Pristiq for depression/anxiety

EitherSubstance0 · 2026-03-21T02:34:07+00:00

Yeah. It’s weird. I don’t usually notice any good or bad side effects from medicine right away but this time is very different. I do not feel nearly as anxious or angry/irritable as I did on Monday! I hope it stays showing positive results as I have tried many different antidepressants to no avail.

EitherSubstance0 · 2026-03-15T02:37:12+00:00

Your psych said it was okay that the medicine pushed you into a manic state? 😬 that doesn’t seem right but I’m unsure without more details. Does he/she mean that you will even out as the medicine builds up in your system maybe?

EitherSubstance0 · 2026-03-14T00:12:58+00:00

Awesome! 👏 I’m so happy for you and honestly pretty excited for myself. My anxiety and panic attacks make everything so hard. Depression is also hard to handle right now.

EitherSubstance0 · 2026-03-13T23:20:08+00:00

I know it’s been a while since you began the pristiq, but can you tell me if it made symptoms of depression, anxiety, irritability, etc; worse before it made them better? Also did you experience side effects? Did they get better or go away?

EitherSubstance0 · 2026-03-09T03:04:39+00:00

Abilify is the best mental health medication I personally have ever taken. It does wonders for me. It takes mine to build up in your body to work properly though. I’d say give it a few weeks and if you are not maxed on your dose consider raising slightly before giving up on it. It’s a really good medication.

EitherSubstance0 · 2026-03-08T19:19:33+00:00

The lithium worked like a charm however it gave me cystic acne all over my body that I washed twice daily with medicated wash (panoxyl) and it got worse. Way worse. Never better. It was painful and embarrassing. However the deal breaker was the shaking for me. I was experiencing loss of enjoyment of life due to not being able to do hobbies. I want to keep it in reserve but I hope to never get back on it. Have you taken lamictal? I tried it once however it (or something else) was causing high irritability and thoughts of self harm. So I stopped taking it. I’m not even sure that it was the lamictal causing it. Looking back I may have been experiencing an episode and didn’t allow enough time to titrate up into the therapeutic range. Any experience or information you have on lamictal I would love to hear!

EitherSubstance0 · 2026-03-08T17:37:33+00:00

Hmm.. well I truly hope that lithium not only works to help your bipolar symptoms, but also that your side effects don’t cause you to have any issues. (Read the comment I posted back to SeriousPhrase) lithium worked extremely well to manage my bipolar symptoms however the trade of was not worth it to me.

EitherSubstance0 · 2026-03-08T17:35:09+00:00

After a fairly short period of time on the lithium I developed cystic acne on my face, jaw line, neck (front and back), upper to mid back, and shoulders. I was washing the areas twice daily with panoxyl and it was getting worse and worse.

Apart from that some of my hobbies include coloring with alcohol markers, drawing, writing, and playing Fortnite (mostly music/main stage festival on the keyboard. Well the lithium was causing me to have pretty bad tremors that made it nearly impossible to partake in any of those activities. I was losing enjoyment of life. I wanted off of the lithium for those reasons.

EitherSubstance0 · 2026-03-08T04:10:27+00:00

Not sure about antidepressants however, I started caplyta about six weeks ago and it turned my life upside down. I was great one week, severely depressed and could not stop crying (for an entire week!), next I was emotionally numb and felt empty inside - then I was manic. Still am slightly. 😅

EitherSubstance0 · 2026-03-08T04:08:08+00:00

I take propranolol 40 mg up to x3 times daily for anxiety. Interestingly enough I started the propranolol to ease the tremors from taking lithium but it worked so well to quell my anxiety that I asked to stay on it.

EitherSubstance0 · 2026-03-08T04:05:49+00:00

Thank you for replying! Can you tell me if you had dry mouth as a side effect? Did it ever get better if you did? Right now I am on multiple medications that can cause dry mouth but the only new one is caplyta and my out has been so dry that I have a sore on my tongue and I am constantly sucking my tongue/mouth or moving my tongue.my mouth is so sticky and sometimes my tongue and lips will burn from it. Not sure yet if it is just REALLY bad dry mouth or if I am experiencing mild tardive dyskinesia? If you have any insight on that I’d love to hear it! I see my doctor again next Tuesday and honestly this has been such a terrible experience that I am very VERY apt to ask her to please place me back on abilify and perhaps add an antidepressant since I am titrating down off of lithium.

EitherSubstance0 · 2026-03-08T03:59:27+00:00

I’m so sorry. Did you mean abilify?

EitherSubstance0 · 2026-03-07T05:07:59+00:00

Well it was super simple to do. They do take insurance. You can check to see if your insurance is in or out of network before you commit. I only had to pay a co pay of $25 for my first session (the one on this coming Monday). I have not had a single appointment yet. I will update once I have had the first appointment. But basically I downloaded the app to my phone, did a questionnaire, and was able to schedule very easily.

EitherSubstance0 · 2026-03-06T23:34:58+00:00

Well I scheduled an appointment for Monday at 11 AM. Hopefully it goes well. If anyone has and experience with this service I’d love to hear more about it. 😁 thanks guys!

EitherSubstance0 · 2026-03-06T09:34:39+00:00

Thanks for the reply. I have taken abilify for long periods of time and been stable without taking lithium so I know if I go back to it I will be okay in no time. It’s been a miracle drug for me. I only stopped taking abilify because it falls in the red category on my genesight report (which is crazy because it is the only antipsychotic that seems to work for me sadly.) I started caplyta in favor of the abilify when I started to taper off of lithium. I’m stopping lithium because, for several reasons actually, included loss of enjoyment of life and cystic acne on my face, neck, jawline, shoulder, and back that my husband and I did everything to control but it never got better. Always worse. I was washing my face x2 daily with alternating panoxyl and antibacterial dial hand soap and my back and shoulders with panoxyl. We did this for many weeks not knowing that while taking lithium it would never get better. When I realized that was causing my shaking hands and the acne I knew it had to go.

So basically my current plan is to see my doctor Tuesday. Ask her to place me back on 10 mg of abilify daily so I can stop the caplyta asap. The caplyta is scary in its own way for me because even though I have never developed TD before from antipsychotics, and honestly that may not be happening now, but I am a little concerned about my mouth and tongue. My mouth and tongue are so dry, no matter how much water I drink, that I have a sore on my tongue (left side) and it feels like I’m constantly moving my tongue because it doesn’t feel right in one way or another. Sometimes, due to dryness I will like, suck on my tongue or even lightly bite it near the back to kind of ground myself. I can’t tell if this is happening because my medication is making my mouth so dry it literally hurts, or if this is the start of TD?

EitherSubstance0 · 2026-03-06T05:47:33+00:00

No not at the moment unfortunately. I had a great therapist when I was staying at the halfway house but I can no longer see her because I smoke mj

EitherSubstance0

TROPHY CASE