Can anti-depressants cause hormonal imbalance?

Thank you for your question. Anti-depressants and sleeping pills are prescription medications as opposed to over the counter medication. These medications, as pointed out by Dr Israr Wong, have potential long term side effects and may be addictive. It is more important to find out the reason for the depression or your inability to sleep (medically known as insomnia). Treating the underlying cause of a condition often leads to a more sustainable outcome and even to a potential cure. Depression is an increasingly common symptom in a fast-paced and high pressure society like in Singapore.

Thank you for sharing your story with us. It appears to me you may have eating disorder with co-morbid depression. Both conditions can be aggravated by stress and both need to be treated. It will be good if you can carefully recall all the treatments that you have received over the years and write down all down. If you have been admitted to hospital, you can also refer to the discharge summaries that you have received from the hospital. You can create two columns, 1 for the type of treatment (including medication) and the other for the response that you have following that treatment modality.