Question: In 1995 i was diagnosed with depression associated with anxiety, so my psychiatrist prescribe the antidepressant Anafranil. It helped for 2 years but when i was taking 75 mg the side effects became terrible and lower doses don't relief my depression and anxiety any more. So the psychiatrist change for Aropax 40 mg. I never felt better in my life. What a fantastic drug! I took Aropax for 10 years. The only problem is that my libido disappeared. I had no sex drive any more. My doctor decided to withdraw gradually from Aropax. My libido didn't come back but my depression and anxiety did. We returned to Aropax but it didn't work any more. In fact, my body created a certain tolerance to aropax, because with only 20mg i started to fell confused and angry, so i stopped the medication. After that, i tried all antidepressants you can imagine, such as zoloft, cymbalta, effexor, lexapro, pristiq, pamelor and prozac. With all these antidepressants i felt angry, anxious and agitated when the dose achived more than 25 per cent of the maximum dose. For instance: on zoloft 50mg, no problem to me, but it doesn't improve my mood at all. When the dose is increased for 100 mg i started to feel angry, anxious and agitated, so i stopped the medication. My tyroid hormones, testosterone and all blood tests are ok. I can work but i feel no pleasure in enjoy life. Said all that, my question is: what can be done to antidepressants work again?

Dear Doctor, As I detailed in my question, I used Aropax along about 10 years with very good results. The only problems were the sexual dysfunctions. So, after 10 years using Aropax 40 mg, I stopped to take it. However, the sex drive and all sexual dysfunctions remained. After 5 months taking no antidepressant, the sexual dysfunctions remained and the depression and anxiety returned. I´ve tried to return to Aropax, but achieved the dose of 20 mg, i begun to feel anxious and angry, so I stopped Aropax, drug that I supported very well for 10 years at 40mg. Then, my psychiatrist had tried all antidepressants you can imagine, such as Zoloft, Cipramil, Cymbalta, Pristiq, Lexapro. And with all these antidepressants, achieved the dose equivalent of 25% of the maximum dose, I begun to feel anxious and angry, so I stopped the drug. It´s important to say that we always started with a low dose and the rate of increases of doses were low too, however the side effects of feeling angry and anxious always appeared when the 25% of the maximum dose was achieved, so I had to stop the antidepressant. For example: when I was on 50 mg of Zoloft, I have no problem, but the depression remains. Two days after I increase the dose to 75 mg, the strong angry and anxiety begin and I had to stop the Zoloft. The same events happenned with all antidepressants I tried. My depression is moderate, I can work everyday, but at the weekends I stay at home because I have no pleasure at all in enjoyable thing like dancing, XXXXXXX new people, girlfriends, travel and so on. My psychiatrist said that I had specific depression named dysthymia that is treated with antidepressants in higher doses then those used to treat classic depression. So, I need to take antidepressants but i only support very low doses, however 10 years ago i supported 40 mg of Aropax with no problem, except the sexual dysfunctions. It´s very hard feel apathy. So, my question is what can be done to make antidepressants work again? I went to different psychiatrists here in Brazil, 10 at least, and no one solved my problem. So, my question is: what can be done to make antidepressants work again for me?

You said that in the 2 first weeks of using antidepressants, it's usual the increasing of the symtoms of anxiety. My problem is that the anxiety remains after 2 weeks.