Best "Senior" Antidepressants

I am 71 and take medications for cancer, a blood thinner& a beta blocker. I also have migraines & hiatal hernia-fun, fun, fun. I am now also anxious & depressed. Doctors just throw new medications at me as an answer to my concerns as if another pill will fix everything. As a senior I’m finding everything has almost intolerable side effects so I stop them hence no benefit & more anxiety. Do most doctors not realize that seniors metabolize drugs differently? I have kidney & liver functions affected by my cancer drugs. Could that be a reason for drug intolerance? Harder and harder to feel good.

“When it rains it pours” the downpour has been continuous for 2 years. I am so sorry you are faced with the breast cancer and the mastectomies. I have had that scare and then it was lifted. Prayers for you. Thank you for your thoughts. I wish my kids would give assistance but doesn’t happen - they have busy lives and have never shown any desire. I agree with what could help. But feel like hostage to myself.

I’m so sorry for all you are dealing with. Seems what might be good for one thing is not good for another. Perhaps your pharmacist might be able to tell you about possible known interactions and intolerances. Wishes for answers and brighter days.

So sorry. I would look for new doctor, an older psychiatrist who would have more experience and hopefully more empathy.

GeneSight does not test for BOTH MTHFR genes, therefore the recommended medications are not accurate. My report stated 5 antidepressants I could take. I had already tried all 5 which ALL ended up giving me horrific suicide ideation. It was awful coming off of them, as well. I’m now afraid to try anything except supplements which help a little but not enough.

I have to be honest- I resisted taking a med for anxiety and depression. But when St Johns Wort, Kava Kava & various aromatherapies simply did not work, I succumbed. I started on Lexapro 20 years ago (5 mg/day) and in the last year I upped it to 10mg/day. It does the trick for me.

I participated in a hands-on energy workshop for 8 days called Shen emotional release therapy. I was medication-free for a whole year afterwards. Shen is similar to Reiki, though more intensive. You might look into energy healing as there are numerous books about it. It is very powerful with the right experienced sensitive healer.

Your kids are too "busy" to offer any assistance to you when you've had a health scare? Do they live locally? You took care of them, and raised them when they needed the help, now it's their turn to help you. I simply can not fathom how a family can be so dysfunctional in today's society.
Family was the most important part of people's lives until recently, but not so much any more. The most important things in people's lives now is themselves, they come first. It's becoming a generational thing, and I'd put the blame on social media. Everyone's face is glued to a device of some kind during every waking hour, and it's turning the world into a population of narcissists.
I'm sorry that you're experiencing what's happening to you, and I wish that your kids would realize how important you are while you're still here.

mrmacabre: Truer works have never been spoken. When we were growing up family was everything. We all lived close to one another, Sunday dinners, big holiday gatherings with immediate and extended family and personally I called my mother just about every day to check in on her.
Today? These 30s and 40s adult "children" are so self-absorbed and are completely clueless on being there for their senior parents - especially when help is needed due to sickness or other issues where a parent needs some assistance. It is not asking too much...they SHOULD be more than willing and able to help their parents. But it is like pulling teeth. It's like only their lives matter at their age - and the heck with the "aging" Mom or Dad. Yes, social media to blame but that's only part of it. It's a mindset they have and no idea why they all (mostly) became narcissists.
We certainly didn't raise them that way! And I have found this behavior really comes out once they reach the 30s and 40s. Just when we are moving into our 60s and 70s. Yes, will they realize all this when we are 6 feet under or blowing in the wind? Who knows. I never found my aging mother to be a burden. I did everything I could for her...by her side when she lost my father and as she went through the aging process with multiple health issues. In my opinion, this is a MAJOR issues in our society today - it shows up in all ways.
And it is more common that we think - we have expectations about our adult children - "normal" expectations and they don't step up to the plate. It is very sad...

I really don't understand it, my wife and I are both in our 60's. I've been retired on SSDI for almost ten years now, and she still works full time. Our kids both have families of their own, but they have both gone above and beyond to help us in more than one way ever since I had to retire. We took a huge financial hit when I did that, and we had to live with our son and his family for 2 years, but that's what families do for one another.
In 2001, my wife and I had to fly down to LA from where we live, north of Seattle, and move her mom up to Washington state so she could move in with us because my mother in law's 2nd husband bailed on her, and she couldn't afford to live on her own.
So we flew down there, rented a truck, drove up to Crestline, CA where she was staying with her other daughter, and loaded her stuff. Then we drove over 100 miles to my MIL's sister's house to pick up some more stuff, loaded that into the truck, and started driving north on interstate 5. Just to make things more interesting, my MIL was bringing her car, which had a manual transmission. By the first time we stopped, my wife didn't want her mom to be alone during the trip, so I had to drive her car, and my wife drove the truck with her mom in the other seat because she couldn't drive a stick.
Long story short(too late) we moved her up here to Mt. Vernon, Wa. and she moved in with us. Not long after this happened, our son and his wife and their 18 month old daughter had to also move in with us because the business he and someone else had started went under, and they had to declare bankruptcy and sell their home.
So at one point, we had 4 generations living under one roof. It wasn't easy, but we made it work. Our son moved out after a couple of years, and has been very successful ever since, and my MIL lived with us for over 11 years before she passed away in 2013.
This is what a family does for each other.