I have a problem with long term anger/depression.Tried Zoloft, no help. What should I try next?
479314
Meditation is one good solution for anger/depression as it relaxes the body and mind.15 minutes of meditation in the morning can change the way you take each day.This is my personal best, cuz am experiencing it.\n\nAnd when you get angry,try to calm yourself by telling your inner self to cool it or calm down.......believe me it helps,after all our body does listen to us\n\n\nSix Simple Steps to Help Fight Depression by Dr.O'Connor\n\n• Get help. Don't be ashamed of needing medication, and don't give up until you find something that helps. And see a therapist.\n• Identify your feelings and moods. Depression is a self-destructive effort to avoid feeling. Accept that emotions are natural and helpful. Learn that mood changes don't come "out of the blue" — they are always started by an event, a memory, a dream. Use the Mood Journal to identify what starts your mood changes.\n• Challenge depressed thinking. People with depression remember and blame themselves for bad events, while they forget about and give others credit for good events. Their low expectations mean they often don't prepare adequately and give up too easily. Worst, they think they are essentially different — damaged somehow — from other people. These are all learned habits of thought that can be unlearned. Pay attention to your assumptions and beliefs.\n• Let others know. Depressives fear intimacy more than most people. We put on masks for the world, because we believe our true selves to be shameful, unworthy. But this belief is wrong. When we're with someone we can trust, sharing our thoughts and feelings — even if they seem unimportant — is good for us.\n• Take care of your self. Learn to pay attention to messages from your body. Depressives abuse themselves by not eating right, not exercising, then expecting to work 12 hours straight. They will deny a minor ache or pain until they have an ulcer or a chronic back condition. Take time for moderate exercise, eat healhy but delicious meals, and allow yourself some pleasure in life.\n• Practice detachment. We spend far too much time and effort trying to control things that aren't worth the struggle. Many things that worry us are really unimportant; we've just gotten overinvolved and lost our bearings. We may find that we're trying to change things that we realistically cannot change. Instead of battering your head against a brick wall, learn to walk away.
1121254
I was on Zoloft and was gaining weight and this is a really big problem for me. So my doctor put me on Topamax and it helped with my problem's the Zoloft helped with and had a big plus side i lost 20lbs. So talk to your doctor it may work for you.
454055
I would shop around for a counselor and psychiatrist. You may need to be on medication, even a low dosage. I'm on a small dosage of Zoloft right now for depression and it's been a great help in controlling my moods. Look into the counselling too because it sounds like that would be extremely prevalent to your PTSD. You don't have to suffer alone.\n\n*Edit* I'm glad you're on some meds then. I know the sexual abuse memory is EXTREMELY painful, but you have to realize that the only way you're going to "get it out" like you keep saying, is to continue counseling sessions. You need a professional because stuff could get really hairy if you sit down with a family member or friend and open up. I never suffered anything as severe as sexual abuse (thank god) but I have struggled with lesser, stressful situations and whenever I tried to talk them out with people I was immediately close to it always ended in failure. Look for a LCS (licensed clinical social worker). Trust me, he or she will get your through it. Remember that it's a work in progress and requires patience.
979678
Poor baby.  I do understand.  Been there.\n\nI have a couple of things to offer you.\n\nFirst, you might be depressed.  Check into the possibility of taking some medication for a while.  I had to take Zoloft for 3 months.  It did get me kind of over the hump so that I could stop crying and sleep and eat.  \n\nInvest in YOU... this is a time for you to look inward and grow.  Do something you have always wanted to do.. work out, learn to cook, a foreign language, ball room dance, something you have always wanted to doooo DO it!!!\n\nAnd, I sought help from a divorce support group.  I went to Divorce Care for a few months.  It was really helpful in learning about what I was going through and also they were soo sweet and supportive.  I also went to a few singles meetings.\n\nIt takes time... everyone is different.  It took me almost 3 years to fianally get to where I don't have that anger and saddness.... \n\nBut one thing is for sure, I am AM happier now than I ever thought possible, and I have found a man who loves me more than my ex ever ever did and it feels good.\n\nAnd, I am stronger than I ever felt possible.  In retrospect, it was a gift!  What I thought was the worst thing in the universe and it did nearly kill me, ultimately made my life so much better.  Hard to believe, but true.\n\nGood luck, dear
1127907
If you are that sad or depressed inside then eventually it will start to show on the outside as well. You need to try talking to someone about your thoughts and feelings right now and try to get out what's really bothering you or getting you down. If you get to feeling worse you  could see a doctor and maybe try medication to help you feel better like paxil or zoloft. Just don't let it drive you insane. Talk to someone.    Good luck.
756499
An angry temper is often associated with depressive symptoms. There is a supplement called; "5 HTP",... which you may find helpful for this. You can find it in most any vitamin/supplement store. You will need to give a week or so of daily intake to determine if it is helping or not.
116880
No.  I would prioritize your depression as the first problem to work on.  If you get depressed for more than a few weeks at time, and it's been happening for more than a year, you should think about seeing a psychiatrist.  Many people have had their lives dramatically improved by getting treatment.  Good luck.
991311
I can't tell you why you are immune to all anti-depressants, but you do develop a tolerance for them after awhile and need to change the dosage or the medication itself.  I used to use prozac and it worked great, then I tried it again a few years later and it didn't work for long, I tried something else for a year or so and then it stopped being effective and so on.  I have to change to different types of medications.  At one point after a year on one type, I felt suicidal for whatever reason.  Everything seemed to overwhelm me and I was put of effexor.  That has been working for about 18 months now.  Hopefully it will last for awhile longer.  Sorry about your problems, I hope you find something that will help.
31199
Participating in religious activities or expressing your emotions through creative arts might help.  If the depression is chemically based (read low seratonin), then some form of medication should have worked.  Therapy works as well as you really want it to work.  If you intentionally held back important information from your therapist, you might want to try it again with the idea of total honesty and trust.\n\nAs you probably already know, clinical depression is not the same as experiencing dark thoughts or feeling a temporary sadness.  If medication and counseling did not relieve any of the symptoms, it might not be actual depression in the medical sense.  Other conditions such as Bi-Polar disorder and Borderline Personality disorder can also cause people to feel depressed at times, so a second opinion from a trained psychologist might not be a bad idea.  Anti-depression medication doesn't always work for other mental conditions.\n\nIt could also be a matter of changing your perspective on the challenges of life.  If someone's had a string of bad luck and failures, he or she is bound to feel discouraged, angry or sad.  All they can do is decide to wallow in their misery or take steps to climb out of the hole.  There are no doctors or pills that can take the place of deciding not to be a victim of circumstances anymore.
988583
Well, this is kinda hard, but there is hope. I had a similar problem. I didn't used to know how to deal with my anger. I hid it and covered it and blew up at stupid times, until finally I did something I really regret. My gf hit me so I hit her back, and I went to jail. She could have left me, I deserved it, but she stuck by me. She helped me turn my life around and now we are happily married with a beautiful baby boy, 4 months old. we've been together for 5 years, married for 3, and it's great. But it wouldn't have been if I didn't go to counseling and get the help I needed (that took some time to realize too, over a year of meetings once a week for a few hours in group therapy), and if she wasn't strong enough emotionally to deal with it. We've proved our love over time, and we've never been happier. So stick in there IF he's willing to fix how he handles his emotions (anger is a motion, just like happiness or sadness, etc). The number one ingredient that has made the long term difference in all our problems/challenges, is having God at the center of our life. Without him, we both have been too weak at times, and would have fallen apart. With him, our love will never fail!
543632
This is a common side effect from several anti-depressants. Talk with you psychiatrist. There may be other meds that may offer the benefits you need, and not have such problematic side effects.  Keep taking the anti-depressants.  Depression can cause all sorts of other health problems is not treated.  Yes, one can go off the zoloft and after varying periods of time the libido is likely to return, but the depression is also likely to return.  When zoloft quit working for me ( after years of use at high doses) I had some success with an amino acid called 5-Htp.  I bought this book by a well respected Naturopathic Doctor:\n\nhttp://product.half.ebay.com/5-tp_W0QQtgZinfoQQprZ774495St. Johns Wort can help if the depression is quite mild, but I ended up in the hospital due to the irregularity in dose strength, and the fact that I quickly needed something stronger.
514427
Age differs widley. It is different for everyone. And yes ththere are probably medications to help you. See a doc. You can get something for the mood swings  that will replace the hormone imbalence that you are expieriencing.
361544
I'm taking antidepressants that are helping to control the symptoms and I'm having counseling with a qualified psychologist to get to the root cause.  Both are working really well, but it is a hard slog.\nGet a good sympathetic doctor and a good psychologist you will be amazed at how they can work.\n\nYou need to know that anti depressants don't make you feel "HAPPY" they just balance out the chemicals that aren't working right and then you can do the work you need to do to fix the problem.  Also they take a while to work.  You need to be aware that not all anti depressants work on all people.  If you're not happy with the first lot go back and talk to your doctor until you get the type and dose right for you.\n\nGood Luck!  You can beat it.
609352
Talk to someone you trust, either family or friends. If they cannot help, see a doctor, try psychotherapy support, ask the specialist if anti-depressants may help you. \nAlso try to enjoy yourself, go out, look for a hobby, there must be something of interest to you, go to the movies, mix with happy people that make you laugh. Try to laugh a lot even if you feel you can`t. Good luck!
136076
I was terribly depressed and I found that medication helped me the most.  Depacote, Zoloft or Wellbutrin. They helped me immediately.
1164548
YES! get some Zyban. Or bupropion that stuff really works, I smoked for 30 years and quit cold turkey with that stuff. No problems except a little irritability.
961597
See your doctor and try Paxil. It works for me. Also check out this website http://www.stresscenter.com/cts/21347914. These tapes are great and this woman offers a lot of help and hope.