I am 68years old and can remember dealing with depression from the age of 5. However I wasn’t diagnosed with major depressive disorder (Unipolar depression) until I was 25. I have been on close to every AD for Unipolar depression without relief, though some have helped a little for short periods of time.
The last 5 years my depression has significantly worsened so my psychiatrist prescribed Lamictal. I was confused about the RX because it is for Bipolar and I had never been diagnosed with Bipolar nor had any manic episodes. However, the Lamictal has really helped, which confused me even more, until I read this forum about how some have had “manic” episodes of normalcy or some that lasted an hour or less.
Having read this forum I was able to recall that there have been episodes in my life where the depressive episodes ended for an hour or less (sometimes as little as 15 minutes) and where I felt happy and energised and motivated to get up and do positive endeavours. The feeling would quickly pass and I would be dropped right back down into severe depression, wondering what had happened.
I now feel I have been wrongly diagnosed for over 40 years and wish it were more widely known, and published in papers for general population, about the different variances of Bipolar disorder. Perhaps then others wouldn’t have to suffer for so long like I have.