How long have you been on ADs?

I was on and off all sorts of ADs for a couple of years... all SSRI's, one tri-cyclic.

Did it stop working? If so, how long into therapy was that?

I was never on anything long enough to tell. The only one that sort of worked was Zoloft, until my brilliant pdoc at the time bumped it up to 200mg and it sent me into mania.

Did you decide to stop drug therapy?

Yes.

If so, how did that go?

Depends which time. If we are talking about the time I stopped 200 mg of Zoloft cold turkey by throwing them all down the sink and ending up in the psychiatric ward, then I'd say not well.

After my pdoc guinea pigged me for awhile and had me try Zyprexa for my anxiety (had I known then what I do now, I never would have tried it), I decided NO MORE meds, except for the occasionally benzos for my anxiety. I guess it went as good as can be expected.

How long did you go without drug therapy?

About 5 years, but like I said, still took benzos.

Why did you return to drug therapy if you did?

Two semesters ago... I went into a bad depressive episode and had to drop a class. When it began to interfere with my school work, it was a wake-up call that told me I had little to no control over my moods, and might need an adjunct to my therapy. I couldn't afford to have my mood swings interrupt my schooling.

Did you have a T at the same time?

Yes. The T came first, then the meds.

However, I should clarify that I am not on an AD, I am on a mood stabilizer. An AD (Lexapro) was added a couple months ago to help me out of another depression, but was then taken away when the anxiety got worse. Unfortunately, I have still not been able to see if the mood stabilizer has worked because I have not let it reach its full effects in any way-- I tend to be a bit non-compliant in that sense. I guess even though I am on meds I technically haven't reached the full "I want/need to be on meds" conclusion.