I was encouraged to stay on it longterm for depression. I declined. Though I did find that it helped me fall asleep, that's about the only benefit I got from it. I did not find it did anything for my depression. I was turned off by what I read about it. It affects your blood sugar. I think I saw that it can make you diabetic. To me there was too much of a downside to be worth it.

It seems that every second person with chronic psych issues gets put on Seroquel, sooner or later, no matter what their psych diagnosis is. I'm suspicious of psychiatrists using drugs in such a non-specific way. Pretty much anyone who sees a psychiatrist is going to walk away with a prescription for some drug. That's really all pdocs do - prescribe drugs. If you continue to show up with a psych issue that isn't improving, a psychiatrist is going to cycle the patient through one psych med after another. After a few years, we can almost all say that we've been on most of the common psych meds - antipsychotics, anticonvulsants (both of which get renamed "mood stabilizers), antidepressants, antiparkinson's drugs, anxiolytics, sleeping pills, stimulants. I've been on each of those. So have patients with diagnoses very different from mine. They're just "throwing spagetti against the wall" to see if anything sticks.

I think, for most of us, the solution isn't going to be found in a pharmaceutical. This doesn't mean that therapy is the answer, either. I don't think going to a T helps all that much.

What we all need to have in our lives is love and friendship and a job to do that we're good at and mental stimulation and fun and some financial security. When any of that is sorely lacking, life is going to suck. That's just that.