Side effects of psych meds: How do I find the right medication combination?

Sometimes the side effects of medication can make your brain feel like its storming.

Maybe you’re starting on this mental health journey or maybe you’ve been on it for a while. To some degree, you’ve accepted that you could use some help managing your symptoms and you’re open to trying medication. Unfortunately, medication trials are not miracles. What does that mean? In my experience, finding the right medication combination takes patience and perseverance largely due to the side effects of psych meds . How come? Well, the right medication can do a lot for you like: 

• Stabilize your mood 

• Promote better quality sleep 

• Reduce anxiety 

• Help you think clearer 

• Improve your energy levels 

• Allow you to more fully engage in life with symptom control 

But even with those great benefits medication can also: 

• Make you drowsy (sometimes even too drowsy to function) 

• Numb you (so you can’t quite experience the full spectrum of human emotions) 

• Contribute to weight gain 

• Cause odd or distressing side effects like an uncontrollable urge to move or lactation 

So, what in the world do you do?

1. Accept

Accept that medication trials are a process. Give yourself permission to feel frustrated by the process, angry when a medication gives you an unwanted side effect or suddenly stops working, or happy when you find one that clicks and helps your brain feel a little better. Acceptance can help you manage your expectations of the process. There’s a reason why the field of medicine is called a “practice”. It’s because despite the advances we’ve made in the medical field, there’s still a lot to learn. Accept the imperfections of the current approach. Acceptance goes a long way to facilitating the patience you need to get to the combination that helps you live your best life.  

2. Track

Medications can take as many as 6 to 8 weeks to show effectiveness. That amount of time can make it difficult to see progress. Tracking your symptoms will provide valuable information for both you and your team. You can rate things like how depressed you feel, your anxiety levels, how much energy you have etc. If you don’t know where to start the Depression and Bipolar Support Alliance (DBSA) offers a free symptom tracker available here. If that tracker doesn’t work for you, think about what’s important to you like what symptoms you most want to work on. From there you can create your own. Along with documenting your symptoms you may find it helpful to track the following: 

• Sleep hours 

• Substance use 

• Daily events 

These three things can greatly impact symptoms/mood and noting them will help you contextualize your symptoms so that you know how each of these factors effect you as a whole.

3. Communicate

Your team can’t treat what they don’t know about. Your support system can’t support what they’re not aware of. On your journey, take the information you learn from tracking and share it. Partner with your team and support system so that they have a better idea of how to best support you. If you find talking about it hard, you can always try letters or emails. I’ve even had a therapist recommend using a code word to indicate certain mood states to make it easier to alert those around me to what’s going on without having to go on about it at length. 

Takeaways 

Medication trials are a journey in and of themselves, but by playing an active role in your treatment you can use them as a learning experience to help accelerate you to stability, happiness, and peace. As you learn, share with others so that you can get the support you desire because you are so deserving of the right kind of help. Ultimately, don’t get disheartened. In the decade preceding 2025, there were 16 new medications developed for the treatment of psychiatric illness. If you haven’t found your combo yet, it may still be out there or a new treatment might be right around the corner. Hang in there, your peace is possible.