Whether taken for anxiety, depression or both, what was your "rock bottom" that made you decide to take an antidepressant? Not a decision from a doctor, friends, or family, but your own personal decision. Also, would you choose to stay on them for life if they prove to be beneficial?
When I was the scaRed to leave the house to even take my kids to the park. Anxiety sucks 👎🏽
Why do you need a rock bottom,? it sounds like some sort of 12 step group. Some people find antidepressants very helpful, others less so, people often have to try several before finding one that suits them & some people find side effects troublesome. Antidepressants, over time cause less problems than sedatives but still have a sedative effect and few people would expect to be taking them for life - life and people change over time. Sometimes simply reducing the overall level of stress in a persons life can give them time to make more sense out of things. While things like cognitive/behaviour therapy trys to address problems directly, it can be difficult for people, drugs can sometimes be useful in supporting therapy.
Remember if you go to your Dr you go to get help and he advises what he thinks will be the most useful, if your not prepared to take his advice, you might want to ask yourself why you bothered going in the first place. Generally managing anxiety means trying a number of ideas, its can be hard work & difficult, but if your to anxious to try anything, then really your choosing to remain as you are, That really is the personal decision you have to make and you have to be careful about ignoring friends and family, to many people drive them away and end up with the support of neither.
I started anti depressants because I wanted my life back. Lying in bed thinking the worse all day long wasn't what I wanted for myself or my family anymore. I wanted to enjoy my children again while they were young. I wanted to go places on my own and with my husband without being scared to death. Yes, I will stay on my meds until the end of time if that's what it takes. people ask me that question quite regularly, I find it amusing because I've never been asked if I would stay on my thyroid pill for the rest of my life.
About a month ago I started taking antidepressants, the reason for me was I got into a relationship and constant anxiety over the smallest things was causing problems and even if it's long distance, some part of me knows he's worth it and I wanted to try everything to make it work. Apart from that school was coming up and I've never felt worse, I ended up not even being able to leave the bed or having anxiety attacks during lessons for no reason. I've always avoided taking the step since my mum isn't a fan of that sort of medication, but it's definitely helped me a lot though I would not stay on them my whole life since the thought of being dependant on something that could be solved otherwise (or so I hope) through therapy etc. does sort of scare me.
I was diagnosed with anxiety and depression over 20 years ago. I took medication for years, but then tried to go without for the last 5 years. Everything was fine at first, and I thought it was all controlled, at the very least. Unfortunately, it came back, and with a vengeance this time. I've thought about going back on antidepressants, but the side effects scare me. I also see how other family members have it, but have left the medication behide, and are doing well. That stings a bit. I've thought that if I return to medication, it would be for life because I wouldn't want to deal with constantly going on and off of them.
That's where I'm at now, lying in bed day in and day out. I also have to take thyroid medication daily, so it's funny how you mentioned that. The start up side effects of antidepressants scare the daylights out of me, but I know eventually they work. Mine has always been Zoloft/sertaline, and since it's not my first rodeo, I know what to expect when starting. It certainly isn't nice, and I imagine that the holidays will be interrupted or stopped due to the side effects. I also tend to lose a bit of my humor while on Zoloft, and emotions are quite flat. I'm not happy, not sad, just there, but at least the panic will be gone, and maybe I can drive again.
If you don't mind me asking, what problem do you have with your thyroid? I was diagnosed with graves almost 3 years ago, after many years of telling any and every doctor that my thyroid wasn't working properly. They all just told me it was a anxiety. Fast forward 13 years later and I have to get my thyroid out because it's huge and multi nodular. I believe with all my heart that the thyroid is the cause of a lot of people's anxiety and depression and other mental illnesses that go unchecked by doctors.
I have hypothyroidism, and have to get my levels checked every so often. I also think that the thyroid, and adrenal glands play a role in anxiety and depression, especially in those who have had it for many years. There's various people in my family that have or did have anxiety and/ or depression, so a genetic link doesn't help matters. I take synthroid for my thyroid, and used to think that it would help with anxiety once the levels were on track, but that didn't happen. Perhaps my thyroid made the anxiety worse, but wasn't the only reason for it. Hyperthyroidism does include anxiety as one of its symptoms, but hypothyroidism doesn't, or so they say. Hormones of any sort are often overlooked when it comes to anxiety and depression, yet they play a big role in everything.
I also have generalized anxiety disorder in numerous family members of mine, so I will have to accept that as well. It seems to be a never ending battle doesn't it. I agree that hormones make a huge impact on how we feel and maybe doctors should be checking things like that to find the underlying cause of it before just shrugging it off as "just anxiety/depression."