10 medications in 3 years and none have worked

[cb2]

In the past three years I've been on a varying combination of the following medications: Lithium 600mg, Lamictal 400mg, Wellbutrin 300mg, Zoloft 100mg, Prozac 60mg, Abilify 20mg, busPIRone 10mg, Duloxetine 60mg, Citalopram 40mg, Clonazepam 0.5mg.

I've been on so many different ones because nothing has worked. I am posting here because I have a visit with a new psychiatrist and want to know if anyone here has similar symptoms as me and found a medication that worked, this way I can talk to them about the possibility of it working for me too. This endless loop of medications is making me even more depressed and just want to find something that works.

When I first went to a therapist and psychiatrist three years ago I just told them that I had depression and anxiety, but now I realize the reason for my depression and anxiety and hope I can find a medication that will be more specific to my issues rather than just one for general depression and anxiety.

Here is my main issue...
=I am unable to have meaningful interactions with people because I hyper focus on everything that people say to me and I usually find something that upsets me as I feel bullied or made fun of. (I do not know if medication can do anything for this, or if this has to do with things that happened to me in the past. I tell myself not to let something somebody said to me get to me but I truly cannot help it, it could be a form of irrational thinking or OCD?)
=Because of this issue I fear interacting with people because they might say something or do something to upset me, so I avoid interactions if possible.

As a side note, when someone does make a comment that upsets me I never say anything back, this is either because it's not until later when I think about it that it makes me upset or because I was just simply too afraid to. Could it be that it's only in my mind that a person was being mean to me? As an adult I wish I was able to defend myself when I feel someone disrespects me or hurts my feelings but because I hyper focus on every action and word somebody says I pretty much take everything as disrespectful or hurtful so it's hard to know when to speak up.

[Saliency]

Hi cb2,

I have a lot of the symptoms you have mentioned when I am depressed. I should probably start with a disclaimer that I am not a doctor or pharmacist, but there is a combination of antidepressants that's been known to work quite well in people who are treatment resistant. This is the combination of Mirtazapine (Remeron, Avanza) with an SNRI, usually venlafaxine (Effexor), but other SNRIs that could be used are Desvenlafaxine (Pristiq) and Duloxetine (Cymbalta). The combination of Mirtazapine and Venlafaxine is often referred to as "California Rocket Fuel" and it has shown good results in people with treatment resistant depression. There are a few studies available online. I think they tend to gradually increase the dose up until a maximum of 45mg Mirtazapine and 225mg Venlafaxine. 

I also noticed that you didn't list Mirtazapine among the medications you have tried, so maybe even by itself it's worth a shot? After the mirtazapine and the combination of mirtazapine plus an SNRI, there are still Tricyclic Antidepressants (Amitriptyline, Imipramine, Clomipramine etc) and the MAOIs (Nardil, Parnate etc).

I personally am getting sick of the side effects of medication, so I have considered looking into Electro-Convulsive Therapy and Transmagnetic Cranial Stimulation. 

Edited January 11, 2018 by Saliency

[Philip]

I am very sorry that you cannot find medication that will work for you. I think that in your case medicines should't be the main treatment. Pharmacotherapy shoul be combined with psycotherapy. Just talk to your doctor next time you see him. 

[Philip]

Just forgot to mention pharmacogenetic anaysis, it determines how effective the medicine is for you and all possible side effects. You could ask your doctor to do it

 

[cb2]

I'll be sure to ask my doctor about "California Rocket Fuel" it sounds like it has a lot of potential of working. I'll look into the pharmacogenetic anaysis as well.

Are there any effective antidepressants that don't cause sexual side effects? The ones that I have founds so far are Bupropion, Mirtazapine, Vilazodone and Vortioxetine.

[Philip]

If you've tried a lot of different medications and they all don't work for you, I'd recommend you transcranial magnetic stimulation. It doesn't cause any sexual side effects.