Mother gave me Prozac and Zoloft mixed now feeling sick

[sickly21yearold]

I’m a 21 year old male, I’ve been taking Zoloft since I was 17. I’ve also actively smoked marijuana daily while on the antidepressant without any issues. I’m also pretty underweight (5’6, 115lb). I also should mention I have appetite issues. I don’t eat breakfast, I have no appetite when I wake up, I need to be up for at least three hours before I have an appetite to even think about food. The appetite thing is something I’ve delt with my entire life without any serious issue. About three days ago my Zoloft prescription (pill) ran out so my mother suggested I have some of my little brother’s antidepressant which was liquid that needs to be diluted in water. I drank it and immediately wanted to vomit (which was unsurprising because I’m sensitive to disgusting tasting liquids, I cannot drink alcohol). So the liquid tasted pretty bad but didn’t have any initial effects and I went about my day playing Xbox and smoking weed a couple times and everything was fine. Later on that night at about 11:30 I decided to have a late smoke and then got back on Xbox. About 15 minuets later I was hit like train with extreme nausea and a killer head ache. I immediately cashed out on what I was doing on Xbox and went to my bed in hopes that I could just sleep it off and be Ok in the morning. Next morning I woke up and that seemed to have worked besides a very minor headache. So I opted to smoke weed as usual when I don’t have class or work, besides, weed normally helps relieve my headaches or other physical pain and helps me relax. I got on Xbox, played for about fifteen minutes and boom, I got hit with the same nausea and headache. So I immediately got off Xbox, took an ibuprofen and decided that I probably just needed one day of rest and nourishment and I’d be back to normal. I was completely unsure what was wrong with me. I thought I might have been suffering withdrawal from Zoloft. I also thought it could have been the weed (which made less sense). Then I started thinking about that disgusting liquid antidepressant my mom suggested I take once. Then my mom admitted that she had mixed two different antidepressants in liquid form AND gave me a .75 dose instead of a .50 dose which was recommended for my brother (for just one of the antidepressant solutions). I’ve been bed ridden since. My symptoms I’ve been experiencing are really strange. My headache and nausea wasn’t that bad but I knew if I smoked weed, played Xbox, looked at my phone, or did anything besides rest could possibly reaggravate whatever I was experiencing. I know it wasn’t congestion related, my airways and mucous wasn’t bothering me. Nothing in my throat felt bad. It wasn’t from dehydration because I drink hella water and nothing else. Could it be from my lack of appetite catching up to me? I didn’t change my eating habits or eat any less than I normally would before I got sick. It’s still all the same today and I know what’s gunna happen if I go to the doctor. They’ll check me for a bunch of stuff I don’t have and I’ll have to pay for it. What I’m experiencing is so unique that I’m That convinced they won’t find out what I have. And plus I’m day 3 into this so I should be getting well soon? Also forgot to mention that I got my updated Zoloft prescription the day after taking the liquid antidepressant, so I’m back on it. I’ve tried searching the web for what I might have and Serotonin Syndrome seemed to make the most since but that’s a pretty serious condition. Here’s the overview of Serotonin Syndrome from Mayo Clinic: “Serotonin syndrome occurs when you take medications that cause high levels of the chemical serotonin to accumulate in your body. Serotonin syndrome can occur when you increase the dose of such a drug or add a new drug to your regimen. Certain illegal drugs and dietary supplements also are associated with serotonin syndrome.”
It checks all the boxes, the abrupt new drug, the fact that I take an antidepressant and smoke weed routinely.
I’m so done lying in my bed unable to do anything in fear of re-escalating what I might have. I’m becoming depressed because I can’t do anything.
Any ideas or suggestions would be nice.
This is my last effort until I just go to the damn doctor.

[Paxiled]

You don't have Serotonin Syndrome.  Stay off Google trying to diagnose yourself.  It's very uncommon.  You probably have withdrawal from abruptly stopping your Zoloft -- you can't do that, you need to taper off of it slowly should you ever decide to stop taking it.  Even then you'll probably have some withdrawal, and how severe it will be depends on the person.  I'm very concerned about your Mom -- please don't take this the wrong way, you haven't said all that much about your life so I really don't know what it's like, but your family sounds like one that is very much into drugs.  Prescription, non-prescription, mixing drugs together without telling someone -- this is not normal.  This is not healthy.  This will eventually make you nuts, and might have something to do with why you're having this problem.  Your life sounds odd for someone trying to shake depression -- smoking weed as much as you do might be making it harder for the Zoloft to work, and you don't mention any form of therapy so I can't know if you're actually trying to fix this -- you're medicating the symptoms, but you're not describing a young person trying to get over this thing for good when you're best able to do so because of all the adaptability of the young, including handling not eating properly.  If you keep on this path it will catch up to you, and if you're depressed, it already has.  I couldn't care less if you like to get high sometimes, but when you feel you can't get through a day without being high, you're not getting high anymore, you're just maintaining -- you're self-medicating.  I don't care about this either, really, it helps some that nothing else does, but if it was working you wouldn't need the Zoloft.  Anyway, go back on the Zoloft, stop taking anything your Mom gives you now and in the future, and see if things don't go back to normal in a couple of weeks.  If they do, you've learned a valuable lesson about the care needed to take these meds.  Pot, by the way, is a lot easier to stop taking -- it generally doesn't cause withdrawal.  You also say you're becoming depressed because you don't know what to do, but again, if you're on Zoloft I'm assuming you're already suffering from depression, right?  You're not taking it now, so if you haven't done anything to fix that, you've still got it.  If you quit the Zoloft and you didn't suffer withdrawal, some don't, and you also didn't feel at all depressed, then you didn't need it in the first place, which is true for young people especially but generally way more often than most people know as doctors prescribe first in the US and ask questions later.  Well, most of them don't actually ask questions at all.  Let us know what happens when you're back on the Zoloft and if that doesn't solve this current problem.  But you're right, you don't mix two antidepressants unless they target different neurotransmitters or you have such a difficult case to treat out of the box things have to be tried.  But know that taking pot or alcohol or any downer type of drug along with depression can make it worse.  Doesn't have to, but in a lot of cases it does.  Peace.

[sickly21yearold]

I appreciate the detailed response. I was beginning to think nobody would respond. I think you missread my submission or it was probably just my fault for writing this under the depression topic. It was the closest topic to antidepressants. I initially became depressed when I was 17 for personal reasons and I was prescribed Zoloft and got a therapist. I’ve learned to cope with my depression and time has done good with healing me. I’m still on Zoloft because my doctor recommended it for my social anxiety. It’s a really small dose just 50mmg. And if it wasn’t time that helped ease my depression it was weed. Just having something to look forward to every day is awesome. Weed helps me live in the Now.
As far as my temporary condition, I was just trying figure out what I had without going to the doctor. As I said in my original post, I only didn’t take Zoloft for one day because my prescription ran out. I got the updated prescription and am back on Zoloft. And as of this morning, I’m feeling pretty well now. I guess I was right about being in the dying embers of whatever I had, all I needed was about 4 days of rest and nourishment. Thank god I didn’t go to the doctor.

[AnxiousNoMore]

I do not think dependency on weed is the answer to your problems, but you are best to discuss this with your therapist because he will know better than I.

[Paxiled]

Yeah, you didn't say this much in the original post.  As I thought, though, it was withdrawal.  Even though you were on a small dose, your brain is still going to have to learn to live without it when you decide to stop, and different people absorb drugs at different levels.  If that small of a dose is helping you, then you probably absorbed it well, which will make it harder to stop taking.  Just take it slow if you decide to do that.  As for depression, people really don't get depressed for "personal reasons," that makes them sad.  Depression is an illness without a known cause.  Everyone goes through "personal reasons" repeatedly in what is for everyone at some points a very difficult life, but the vast majority do not get depressed.  I only say this because a lot of people don't know the difference between mental illness and feeling lousy because life is really really hard sometimes.  In the opinion of many experts, way too many people are on medication for sadness or grief or hormonal problems etc. that don't really need to be on these very difficult meds.  In any case, I'm glad you've gotten past that part of it, and I hope whatever you need you get.  If pot is your answer, again, I'm fine with that.  I'm not sure that's true, though, and as someone a lot older than you I've gotta tell you, I've seen a lot of lives lost to drug use.  I'm just saying, if using a drug is all you have to look forward to every day, you still need a lot of therapy.  But if the pot is what is fixing a case of true depression, it's being used more and more medically and is a lot safer than any prescription drug.  From here I have no idea what's true in your life, you're a much better judge of that than I'll ever be.  Best of luck to you.