Effexor XR and adding Abilify

[Delilah]

For me, starting new meds is a wild roller coaster ride and I don't care much for roller coasters. They leave me feeling dizzy and out of my element with all the ups and downs and loops.

3 years ago, I switched from Zoloft to Effexor XR. My mood has been pretty good during that time. I only had one side effect..dry mouth. However, that was nothing compared to the side effects I have endured before. I have been on Prozac (hated this one, made me numb), Paxil (out going and numb), Welbutrin (didn't do anything), Buspar (high anxiety and nauseous) and Zoloft (was great at first and then high anxiety). Effexor has not been perfect but it made me feel close to feeling like myself.

I went to my doc a few days ago because after trying to do things to fix my life in hopes of making myself happy, I could see the effects on my mood were only temporary at best. I tried other hobbies (I've had no interest or motivation, should have been my first clue), dating and doing things outside the house. While these are great and I should be doing them anyway, my symptoms only got steadily worse. Losing interest in my hobbies upset me the most. It is one of the few things I do just for myself. After a year of going through all these aspects of my life, I finally realized last week that I was probably feeling so crappy because my meds were having a lesser effect on my depression.

So when I went to my doc this week, he said he wanted to add something to the Effexor before trying a different AD. That scared me but I was more scared of my depression symptoms coming back. I choose the lesser of the two evils, I guess. Yesterday, I started taking Abilify with the Effexor. I was surprised when I looked up Abilify because I wasn't expecting an anti-psychotic but I read it is also used with ADs to treat depression so I thought I would give it try.

So far, I don't like it. It makes me feel weird but then again starting new meds usually throws me off until I have been on them for a couple weeks. I guess I forgot about the ups and downs and twists and loops. I do feel better today than I did yesterday so there may be hope yet. I do not have any headaches and I'm not so hyper sensitive to sounds and distractions.