I was initially quite sceptical that my anti-depressant did anything for me. Yes, I felt better, but starting anti-depressants coincided with a few life changes that made my life much less stressful, and I attributed my feeling better to the life changes.

Half a year later tapered off the AD under the supervision of my psychiatrist. Weeks went by and I was still feeling fine. However, after a while, I noticed that my mood was less stable. My "set point" was still the same, but it took less to get me acutely upset. After some reflection I decided to go back on the AD and my mood is stable once again.

I have since come to accept that I may be taking ADs for life. I have stopped thinking of them as a crutch and decided that they are something that's good for me, like vegetables or exercise.

Coincidentally, my entire genome was sequences for a research study and it turns out that I have a few mutations that are known to mess with serotonin production.