Thank you. I'm so sorry about your terrible reaction. Truly, my counselor was the biggest catalyst. She genuinely cares about her clients, and we are a great match. Last semester, I wrote a paper about the therapeutic alliance in therapy. I referenced a number of journal articles regarding studies that all show that this is the number one indicator of a positive outcome in therapy. Because we have an excellent relationship, I trusted her with everything, followed her advice, and worked hard. I did every assignment; I changed jobs; and I changed my living arrangements. I worked through all of my tough issues from my past and worked on changing unpleasant situations for myself and unhelpful characteristics of myself. I also decided that since I had been on several medications and had several attempts that nothing worse could happen from going off my medicine. Lo-and-behold, I felt better. I was definitely over medicated (for my body). I have nothing against medicine, was helped by anti-anxiety meds in the beginning, and have friends who are greatly helped by medicine. However, it's not for me at the moment.

The keys were a great therapist who is an excellent match and a lot of hard work on my part. Don't get the wrong impression; I didn't hit the ground running. It was a long and arduous process with a few steps back. Overall, though, I gained momentum and can now look back on that dark valley from a mountain top. If I can come back from where I was, then there is hope for so many more.