Nightmare is getting better (Cipramil)

Member Name: mreyre

Product:	Cipramil
Date:	04/12/02 (4165 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: does make you feel better

Disadvantages: possible side effects, takes a while to "kick in", Tablets alone will not sort out your life!

After reading through a fellow dooyoo user’s review (“karenuk”) on the anti-depressant “Cipramil”, and being able to sympathize directly with many of her experiences, this prompted me to write my own review of the drug, as well as my experiences of it. After reading her review, I was relieved to know that someone else had been going through similar experiences and traumatic experiences as I have during the last few months.

Firstly, a bit of background…

As regular dooyooers will know, I am currently a primary school teacher, and have been teaching for over 7 years now. I am also married to a teacher, which helps in some ways, as you can share experiences and help each other through difficult times, but hinders in others, as we never have any time for each other. We also have a 4 year old daughter, who takes up a lot of time. My wife and I have been through the bad and good times, and just about survived along the way.

Over the last seven years, teaching has become more and more pressurized, with added paperwork and administration. During this time, I have gradually lost faith in the education system. Although I enjoy teaching immensely, I am often forced into teaching lessons in a particular style, and take huge amounts of work home. However, that’s another story for another dooyoo debate, but suffice to say that I became increasingly depressed, especially over the last two years. As with most blokes, I was reluctant to go and see a doctor about my spiralling depression, so just continued throwing saucepans across the kitchen and not actually addressing the problem in hand. I had been taking prescribed blood pressure tablets for a while to treat very high blood pressure, I’m only 28, so this was worrying enough.

Unfortunately, the pressure of work and other factors proved too much and due to legal reasons I can’t divulge details on this website, but for background purposes I ha

ve been off work for the last two months – this is set to continue for a long time yet, I would imagine. (However, as you will note, I have been making good use of my time writing dooyoo reviews whilst on leave!)

It was after one very particular bad day at work that I had got it in my mind that life was no longer worth living, the pressure of various factors had driven me to the lowest time in my life, and I (foolishly) decided to leave a note and throw myself into the local river. In the end, I got close to the water’s edge, but couldn’t throw myself over. I then tried to jump in front of a train, but I also bottled out of that one, too. After that, my wife promptly took me to the doctors, and after a long chat, he prescribed me various tablets to help relieve the stress, and signed me off work. As he said, “the tablets can’t sort out your life for you, but they can certainly help relieve the pain.”

He initially put me on a high dose of Diazepam (which is probably around on the dooyoo site elsewhere), along with the antidepressant, Cipramil. This comes in easy to swallow tablet form, and can be broken into smaller doses if required – I’m currently on 20mg a day. Cipramil belongs to the group of medicines known as antidepressants, which work by relieving the symptoms of a depressed mood. The drug is used to treat the symptoms of depression and, when you’re feeling better, to help prevent the symptoms recurring. Cipramil is also beneficial in relieving symptoms in patients prone to panic attacks. Treatment is usually continued for about 6-9 months.

As with all drugs, there are possible side effects. The tablets contain a small amount of glycerol, and at high doses, glycerol can cause headaches, stomach aches and diarrohea. Other medication shouldn’t really be taken alongside Cipramil, eg. St. John’s Wort or any anticonvulsants. I must say that since being on the tablets
I hav
e been making more regular visits to the toilet, and have thought about taking shares out in Andrex. However, I think due to the stress, this has made the problem worse, and IBS is often associated with stress anyway.

Obviously it takes a while for the drugs to get into your system, and often you feel worse before you feel better, like an emotional rollercoaster. It’s also about finding the right balance through trial and error. As I am also on Diazepam, it’s difficult to judge which of the drugs is having the best (or worst) effect. I would say for the first week, I felt no better at all, in fact, I probably felt worse, and was very tired, I would sleep for 12 hours at night, and for about 4 hours in the afternoon also. If I went out of the house, I would have fits of paranoia, as if everyone and everything was out to get me, or talking about me as I walked past. I found it difficult to even walk down to the end of the street and back.

Then as the next week progressed, I started feeling a bit more awake, and better within myself, but started to feel extremely dizzy. This especially happened when I got out of bed or out of the bath, and especially at the top of a flight of stairs – it was as though I was going to fall down them. I had to wait a good five minutes before venturing down stairs. The doctor halved my dose of Diazepam, and the symptoms ceased.

As the weeks progressed, the tablets have made me feel better. Obviously I have not been at work and taking it easy, which all contributes to feeling better anyway. These last couple of weeks I have been staying away, with my parents and feel far better. During this last month, I have also been making regular visits to a counsellor, which has made me think about “me” as a person and why I have been behaving like I am.

My words of advice to anyone in a similar position, on Cipramil, Diazepam or any other anti-depressant is that the tablets a
lone will
not sort out your life, they just alleviate some of the pain. You have to find what is right for you, and find yourself, as I have had to do. This does not happen overnight, and it is still an uphill struggle for me as I look elsewhere for a change of career, and to be nearer to my family, which means everything when you think the whole world is against you.

Thank you for taking the time to read this review, as I stated, I was prompted to write this article after reading “karenuk”’s review – it just goes to show that there are other sufferers out there who would be willing to help.

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