Antidepressants?

Hi Daria, I have 15 month old twins and suffered horrendously from PPD during that time also. I’m on 40mg of anti depressants and have been since the twins were 3 months old! With the ones I’m on I didn’t suffer any major side effects (sometimes a bit of a headache a little bit tired at first) but nothing crazy! I am definitely less emotional on them and a bit more logical in situations with the babies now! Any questions feel free to ask 😊 xx

I’ve been on quite a few antidepressants in the past and also studied psychopharmacology. I would say with antidepressants, the effects vary from person to person, as do the side effects. I can’t take SSRIs, which are most widely prescribed due to being a migraine sufferer and being sensitive to serotonin medications. I do best with SNRIs like venlafaxine and this is the only one that’s worked for me in the past. However, sertraline works really well for majority of people and many don’t suffer side effects. In regards to helping with how you feel with screaming, I would say it will help by bringing your levels of stress down and improve your overall mood, which in turn will make things more bearable and lessen the irritability as you’ll have patience and feel more yourself. Antidepressants work by extending the activity of serotonin/ norepinephrine (neurotransmitters), in the brain, which helps balance your mood and emotions. (Will continue in next message)

Long term they’re not a fix and you can get addicted to them. Obviously as things improve at home, you should try and reduce them and come off them, but if after that things are still bothering you, you should look into counselling. Side effects vary so just monitor them and speak with your GP and they can adjust or change them. Also, be mindful they can take up to 12 weeks to feel the benefits, so I wouldn’t be quick to increase the dose where possible. Start lower (20mg) and increase dosage if directed by your doctor, as starting higher will more likely give you side effects. I hope that’s been helpful and if you have anymore questions feel free to message me x

@erin That's good to know! I really want to start them but my husband is really critical and tries to talk me out of it because "they might do more harm than good" but I seriously don't cope. Literally, the chemicals in my brain short-circuit from all the crying. All I need is to just not have this pressure in my chest and heart race and rage building up while baby is screaming and when baby is slightly older and crying gets less and less I will slowly go off them again

@Ki Thank you for sharing! Yes, I got a referral to talking therapy already which I am looking forward too but also, the real difficulty I have at the moment is specifically the loud screaming, I can't bear it anymore to the point that it takes me a few seconds to get anxiety. It's because my first one had colic for over a year too and shortly after our second was born. So my body is severely longterm overstimulated and I need something to support it with for this time while my babies are so little still. I definitely don't want to get addicted so thank you for the warning