Headache on all antidepressants
Posted , 4 users are following.
I hope this is not a very long one for you to read so I will try as short as possible but I have some.
I first was hit by anxiety and depression in 2008 -and was unmedicated for about 1 year and I have become an absolute wreck. I was completely unable to function let alone go to work or something! I was 23 at the time! I was in such a bad state that even going to the toilet seemed like a monumental thing!
I first saw a psyc and he put me on prozac. Within about a week or 2 I started feeling alive and everything was so good I was thinking this was a miracle and I could not believe how well It made me feel. Back to normal full energy working and thriving!
Tried to come off the meds a few times but everytime I did a became the same old wreck so I knew meds are for me for life.
However I was not taking prozac regularly but since it has a half life i took it every 2-3 days or sometimes just once a week and it did not seem to cause me problems but then in 2017 I had a health issue or at least I thought I had cus this stupid dr scared me into thinking I have some form of cancerwhich later on I redid the colonoscopy and it proved to be nothing at all other than an intestinal reaction to painkiller I has taken prior!
nonethless another pdoc put me on lexapro and it worked so well without any issue at all for about 6-7 months then I starter taking that too only every 2-3 days. Then I started to notice everyday I was taking the pill I had intense headaches about 30-60 min each time I took the pill. This lasted for a few months and the only thing that releived the pain was it I took a benzo. Xanax or Valium or something.
Even to date I have tried many ADs and each time it was pretty much the same. They help my depression and make me go back to functioning but now with a headache every single time! And only thing which helps is taking a benzo!
The doctors are baffled! They have no idea why could this be and my idea that I could have ruined something on neurotransmitters or something by not taking them regularly said was not correct and have asked so many psych docs and all have said the same! Yet nobody has been to identify the cause or find a solution.
I have been searching for a solution and read so many articles and what not online for all this time and only found a lady who said that everytime she took lexapro after 30 min she had headaches that never resolved for 6 months and then when she switched to Venlafaxine they went away!
So here I am now on Venlafaxine for 4 days on XL version same to that lady but the headaches are here for me still! Lets see what happens in the meantime but please it anyone has any idea I beg you to help!
I forgot to add that I also have a sinus cyst on the right side of my maxillary sinus and I also had it before 10 years ago which I operated for. but the doctors do not think the headache is because of it and I am also a bit sceptical because the pain is only when I take ADs!
Thank you all
1 like, 2 replies
StevenRose shfer
Edited
Hi,
This is a mystery to me too! But one thing I might suggest is when you take the drugs for a while, your body gets used to them and if you suddenly only take them every 2 - 3 days, then it's not a surprise you get a bad reaction. You have to very slowly reduce and you will get on better.
I am sorry I am not much help.
Good luck and take care
alex18665 shfer
Posted
Hello, I beg you, please tell me. Did you manage to solve this problem in the form of a headache while taking antidepressants? were you able to find a solution to this problem? My name is Alexander, I am 24 years old and I also have chronic anxiety disorder since 2019. My story is very similar to yours and I have exactly the same reaction to all antidepressants! My head hurts a lot while the antidepressant is in the blood and it takes even more than yours to make me feel better (usually 2-7 days) I drink a pill for example Paxil or Zoloft or Cipralex or even venlafaxine and after an hour my head starts to hurt terribly in forehead, nose and eyes. The pain is oppressive and aching, as if the organism would withdraw the medicine. This reaction began in 2019 when I took Paxil, I increased it from a dose of 10 mg and brought it up to 50 mg, and it was the 52nd day of admission and on the 52nd day a very severe headache began. for clarity, before that I had already taken paxil, but it was somewhere in November 2018 and then there was no such reaction (I drank it for a month and everything was fine) and since 2019, when the headaches started, I tried many times to start I take SSRI antidepressants and always get this reaction. And I will say more - now there is such a reaction to almost every medicine or dietary supplement (I also tried serotonin 5HTP supplements and ashwagandha) I also forgot to say a very important thing, I tried different doses of antidepressants, for example, Paxil, I even tried 1/4 tablets and Zoloft also 1/4 and cipralex. I will say right away that from 1/4 there is also pain, but less in time, from the whole I will get sick all day or even 3-4 days, and from 1/4 hours 5 will hurt. And ashwagandha and serotonin also make my head hurt, and even more so... even from small doses...