Mental Health, Medication and All that Jazz
The tense negotiation between being honest and being careful is a constant one that doggedly trails us all throughout our lives. Trying to strike an equilibrium between finding healing in your vulnerability all the while bearing in mind that you are very much beholden to the norms and stigmas of society is a hard balance indeed. But if there’s anything I’ve learned over the last few years it’s this: structuring your life around other people’s beliefs, expectations, ignorances, and stigmas is a slow death by a thousand self-inflicted paper cuts.
The more you talk, the more you share, the more you connect the dots between your own experience and that of others, the less stranded you feel. Whatever conclusions people draw are theirs to draw. What’s done in the dark, what’s said in the dark, what’s felt in the dark, what’s thought in the dark, needs to be dragged out from its hiding place and exposed in the light because no one can heal, truly heal, in the shadows by themselves.
“I went on medication because I couldn’t slow my mind down. I was exhausted from mentally running all the time. I would jump to the worst case scenario every time. I felt like everyone hated me. I hated me. Nothing was going to come of my life. I felt like I was a waste and disgusting. I had been doing therapy for years to handle trauma but my day-to-day existence was exhausting. I could sense happiness was out there but I couldn’t grasp it. I tried for so long on my own to not use medication but just sheer exhaustion is what finally convinced me to give it a try. Depression for me was a constant state of panic and racing mind. I lost interest in the things that made me happy or entertained me. I had a hopeless outlook. I experienced suicidal ideation and at the worst times, I had intrusive images of it. I experienced sleep problems. I had atrocious body image and self esteem. I gained weight. I had mood swings. Anything good or positive, my brain would just ruin for me. It was like I couldn’t have anything nice. I felt desperate. I remember feeling nervous that medication might make it worse and that I’d change. At the same time, I was hopeful that it could help.
I take half the recommended dose of Bupropion and it works great. I get the “sads” much less than I did before. When I went on the full dose, I had every side-effect imaginable and it was awful. It felt like a bomb was going off a few times every hour. I was dizzy, my ears were ringing. I finally called my doctor and pharmacist and I went off it. About a year later, after trying other medication, I wanted to try it again but not increase my dose. I started at a low dose for a week or two and then increased it. I remembered my brain felt quieter when I was on that low dose. I haven’t changed it since. Other options could increase my weight and since my body image was a part of my depression, I felt like it would be a losing battle if I gained weight while already feeling low.
I would tell people considering going on medication to tell those around them. Mental illness isn’t rational and the medication can make things dangerously worse. As the patient, it’s also hard to be objective regarding how it’s impacting you. I told my husband and his family about what I was doing and apologized in advance if I was snappy or weird. I also told my closest friends. It helped prevent awkward relationship bumps since they knew not to take it personally and knew to watch out for me. My husband and I agreed on a two month trial where he could be objective to what was happening to me. The first time I tried it at a full dose, I got angry incredibly quickly and it was my husband who finally said that he didn’t think it was good for me and he was right.
I started a second set of anti-anxiety medication during lockdown for a few months. I had lost my job and the world is super unsure right now. My biggest fear is not being able to support myself. They helped since I was waking up at 4 a.m. every single morning from panic but they made me tired and “less-than”. I started training again when my gym reopened and that helped reduce my anxiety enough to get off the second set. Until it stops working or if my doctor advises me to when I decide I want to start a family, I don’t plan on getting off my medication. I have a stable base that I can now build myself up from. It’s not the answer but it’s a start. Without it, it was like I was trying to build on a constantly tipping scale and getting nowhere.”
“I was fifteen and living alone during high-school. I was struggling with situational depression and dealing with childhood trauma. I was experiencing fatigue, crying spells, irritability. I was stressed out all the time and couldn’t get out of bed. Cipralex was the first antidepressant I tried and it made me sleep all day and all night. It actually increased depression symptoms. I experienced weight gain, fatigue, oversleeping. I wasn’t eating. I became insanely suicidal and ended up in the hospital. I also started experiencing panic attacks. I switched to Zoloft when I was in the hospital and it made me overly happy all the time. I was never upset, I never said no and I had no boundaries. I was always bouncy and bubbly on it. There were some bouts of fatigue and dizziness but it really pulled me into an unrealistic happy state.
When I finally made the decision to go on medication, I felt shame that I needed it. I think if someone is considering medication, I would advise them to explore all therapy options before medication. Going off Zoloft was the hardest thing I ever had to do. They say Zoloft is as addictive as heroine to come off of. I had the most intense withdrawal symptoms for three months. I was foaming at the mouth, shaking, passing out, fatigued. I experienced complete disorientation, feeling spaced out and lost. I was unfocused and irrational. After about three months, I was back to normal and haven’t been on meds since. I went off medication in 2014 because I was feeling better for the most part and started working out, eating healthy and was in college. I was much more stable so I went off them.”
“When I was about fifteen, I was having really awful stomach issues for over a year. They were especially bad if I had something stressful going on like a social gathering or an exam. I would vomit and have awful reflux that turned into a stomach ulcer. I could barely eat or drink and felt fatigued all the time. Because of all these symptoms and feeling like nobody felt the same way I was feeling, I had a really low mood and felt depressed. I saw my family doctor truly thinking I had some sort of physical condition that was making me sick. She suggested that I see a counsellor and start on an antidepressant but I never saw the counsellor. I started taking 30mg of Cymbalta, the lowest dose, once a day. When I first started taking it, I was just so, so happy to feel stable. It definitely helped me relax and be able to think clearly. All of my physical symptoms stopped and I was able to focus better. I had a better social life and made more friends, which at the time was really important to me. After a few months, I noticed that I felt sort of numb. I never cried, nothing made me really excited anymore but I felt like the benefits definitely outweighed feeling a little emotionally stumped.
To be honest, I didn’t feel like I personally made the decision to go on meds. I mean, I wasn’t forced but I was fifteen and it was my doctor’s recommendation so I went on it as soon as she prescribed it. I didn’t have a lot of family support on this issue and I never really thought to do my own research to see what else I could try. I would tell someone considering medication to do their research. Figure out what your goals are. Maybe it’s better for you to take something periodically as needed like Ativan. Maybe it’s better for you to be on something consistently. I’m a firm believer in a holistic approach to mental health and I am also 100% for medications because they made a world of difference in my life. I think doing things like meditation, eating well, exercise, and creating boundaries can increase the efficacy of medications.
I’ve gone off of my meds twice. There was a point where I was feeling really stable but I was tired of feeling numb. I figured that I couldn’t be on meds forever so I decided to stop. I was twenty-one when I went off Cymbalta, about six years after I started. It took me about three months to wean off the meds and it was horrible. I was suicidal. I had nightmares. I was always scared to be by myself. At this time I had a lot of family support. It was in between my first and second year of nursing school. I think I was only able to do it because I basically stayed at home all summer. By the end of the summer, I felt like I wouldn’t be able to manage at school feeling the way that I did but because of the awful weaning process, I didn’t want to go back on Cymbalta. My doctor recommended I go on Trintellix so I started taking half of the smallest dose.
To this day, I don’t know if the Trintellix actually did anything for me. I think the act of taking a medication like I was used to doing for so long had some sort of placebo effect and made me feel more stable. I was on Trintellix through nursing school. The year after I finished, I went on a trip with my then partner and for whatever reason we ended up deciding to extend our trip. The night after we got to Rhode Island, I realized that I didn’t have enough pills with me to last the trip because I had only brought enough for a week. I had a meltdown trying to get the medication in the States. The first day off them, I only had a mild headache but felt fine otherwise. I felt fine the next day too so I just never took them again after that because I transitioned off of them so easily. That was in 2018, I believe, so I’ve been completely medication free for 2.5 years.”
“The first time I went on antidepressants, it was about a year after I finished university. I had been unemployed for months until I finally got a job at Starbucks to cover some bills. Then I got fired and a few months later, I got a government job that I absolutely hated. I’ve struggled with depression since I was ten but it was during this time that it became life threatening. My anxiety had started to turn situations I had once loved into extremely stressful events, even triggering physical responses and illness. I hit a point where I couldn’t even keep an easy job, let alone leave my house some days. I got so sick one day that I needed to stop and get off the bus on my way home from work and my dad needed to come pick me up. I was twenty-one. When we got home, I didn’t leave my room for three days. The thought of suicide became a real option to me. That was it. It had gone too far and was consuming my everyday.
I’ve struggled with depression on and off since I was about ten years old. I would hit these lows and sleep for hours and hours, lash out, break things and cry. I would frequently miss school and lie about things that happened to me to try and make excuses. As I got older, anxiety became more of an issue and I would feel nauseous all the time. I lost forty pounds in the ninth grade without even trying because I couldn’t eat without feeling sick. I lived on fizzy drinks and crackers because it was the only thing that didn’t make me feel too sick. In my late teens/early twenties, I would get diarrhea every time I was anxious or stressed. They thought I had IBS, then they thought I had a gluten allergy, [then] a dairy allergy. I wasn’t actually allergic to anything. Then I started to experience insomnia, sleep paralysis, and my hair started falling out. I also frequently had this feeling where it felt like there was a lump in my throat/upper chest that made it difficult to swallow and breathe. I legit thought I had thyroid cancer but that’s just the anxiety playing tricks.
The first time I tried medication, I was on Pristiq (desvenlafaxine) 50mg a day. It’s an SNRI rather than an SSRI which is supposed to help with my physical symptoms. The first few weeks were a blur. I remember feeling awful but ultimately it really, really helped me. My stomach stopped being upset all the time, I had less insomnia and way less sleep paralysis. My hair stopped shedding so much and I had way more energy. It even helped with my PMS symptoms. I had less intense mood swings, it was great. On the flip side, it had really intense withdrawal effects if I forgot to take it for more than twenty-four hours. If that ever happened, it was absolutely awful. I’d need to be off work and basically stuck in bed for 1-3 days each time I forgot to take my medication. It was the same thing when I was coming off of it. I found Pristiq killed my sex drive and creativity. I used to be a musician and I completely stopped. I was barely interested in music anymore. I also never felt like having sex. It did give me a lot of energy though. I could work twelve to sixteen hours a day, no problem. I ended up developing a bit of an alcohol dependence to balance things out. It was weird.
I went off Pristiq after almost four years because my doctor and I decided that I didn’t need it anymore. My life had stabilized and I was in a really good place. I didn’t feel seriously anxious or depressed at all. I was doing great until just a few months ago when my anxiety started to get the best of me again. I’m on sixty milligrams a day of Cymbalta now which is another SNRI. The first two weeks were weird. There were a lot of strange side effects but after that, things were pretty good. It has definitely helped a lot and it hasn’t killed my creativity or sex drive but it has made sleep difficult. So far, I’m pretty happy with it overall.
I remember the first time I went on medication, I felt disappointed in myself. I felt like I had failed. I was angry and embarrassed. The second time around, I was slightly disappointed but I was also relieved and looking forward to being able to eat, breathe and concentrate again. If you’re considering medication, talk to your doctor. Give it at least six to twelve weeks, don’t give up after two to four weeks. Also, don’t be ashamed or embarrassed. You really don’t have to feel so shitty everyday and you likely don’t need to be on medication forever. Life is tough sometimes and we need help. Sometimes help is medication for a while. We only get one life as far as we know. Why let anxiety and depression consume it?”
“I’ve never been on medication but I've been to therapy several times throughout my life. Usually following a traumatic event like my dad dying of cancer, my uncle dying of a heart attack at a family gathering, or my brother attempting suicide. I've found talking to professionals helpful, but it depends on the person. One time, when I didn't like the vibe of my therapist, I walked out halfway through and never came back. Despite talking to many mental health professionals over the years none have ever recommended that I try antidepressants or mood stabilizers. I have nothing against the idea, my mom has been taking antidepressants for years and it really helps her. I've considered it but never been willing to take that step. My stepmom is against the idea and thinks all mental health problems can be solved with therapy and exercise. Personally, I have found marijuana stabilizes my mood and helps take the edge off bad days. I smoke every day and have a very high tolerance. Psychedelic drugs, taken once or twice per year, also help ground me to reality and remind me that the world is full of love and beauty.
I've had symptoms of depression, self-loathing, generally feeling like I'm not worthy of people's attention or that I should apologize for my existence. Smoking helps me realize things are not so dire as they might feel in the moment. Our perception of reality is filtered through our brain chemistry in ways we don't realize. Feelings of depression and self-loathing are often the result of neurochemical imbalances. I see value in using medication to correct those imbalances, despite not having tried them myself. The first time I smoked weed it felt like the asshole voice in my head that was always putting me down finally shut up. The first time I tried mushrooms I felt connected to all living things and that love is a driving force of the universe.
Talk to a professional. If they think medication is a good idea then embrace it and stick to it. The changes take a long time to manifest so you have to be patient. If you choose to self medicate as I have, then be safe. Make sure you trust the person you're buying psychedelics from and only do them in a comfortable and safe setting. Psychedelics and marijuana affect people differently, so there's no guarantee anything will work for you. I only use psychedelics once or twice per year because I've seen what happens to people who get addicted to psychedelics. They can be mind killers.”
“In high school, I had a severe concussion which drastically affected my mental health. I suffered moderate-severe depression during my recovery. In response to my insomnia and fatigue my doctor prescribed sleeping pills to help address the issue. A few years into university my mental health started to degrade. I was feeling burnt out, overly stressed and anxious. It was after having an anxiety attack that I realized I needed help and my doctor referred me to a therapist. I attended therapy for several weeks to learn how to better manage my stress and burn out. My symptoms in highschool included extreme fatigue, insomnia, deep sadness, and headaches. I wasn’t taking medication in university but the symptoms prior to getting help included: fatigue, problems sleeping, feeling sick, and feeling stressed and anxious. Unfortunately, this instance of burn-out and anxiety coincided with developing an allergy to the birth control I was taking. This allergy contributed to both my mental and physical symptoms and ultimately worsened my burnout/anxiety. It was hard to distinguish one problem from the other.
I don’t remember the type of medication or the dose I was taking in high school but I remember that they were sleeping pills that I took every night before bed. I really didn’t like them. I didn’t put a lot of thought into whether I should go on medication or not. I think my doctor was hesitant to put me on antidepressants, but thought that by addressing my sleep issues it would help address my biggest complaint which was fatigue and low-energy. Although I fell asleep more easily, my sleep didn’t feel restful and it didn’t improve my energy levels. I was still experiencing extreme fatigue. I don’t think I was on them for very long, maybe a month or two. I don’t remember renewing my prescription at all. I was sixteen years old so I listened to the doctor’s advice without much consideration. I remember my parents didn’t really like me taking sleeping pills, but didn’t stop me from doing so.
I’m a really big advocate for therapy and non-medicinal approaches, based on my own experiences. However, I recognize that everyone’s mental health issues and situations are different and that for many, medication can be really helpful/beneficial. It’s unfortunate that therapy has a negative connotation, because I believe it’s really beneficial to be able to talk to someone, particularly a third party that often knows how best to support your needs. In my first set of therapy sessions I learnt about mindfulness and mental self-care, and it has really improved my mental health overall and my ability to deal with stressful periods and situations. I am also better able to recognize when my mental health is suffering and take action early to help myself and prevent further degradation. I highly recommend therapy to everyone, although I know it’s not always accessible for all, which is very unfortunate.
In my case, the non-medicinal approaches that have helped me and that I now use regularly to take care of my mental health are: gratitude and/or journaling, exercise/movement, nutritious food, prioritizing sleep (when possible), and mindfulness/meditation. About three years ago I invested in the Calm meditation app and I meditate before bed nearly every night. I can now consistently fall asleep and I often don’t even make it through the full ten minute meditation before falling asleep. Not only do I fall asleep more easily, but my sleep is also more restful and it has generally helped to reduce my stress levels.
In the past couple of years, I have also integrated gratitude/journaling into my bed time routine. It adds screen-free time before bed during which my brain is able to calm down and reflect on positive things from my day/life. I find that during the busiest and most stressful times, this practice is the most beneficial. I also used gratitude during high school when I was suffering from depression and though it didn’t outright cure my depression, it did help me feel something good which was really meaningful when I spent most of my day feeling so sad. It’s something I now do regularly. It feels a bit weird doing it at first, but the more you do it the easier it becomes I started with three things I was grateful for, and now I do five or more because three isn’t enough.
Exercise is a huge. I know that low energy is a common symptom of mental health issues and it can be extremely hard to muster the energy to exercise. However, movement doesn’t have to be high intensity or take a long time. Even a short walk outside can be so beneficial. In my busiest, most stressful times (which is when my mental health often degrades), I try my best to always have some movement in my day. Sometimes when I want to move but don’t have the energy to workout I just put on music and dance. This always lifts my mood and my energy, plus it always seems to get my heart rate up, even if that wasn’t my intention.
“I went on antidepressants after having tried a number of natural coping mechanisms to manage my depression. I was finding it increasingly difficult to complete daily functions and I was desperate to explore other options. I was inexplicably and uncontrollably exhausted all of the time. I struggled to get out of bed. I would arrive to work late and leave early to go home and crash. My muscles felt drained and I was always irritable. I thought that depression only looked like sadness and crying but in me, it was manifesting as exhaustion. Until I had a conversation with my doctor about it, I had actually convinced myself that I had lyme disease.
I've tried a number of different medications until I found one that worked for me. I found that Pristiq worked best as a day-to-day mood stabilizer with the rare Clonazepam when I have panic attacks. I feel like Pristiq helped shift my base mood and made it easier for me to cope with negative events and anxiety. When I first started on Pristiq, I had bad migraines but they didn't last long. Sometimes when I'm having a depressive episode it feels impossible to even do the things I need to do to feel better so taking medication helped. It felt good. It felt like I was doing something productive and active to address the way that I had been feeling. Plus, I saw a notable shift in my mood. I would catch myself smiling and feeling lighter than I had for a long time.
If you’re considering medication, I would just say, do a lot of research before deciding if medication is right for you. I didn't have a great doctor and most of my understanding of depression and medication came from my own research. For example, my doctor never told me that I shouldn't drink the same day I took a clonazepam which resulted in a scarring (and dangerous) incident one time.
Over the years, I have gone on and off meds a number of times. Usually when I start to feel better, I make the decision to go off them because I don't want to be dependent on medication. I don't think this is a good thing however as it overestimates my own capacity to naturally manage my mental health and dismisses the role that the medication plays in helping me feel better. I think that we too often consider antidepressants to be a temporary solution instead of understanding that mental illness can be chronic and can require life long attention.”
“I went through a break up in 2016 and a bunch of emotional rollercoasters after that. My anxiety was so bad that I’d have panic attacks almost every day. I’d have panic attacks in the shower, at work, while driving. It was bad. It reached a point where I couldn’t handle it on my own anymore and I realized that I needed help. Prior to medication, I had the classic anxiety symptoms: hyperventilating, couldn’t breathe, it always felt like I had an elephant sitting on my chest. I was on edge. The depression wasn’t as bad as my anxiety but they went hand in hand. I’d sleep all the time to escape until my worries invaded my dreams. I was rarely happy and everyday just felt like a battle.
After going to my doctor and taking two questionnaires to assess my mental health (one for anxiety and one for depression), I was given a prescription for Cipralex. You gradually increase your dose, so I believe I was only taking 5mg/half a pill to start. I then eventually went up to 20mg which was the maximum. I was pretty numb to everything at that point. I wasn’t even excited for my upcoming Europe trip. I felt nothing. I went back to 15mg which was the perfect dose for me. I think my meds along with pushing for a “normal” life helped. I can’t really pinpoint what I did exactly to get better but I am better now. I felt so relieved to be on medication but at the same time, the side effects still impact your life. The biggest one that affects most people, myself included, is a diminished sex drive. It was difficult but I knew the good outweighed the bad.
I’d tell someone considering medication that it’s unlikely you’ll find the perfect medication on the first try. I was lucky. I’d also tell someone that meds aren’t the only thing that will help and you kind of need to take the initiative to improve your life and mindset too. It’s hard work, but it’s not impossible. The meds give you a boost for sure and it’s what you do with that boost to improve things for yourself.
I stopped taking medication late 2017, early 2018. I felt like I was in a good place mentally. My life became a lot more stable, I was in a healthy relationship for the first time in my life and I was generally doing well for myself. My panic attacks subsided and since they were the primary symptom that impacted my life the most, I figured I’d be okay to no longer take meds. Should I have stayed on them longer? Maybe. My doctor seemed to think so. I’d recommend taking your doctor’s advice before stopping meds - don’t be like me!”
“I began seeking professional care for my mental health in early 2010. This was shortly after moving out of my family's home to go to university in Ontario. I was struggling with undiagnosed ADHD, which in turn exacerbated my pre-existing issues with depression and mood regulation. My family had a generally low opinion of mental health care, so while I did attend a few court-mandated therapy sessions as a teenager in the wake of my parents' divorce, my dad's clear scorn for the concept meant I didn't stick with it once I had some measure of independence. My symptoms manifest themselves as inability to focus or complete tasks and intense, rapidly-cycling periods of depression (incredibly bleak moods lasting at times only a few hours but happening multiple times a day). Also hypomania but at the time I did not recognize it as such and it was (and remains) pretty infrequent.
I've taken a great many different medications for periods of time ranging from a couple of weeks (Cipralex) to over five years (lamotrigine, my current primary medication). I’ve discontinued medication in the past for a variety of reasons. Some I reacted to very badly, others mitigated symptoms but either did not do enough or worked but came with side effects I found untenable and frustrating. I have no intention of going off my current medication, very possibly for the rest of my life. The one I am on now really helps level me out. I still have depressive periods perhaps three to four times a year that can last a week or two, and one to two hypomanic episodes annually. The difference is substantial compared to my experience prior to this medication.
The decision to go on meds was pretty uneventful. Well before I began seriously pursuing the possibility for myself, I was fortunate enough to have a number of friends involved in disability advocacy and Pride movements who helped me unpack a lot of my internal prejudices against medication that I'd picked up from family. Deciding to be candid with my family about my experiences was more nerve-wracking, as I had to brace myself for pushback.
If you’re considering going on medication, stay informed. Be aware that different medications and therapeutic approaches work for different people. Some of the medications I reacted to most badly are ones that other people have thrived on for years. Do your own research. I often turn to http://www.crazy-meds.org/, although do pay attention to the disclaimer material at the bottom of their homepage. Don't be afraid to push back on a doctor or therapist's recommendation if you know it wouldn’t be a good choice for you. At the same time, have a willingness to try new things.”
“I was having a really hard time managing all of the things in my life. I’ve always dealt with depression and anxiety but I didn't know how to deal with it when I was younger. I had a really good professor in university and opened up to her about my suicidal ideations and she helped connect me with counselling services at my school. I also found a doctor there to monitor me. I tried antidepressants but I didn’t really feel like they helped me. I felt like more than anything therapy helped me learn so much about myself and made me more aware of things. It gave me perspective and accountability to continue living. I ended up having to drop from full-time to part-time a couple of semesters later, making me ineligible for medical coverage which meant that I had to stop taking the antidepressants during my last year of undergrad. I stuck with the therapy because it was free through the university.
Prior to medication, I experienced the typical depression symptoms. Low mood, isolating, withdrawing from others, unable to get out of bed. I was failing classes. I wasn’t taking care of myself. No showering or anything. I couldn’t concentrate, I was always worrying. I was suicidal and anxious. I went on medication because I really had nothing to lose. I was feeling so low and didn't want to feel that way anymore I was willing to try anything to help. When I first started, I really felt no difference. I went through a few different medications. It was only in my mid-twenties that I found a really good one and since then, I've had great experience with medication.
If you’re considering therapy, I can tell you that you will learn so much about yourself. It really helps normalize your experiences. Often we feel isolated, we feel alone and we feel like we're the only ones feeling this way but going to therapy made me realize that my feelings are valid and I'm not really as strange as I make myself think I am. I've learned so much and it really helped me grow as a person and deal with my stress in a healthier way. It’s helped me recognize when I'm doing unhealthy things to myself. Therapy is life changing but I was blessed with a good therapist.”
“I was having almost nightly bouts of panic. They weren’t quite full-blown panic attacks but I was agitated. I experienced episodes of panic, depressive episodes, episodes of agitation, periods of sleeplessness and restlessness. My depressive episodes would sometimes last a few weeks at a time. I cycled rapidly between depressive and hypomanic-like episodes. I started going to the gym insanely early each morning to manage the panic but eventually realized that it wasn’t going to solve my problem. I blew through almost all of my sick hours one summer as an episode of depression crept up on me. I had to just accept that I wasn’t functional. I realized I needed help beyond going to the gym and hoping for a “good mood day” to come along.
I first got prescribed venlafaxine at the 37.5mg dose. It was almost instantly helpful. Within a few days I instantly felt calmer. I still had anxious thoughts but they were no longer accompanied by the physiological symptoms. If I woke up in the middle of the night panicky, I was able to rationalize and go back to sleep instantly. After a month of 37.5mg, I was increased to the clinical dose of 75mg. I had dilated pupils, a fourteen day long headache, nausea and lost my appetite. Aside from that, I felt much better. It’s been over a year and I feel like this was the best decision I ever made for myself. I’m happy I finally reached out to get help. I have no plans of going off this medication.
If you’re thinking of going on medication or doing therapy, do some research. Check it out. Everyone could benefit from a good therapist. I didn’t stick with therapy but the medication changed my life. Exhaust all resources before you give up on getting your mental health in check. It’s worth it. I suppose when I first went on medication, I felt a bit weird about the idea of relying on a daily pill to keep my mood in check. I don’t feel that way anymore, I’m pretty neutral about it. I rely on birth control to change the way my body functions, so what the fuck is the difference really?