Recent Prescribed An Anti-Depressant

@AngelFace97

That is a common reaction to being prescribed medication. Even people with diabetes are kicking themselves as to why they can't make insulin like other people and people with asthma resent having to take inhalers to perform such a basic function like breathing.

It is not fair that you were dealt a chronic illness card in life and that you need medication to recover and function at a level that you are happy with. Unfortunately the dice have been cast and that is where you are at the moment. If you think about medication as a tool that you can use to be more sucessful at your goals it may be easier to accept that you take it.

DOI: I have been taking antidepressant to mange generalized anxiety for about a year. I was aprehensive but it was one of the best decisions I have made. It has transformed my life and relationships. I regret not opting for it sooner to be honest.

Hi, @AngelFace97! Firstly let me say that I'm proud that you're taking care of yourself and reach out for help. This is already a huge step towards your recovery and you're doing really well, despite the pain.

*hugs*

Secondly, I just want to gently remind you that your listener account is for providing support to others. When you are struggle with something and want to share it and ask for the insight - which you have an absolute right to do that, lovely - please log in to your member's account. That's the guidelines of our community, to protect everyone and to create a safe space to talk honestly about our problems.

Okay, so I just wanted to say that I felt the same when I was prescribed antidepressants for my depression some years ago. I felt like I failed somehow, that I should be strong enough on my own to fight it off. But since then I've learned a lot, especially that my depression isn't my fault. I didn't cause it, it's not build within my character or identity. It's a medical illness, which just happens to affect my brain's processing and my physical state (exhaustion, oversleeping, poor concetration, etc.), so why wouldn't I want to recover from it when the current medicine has already figure out how to do it?

I think of medications like of just tools that help us with our illnesses - you know, like getting a glasses when being short-sighted. You have an inhaler for your asthma, there is insuline for diabetes and etc. Mental disorders are a valid and medically recognized illnesses, so why we feel so apprehensive of using medicine and their scientific research to provide the help to those in need? There's too much stigma around it which only prevents of bringing the help and comfort and higher quality of life to those who are in a real, factual pain and struggle.

When you have a mood disorder like depression, your brain has just problems with changing the emotions to other - brains are not build to get stuck on only numbness or anger or sadness or guilt - they are flexible and experience all of the variety of feelings, including hapinness and hope and motivation. There is nothing wrong to address those issues when you are ill. Antidepressants will just bring the balance to your brain - they are definitely not a source of artificial happinness.

It takes time with recovery, but it is absolutely worth it, lovely. You don't have to struggle with it for the rest of your life, just like no one expects someone with a broken leg to just suck it up and walk it over. It takes up to 2-5 weeks until you adjust to your dosage and that's completely natural. If you experience lots of nasty side effects, please let know your doctor about it - they can definitely help you with it, like changing the dosage or switching to a different med. Different things work for different people and there's a lot to choose from to suit your own situation the best.

Also, I encourage you to observe your symptoms every day and write down comments about taken medication and how it affects you on a daily basis. It will be a great asset to you in every appointment with your doctor, where you can reference it and in that way you can actually see what works for you and what doesn't. I can show you a glimpse of my own setup from 2013 below: first column is a date. Then there's two different medicines (one for depression, one for anxiety attacks) with a written prescribed dosage where I noted the hour of taking it. And the last column is my comments, e.g. if I had a headache or felt nauseous or had insomnia, etc. You can see that after taking the given antidepressant (for more than three weeks), I run out of my meds and at the next appointment I've switched it to something else, because it wasn't helping me enough and gave me lots of unpleasants side effects. The new one worked much better for me.

Antidepressants only in some specific cases have to be taken for the rest of your life - most of the time they are a temporal aid and you won't be taking it forever. When you will get recover from your disorder, and it is absolutely possible to do that, then you will stop take them.

I hope it helps you a bit, lovely. Know that we're here for you.

Sending you all of my hope and strength!

@AngelFace97 - Hi lovely, I just wanted to post to let you know that I have edited to remove the specific medication name as our community guidelines specify not sharing those details here.

My doc put me on very expensive antidepressants. I cannot actually afford them. Guy what do you think? Should I buy the brand drug or go with its generic version using rxcouponcodes.com that will save me literally a fortune? Thanks in advance!