r/trintellix

Hi All,

I’ve suffered from panic disorder with agoraphobia for 15 years. I’ve tried CBT, EMDR, years of therapy, EFT Tapping, hypnotherapy— you name it, I’ve tried it.

For most of those 15 years, I’ve been on antidepressants. I’ve been on Prozac, Effexor, and now Zoloft.

I’ve been on 100mg of Zoloft/sertraline for three years now. Earlier this year, around January, I tried tapering down, as it had literally zero effect. I was still having panic attacks multiples time a day, and had to cancel holidays due to being unable to leave my house. It was like I wasn’t on any medication at all. However, the tapering process almost killed me.

My psychiatrist recommended vortioexetine, which she feels would help with the anxiety— when many medications were only able to for a short while— and it would have less of the numbing/sexual side effects, which are almost as bad as the anxiety, if I’m honest.

I’ve been cross-tapering from sertraline as follows:

50 mg sertraline, 5 mg vortioexetine

My psych wanted me to increase after 7 days to:

25mg sertraline, 10mg vortioextine

However, when I tried that, I couldn’t stop puking— I mean PROJECTILE vomiting. I was previously like that on the 5mg dose as well, but my GP prescribed zofran, which helped prevent the puking.

My psych wants me to power through and keep taking the 10mg.

My GP says being on zofran this long isn’t great, and that I should stabilise before increasing.

I’d love some guidance on what to do.

For reference:

My psychiatrist isn’t great at responding; I need to find a new one but it’s difficult to find one that my insurance covers;
I live in the UK;
I’m TERRIFIED of sertraline withdrawals effects when I tried to come off of it earlier this year— even incredibly, incredibly slowly— I was suicidal and was on the verge of being admitted. That experience is what sparked my agoraphobia.

My questions are:

1. Which route would you choose?
2. Does the nausea get better? I’ve read a lot on this Reddit that for many people, it never went away.
3. Have anyone used vortioxetine for panic? Has it worked?

Sincere gratitude!

21F, like the title says I've been on Trin for almost 2 years, it'll be 2 years in October. I had a bad reaction to it in the first 3 months and was having panic attacks all the time while just on 5mg but after I upped to 10mg I felt better and eventually could function again.

I have a job, I can talk to other people without getting intrusive thoughts abt our existence (sometimes lol), I eat 3 meals a day and go to therapy.

But these past few months... I'd say starting from April-May of this year I've been feeling weird.

My spacecial awareness is down the drain, I keep walking into things and hitting my arms and hands on stuff, my brainfog is awful and I often wake up in the middle of the night questioning whether I am consious or not, my insomnia takes up at least 2 weeks of every month, I keep mismatching words when writing AND speaking and I can hardly remember words when actively talking to people which makes my job a little harder.

Idk I had a lot of these things before getting on Trin so Im concerned.

Is there like some kinda time limit people should be on Antidepressants for before it becomes more harmful than helpful? Has this happened with anyone else?

I take trintellix for GAD about two weeks ago. I was on escitalopram 10mg and had other increases etc to see if it fixed brain fog and tiredness. I've had those symptoms since starting any of these meds.

Had anyone found trintellix helped with brain fog ? And what dosage helped? Is 10mg not enough for this?

I made a thread earlier this week before starting, and everyone mentioned the Nausea. End of day 3 and i never felt nauseous once, this morning i even took it on an empty stomach. this one might be the one for me.

side-effects: took me a while to fall asleep 1st night because my brain felt so „lit up”, and woke up a few tired throughout the night. Also, my body’s needs are Very apparent, if im thirsty i’ll know it, if im hungry ill feel starving!! I’ve been craving very fatty foods, but I don’t mind :)

positives: the mental noise and chaos are gone! I don’t think this is the effects of the serotonin YET, as those can take weeks to build up(or for the drug to build up), but I think im Low-Acetylcholine, and trintellix raises this downstream. I feel this mental sense of peace and calm. I’m no longer my usual frantic-chaotic energy when im out for groceries or doing household tasks. At the same time doing things i found to be a chore(which was almost everything even things i enjoyed) i do much more eagerly now. Anxiety down, like im so used to and expect when my anxiety will hit(specific thoughts i have) and now its like „oh i was expecting a surge of anxiety but it never came, nice!” Im so happy 🫶

I have really bad somatic symptoms like nervousness and internal shakiness to begin with and I feel like Trintellix is making it worse. I don’t know what to do

Ssris makes me an unmotivated tired slob. Been on citalopram for 1,5 yrs now and ready to come off.

Anyone finding trintellix better?

I tried trintellix when I was a younger adult (about 18), I'm 25 now and just got back on it, and I was wondering if it also helps with anxiety? I have pretty generalized anxiety and worry about things I shouldn't worry about, so I was hoping Trintellix may help with it.

Let me know if it's helped you! :)

After many trials of SSRIs and SNRI’s my psychiatrist suggested I try Trintellix for anxiety and a newer diagnosis of depression.
My anxiety presents as nausea but usually passes by lunch.
Since being on Trintellix I have had ALL DAY nausea. Like nothing I have experienced before. The only time it dissipates is when I am getting into bed for the night.

Has anyone else experienced this?

I finally had my follow-up appointment with my psychiatrist, and we discussed everything I experienced during my 10-week journey on vortioxetine. I took 5 mg for the first two weeks, increased the dose during treatment, and then returned to 5 mg for the final two weeks before stopping.

One of the things I mentioned was that I restarted treatment using a generic version available in my country. Since the first time I took vortioxetine I was using the original brand, we agreed that this might have been one of the factors contributing to the lack of therapeutic response, although it's impossible to know for certain.

I want to thank everyone here for your support, encouragement, and advice throughout these past weeks. Today I took my last dose of vortioxetine, and I'll be going back to a low dose of venlafaxine, a medication that had already started helping me within the first two weeks when I used it before.

To those of you who are still taking vortioxetine, I sincerely hope it works well for you. I know many people benefit greatly from this medication, especially those taking the original brand. Don't lose hope just because it didn't work for me—every person responds differently to antidepressants, and what isn't the right medication for one person may be life-changing for someone else.

I truly wish all of you the very best on your journey toward feeling better.

Long story short- started Trintellix 10 mg 4 weeks ago. Was on 20 mg of Cymbalta and got down to 5 mg when the withdrawal side effects got bad. So I’m staying on 5 mg of Cymbalta for a while. My depression has lifted but now my anxiety is through the roof. I had to take a lorazepam today it was so bad (only 1/4 of .5 was enough to stop the cycle.) Am I doomed or will things get better?

Llevo tan solo 12 días con la medicación mañana empiezo con 10mg de brintellix ya que mi psiquiatra me ha enviado subir la dosis poco a poco, entonces quiero saber si alguien más se siente así, estoy apática, cansada… aunque he podido notar que he tenido alguna pequeña mejora como no darme demasiada vuelta a las cosas estuve bastante calmada los primeros días sin tantas ansias por hablar o llamar la atención es decir calmada lo cual me gustó pero la apatía esta haciéndome sentir como en la depresión que estaba aunque con cambios de humor en los que por ejemplo hoy estoy bastante bastante enfadada y molesta por cualquier cosa 😔

I’ve been on Trintellex for 6 weeks now and I’m wondering if the erectile dysfunction is a side effect that would fade away as my body adjusts or not? Cause this is causing a big blow for my sense of confidence.

Spoke to a psychiatrist about this and he dismissed it saying it doesn’t cause ED. I told him it does to me cause I didn’t have it but now I do. Then dismissed me again saying the only side effect that it’s known to cause is nausea. Guess what? I have never experienced nausea with this pill. Ever.

I barely started 5mg been taking it for 20 days. Prior weed would make me feel relaxed. Now when I do the same amount I end up gagging (no nausea just feeling like I’m going to barf) and I get lots of anxiety and weird body feelings I haven’t felt before. I’ve had the racingheart beat and anxiety but this is different. I don’t feel how fast my heart is beating, my sides of my body felt like I was getting zapped by static electricity and I have to lay down or else I keep feeling sick. Might this change or? Other than the meds I haven’t changed anything else that I’ve done with taking weed

Hello everyone!

In October 2024, I started sertraline, but after about 4 months my psychiatrist and I decided to switch because I completely lost my libido and became very apathetic.

I switched to Brintellix (vortioxetine) 10 mg, and honestly it changed my life for the better. My worst GAD symptoms were derealisation and depersonalisation. I could go days feeling like I was a ghost or disconnected from reality. Now, after about a year and a half on Brintellix, I can barely remember the last time I experienced that.

That said, I still get some random, nonsensical anxiety from time to time. I take clotiazepam (Cloxam) as needed, maybe once or twice a month. At my appointment today, my psychiatrist suggested increasing Brintellix to 15 mg to see if it helps eliminate those remaining anxiety episodes.

I have a few questions for anyone who's been through something similar:

• Did increasing from 10 mg to 15 mg affect your libido?
• If 15 mg doesn't work out, is it generally easy to go back to 10 mg, or is the transition difficult?
• Has anyone had a similar experience with Brintellix for GAD?

I'd really appreciate hearing your experiences. Thanks so much! 😊

Long story short- started Trintellix 10 mg 4 weeks ago. Was on 20 mg of Cymbalta and got down to 5 mg when the withdrawal side effects got bad. So I’m staying on 5 mg of Cymbalta for a while. My depression has lifted but now my anxiety is through the roof. I had to take a lorazepam today it was so bad (only 1/4 of .5 was enough to stop the cycle.) Am I doomed or will things get better?

I was on brand name trintellix for 10 years without a hitch. But since switching to generic I have become an emotionally blunted mess with next to no libido and ontop of all of that I can hardly feel the effects of any stimulant paired with it.

I know for some, the generic works well but sadly, it doesn't seem to work at all for me UNLESS I crush the pill and mix it in water. I know that's frowned upon but this medication is technically instant release so both myself & my doctor fail to see the issue in doing so since it breaks down in your stomach immediately anyway (i wouldn't recommend chewing them that likely isnt good for your enamel).

I should note that I have crohns disease and have a lot of scarring in my stomach resulting in me having much greater success with instant release formulations for isntance I can hardly feel the effects of 108MG of concerta so, i think in my case it's more or less my stomach.

So, if you're someone struggling to get generic to work and you suffer from IBD related issues try crushing it. Your pharmacy will argue that you can't split or crush them but you can. The only reason they made them that shape was to stop people from getting prescribed 20mg and dividing them up to save money.

29F. Looking for advice.

Venlafaxine consistently works for me. It gets rid of my depression, severe social anxiety and binge eating. I tapered off it once, but within 7 months all those symptoms gradually returned, so I had to restart medication.

Since then I've tried venlafaxine IR 37.5 mg → desvenlafaxine ER 50 mg → now venlafaxine ER 75 mg.

The pattern has been identical every time. My mood becomes stable, anxiety is controlled, and I'm no longer depressed. But I still have almost no motivation, very low energy, excessive sleepiness and severe anhedonia. I barely function at work. I often end up working from bed and only push myself to meet deadlines or attend meetings. Outside of work, I'm almost always in bed because nothing feels rewarding or worth doing.

The downside is that venlafaxine/desvenlafaxine also seem to worsen my physical symptoms, especially TMJ, body aches, chronic tongue pain/burning, acid reflux, and poor sleep quality.

I've also failed sertraline, fluoxetine, escitalopram (gave severe mood fluctuations), and couldn't tolerate bupropion.

At this point, would you:

Increase venlafaxine to 112.5 mg (or eventually 150 mg)?

Switch to vortioxetine?

Consider TMS or esketamine?

My biggest goal is to improve motivation, energy, and the ability to enjoy life while keeping my depression under control and not making my physical symptoms worse.

I would really appreciate any recommendations in this situation. Thanks so much!

I've been on vortioxetine for 2 months, upped to 20mg since 2 weeks.

I'm really rooting for this one, no classical SSRI ever did a lot for me and I'm really stuck in a spiral with shitty life circumstances and feeling too overwhelmed to change something.

Thing is I'm abusing alcohol because I'm so fucking tense it feels unbearable sometimes (few beers most nights) and on the weekends often mess with stimulants or mild psychedelics. I guess I'm chronically chemically imbalancing myself. I was wondering if this might make the vortioxetine not work (properly). I mean I know the basic medical answer is "of course", but I'm interested in the nuances.

If I felt just 20% more stable I'd feel more equipped to deal with my destructive habits, too. I'm hoping the two factors (my behaviour and the meds) may become mutually reinforcing in a positive direction.

See title. I landed on Trintellix in April after several failed trials of other medications. I was experiencing really bad brain fog which is my psychiatrist recommended it. In conjunction with Spravato, I think it's helped a little, but I seem to have hit a wall and my psychiatrist now wants me to go up to 15 mg (and later 20 mg).

For context, the last antidepressant to truly work for me was Lexapro at 20 mg. So I'm hoping the high dose of Trintellix will work this time around. Any and all encouragement would be helpful 😊

Anyone experienced breakthrough depression while on Trintellix? I'm on 10mg for around 1 year and 10 months and I can feel depression coming back :( I have tried 15mg in the past but found it was too activating for me. Obviously I will discuss this with my doctor just wondering about people's experiences. Did you increase the dose or switch to a different med?