & downs, took a while to “trust” it, to recognise it working. And building the habit of taking meds helped maintain a schedule.It just kinda blended in, I don’t have a real timeframe. I am very helpful.
Anxiety meds typically a few days to start to notice. Depression meds either had severe negative side effects almost immediately, or positive effects would start showing up after 2 or 3 weeks.
Months. It took months of my med schedule before I was like “maybe these are working”. My motivation and functioning was like zero still, but I wasn’t depressed anymore.
Then doc put me back on a stimulant and it was so much more drastic an improvement I was frustrated we didn’t do that first.
Wellbutrin, somewhere in the week to a month to really start working.
