HCV and starting pegasys treatment

Hi,i am recovered drug addict.I was diagnosed with HCV-4 and i am day before starting my interferon treatment.I am aware of all side effects and also scared.Can anyone,who is on this med and has addiction history tell me how he feel,is it harder then normally to keep mind off drugs,are this psychiatric side effect,depression etc.hard to bear?

[joemc34606]

I am not a recovering addict but I can tell you they wanted me to start anti depressants before treatment but I refused until I saw how I felt. Im glad I didnt because I was fine and did 2 years of interferon and infergen treatment, I just felt I didnt wanna take any more drugs than I had to. The treatment effects everyone differently so its hard to tell, I was scared when I started also but my sides are minimal compared to some. Just go into it with the attitude that your gonna beat this s*** and take it one day at a time. Good luck
Joe

[nygirl7]

There are a lot of ex drug addicts and alcoholics on here.........as you can imagine we are a prime source on getting this disease.

I took Paxill to help with the depression and it didn't bother me to go off it.  

[Ajw78757]

It has only been 5 days on treatment for me, and I can most certainly say the anxiety and fear of treatment were a million times worse than the side effects so far.

I am aware the sides can change and worsen over time,-stay the same , or even lessen but just for today...I am ok.

No one seems to have the same sides or severity.

I have read hundreds of threads, this site is a wealth of knowledge.

I did not opt for anti-depressants to see how I do.

7 years clean last month.
Keep plugged into or get replugged into whatever helped you get recovered,
there is more support there than could be imagined.

[desrt]

12 step programs are a good resource and they're free. If there is no NA group nearby, you can usually find an AA group that's accepting of addicts.

[dreamcat]

I haven't started tx yet, but hopefully within the next few weeks.  I am also a recovering drug addict and alcoholic (20 years clean and sober), and I'm also on an AD for the past few years.  I fully intend to keep on them, perhaps even kick 'em up a notch, if necessary, as I'm prone to depression.  

Once again, I'm so grateful to have found this site.  I'm sure once I get going, I will be posting more, but for now, it's so useful to read everything.