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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]How depressed are you? Exercise and time outdoors and sleep are great but there are many people who do not have a real choice about using medication and it does in fact often take many tries to get the right one at the right dose.

I mean: years.

Honestly I may be the wrong person to comment on this because the expectation that if one drug doesn't work that means welp, no drugs just seems so off-base to me based on experience. Good luck. [/quote]

People have different approaches to this and there's no "right" answer. But I can tell you that for me, the side effects of SSRIs were bad enough that the idea of spending years trying to find a drug and dosage that made things better instead of worse was absolutely not worth it. Even if you could guarantee me that after 2 or 3 years, I'd have a drug that worked, it would not have been worth it to me because my well-being, which was obviously already not good, declined so much more when I went on SSRIs. Night sweats, digestive issues, worsening depression, feeling low energy or catatonic all the time, having no feelings at all, etc. And this was on the lowest possible dose. I made it about 8 months on two different SSRIs and decided that process was not for me. I was in therapy and the CBT was definitely the best thing I had going -- I tapered off the drugs, dug in hard on CBT, and made sure I exercised daily. It is the only thing that has worked for me. And the best part is that when my depression comes back (which it has, several times, I have chronic depression), I can dig back in on CBT and exercise and see the same benefits every time, unlike a drug which often has decreasing effectiveness or may not work as well depending on your weight, other medications, whether you have anxiety as well, etc.

IME, CBT and exercise are more reliable treatments for depression with no decline in effectiveness over time and no side effects. I have nothing at all against medicating for depression or anxiety and would recommend pretty much anyone with these horrible issues try it because doing anything is pretty much always better than doing nothing when it comes to depression. But the idea that medication is the only solution, or the best solution, is just flat wrong. So many of us struggled with meds and found more relief with other treatments.[/quote]

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