psychiatrist prescribed Vortioxetine after 5 mins— (21M, engineering student)
Hey everyone,
I’ve been struggling for years with what I thought could be ADHD (or something similar), but after finally working up the courage to see a psychiatrist , I left feeling more confused than helped. I’d really appreciate some advice or shared experiences.
My symptoms:
- Focus/Attention: My brain feels like a browser with 100 tabs open. I’ll sit down to study, blink, and suddenly 3 hours are gone—with nothing done. Time just… evaporates.
- Motivation: Even tiny tasks (like watching a 10-minute lecture or writing a few lines of code) feel like climbing a mountain. I procrastinate until the guilt is unbearable.
- Mental State: Constantly exhausted, stuck in my own head (hours of self-talk), and frustrated at how hard "normal" things feel.
- Social Anxiety: Sweating buckets around people, zero social life, and paralyzing indecision (even picking what to eat is stressful).
- The hospital experience: I prepared a whole list of these symptoms to discuss, but the doctor skimmed it, asked maybe 2 questions, and prescribed Vortioxetine in under 5 minutes. When I looked it up later, I saw it’s an antidepressant—not what I expected, since I was wondering about ADHD
- No discussion about side effects, no explanation of why an antidepressant . Just:
- "Take 5mg for a week, then 10mg for a month, come back later."
- No warning about potential side effects (I looked it up later and saw stuff about sexual dysfunction, nausea, etc.—kinda frightened me ).
My doubts:
- Has anyone taken Vortioxetine for similar issues? Did it help with focus/motivation, mood?
- Did you initially get misdiagnosed with depression? How did you get reevaluated?
- Meds combo: I’m already on Azathioprine (for Crohn’s)—anyone on both?
- I’m torn between giving this med a fair shot (maybe depression is causing my symptoms?) and feeling dismissed. Traveling to a different was a huge effort , and I can’t afford wasted trips.