I used to really resent having to take medications to be "normal", way back when the only things I was on were Paxil and a little Ativan. So I'd go off them for a while, fail miserably at life and go back on, then once over a four-month period I proudly tapered myself off and stayed off for another four months.

Then, WHAM!! the depression from Hell struck me like a hurricane and left destruction and chaos in its wake. By this time the Paxil was useless, so my PCP put me on Wellbutrin with disastrous results.....the stuff literally made me psychotic AND manic. I was seriously considering becoming homicidal when PCP referred me to psych, and since then I've had to resign myself to the fact that I really must take my medications if I want any quality of life whatsoever. Now I thank God for them, for the scientists who developed them, and for the wise doctor who prescribes them for me.