Anyone on anti depressants

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i am feeling really low and moody at the moment from all the treatment and hormones, i keep bursting into tears and am thinking of asking for some anti depressants for the mood swings and to help with energy, is anyone on anti depressants and are they helping?

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Antidepressants do help if you are suffering from depression but other things can also make you have mood swings and low energy and it would be a good idea to see your doctor and have some blood tests done for problems like underactive thyroid, anaemia, diabetes etc which can also deplete your energy and make you irritable and depressed. If you and your doctor decide it is depression, then medication along with counselling are very helpful.

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billia what stage of treatment are you at? It may well be a temporary thing - are you having chemo?

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thanks cathy do i speak to chemo nurse who will speak to oncologist or my own doc? i also suffer from M.E which makes me feel low and tired.

Finty i am on my 3rd EC and have one more before 4 x Tax, i have had a lumpectomy and a mx

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oops just realised i have saved this under 'getting started’as opposed to treatment and side effects. does anyone know how i can delete it and start again !!1

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Hi Bilia
You could see either your BCN, oncologist or GP. Who do you have the most contact with? If you have an appointment at the hospital soon, then make sure you mention it to them. Give your BCN a ring and ask her or if that’s difficult, your GP. If you already suffer from ME, then I am sure that treatment is going to have an impact on you.

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thanks again Cathy, i am at the hospital for my last FEC next wed so i might call before and then she can speak to the oncologist, prefer dealing with the ‘specialists’ rather than with the normal GP’s.

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Hi,

Not sure if this will help but this is my most recent experience.

I was diagnosed as depressed last week. It was in a round about way. I had my first appointment with a Specialist Clinical Nurse at our local hospice (I have secondaries) to find out about their out patient services. I was so tearful and on the edge during the appointment that she asked if I’d mind her assessing me. Hubby and I agreed and he left the room whilst I was assessed. The nurse said I was moderately depressed and asked my permission to contact my gp. We discussed antidepressants and counselling. I agreed to both as I have been feeling so low. She contacted my gp that day and I started antidepressants the next day. I had a call today to confirm that I wanted to have counselling and my case will be presented at their allocation meeting tomorrow and I should start in a week or so. Funnily enough I had gone to see my GP a couple of weeks ago for my Zoladex implant and tried to talk to her about how I was feeling emotionally and she seemed so disappointed as I had been coping so well over the last year or so that I didn’t pursue the conversation.

I have never been depressed before and it took a lot to admit that I was. I have had a lot to deal with over the last three years; death of my mother from cancer, death of a close aunt, my own terminal diagnosis and other things that life throws at us. Sometimes we can cope, sometimes we can’t.

I hope that you can resolve whether you are depressed or if there is another reason for how you are feeling and that either way it can be treated.

Snoogle
x

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hi,

just wanted to say that the fec really affected my hormones, i have just had number 3 but it was mood swings and feeling down, but in a hormonal way rather than the first anxiety/panic way, that is suffered from most. I have been referred t counselling by my bcn and am waiting for an appointment.

Be kind to yourself, this stuff is very hard to get through,

Vickie

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thanks snoogle, your response puts my life back into perspective,
thanks too vic x

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hi Billia, I was diagnosed 1st June last year, treatment done by the end of last year, everything was great, planned to go back to work in January but found a lump in my neck and that when I fell apart, pleased to report that neck lump was clear, but the whole cancer thing just got the better of me, went to docs on anti depressants, got counselling through my work and now feel I am getting bqck to my normal self, Im evn going back to work next month

you will get through this but please take any help offered to you, take care

Carol xx

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thanks carol
i feel like i will never be my ‘normal self’ which makes me even more low and depressed, am going to speak to the bcn tomo x

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FEC made me really depressed too - always felt really tearful on days 4 - 7. Then I was given antibiotics to have with the TAX that made me feel virtually suicidal - I refused to take them after the first cycle and felt much better as soon as I stopped. I think the steroids can cause pretty dramatic mood swings too.