Anti depressants affecting transition?

[Jayne]

For the last 6 months or so my excema has been bad due to my work conditions & stress from my mother about my plan to transition.

The skin on my face is so bad right now i'm getting about 2 hrs sleep a night as my pillow feels like sandpaper to me, last night I got a record 3 hrs of sleep because I used a neck pillow & slept sitting up.

you may not be suprised that with the combination of very little sleep & extremely painfull skin i'm very depressed right now, i've been in tears most days this week so when I see my doctor in the morning i'll be asking for anti-depressants.

The answer to this question will not affect me asking for medication as i've had excema related depression before & the more depressed I get the worse my skin gets, it's a very vicious circle that must be broken before I end up in hospital.

When I see my gender therapist for the first time next month i'm wondering if being treated for depression will be a barrier to transitioning, if I have to spend longer in therapy because of this then so be it but i'd like to be prepared if this is happens.

[spacial]

I really understand how you feel about your skin problems. They really are terrible. And they do keep you awake.

Hopefully, you'll get back really soon and tell us what your Dr said.

Take care Jane.

[Steffi]

It's no surprise to GD specialists if you are depressed........ few things are more depressing than being in the wrong body/life role.
Most transsexuals are or have been chronically depressed and no, it shouldn't slow your progress down - it's not the same as schizophrenia or hypomania which might cause delusional behaviour etc.

[MyKa]

It's no surprise to GD specialists if you are depressed........ few things are more depressing than being in the wrong body/life role.
Most transsexuals are or have been chronically depressed and no, it shouldn't slow your progress down - it's not the same as schizophrenia or hypomania which might cause delusional behaviour etc.

Agree, iv'e been on effexor for 4 years with no probs or side effects

[Cadence Jean]

I'm DXed with depression and take Celexa for it.  In fact, I attribute some of my final oomph to going forward with transition with the anti-anxiety properties of that magic little pill.   My depression mostly stems from some form of SAD - I'm solar powered.

[Catherine Sarah]

Hi Jane,

Hopefully this news will cheer the life outta-ya. For the past 40+ years I've had, mild by comparison, Psoriasis. Typically groin (very bad) underarms, elbow joints, head and chest. I say mild, because I've seen much worse.

It was to a point, particularly the groin area, like ground zero for vaginaoplasty, it wasn't looking good. Even had the skin specialist booked. My Endo gave me an early Christmas present and prescribed Estradoil 100 while waiting for bloods to come back and see what he would do about blockers.

Week 3 into the patch, elbows cleared. Week 4 head/chest cleared, groin improved substantially. Week 5 all cleared, except for groin, which is profoundly improved. On my last visit to Endo, told him I was over the moon for all the wrong reasons. He commented that Estrogen can do this sometimes.

As my understanding that eczema is a lesser version of Psoriasis, hopefully HRT will improve your condition. I say this in the light of literally throwing everything at my 'P' with little to no effect over the time. It just had a mind of its own. Maybe it's the 'Universe' speaking, "You should have done this YEARS ago"

Sincerely hope it works for you.

Be safe, well and happy
Lotsa huggs
Catherine

[Jayne]

I saw my GP today & she's prescribed me some anti-depressants & recommended a place go for counseling on a budget (£15 a session).

My depression is being caused by a combination of things, my skin was just the final straw, because of it I can't shave at the moment without tearing my face up, so I have to choose between painfull skin or facial hair. i've become so obsessed with loathing for my stubble that I keep shaving even though it makes things worse.
I'm in a job I hate but stick with because I have to be working to transition (in my town it's estimated that there are around 300 people for every job vacancy here so a job change is unlikely)
Many friends have dropped me like a stone & a few have stabbed me in the back (screw 'em)

One of the things that sets me off is that i've had to give up my dog, when I first fell to pieces just over a year ago the only reaon I didn't do something stupid is because my dog wouldn't have anyone to care for him, I visit him several times a week to walk him but it's hard to leave him each time, I feel like i've failed him.

On the bright side my mum has started talking to me, she popped round the other week & paid my broadband suppliers bill so that I could chat with my friends around the world on xbox. It's strange that people who've known me in person for years are the ones abandoning me whilst friends around the world who've never physicaly met me are behind me 100%.

[Jayne]

Hi Jane,

Hopefully this news will cheer the life outta-ya. For the past 40+ years I've had, mild by comparison, Psoriasis. Typically groin (very bad) underarms, elbow joints, head and chest. I say mild, because I've seen much worse.

It was to a point, particularly the groin area, like ground zero for vaginaoplasty, it wasn't looking good. Even had the skin specialist booked. My Endo gave me an early Christmas present and prescribed Estradoil 100 while waiting for bloods to come back and see what he would do about blockers.

Week 3 into the patch, elbows cleared. Week 4 head/chest cleared, groin improved substantially. Week 5 all cleared, except for groin, which is profoundly improved. On my last visit to Endo, told him I was over the moon for all the wrong reasons. He commented that Estrogen can do this sometimes.

As my understanding that eczema is a lesser version of Psoriasis, hopefully HRT will improve your condition. I say this in the light of literally throwing everything at my 'P' with little to no effect over the time. It just had a mind of its own. Maybe it's the 'Universe' speaking, "You should have done this YEARS ago"

Sincerely hope it works for you.

Be safe, well and happy
Lotsa huggs
Catherine

Thanks for that ray of hope but i'm sure you'll understand why I don't let myself get too optimistic about possible cures as you said "in the light of throwing everything at my 'p' with little or no effect" I've tried immno-suppessants, homeopathic etc. the only thing that came close to curing it was chinese herbal tea but it costs around 1/4 of my income & I couldn't afford to keep taking it.

[Steffi]

My Dad has eczema.
It was really chronic and worsening ate one point.  He was in the care of the top UK skin specialist, tried "everything" and had almost zero improvement.
He eventualy got relief and got it almost entirely cleared up by Chinese Medicine and their tea ...... as you say, it was expensive.
Modification to his diet and the use of a special Chinese soap (made from tree sap IIRC) was part of it too.

In my 20's I had a friend who had chronic eczema all his life - he was NEVER still, always scrathing somewhere on his body.  He eventually finished up hospitalised by it for several weeks.
They gave him a diet to live by....... a year later I met him in the street and he had skin like a girl.

[Jayne]

I've been taking my pills for a few days now & they are making things worse, I was warned that they would probably make the depression worse but I wasn't expecting it to hit me this bad.
Today I came close to losing it with an idiot I work with, he was doing as little work as possible whilst I was struggling to do almost twice as much work as him, I was on the verge of tears & told him to start pulling his weight instead of standing around chatting & he just smirked at me. I had a word with my supervisor & the idiot started shouting that i'd gone running to mummy, at that point I switched from being tearfull to a full blown rage & if the supervisor hadn't stepped between us i'd have lost my job for decking him.
I'm going to pull the supervisor to one side first thing in the morning & advise him about my depression & the problems my medication is giving me at the moment, hopefully he can give us jobs that keep us apart for a week or two until my moods settle down, apparently it will take about 2 weeks, I just hope I can hold things together until then.
On the down side my quitting smoking has gone out of the window at the moment but I have to be realistic that I can't quit whilst i'm in such a mess.

I know I need to keep my job to transition but more importantly I need my job to pay to get my Xbox fixed in time for Mass Effect 3 to come out

[MyKa]

I was told it takes atleast 30 days for depression meds to start taking effect. 2 days seems awfully early

[Steffi]

Anti Depressants - you have to find the one that is right for you personally, the ones which work well for one person can be less effective or even have a negative effect for another.  e.g. Seroxat has caused some people to kill themselves!!! - it doesn't get much more negative than that!

I had 3 different ones:-
Prozac worked a little but prevented me climaxing whilst not removing sex-drive itself - a frustrating combination!
Sertraline made me feel depersonalised, as if I was watching a film of my life from a distance, back behind my face somewhere.  After a few months, I developed a dreadful hand tremor and couldn't reach out to put down a cup of coffee without shaking and spilling it.
Citalopram made me emotionally numb....... my well loved gran died and I couldn't cry, couldn't feel it.  I apathetically settled on these though and was prepared to feel numb until  I ran out of time and died eventually.
I transitioned and began hormones and have never taken or needed anything since.  Nor do I smoke cannabis which I did for 40 years because I needed it to take the edge off the pain of being alive.  I could not live without it - now I don't even like it much as a very occasional social thing.
My AD pills above were all SSRI's.   There are other AD pill groups with a different chemical action - I had amitryptoline in my 20's

30 days is too soon for a positive effect from any of them   

[Catherine Sarah]

I was prescribed Zoloft for my depression back in 2002. Didn't like the idea one bit, but realised I needed some assistance to get out of the hole.

It took about 7 days for the first effect to take hold and slow me down, by 10 days, it was in full swing. I only took one course which lasted two months, then I weened myself off after Dr's. OK.

I hope things settle down for you Jane. Thinking of you.

Be safe, well and happy
Lotsa huggs
Catherine

[Jayne]

Steffi, i'm on citalopram & have been all over the place on them, one minute i'm really happy then the next i'm crying like crazy, i've also lost my appetite & only ate a sandwich yesterday, I didn't eat or feel hungry all day today so I forced myself to choke down a pizza after being awake for about 20 hrs (I feel quite sick now) I've only been taking them for 5 days so I don't know if this is just the depression or the tablets causing this.

I have been getting blinding headaches that last for about a minute & then they're gone, yesterday they were around the back of my head & in my temples but today i've been getting them behind my right eye, i'm going to phone my GP in the morning & ask for a phone consultation as this level of pain is worrying to say the least.

[Steffi]

Something you said chimed with me...... the headaches.
I started getting spates of headaches, months apart.  Once they started, they were near utterly agonising and I'd have them every night for several days, then they would disappear and all would be fine for months, or a year....... then I'd have another bout.
Also...... the worst ones seemed to be distinctly behind the eye.
A simple couple of paracetamol would cure them completely, but the wait for them to work was truly dreadful.
At the time, I concluded that they were something else, a condition of unknown origin which does cause severe headaches in this random pattern.

However I have not taken Citalopram for 5 years now - and nor have I had any of those type of headaches, not a one!

Hmmmm.........   make of that what you will

[Beth Andrea]

I was told it takes atleast 30 days for depression meds to start taking effect. 2 days seems awfully early

That's an estimate they use to make sure all emotion/brain things are under the influence. However, the actual time of effect(s) can be quite rapid, given the correct medicine. When I was proscribed bupropion, my wife and kids saw a dramatic change in my mood within hours of taking the first dose.

If I stop taking it, it takes about 12 hours to go back into "The Pit" (my description of profound depression); once there, if I start taking it again, it's about 4 hours and I'm good to go.

ymmv of course.

[Jayne]

I had my phone consultation & the doctor told me that things should settle down in the next few days, if not then i've got to stop taking them & they'll try something else.
She said that it takes about 2 weeks for these to start dealing with the depression & the side effects are being caused by my brain trying to find equilibrium with the tablets.

Yesterday I was really jumpy, I kept looking beside me as if I expected someone to have gotten in to my locked room & snuck up on me, also my fingers were really twitchy all day but my appetites improved & i'm eating a meal a day.

The headaches aren't as bad now but i'll have to see what happens when I return to work on monday & spend the day bending over picking up heavy buundles of magazines.

[Catherine Sarah]

Hi Jane,
Good to hear things are on the mend. Hope you are in good shape for Monday.
Keep in touch and let us know how you are coping
Be safe, well and happy
Lotsa huggs
Catherine

[Cadence Jean]

I was told it takes atleast 30 days for depression meds to start taking effect. 2 days seems awfully early

It took me about that long to feel the affects when I started Celexa.  Something like four to six week range.

[Jayne]

It's monday & i'm still getting blinding headaches so as per doctors orders i've got to stop the pills.
It'll be friday before I can see the doctor so i'll have to put up with these headaches until then, it's either that or go back to crying all the time, i'm still depressed but the pills are keeping the tears at bay.

I requested a meeting with my managers last thursday to let them know whats going on but it still hasn't happened, they didn't look happy when I refused to drive the forklift but i'd be a liability with the side effects i'm getting, if they say they are too busy for a meeting tomorrow i'll take it straight to the HR manager.
They've requested access to my medical records for an occupational health assesment, now that they have my consent they dont seem to give a damn so if they aren't willing to take my full health details into consideration then i'll withdraw my consent & they can go whistle!