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Intolerance to antidepressants

Hope78

Senior Member
Messages
112
Location
Germany
Hi!
Not sure if this topic is already covered?
Until I was about 28 (I am now 37) I was able to tolerate antidepressants for sleep or other sleeping pills like Diphenhydraminchloride (antihistamine which makes very tired). I occassionally took tricyclic antidepressants for sleep (even if I did not suffer from chronic insomnia in these times, it was more about stress).
When I developped severe insomnia a few years ago I tried some of these antidepressants again (Remeron, Amitryptillin, Trimipramin...) and noticed that I feel very sick on it and have severe side effects even if the dose I took was so much smaller than usual! The normal dose of remeron is from 15 to 30 mg, Even 3,5 mg knocked me out and I felt terribly ill for days until I decided to stop this medication.
Same effect with other medications (except Ibuprofen) and alcohol. I don't tolerate alcohol any more.
Not tolerating antidepressants is really bad as my insomnia is so severe.
I don't suffer from classic ME/CFS (I really don't know what I have, I was not diagnosed), but I am sooo senstitive to everything (heat, smells, noise, medication) and I used to tolerate this when I felt better many years ago.
Does this sound familiar to you? Or do you tolerate antidepressants?
 

minkeygirl

But I Look So Good.
Messages
4,678
Location
Left Coast
Is insomnia your issue? There are plenty of things to help with sleep OTC and rx that are not antidepressants.

I've had my fair share of problems with them and others too. Many of us are intolerant of s lot of things even at subclinical doses. Even supplements

It's trial and error to find out what works and at what dose and what you can combine to get the best sleep.
 

ahmo

Senior Member
Messages
4,805
Location
Northcoast NSW, Australia
@Hope78 I'm unable to tolerate most rx drugs. They might work for a couple weeks, but then the urticaria starts. I've found coffee enemas the best thing for clearing my system. Link in my signature, w/ references.

When I could no longer take low dose Klonopin, I found pituitary glandular worked for me for sleep, better than most things I'd tried. Ultimately B12 in theraputic doses stopped my long-term insomnia.
 

Mary

Moderator Resource
Messages
17,335
Location
Southern California
@Hope78 - When my liver was overloaded with toxins 12 years ago, I could not tolerate alcohol or hardly any meds or OTC drugs - I had to do a liver detox and my liver was much better afterwards and my extreme sensitivity to alcohol and supplements (I hardly took any drugs) went away.

Re anti-depressants: I've never tolerated them (many people don't). Things that have helped me with sleep are 5-htp, melatonin, magnesium, l-theanine, GABA, glycine (amino acid) and lorazepam.

Also, if your cortisol levels are high at night, that can cause severe insomnia which almost nothing will touch. Mine was high many years ago and Seriphos helped normalize my levels. But I still need 5-htp, etc. to sleep.

@minkeygirl is right - it is trial and error to find out what works for each of us, and what dose, etc. There are many things besides ADs which can help with sleep.
 

minkeygirl

But I Look So Good.
Messages
4,678
Location
Left Coast
@Mary is right. I've found me sleep has totally changed the last few years

My cortisol is low at night so it's not that. But boy OTC stuff won't even touch my insomnia.

I need sleep initiator and sleep sustainers. I have the best luck when I layer stuff and alternate what I tske every night do I don't get tolerance.

Even with all that they is no guarantee. I still wake up at least once and have been up since 4 am I feel so good! Lol.

Just don't freak out about it or it'll get worse. I know easy to say.
 

dannybex

Senior Member
Messages
3,561
Location
Seattle
@Hope78 I'm unable to tolerate most rx drugs. They might work for a couple weeks, but then the urticaria starts. I've found coffee enemas the best thing for clearing my system. Link in my signature, w/ references.

When I could no longer take low dose Klonopin, I found pituitary glandular worked for me for sleep, better than most things I'd tried. Ultimately B12 in theraputic doses stopped my long-term insomnia.

@ahmo I tried another brand of pituitary back in September, and in hindsight, think it may have helped. Will try and get the brand you used, but damn..so pricey.

Re the B12: Did you find it helped your sleep from the get go, or did it cause some overstimulation (or something else) at first, and then gradually your sleep improved when you found the right dose? Also, did you have to find the right balance /w folate?
 

ahmo

Senior Member
Messages
4,805
Location
Northcoast NSW, Australia
@dannybex I can't say what the B12 did initially. I doubt it made things worse, eg over-stimulating, as I have no recall of that. Just that it eventually became clear that i was sleeping, consistently and without waiting 2 hours to get to sleep. I've definitely had to find the balance w/ folate, but have never been able to determine what exactly the folate does for me. The lack of folate is quite clear, hair loss nearly immediately. Good luck.
 

dannybex

Senior Member
Messages
3,561
Location
Seattle
@ahmo I'm not sure if this will help you, but the one thing that definitely helps my sleep, and my sound sensitivity -- sometimes almost too much -- is folinic. I take one w/(late) dinner, and then one before bed. Then after breakfast I have to nap for an hour or so, and if I take 1/2 folinic, sometimes I oversleep a loud clock radio alarm by 45-minutes to an hour. That doesn't happen if I skip the folinic.
 

lauluce

as long as you manage to stay alive, there's hope
Messages
591
Location
argentina
Hi!
Not sure if this topic is already covered?
Until I was about 28 (I am now 37) I was able to tolerate antidepressants for sleep or other sleeping pills like Diphenhydraminchloride (antihistamine which makes very tired). I occassionally took tricyclic antidepressants for sleep (even if I did not suffer from chronic insomnia in these times, it was more about stress).
When I developped severe insomnia a few years ago I tried some of these antidepressants again (Remeron, Amitryptillin, Trimipramin...) and noticed that I feel very sick on it and have severe side effects even if the dose I took was so much smaller than usual! The normal dose of remeron is from 15 to 30 mg, Even 3,5 mg knocked me out and I felt terribly ill for days until I decided to stop this medication.
Same effect with other medications (except Ibuprofen) and alcohol. I don't tolerate alcohol any more.
Not tolerating antidepressants is really bad as my insomnia is so severe.
I don't suffer from classic ME/CFS (I really don't know what I have, I was not diagnosed), but I am sooo senstitive to everything (heat, smells, noise, medication) and I used to tolerate this when I felt better many years ago.
Does this sound familiar to you? Or do you tolerate antidepressants?
same thing happened to me! I took clomipramine and lamotrigine for 9 years with minimal side effects, but since the last year, they make me feel very sick (dizziness, lightheadness, nausea, weakness) specially clomipramine. I need those drugs to control my anxiety and also because I have OCD so I just started to take clomipramine at night so the side effects are gone in the morning instead of suffering them through the day. I think what happens is that 5 years ago I developed POTS (confirmed b tilt table test) and other "autonomic" anomalies, and this medications worsen them, specially clomipramine
 

lauluce

as long as you manage to stay alive, there's hope
Messages
591
Location
argentina
@Hope78 - When my liver was overloaded with toxins 12 years ago, I could not tolerate alcohol or hardly any meds or OTC drugs - I had to do a liver detox and my liver was much better afterwards and my extreme sensitivity to alcohol and supplements (I hardly took any drugs) went away.

Re anti-depressants: I've never tolerated them (many people don't). Things that have helped me with sleep are 5-htp, melatonin, magnesium, l-theanine, GABA, glycine (amino acid) and lorazepam.

Also, if your cortisol levels are high at night, that can cause severe insomnia which almost nothing will touch. Mine was high many years ago and Seriphos helped normalize my levels. But I still need 5-htp, etc. to sleep.

@minkeygirl is right - it is trial and error to find out what works for each of us, and what dose, etc. There are many things besides ADs which can help with sleep.
I´ve been taking psychoactive meds for 20 years, maybe 30 or more of them, now I take just the 3 ones that proved to help me, but I strongly suspect I'm severly intoxicated after all of this, I started with something as heavy as risperidone at 13! (the doctor thought that I was psychotic or something because I had paresthesias and reversed sleep cycle, go figure... :S ) . How did you checked your liver? I'd like to check mine
 

Mary

Moderator Resource
Messages
17,335
Location
Southern California
I´ve been taking psychoactive meds for 20 years, maybe 30 or more of them, now I take just the 3 ones that proved to help me, but I strongly suspect I'm severly intoxicated after all of this, I started with something as heavy as risperidone at 13! (the doctor thought that I was psychotic or something because I had paresthesias and reversed sleep cycle, go figure... :S ) . How did you checked your liver? I'd like to check mine

I'm beginning to believe that doctors do more harm than good - giving a 13-year-old risperidone, that is so bad. If I broke a leg or got shot, I would trust western medicine to help me. But if my health is in the toilet for any reason, I think western medicine truly does more harm than good with all their toxic drugs - okay, rant over!

About my liver - I was feeling sick, digestion was way off, I was tired, fluish, essentially felt like crap. My chiropractor who does muscle testing (or applied kinesiology) easily found out that my liver was overloaded with toxins through the muscle testing. I did a liver cleanse under his supervision, it was kind of rough, I stuck it out for a month and my liver was much better afterwards. I also started taking milk thistle and learned I needed to take betaine HCL with pepsin with meals, particularly ones that had meat or cheese, proteins that are hard to digest. Lemon juice is also very good for the liver, it helps with digestion and helps cleanse the liver. Dandelion tea is also good.

I don't know what drugs you're on but I bet there are safer alternatives for at least some of them.

One more thing - re my sleep - I've since learned more than when I first posted above. I found that niacin especially is extremely helpful for sleep, in addition to glycine, l-theanine, melatonin, GABA, and actually I'm getting off of the lorazepam, and the niacin is helping so much with that - it stimulates or sensitizes GABA receptors. Also, inositol is very helpful for sleep as well. Just thought I would throw that out there.
 

lauluce

as long as you manage to stay alive, there's hope
Messages
591
Location
argentina
I'm beginning to believe that doctors do more harm than good - giving a 13-year-old risperidone, that is so bad. If I broke a leg or got shot, I would trust western medicine to help me. But if my health is in the toilet for any reason, I think western medicine truly does more harm than good with all their toxic drugs - okay, rant over!

About my liver - I was feeling sick, digestion was way off, I was tired, fluish, essentially felt like crap. My chiropractor who does muscle testing (or applied kinesiology) easily found out that my liver was overloaded with toxins through the muscle testing. I did a liver cleanse under his supervision, it was kind of rough, I stuck it out for a month and my liver was much better afterwards. I also started taking milk thistle and learned I needed to take betaine HCL with pepsin with meals, particularly ones that had meat or cheese, proteins that are hard to digest. Lemon juice is also very good for the liver, it helps with digestion and helps cleanse the liver. Dandelion tea is also good.

I don't know what drugs you're on but I bet there are safer alternatives for at least some of them.

One more thing - re my sleep - I've since learned more than when I first posted above. I found that niacin especially is extremely helpful for sleep, in addition to glycine, l-theanine, melatonin, GABA, and actually I'm getting off of the lorazepam, and the niacin is helping so much with that - it stimulates or sensitizes GABA receptors. Also, inositol is very helpful for sleep as well. Just thought I would throw that out there.
wish I could take dietary supplements like that, here in Argentina you can only get a few vitamins an that's all, there isn´t almost any dietary supplement available. And yes, given risperidone to a 13 yrs old is a CRIME
 

Mary

Moderator Resource
Messages
17,335
Location
Southern California
wish I could take dietary supplements like that, here in Argentina you can only get a few vitamins an that's all, there isn´t almost any dietary supplement available. And yes, given risperidone to a 13 yrs old is a CRIME

Wow - sorry to hear supplements are so hard for you to get in Argentina. I'd be lost without them. What about ordering on-line? Though I know the shipping would be pricey. One place that I've ordered from a lot and that ships to Argentina is iherb.com -
 

Mary

Moderator Resource
Messages
17,335
Location
Southern California
@lauluce - one simple thing you can do to help your liver is to drink water with lots of lemon juice added. Lemon juice is good for digestion and also is very good for the liver and helps to cleanse it.
 

lauluce

as long as you manage to stay alive, there's hope
Messages
591
Location
argentina
Wow - sorry to hear supplements are so hard for you to get in Argentina. I'd be lost without them. What about ordering on-line? Though I know the shipping would be pricey. One place that I've ordered from a lot and that ships to Argentina is iherb.com -
I once ordered d-ribose, l-carnitine and coenzime Q10, but it was expensive back then... now, it is extremely expensive, as the exchange rato of dollar to argentinian peso has skyrocketed since then, increasing 300%
 

lauluce

as long as you manage to stay alive, there's hope
Messages
591
Location
argentina
@lauluce - one simple thing you can do to help your liver is to drink water with lots of lemon juice added. Lemon juice is good for digestion and also is very good for the liver and helps to cleanse it.
You know, It's weir, but my mother suggested that the other day, I guess I must give it a try.
 

Chocolove

Tournament of the Phoenix - Rise Again
Messages
548
@lauluce Many of the mood supplements suggested in this conversation thread are amino acids, the building blocks of protein. I highly suggest that you talk to your ND about amino acid therapy. There are books on it available perhaps at a library. You can read reviews online at Amazon dot com. I think that many are coming to appreciate a nutritional approach of supplying a good magnesium and vitamin B complex along with particular amino acids. I found the book, "The Mood Cure," by Julia Ross about amino acid therapy very helpful.

The beauty of amino acids is that you can break open a capsule in your mouth and observe your reaction after just 10 minutes. You can try that safely in your ND's office and see which ones help you. Very inexpensive, safe and easy.
 

lauluce

as long as you manage to stay alive, there's hope
Messages
591
Location
argentina
@lauluce Many of the mood supplements suggested in this conversation thread are amino acids, the building blocks of protein. I highly suggest that you talk to your ND about amino acid therapy. There are books on it available perhaps at a library. You can read reviews online at Amazon dot com. I think that many are coming to appreciate a nutritional approach of supplying a good magnesium and vitamin B complex along with particular amino acids. I found the book, "The Mood Cure," by Julia Ross about amino acid therapy very helpful.

The beauty of amino acids is that you can break open a capsule in your mouth and observe your reaction after just 10 minutes. You can try that safely in your ND's office and see which ones help you. Very inexpensive, safe and easy.
my case is strange. as I understand, I've got a functional B12 deficiency, as said vitamin always comes HIGHER than normal, which I think is caused by it not being used properly in my body. I guess if consuming more B12 would help?
 

ahmo

Senior Member
Messages
4,805
Location
Northcoast NSW, Australia
thanks @dannybex Folinic doesn't work for me. In fact, I've had to quit green veggies because the veg folate form is folinic, and it blocks methylfolate for me. When I quit the green veg, I reduced the amount of folate I needed by half.