u/Extra_SuperDuper

I don’t use Reddit like, ever, so forgive me if I say anything odd. I am a female, yes this matters. I have PDD (persistent depressive disorder) and I’ve been prescribed a billion SSRIs, and none of them ever worked. My psychiatrist recently (December) switched me to and SNRI, cymbalta. Now is where I add the context that I am also on a birth control pill, Sprintec. I started the medicine while in the hospital, and it gave me horrible insomnia, but at first I assumed it was just the hospital beds keeping me awake. Then I went on my placebo week for my Sprintec, and all of a sudden, I wake up one day to my breasts being EXTREMELY tender. I was in SO much pain. I double checked to see if I had any tumors, and all of a sudden my shirt was SOAKING wet. So of course I check and oh my god. I’m lactating. I panic and take three CVS pregnancy tests. I am not pregnant, as assumed. My psychiatrist goes “oh, shit, your cymbalta did that! Let’s switch to effexor!” Is NOW a good time to mention I‘m also anorexic…? Anyway. I am now on 225mg of effexor as of today. And still, one week out of the month, when doing my placebo week to make sure my birth control is actually working, I just… lactate. I’m getting extra blood tests done soon, because the original blood tests I had done were done when I was not lactating, and my prolactin levels were perfectly fine. But it is assumed that SNRIs are making me… lactate… as weird as it is. And my birth control is just masking that symptom for me, which, yay? But effexor, as I have heard, is a HELL of a drug to get off of. And I also have greatly lost my appetite and it is not helping that I am already malnourished lol. Hopefully soon my doctors will get everything under control, but I just wanted to share my experience because I personally find it REALLY funny. Just, all of a sudden one day… “oh, okay, I’m a cow now?” But uh, yeah. SSRIs don’t do anything. SNRIs make me miserable, physically. Let’s hope they find a category of medicine that works for me soon lol