Have you started antidepressants since becoming a nurse?

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Heard there is a higher incidence of depression and anxiety amongst nurses (and doctors, lawyers, and others). Obviously the job is stressful. Since you've started working as a nurse, have you found that you need new, different, or more medication just to make it through?

FYI: I have a history of complicated depression and anxiety, but am not on meds.

Specializes in M/S, LTC, Corrections, PDN & drug rehab.

I'm on Zoloft & Vistaril but I was just recently put on it & I haven't been working. It's due to personal reasons. Maybe if I have been working or in school I wouldn't need the medication.

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Specializes in ED.

Most of my coworkers are on some form of anti-depressant. I have a long history of GAD and depression which has worsened while working in the ED. I stopped taking Lexapro because I could no longer afford it while in nursing school . I've been fighting going back on it but I am not doing myself any favors. My sleep schedule is nonexistent, I have frequent panic attacks, spend a lot of downtime in bed...life shouldn't be a series of living day to day like it is for me. You miss out on too much. Therapy is great if you can afford it/feel ok with it. My mom is a therapist and I know all of her coworkers (only place I could afford to go for therapy) so that is out for me.

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I think it might be the shift and lack of restful sleep. that and I've been too tired to exercise like I should...

Thinking you just called it, Nola. Is there ANY way you can get off nights?

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Specializes in LTC,Hospice/palliative care,acute care.

I've been on and off antidepressants for years,long before becoming an LPN. Situational anxiety/depression while dealing with the terminal illness of a parent responded well to meds and enabled me to balance a full time job, a 3 year old and the illness and subsequent death of my mother. I was close to crashing-I don't know what would have happened if a friend had not encouraged and supported me to get some help. Maybe my coping skills and support system really suck but when crap happens I sometimes need a little help.I am not ashamed.

I am trying to figure out if I am at that time again-a new position and additional responsibility at work has made finding a balance difficult. I am exhausted on the weekends. Too beat to do anything. I know myself enough to know self isolation has been one of my symptoms in the past but darn, I am older, I'm tired and I have much less tolerance for fools.And this work gig is tough....I just may be making a call soon...

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Specializes in Med/Surg, LTACH, LTC, Home Health.

No medications, but I am certain there are those who have felt compelled to wash my mouth out with soap, followed by a rinsing with the strongest mouthwash available on the market today.

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Specializes in Oncology.

I haven't been diagnosed as depressed, but feel I likely am. I have uncontrolled crying episodes frequently, and think about how I just want to up and leave my life and start over. I tried to talk to my primary care doctor about it, which took a lot of courage. She told me it was all situational and I just needed to get some sleep and gave me ambien. I haven't further pursued it since. I'm sure some of it is my job, but both my of sisters and my mother are on antidepressants and my father used to be.

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Thinking you just called it, Nola. Is there ANY way you can get off nights?

Nope... I gotta figure out a way to make this work.

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I've been on and off antidepressants for years,long before becoming an LPN. Situational anxiety/depression while dealing with the terminal illness of a parent responded well to meds and enabled me to balance a full time job, a 3 year old and the illness and subsequent death of my mother. I was close to crashing-I don't know what would have happened if a friend had not encouraged and supported me to get some help. Maybe my coping skills and support system really suck but when crap happens I sometimes need a little help.I am not ashamed.

I am trying to figure out if I am at that time again-a new position and additional responsibility at work has made finding a balance difficult. I am exhausted on the weekends. Too beat to do anything. I know myself enough to know self isolation has been one of my symptoms in the past but darn, I am older, I'm tired and I have much less tolerance for fools.And this work gig is tough....I just may be making a call soon...

Maybe I'm like you. I work while I'm at work, but at home I seem depleted of energy. It IS so hard, when you are depressed to make yourself get up and get goin. I think I'm going to make a call soon, too

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Specializes in Med nurse in med-surg., float, HH, and PDN.

Graduated from nsg. school in 1971, got married in 1989, and had an emotional breakdown in 1994. But I had been suffering from uncontollable crying jags periodically since I was five years old. My mother even thought of taking me to a psychiatrist when I was a child, but, you know, things like that weren't very common back then. So she prayed a lot and loved me through it all.

All of my problems came to a head when I started through menopause; it was like being ripped wide open and having salt dumped inside. Was diagnosed with Depression with a capital "D". I went onto an outpatient psych treatment program , started on Zoloft, and got into 1:1 therapy with a wonderful psychologist who helped me tease out the knots one thread at a time.

Have had a few situational episodes that required a change to some newer piggy-backed meds (bankruptcy, having to let my license lapse) but have otherwise been rocking along fairly well now on 40 mg. of Paxil qd for a good long while. Don't plan on going off of it.

A doc once explained to me, when I was grousing about having to be on medication, that I should look at my depression just as I would if it was a condition such as diabetes. It's treatable, but it seldom just goes away on its own.

So I can't say it's work that got to me. A lot of time I felt better at work than anywhere else.

I am still pretty much more comfortable by myself when off duty; I don't have much of a 'social life', which actually doesn't bother me even if some think it should. ( the ISOLATION Boogeyman, oh Lordy!) I know I don't take as good care of myself as I should. Could probably use a little of that CBT, but it's hard to summon spit sometimes, y'know?

The only real problem I have about work is 'where and when will my next PD case arrive?" Not​ having work depresses me....and my checking account!

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Specializes in LTC Rehab Med/Surg.

I've had problems with depression and anxiety most of my life, but I could ride them out until I felt better. I live a very simple life, in a very quiet part of the country. Even the early years of nursing were ok.

Then menopause tipped the scales toward unmanageable.

I took Prozac for about a year, then was able to live without it.

I've deliberately avoided stressful areas of nursing. I know my limits. I might have been able to work higher acuity patients in a large hospital with meds, but I preferred my small hospital with no meds.

To answer the question, nursing didn't cause me to start the Prozac. Menopause did. However, I wonder if I would have had to take it even for that brief time, it I hadn't had the stressful job of nursing.

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Specializes in Inpatient Oncology/Public Health.

I'm really starting to fear menopause from the last 2 posts. It makes sense. The ppd I had was the blackest depression I'd ever experienced.

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Specializes in Med nurse in med-surg., float, HH, and PDN.
I'm really starting to fear menopause from the last 2 posts. It makes sense. The ppd I had was the blackest depression I'd ever experienced.

Don't go by my experience! Many women go through it without lots of angst, I promise! My mother and sister barely had any trouble.

My menopause was 'merely' the door that opened up a way to clear out accumulated years of emotional shmutz that would have had to be dealt with sooner or later. I was a champion at suppression. For me, the only way out was through. It was tough, but I made it.

I can't say this from experience, as I haven't had children, but I suspect ppd might come from such an abrupt change in hormonal levels. Menopause is usually a slower process; well, that's my theory anyway, for what it's worth.

The good news is that you and I both came out of the deep-dark and there IS hope.

Winston Churchill said something pertinent; though he wasn't talking about depression, it still fills the bill:

When you are going through hell.......keep going.​

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