Please share your recovery stories to help me find a little light at the end of this tunnel

[ladydynamo]

Am appealing to anyone who has recovered (as much as it is possible to do so) from chronic anxiety/depression.

Have suffered bouts all my adult life but been really unwell for 18 months solid now and am losing hope. Huge weight gain due to ads, constantly exhausted but totally unable to sleep unmedicated, relationship on brink of collapse due to all the strain. Often feel suicidal but want to learn to live at peace and give my son a happy childhood.

Don't want to get into conversation about meds as have tried loads and currently being reviewed again anyway.

Just need to know that people can and do get better. So if you have been somewhere like where I am and clawed your way back up again please just remind me that it is possible. Thanks.

Hi Ladydynamo, here's my story:

I suffered chronic anxiety since the age of 18 (am 31 now) The anxiety started around the time my Dad comitted suicide. The anxiety got worse after DS2 was born and I had (undiagnosed) PND.

Things got worse and worse until I ended up in a mental hospital after having a complete breakdown (psychotic episode) in September 2010

Then came the clinical depression, I struggled to function months until my ad's kicked in. It took many months to feel back to normal.

Now? Less than a year later and I feel fantastic! The AD's have given me my life back. I no longer live with the crippling anxiety that I thought would be with me all my life. I'm not moody anymore, I want to talk to people and make new friends. I take 10mg of escitalopram (ad) and 10mg of aripiprozle (anti-psychotic)

I've had to make major changes to my work/life balance. I used to work 5 days a week and now just do 3 mornings. Work related stress was a major factor in causing my breakdown.

So yes it is possible to get better and I hope you do soon :)

Story too long and complicated and I wasn't anxious, but recurring depression now a thing of the past thanks to meds, not fighting myself mentally, and taking control of my life - well, up to a point...

Best!

Wonderful, thanks. So good to know it can be done. accidentalchicken keeper I'm so sorry about your dad. Thats a big part of why I want to stay alive I don't want my son's life to suffer from knowing I took my own.

Anyone else? I think this could maybe help a lot of people.

Thank you for starting this thread. I am watching this thread with much interest as my sister suffers from serious depression. Just can't see how she will come out of it.