Background: 34yo male, couple of years ago was on SSRI escilatopram (Cipralex which is same as Lexapro) for social anxiety/depression and had good result with it. However then I cought a nasty bug that caused my intestines to get inflamed and was left with IBS ever since. When I tried to take the Cipralex again it made my IBS worse, so I had to stop after 3 weeks. This was 2 years ago and I did not take any medications since then.
My tianeptine experience: going through a difficult life situation, even though I excercise regularly and try to stay positive, I felt my anxiety/depression is getting worse and started researching the various antidepressants. I came across Tianeptine and it looked very good on paper. I live in Europe where Tianeptine is sold in pharmacy, so talked to my doctor about it and she agreed that this might be worth a try and prescribed it for me (12.5mg 3 times daily). I've been on it for one week now. It's truth that it does not affect my gut in a bad way (in fact I noticed some positive changes for my IBS), but oh boy does it make me feel weird. After the first pill in the morning I feel good (kind of high) for 3 hours and then just big crash, feel tired, irritable and lethargic. When I take another dose, it makes me feel just more sleepy and numb. Then in the evening I feel pretty depressed. The depression it gives me is quite bad and I have to force myself to take it in the morning again. Today took just one pill around noon, still noticed the crash after couple of hours, but without taking another pill I made it to the evening without feeling like a zombie. I will probably keep going on 1-2 pills a day for another week and then report back. I hope it's just my body getting used to new stuff, the side effects will get weaker and it will start having some antidepressant effect for a change.
Other side effects that I noticed so far: difficulty expressing myself (can't think of the right word - this is quite annoying too), made me more forgetful (forgot keys at home, forgot stuff at the gym, this never happened to me previously), decreased motivation, increased irritability
Edited by soulfly, 15 October 2017 - 06:50 PM.