[momto2boys]

About a year ago my young adult son shared that he thought he was depressed. He started therapy and medication. The first AD he used made him more depressed. During this time he shared some very negative thoughts with me. Example: he hates everyone, he hates himself, he thinks he's ugly, he doesn't fit in with anyone, etc. I know negative thoughts are common during depression. My question is does he remember saying these things, does he remember feeling that way, does he feel that way now or do those feelings just go away with when depression improves. TIA for replies.

[Skeezyks]

Hello momto2boys: I don't know if your son remembers expressing the negative feelings he expressed. I don't know why he would not. Does he feel that way now? Probably. No, it has been my experience that negative thoughts & feelings don't go away simply because one starts taking an antidepressant.

If an antidepressant is working for a person, it may lift the person's mood in general & make it easier for him to cope day-to-day. But it doesn't wipe the slate clean, so to speak. Also... not every antidepressant works for everyone. It can take some time to find the best one for a given person. And you have to give the medication time to take effect... perhaps two or three months, here again depending on the individual. Also, after one has been on a particular antidepressant for a while (here again... it varies from person to person) the antidepressant can lose its effectiveness. Then either the dosage needs to be increased, another psych med must be added, or the person must be switched to a new antidepressant altogether. Everyone reacts differently to all of these elements. So there's no way to tell for sure what your son's experience will be.

By the way... it may also be worthwhile for your son to see a therapist if he does not already have one. Most people in the mental health field today, I think, feel that antidepressants alone are often not sufficient. But, here again, it's an individual thing. There's no hard-&-fast rule. I wish your son, & you, well...

[elevatedsoul]

for me it stays... i might feel a little better but i always remember the feelings and its like an anxiety of "when is it coming back" because it always seems to come back...
its tough.. guess i just try to make the best of the good days if you would call them that...
i've tried a few antidepressants and they didnt help me much.. really have to try a few different ones sometimes to find one that will work... slow process

i just try to make it through the day, but my mind is pretty far gone i guess...
hope that he can find some relief soon... good therapy can be a great thing...

[ablankscript]

A person is no longer depressed then there is no reason for them to think about their prior feelings, probably won't forget them, but they won't be apart of their current experience. It can be a long road toward recovery, but it does happen.

[dexter]

While everyone's experience will be different I agree with ablankscript's assessment. During depression these negative thoughts cause a lot of emotional pain. In recovery one may or may not remember those specific negative thoughts but either way they won't be, shouldn't be, causing pain.

I hope he is still in therapy. In my opinion an antidepressant is what allows therapy to be effective in cases where the depression is caused by a chemical imbalance that blocks the ability to function normally. Therapy helps get the thought process back to a healthier state, and includes coping skills for when negative thoughts return or when life events trigger a relapse.