Interesting question! I had depression and anxiety for 4 years before I found a med that really helped. When I was hospitalized, I was put on Abilify. For the first time, I have to present and anxiety for 4 years before I found a med that helped. When I was hospitalized, I was put on abilify. For the first time, my thoughts could actually affect my feelings. Before that point, no skills, no CBT, no anything would actually make me feel better. My depression and anxiety were too severe for anything to help. I think that this is still the biggest benefit from meds for me. The meds bring my chemical state up enough that my other skills, therapy, CBT, DBT, all that other stuff, can actually help.

And I just have to vent, I still feel hurt and sad sometimes about that time of my life. So many people were always telling me, as I'm sure all of you have experienced, all the things that they said would fix my depression and anxiety. They told me all this stuff and I felt guilty! I criticized myself for not trying hard enough. All those people meant well, but it really hurt. I wish I had realized before 7 years of misdiagnosis that this really is a chemical problem and nothing I did was going to make any difference, no matter how hard I tried, until meds addressed the chemical problem. So anyway, that has been the biggest benefit for me from it.