SM34: YES! This happened to me and my spouse too! He went on Wellbutrin for stress at work, mild depression and within months, turned into another person. Suddenly wanted a divorce, had an online emotional affair with one woman and then started dating a coworker. He moved out and is now having a full blown affair. Last we spoke he said he'd gotten off the medication but I don't even know whether I should believe him.
Problem is, he was already in the thick of it with this other woman. Too far along to turn back even if he had gotten off the drugs. Hard to compete with the intense sexual feelings of a new attraction.
The symptoms of emotional blunting from antidepressants overlap with classic midlife crisis symptoms, but I really think the drugs put him in a frame of mind of suddenly completely losing all attachment to me, becoming cold/cruel, and thinking it was OK to have affairs.
Tomorrow I'm going on antidepressants myself. I'm not a fan but I'm in such a dark place, I need to. Kind of hoping I'll lose all my feelings for him. Would be easier...
Oh wow. I’m glad I found this thread today. My w has been on Zoloft for at least a year, during which time she started to drink way more alcohol and eventually she put herself into a psychiatric hospital in June this year and filed for divorce in July. It seems to explain her total change in personality- from a loving kind woman to someone who absolutely hates me and won’t even talk to me. She moved out two weeks ago and the divorce is going ahead, I’m DB-ing and GAL but it does seem futile in an athenot to get her back, of course the changes will help me get to a better place for myself. Sadly there’s no chance I could dare to broach the subject with W, but this thread has given me some possible answers to explain the drastic change in personality of my W
Me:48 W:43, Kids:S19, S17, S10, S8 M:10 years BD:06-18-2018
In many ways we are still in the dark ages when it comes to mental illness understanding and treatment. Hopefully with time we'll have a better understanding of the impact of SSRI's and other medications, but right now there simply isn't enough data.
Please understand that the answer to your situation is not to simply get your spouse to quit taking SSRI's. More often than not their body chemistry has adjusted to the SSRI's and to suddenly quit taking them after years can result in catastrophic consequences. A friend of mine became convinced the SSRI's he was on were responsible for his weight gain and other health issues so he quit taking them. He immediately spiraled into deep depression and became suicidal. He started taking them again but his body DID NOT RESPOND to them the 2nd time!! He ended up in a mental hospital for 6 months undergoing radical treatment including electroshock therapy. It took another year to find the right combination of drugs to get him back to a semblance of normality.
In short, SSRI's may very well be responsible for many of our situations. But getting our spouse off of them will not magically fix things either.
In short, SSRI's may very well be responsible for many of our situations. But getting our spouse off of them will not magically fix things either.
I agree with this statement. While I don't blame the medication itself for contributing to our S, it is responsible for pushing my passive-agressiveness to the extreme. It helped me a lot dealing with my depression and anxiety, but it also may ultimately lead to my divorce.
That being said, I'm on different medications now, in therapy to address my issues, and getting myself healthier for the DB journey I'm on. The meds help. But it's not something that makes everything instantly better.
hey i know this thread is like 7 years old, but i thought i should reply because i to went through this with my now ex girlfriend of 8 years, my ex for the longest time had extreme symptoms of bipolar disorder, where she would be happy one minute or extremely angry and frustrated the next. i tried talking to her about this and why she was like this, she would just get angry and it would turn into arguments. so one day she finally told me that she thinks its her anxiety and that she gets bad anxiety. this is about a year after our baby was born.
so she went on these antidepressants . im not sure what they are called , but when you start taking them the first week you do 1 a day , then second week you do 2 a day, then third three a day and forth 4 a day and then continue at 4 a day.
my ex started becoming drousy at night when she started taking them. i noticed her majorly disconnecting from our relationship, and pretty much everything. she started taking off going out drinking and partying almost daily. wouldnt come home till late at night or the next day, and when i approached her on this i was met with annoyance, anger and frustration.
then she broke up with me about 3 weeks after going on these pills, i found out there was another guy that she just met about 2 weeks earlier . i found out from her call logs. but she just got angry and told me its non of my business.
she then continued to tell me that she hasnt loved me for 2 years and that she didnt think she ever loved me during our whole relationship. i tried to convince her it was the medication but she denied and denied everything, i showed her our thousands of family photos that we had taken, she said that they were all fake and she never was happy, and that photos dont mean anything, at this point she was so addicted to instagram that she was on there from sun up to sun down. i even remember her after she broke up with me telling me that she wants what they instagramers want, they all have picture perfect familes and photos and all there men bought the women houses and it was just a bunch of crap.
i think the antidepressants disabled part of her brain that deciphers fantasy from reality, but honestly, its like she went from a loving caring gf, who had some issues , but nothing to end a relationship over, to like this enemy who wont put down there guard and is rude and verbally abusive and just hateful.
these drugs seem so dangorus. i just dont know , it doesnt seem like theres nothing i can do to save her either but let her go and hopefully one day she at least gives me an appology
