Please verify your email address to receive email notifications.

Enter your email address

We have sent you a verification email. Please check your inbox and spam folder.

Unable to send verification, please refresh and try again later.

  • Q&A with Australian Health Practitioners

    Why don't antidepressants work for me anymore?

    Related Topics
    Bipolar Disorder Depression Mental Health
    I was on Lexapro for 5 years. It worked really well for me. So well in fact that I stupidly decided I didn't need it anymore. I quit cold turkey. For about 2 weeks I encountered a living hell. It was so awful I decided to get back on the Lexapro. It pulled me out of the hell, but I wasn't the same as before. Since then I've been on 13 different kinds of medication. SSRIs, SNRIs, even an anticonvulsant. It's been 4 years since I quit the Lexapro, and nothing else has worked since. I've been off of medication for about 8 months now because there's no point in being on anything if it doesn't work. I'm wondering what happened. I'm scared I screwed my brain up. I'm afraid ill never feel the happiness I felt when I was originally on the Lexapro. I wonder if I try the Lexapro again, maybe it will work again after all this time..?
    • 1 answer
    • Dr Simon Easterbrook-Smith
    answer this question

  • Find a professional to answer your question

  • Dr Simon Easterbrook-Smith

    Health Professional

    My research interests include immunology and the mechanisms of amyloid formation. The latter has implications for people who are dealing with Alzheimer's Disease, Parkinson's Disease … View Profile

    I think that matching the “right” antidepressant to the “right” person is often a matter of trial and error.

    Eg, the first antidepressant that I was on was, for me, worse than useless (bad suicidal ideation) but what I am on now is, for me, great.

    I suggest that you have a chat with your prescribing doctor about going back onto Lexapro.

    I know of no good pharmacological reasons to suggest that, if it was effective for you in the past, it won't be effective for you now.

    Reply to this post
     · 
    Report
answer this question

You must be a Health Professional to answer this question. Log in or Sign up .

You may also like these related questions

Related Fact Sheets
Related Questions

Empowering Australians to make better health choices