Hi all! I'm a newbie to all this stuff. Come to find out I've had lots of issues since I was a kid, I'm 49 now and just a few months ago, the world came crashing down on me! I was diagnosed with Dissociative Disorder, Severe Depression, PTSD and now Bi-Polar. I had been on Effexor for over a year, it helped I thought, but didn't see the big picture....as the stressors in my life increased it became too overwhelming for my brain, and I crashed and burned. I've been on increased dosages of Effexor and Lexapro, but I was just a zombie. I had no emotion! Depression??? I couldn't feel anything!!!!! I looked at the walls all day long. I wasn't and still not working at all. I thought i could get things done at home I hadn't been able to do before while working....but I had no ambition! I had nothing! When I told my psychiatrist this, he told me I didn't need to be on anti- depressants!!! He put me on Geodon....an antipsychotic I believe. That put a big smile on my face! What a difference!!! Sure, sometimes I didn't know what or why i was smiling about, but I finally had something I had been missing.......some emotion! I could smile and be happy! Depression, it kept it in check, but then i realized i was having a allergic reaction to it... a rash on my face. I was told to stop immediately, I did, wow!!! That ugly feeling came back, until I got my new med...Invega. This seems to be working, though I have had to have the dosage increased to 6mg due to increased stressors in my life. I could feel the depresion creep back in.....Believe me, i was able to tell when the lower dosage just wsn't handling it! I don't see a problem with feeling good by using a prescribed medication. It sure beats the alternative. Our brains can only handle so much stress before it causes something bad to happen! For me, it caused me to want to fight, not just verbally, but pysically!!! I wouldn't back down, a simple disagreement with my son caused him to lock himself in his room because he was actually afraid of me hurting him! He's 32 years old! Since taking this new medication, I can actually talk myself down out of that escalated feeling! I don't just "flip out"! I am grateful to my doctor for being so pro active in my treatment and getting me on the right stuff at the right time. I am also in therapy, I go weekly and then I see my psychiatrist, use to be bi-weekly, but now will be monthly. I can't imagine now being without my meds, i know what life would be like without them and I don't want that at all. It's a fact of life, my life!