[stewie3128]

I'm new here, and new to the psychotherapy thing in general, so here goes:

About 10 months ago, I started seeing a psychologist to deal with depression that I just couldn't deny any longer. I've worked through a ton of stuff involving my childhood and the myriad other historical/emotional/psychological/environmental factors contributing to the depression, but I was still getting trapped in those bad self-hatred thoughts.

Last week, I was finally prescribed Pristiq by a psychiatrist, and I want to know what to expect. Friends have shared Adderall and Provigil with me (both of which I know are *completely* different drugs) and both felt great. Life became colorful again for me like when I was 7 years old on Adderall, and I felt so amazingly focused on Provigil...

From what I've read here, SNRIs take a few weeks to have any effect. I'm on day 8 of Pristiq, and as the serotonin and norepinephrine are slowly building up in my brain, I haven't really felt any difference from before. I know I shouldn't expect anything right now, so I'm wondering just what it is I *should* expect.

1) Will the bad thoughts just magically disappear and never come back again?
2) Will I wake up looking forward to life again?
3) Will I be able to embrace good feelings without being assaulted by the bad ones?
4) Am I hoping for too much from Pristiq, or any medicine?

The last few days in particular, I've been really fighting myself on some bad self-hatred, and I just don't want to deal with this any longer. I'm not suicidal, I just want this entrapping malaise to fall away from me and let me be the person that I know I am inside.

Or is that not what this drug does?

Please inform!

[recoverymouse]

ADs, and I've tried a few, work in mysterious ways. There's never been the kind of radical shift in thinking you describe, but I have had a lot of success with improvements in my thinking (ie feeling hope for the future) as a result of taking them. I've been on one AD or another since 1993 so I can't recall how the initial process went, but when I've added or switched it's always been subtle.

[Vapourware]

What ADs aim to do is to raise your base mood to a more functional level, so you don't feel as depressed. However, they are not a magical cure.

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1) Will the bad thoughts just magically disappear and never come back again?

No, but if your base mood is better then it may help you engage more with therapy so you can avoid triggering bad thoughts.

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2) Will I wake up looking forward to life again?

Short answer: yes. Long answer: it takes time.

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3) Will I be able to embrace good feelings without being assaulted by the bad ones?

Ditto the above.

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4) Am I hoping for too much from Pristiq, or any medicine?

Probably, you won't get an instantaneous cure for depression.

Anyways, I'm on Pristiq as well and I've found it very helpful in lifting my base mood from mildly depressed to neutral. The only problem I've found with Pristiq is sexual dysfunction.

[tryp]

Hey,

Welcome to CB. Glad you found us, and I hope you'll stick around.

It's hard to explain how ADs make me feel. I was in a horrible depression, and my AD lifted it. I felt...at peace. I felt hopeful. I felt like the future was bright and interesting and I wanted to be there for it. I enjoyed things again. I felt like I could laugh.

I still have trouble with negative thinking, and I still have other issues, mostly from my other diagnoses, but having an AD on board makes them quieter and makes them less overwhelming.

I still feel like myself, just with the volume turned down on the nasty stuff, and the volume turned up on the good stuff.

I actually don't think you're expecting too much. Except that your bad thoughts won't magically disappear. But when my AD worked, I did feel most of the positive stuff you're looking for. The negative stuff was still there, but it didn't swamp me the way it did when I was depressed.

[resonance]

Welcome. I don't know a lot about Pristiq, but there's a long Pristiq thread back in the archives on this board that you might also want to look at.


fyi regarding prescription-sharing - we're not going to call the law on you, but if they show up and ask about it, we're going to give them what they ask for.