Insurance wants me to switch meds--experience with any of these?

Bride2bMO

I've been on Lexapro for 18 months for depression and anxiety. Feel that it works well. No sex drive, though. But I'm still nursing, so hard to say what the culprit is. My Lexapro is set to go up and cost $800 more per year. I can switch to generics of the following: Celexa, Prozac, Paxil, Zoloft. My prescribing dr. is just my OB (who I'm planning to leave soon to look for someone new). I'm thinking of starting up with a psychologist soon, as things feel fairly unmanageable lately with meds alone. DS1 has autism and my husband and I are both struggling lately to be positive and keep our cool with the behavior issues.
Anyway, before I talk to a dr about switching, would love to hear "reviews" of these meds. Still BFing and maybe planning to get pregnant this year. Because I must be insane. Thanks!

OrangeBird

I had a pretty positive experience with Zoloft, but it did make me very sleepy.

bunnybiter

First, I'm sure you know everyone reacts differently to different medications. That being said, I've tried Celexa and Zoloft for depression (not related to child birth).

Zoloft had the opposite effect than intended. It didn't help my depression, caused anxiety attacks and black out periods. My moods were more volatile interspersed with apathetic episodes where I was just there and could watch paint dry without complaint.

Celexa was much better for me, though still not my choice when going to something for PPD. Celexa actually helped, a lot. However, I did have some unwanted side effects with it as well. First, I had to take it at exactly the same time each day, if I was off by an hour I would be light-headed and dizzy all day. At that age I was still drinking and if I had even one beer the same thing would happen. I had hallucinations (which really weren't that bad and this is probably the smallest complaint). And had cloudy thinking, I would forget where a place was that I had visited every week for the last year, and find simple concepts harder to comprehend (like addition) which led to a lack of better judgement on some things.

If you are considering becoming pregnant again you should discuss the effects of the drugs on your fetus. Granted, mental health usually outweighs possible side effects but each drug has a different classification of risk on a fetus and there may be a less dangerous alternative. Which is how I ended up on my current meds that I love.

saucylax55

I'm on Celexa and Lemictal.  I was on Zoloft but I was finding it wasn't taking the edge off and I still wanted to kill my husband.  So I was switched to Celexa, I feel like me again!  Before giving birth I adored my husband, so me thinking about leaving him was very wrong.  but like the previous person said, if you skip a day or take it later than normal you will not be able to function.  I do get nauseated from it, but if I eat some carbs/protein when I take it I find I do fine.  Drink a lot of water, it helps with the nausea and the dizziness... at least for me it does.