I take mine all the time. Have to

Ive been on them since 1995. I’ve struggled with it more in the past, and accept it now. Coming off them was bad both times. I’ve decided that being functional for my family, less suffering and being able to have a good career is worth taking the meds.

I have been taking meds for depression and anxiety for over 20 years. I started with Zoloft in the 90's and in 2004 I started lexapro. It helped me so much that I seriously didn't think much about stopping it. I remembered how I felt before I took it. this past year or so I started having increased anxiety and more panic and agoraphobia. I started tapering in March and April. i felt lousy. tried Celexa and I felt like after 3 weeks it hadn't helped. stopped it and tried buspar. that made my head feel weird. then I went back on lexapro at my pcp's advice until I could see a psychiatrist. The psychiatrist was a big let down. he didn't change my lexapro and he wanted me to stop ativan so he prescribed gabapentin. still not sure if it did anything for me. waited a lot longer (over two months) to see a psychiatric nurse practitioner and she put me on Zoloft. my pcp had recommended cymbalta. I will give the Zoloft a fair trial and if it isn't helping in a month I will ask for something else. When I find another medication that helps I will take it until it doesn't work. Always hoping it continues working. I used to feel like there was something wrong with me if I had to take mind medications but now I think of them as a blessing.

I have been on Effexor since I was 25 And I am now 50. Having the worst time , I tried to switch meds last summer because my depression just was it under control isn’t Under control. So this time around I said OK to change versus the Goingin a hospital or what they call like a nursing home type mental place. And she didn’t take the rffexor away she just added 10 mg of Lexapro And I have Felt improvement. It leads me to believe I may be unable to quit taking Effexror without being weaned over a long period of time. Maybe not at all however I’m sure the dosage can be lowered. I’m on 220 ER . However I have always refused mood stabilizers. I realize they help a lot of people but I don’t have 15 different Moods Crying is just my go to emotion. I assume it might be better than breaking things LOL but maybe that might help me I don’t know I’ve gone from major depression with general anxiety In my 20 years I’ve had 50+ jobs but I get back up
Two major depressive disorder PTSD the anxiety disorder
Of course hormones have not helped anything out either. I suggest B complex with B12 liquid thank God. I hope you get some relief and decide what Avenue you want to tag med wise now the mood stabilizers will stop me from crying all the time like I was in do at times but I’m not going To go further in my medication as long as there’s hormones And no coping skills and a lot of other things that could benefit me however people keep leaving the mental health place I go to because they don’t pay a whole lot therapist and other types of social workers they don’t get paid much at all. It’s kind a like nurse aides In nursing homes

Have you accepted needing them for life?