[QUOTE I would also suggest reading about the side effects.
[/QUOTE]

I'm not trying to invalidate your suggest SeaCat, but for me reading about side effects made things much worse. If you have anxiety, you can actually convince yourself that you are experiencing the side effects that are mentioned, and that can prevent you from taking medication that could help you. That happened to me with lamictal. I read it could cause sore throats, and then convinced myself that it was giving me one. So I wouldn't take it for a couple of years. When I finally gave it another shot, it helped a lot.

A similar thing happened with Abilify. I was on a forum similar to this one, and someone was telling me horror stories about Abilify side effects. My pdoc prescribed Abilify for me, but I wouldn't take it for months because I was scared of the side effects. Finally, I took it. It made me feel better with no side effects.

All of these medicines have potentially horrible side effects, but that does not mean you will get them. They work differently on different people. I stopped looking up side effects, and decided to trust my doctor. If I do notice a noticeable change, I will let the doctor know.