What did anti-depressants do for you? Did they help?

[Nicetobenice]

I think I may have chronic depression. It is just recently that I have come to the realisationb that not everyone thinks and feels the way I do - most of the time.

Within a month I have a few very low days when I feel hopeless and dark and like it wouldn't matter if I was hit by a bus. I have a few very high days where I feel properly happy and optimistic about life and myself. The rest of the time I muddle through very self-critically, irritably, moodily and wonder if the day will ever come that I will feel properly happy and contented with my life.

I'm one of those people who will say to myself "When X happens, I will be happy" and now I have got to the last of those Xs and I don't feel any different. I am very self-aware and know what I need to change but I am having trouble putting plans into action. If I look up depression symptoms I can tick off most of the boxes but since I don't feel that way every day of the month (and I have been there 10 years ago) I feel like I am 'cheating' and not really worthy of ADs.

When I feel very low I make a doctors appointment. By the time the appointment comes round I feel better but still not well. I want to be able to feel likemyself a bit more. The me that is in there somewhere. Will ADs allow me to get over the first hurdle and start to take steps towards healing myself? Will they help to curb some of my negativethinking until I can get some CBT and start to live life more fully?

Prozac worked for me, I was on it about 6 months, 3 months in i got therapy, which I had for about 4 months. The therapy has totally changed my outlook in life. I don't think the prozac on its own would have been the right thing for me, without the therapy, Ithink i would have found it difficult to stop taking them
i felt the same about not being worthy, not sick enough for the tablets, and wasting the time of the therapist. I needed both these things. Don't spend any more years feeling like this
good luck

Thanks. I obviously wrote a terrible post to get so few replies. I should have stuck to the question. I need to work up the courage to go to the doctor this morning.

I am determined to turn my life around. I just can't get enough focus or seem to make my brain work properly to do simple things. Getting up in the morning is difficult as is making simple decisions about what to wear and dress my children in. Then we're always running late. I hate living in this fog - even if I am able to crack joles and smile most days.

I'm still hiding away mostly and not really living life. My youngest child is 2 and I think I have been feeling like this for a long time but putting it down to being a natural way to feel after having children. Thing is, other people don't seem to be like me.

hi, i can't really answer your question as i have just started ad's but agree with glucose, i was just sick of feeling low. funny thing is i have been alot worse and pulled my self out of it but this time i was looking down the barrel of a bout of feeling low and thought 'you know what i just can't do it again' so i went to the doctor. no sure if tablets will help but worth a shot.

i bet if you know me you would not know i was feeling like this you would be amazed how many folk feel like this.

take care.

In my experience ADs help, but only a little. You need to regard them as a first-step strategy that gives you a little bit more energy to make the second and third steps.

What I have found a particular limitation with ADs is that they don't do much to reduce the negative thoughts. They lift mood, without altering cognition.

So before ADs you might say: 'I am the most worthless, useless failure in the world' and sob your heart out; after ADs you might say 'I am the most worthless, useless failure in the world' and smile wryly.

So you can live your life more effectively but the negative thoughts are still corroding you.

Hi Nicetobenice,

I started on Setraline 3 months ago after having PND for 3.5 years and really wish I'd done it sooner. I can see things much more clearly now and feel 'normal' once again. My GPs have been really supportive too which is a nice change as first time I went when DD1 was a few months old a male Gp told me that I couldn't have Ads as I was bfing - total crap! Am still bfing DD2 at 18 months on Setraline.

Go and talk to your GP and be honest.

Let us know how you get on.

Good luck.

smiles wryly at tk. what are the next steps though? i find it really hard to talk about it i just make lots of jokes and as a result dh is treating me like i have a bit of a cold.

I'm afraid at the moment I'm not following my own advice: I'm not taking the second thanthird steps: just muddling along. Wry .