I honestly can’t remember that specific of a timeline.

My mental health issues started at 14 and that’s when I first went for help. I had individual and group counselling. The first med I was prescribed was celexa. It worked for a bit but we kept having to increase my dose so I went off of it.

That takes me through a few years.

Later in my teens I started taking cipralex. It worked well with my anxiety. I wasn’t seeing a therapist at this time. My doc tried me on a few other things and gave me a bipolar diagnosis. One of the first meds I tried was seroquel and it made me a zombie so it didn’t last long.

I went off meds in my mid 20s. Had my daughter at 26. Then had a downward spiral that resulted in my marriage ending. I decided to go back on meds after that. We kept trying different meds but nothing seemed to work.

At 30 I was hospitalized for the first time and ended up with a new pdoc. Meds still weren’t straightened out and he took a list of everything that I had tried and why it didn’t work. He tried a new cocktail but I ended up being hospitalized again 6 months later and then again 1 year later. This brings us to the present.

I’m 32. I see my pdoc regularly and have been seeing the same therapist for 5 years. I’m on cipralex, Geodon, Wellbutrin, zopiclone, lamictal, clonazepam, and Ativan prn. I’m on a leave from work right now because I had a breakdown. I’m going back in a month and will hopefully have my meds sorted by then.