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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]
She is on Wellbutrin now (helps a bit with the anxiety), and she hasn't been taking her ADD meds.  Do you think ADD meds would help the depression?  She's loath to take them because she always wants to power through.

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I deal with depression, and ADD meds do help it. Not because it directly resolves the depression, but because they give me focus and energy to accomplish whatever goals I set out for the day. It creates a positive cycle of feeling good about myself, being productive, sleeping well, having routine, etc. -- and those improve my self esteem, which helps my depression, helps me stay on top of taking my other meds, doing self-care, etc.

One thing I want to gently point out, although I suspect you already see this... you said she "wants to power through." You're expressing concern about her taking other medications (understandably). It sounds to me like she has picked up on that, and there's some family belief that medication should be avoided, it's better if you can "power through" or fix yourself without meds, etc. -- I'm sure you've never directly told her that, but kids pick up on this stuff.

That's a really dangerous mindset for someone with depression and anxiety. It often leads to an increased cycling on and off meds... things get bad, they start taking meds, things start to feel better and then they think "Oh man, I'm doing well, I should try to power through this myself now and see if I can do it without meds." Adherence to med schedules is hard even without any sort of underlying belief about meds being bad/good, but I'd almost encourage you to swing to the other side for awhile, just to help head that off. "If you had an infection, you'd take antibiotics. If you were diabetic, you'd take insulin. This is no different - it's chronic, and you need the meds, and we are so grateful they're available." [/quote]

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