Therapy and Medication.

[Opheliaccs]

So I started therapy(Nobody, not friends or family know) two weeks ago, tomorrow I have my third appointment and tomorrow morning I'm starting to take medication(Sertralina), I'm putting my hopes in both treatments to help me out of my depression and I want to hear any stories of success or failure you may have with either, wether you are a newbie as myself or have a long term experience with it.

[DN]

I have no experience but I do know that psychologists say that a combination of therapy and medication has been proven to be more effective than one without the other.

 

Good luck

[sonjam]

Ive been on Aropax (anti-depressant) once for about 8 months after I lost my finacee. IT was the best thing that could happen to me. With just the right dossage, and genuinly needing it (I think I did not have seratonin left in my brain) if helped me through a very deep and dark depressive time in my life. I went off it gradually, and I've been fine for 2 x years. I also see FAR less depressive episodes, and they don't last even close as long as they used to.

 

Combining medication with therapy is the best thing you can do. It will help get your chemical imbalance right in your brain, and in the mean time, help you sort out the problem that help cause the depression. (mentally)

 

Bravo in taking action for yourself!

[Jimbo10]

My mom, who I just see as the strongest person I know, had a problem with depression for a while about 2 years ago. We have a great family, actually, I should say we're very privilaged, and I really don't know the reason she was depressed, but it is a chemical problem, and I'm not a doctor or a chemist......aaanyway

 

She got on medication, and it was great. She slept a lot for a few weeks, and took some time off work. Me and my bro and my dad were worried, but she started getting perkier and perkier. She took the meds for a year, just becuase you don't want something to go back the way it was. It all turned out great. She's back to herself now, and it's all better

 

Let me tell you something she said to me I'll never forget. She told me that getting herself to the doctor to admit something was really wrong was the hardest part of the whole ordeal. So, congratulations, I can't promise it, but if she's anything like you, the most difficult task is done with. Good work, and goood luck

[Wimpy]

Hey there I'd agree 100% with Jimbo - getting yourself to the Doctor IS the hardest part. I started on Prozac January 2003 and was on it for 15 months - to say it changed the course of my life is an under-statement! I was also having some counselling to try and figure out what was causing the increasingly more frequent, longer depressive episodes. No-one in my family knew for months and months. The only people I discussed it with were some really close personal friends and everyone one of them had either been there themselves or knew someone who had.

 

I've been off the AD's for a year almost now and although I get down days they are normal - everyone gets them.

 

Keep at it and well done for taking the initiative and the action.

 

Let us know how you're getting on.

[Opheliaccs]

getting herself to the doctor to admit something was really wrong was the hardest part of the whole ordeal.

 

I think it's probably true, I mean it took 9 months for me to admit that I had a problem.

First I tried to deny it existed at all because I thought only weak people got depressed, then things got worse and I dropped the semester, so I recognized something was going off but I thought I just needed a break and that I could fix matters by myself, then I finally surrendered to depression and hid for days under the bedcovers whishing it to go away, that I could wake up and be 'me' again, active, ambitious IV league college student, but it just wouldn`t leave me.

 

I sank deeper into self-injury and I kicked myself out of bed last December to get an appointment with a counsellor, the moment came, but I couldn't bring myself to leave the house that day(I live alone).

Early January the self-injury started too get a bit out of hand and the suicidal thoughts became more and more recurrent, more serious and less especulative and I got scared.

I reached for help for real this time, because truth is I don't really want to die or feel sad all the time or hurt myself anymore and wistful thinking and moping acomplishes NOTHING.

 

 

PD: I noticed some of you, like me, got help without telling your relatives, why didn`t you? are any of you afraid or ashamed to tell your parents what you are going through? why?

[tazthespaz44]

I'm 14, and I have been in therapy since I was about 7. It started off with "play therapy," and then I stopped for a while and then I went back to therapy when I was 11. I have also been on medication since I was 11. I have been on numerous anti-depressents, mood-stabilizers, etc.. I am Bi-Polar 2, Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD), "oppositional defiance disorder," and some substance abuse. Right now I take Abilify ( a mood stabilizer used for forms of bi-polar disorders. For me, it helps me from getting manic ("hyper") and calms my thoughts so i can think straight.), Lamictal (another mood-stabilizer used to treat bad mood swings. ((its actually a anti-seizure medication. (anti-seizure medications are common with treating mood-disorders.))) Saroquel (an anti-physicotic used to help with anxiety or insomnia. I take a very SMALL dose and it still knocks me off my butt. I only take 12.5mg and it feels like I'm stoned. I love it. It makes me care about NOTHING. Sometimes my anxiety gets so out of hand, that I cant control it, but this stuff REALLY helps a lot. ) Trazadone (a sleep-aid used for insomnia. I have started taking this, but I take double the dose and I still can't sleep, so this stuff just doesnt work for me (but it does work for some people.)) Vistirill (this is actually an antihistamine (sp?) I believe. The stuff in it clams your nerves. But still, for me, it doesnt work as well as the Seroquel.) Welabuterin (sp?) is a well known anti-depressant, but for me, when I added it to the mix of all the other medications, it gave me an "unreal" feeling. Adding it to the Abilify was a bad mix.

Well, I hoped some of this helped. If you have any questions or anything, IM me: abbyhilsher . And another important thing is: you have to find the right therapist. It has taken me a few years to find mine, but now that i have found her, I'm starting to go forward in my treatment. good luck,