I take ANTIDEPRESSANTS and I feel WORSE, is it normal?

At the beginning of taking antidepressants, many people may feel even worse than before. This makes one wonder if they are working or not and if it would be necessary to use another type of antidepressant. For this reason, many people usually contact their psychiatrist in the first days and the first weeks explaining that antidepressants are not working. Sometimes many people even suddenly stop treatment without consulting a psychiatrist and this can be very harmful.

In the Psychology-Online article, we will explain if taking antidepressants and feeling worse is normal or not, how antidepressants work the first days, when they start to take effect and we will also see how to know if they are working.

Index

1. How do antidepressants work?
2. Effects of antidepressants in the first days
3. How do I know if antidepressants are working for me?

There are different types of antidepressants and, depending on this, they work in one way or another. However, we could understand, at a general level, its operation as the facilitation or not of the presence of certain substances in the communication between neurons. That is, antidepressants allow, for example,

In the same way, they act in an equivalent way with another type of neurotransmitters other than serotonin, such as norepinephrine. In the case of MAO, a type of amine, the opposite would occur and the antidepressant would ensure that there was less of it.

Depending on the person, the effects of antidepressants the first few days can vary. However, in general, the secondary effects are noticed earlier than the primary ones. This occurs because serotonin influences many other functions of our body, in addition to happiness, such as sexual appetite or desire, sleep cycles, digestive system... That is why a sudden change in the amount of transported serotonin can increase these problems until our body adapts to this change. On the other hand, for this same reason, it is common to feel worse on those days, since the mixture between demotivation seeing that the change is not immediate and that physically we feel worse with the fact that our brain is "lost" because it is not used to these new levels causes the primary effect, which is to feel happier, takes a few days or several weeks.

In some people the effect appears to be immediate, at least for the first few days. This occurs because a placebo effect is initiated. The person, feeling that he is receiving help and finding a solution to the problem, feels much better. If the effect of the antidepressant takes time to work, this placebo effect may disappear by having a "relapse" until, finally, the antidepressant begins to show its real effectiveness. In this article you will find more information about why antidepressants take time to work.

For all this, Yes, it is normal for you to feel worse when taking antidepressants, during the first weeks. It can be normal even for the first 6 weeks.

Taking into account what happened in the first weeks, it is important that we look at the evolution of how we feel physically and mentally before taking them, in the first weeks that we take them and in the following weeks once the body has adapted.

To know if they are having an effect on us, we will have to wait, therefore, until some time has passed after a constant intake and having strictly followed the doctor's guidelines.

Once we have made sure of this, what is felt is a increased energy and vitality. You will regain the desire to do things and you will find the strength to do it. In addition, you will have a more positive attitude So your attention will not focus on problems or the negative side of situations, but you will better appreciate the positive that there is in your day to day.

Another aspect that you may feel as a result of the medication taking effect is your ability to solve problems. Linked to the above, seeing everything with greater positivity implies that you have increased your breadth of vision and that where before you only saw a problem long and eternal and without a solution - known as tunnel vision - you can begin to see different escape routes or solutions to the conflicts of the day a day.

All this will have an effect on your self-esteem since, in the same way that you see situations with a more positive perspective, the same will happen with your virtues and defects, for which the former will begin to gain prominence and the latter will cease to be so important or even cease to be defects.

All this is what should happen after at most 6 weeks. If not, we recommend this article in which we explain what to do when antidepressants don't work.

This article is merely informative, in Psychology-Online we do not have the power to make a diagnosis or recommend a treatment. We invite you to go to a psychologist to treat your particular case.

If you want to read more articles similar to I take antidepressants and I feel worse, is this normal?, we recommend that you enter our category of Clinical psychology.

• Nassan, M., Nicholson, W. T., Elliott, M. A., Vitek, C. R. R., Black, J. L., & Frye, M. TO. (2016, July). Pharmacokinetic pharmacogenetic prescribing guidelines for antidepressants: a template for psychiatric precision medicine. In Mayo Clinic Proceedings (Vol. 91, No. 7, pp. 897-907). Elsevier.