as someone who is against medication.

ive got nothing :D :P

go ahead and try it for yourself! worse that can happen is you dont like it and you quit it. anti-psychotics may have some suicidal and paranoia risks. anti-depressants do not. so youre safe.

Deciding to go on meds isn't an easy decision, but it's good you are looking at all the options.

Anti-depressants can really help stabilize your moods, help you to concentrate better and feel more like yourself. For me, I simply don't function without them; all I do is lay in bed and sleep when I don't take my meds.

The down side is that anti-depressants don't work for everyone. You may have to try several different drugs out before you find the right one for you. The side effects can be annoying too. Some people get used to the med and the side effects go away after a few weeks, but for some of us they never go away all together. And if you forget to take your meds for a period of time or abruptly withdraw, you may go through unpleasant withdraw from them.

Also, in some people, anti-depressants can make the depression worse and the feelings of suicide more strong. So that is always something to watch out for when you start them.

Talk to your doctor about the different options available for you and spend some time thinking on it before you make your decision.

And if they don't help you or you don't like them, you can always change meds or go off them.

they saved my life once. but I do not need them anymore.

they have their purpose, but are not for life. xx

I agree with Lemon. It may take some changing around to find which one works best for you bu remember, do not and I repeat, do not stop these antidepressants "cold turkey".

There is a gradual step down or tapering off of these so, be sure and check with your doctor if you choose to quit taking these.

I've always refused medication, but it is a personal choice. I have two main reasons for refusing. One is that I simply don't like to medicate for anything unless I feel there is no alternative. The other is that the thought of numbing myself or disconnecting myself doesn't sit well. As much as I hate being unable to control my emotions, and as much as it hurts unbearably at times, there is a part of me that doesn't want to lose touch with that part of myself. It's the source of a lot my motivation (guilt and sensitivity move me to want to do my part to make the world a better place in whatever way I can) and a lot of my inspiration for writing. And I've also always been a firm believer in the concept that you cannot appreciate positive feelings if you don't feel their negative counterpart.

When it comes to others, though, I support whatever decision they make. Depression affects different people differently. Some cope better in some ways than in others. You've got to do what works for you and what feels right for you.

Some ppl will say, they cant live without them
or how much better there life is.
Well I started on lexapro like 3 yrs ago and recently went to zoloft and wellbutrin only because I felt that they were not working for me, also tried abilify and a couple sicotic meds and could not handle the side affects, at this point I m feeling nothing works and maybe just detox off everything and try to let my body go without all those drugs and see how I do.
On meds I still want to sleep or lay in bed alot and thats not what I want.

As OLDBIKER has said never just go off meds, I did that with Lexapro and got these God awful brain shivers and it interfeared with my vision and was really weird..

What might work for you might not work for me, Im about to give up though and try something else other than meds.

I TAKE PROZAC. I HAVE NEVER HAD AN SIDE EFFECST FROM IT BUT I DON'T FEEL LIKE IT'S DOING ANY GOOD FOR ME. I DO KNOW PEOPLE WHO HAVE BEEN SAVED FROM PROZAC.

took prozac for years and could stop and start anytime i wanted. never had a side effect.. finally felt it was not working and the doctor placed me on cymbalta. took it 8 weeks and went 2 days and didn't take it.. went into the worst withdrawals ever. thought i was having a heart attack. had brain shivers, tremors. sweats, heart palpatations. this went on for over a week.. couldn't go to work and did not leave this house... had all sorts of thoughts i have never had before.. never again will take any of this " poison". being on it may help some. if you ever come off the newer ones, please get a doctor to help ween yourself off first.....

think of it this way, if u have a headache u take paracetamol....if u have flu symtoms u take beechams powder............
so if u have mental illness ie depression u should take meds xx

they do help and are not for life

As in any illness, you should seek medical advice to come up with a treatment plan. Your individualized plan may or may not include medication.

Can your parents help set up a doctor appointment for you?

Hugs

simply put. the pros are--they work for some. cons are--they dont for others. they dont work for me

anti depressants are very dangerous for someone you age. your doctor will need to be very careful about what s/he gives you and you will need very close monitoring. Antidepressant taken by people younger than 24 have the well known side effect of feeling very suicidal.
i myself have not had a problem with side effects and do not feel numb although i dont know that efexor is doing a lot for me but it is a little better than nothing.
good luck and please make an informed chioce in this matter.

Wow, i've neevr had so many reaplies before!, i read all of them. thank u guys for ur opinion and advice. im 16 and everyone, rentz, school counselor, therapist decided i shud go through intense therapy and if that doesnt work, drugs, but my mom doesnt want me to take them, but at this point i dont give a damn anymore, i feel like whats the worse that can happen.

anti psychotics at any mg can have severe withdraws if stopped abruptly, such as cold turkey. anti depressants can normally be stopped at anytime with little withdraw, unless used at high dosages for other issues. such as zoloft for anxiety. as that affects two issues, and not just depression. prozac has been known to cause some suicidal thoughts in Bipolars but solves itself as they just stop taking the medication. lol. nothing to really worry about.

it takes about 2 weeks before the medication takes affect. within that time youll question if its working, and will debate quitting.

if youre like me, the finances involved with being dependent on a pharmaceutical company will out weight the depressing thoughts of fatigue and anxiety. I purchase other things with my money, which make me happier then a pill :D

I've been depressive from grade 8 to grade 11 without knowing it was depression. Got insane for lack of the good treatment (hallucinations, hearing voices, bad sleep, anxiety crisis). Therapy (from grade 8 till mid-cegep) did some good, but not enough.
Nothing was bad with my body or anything.
The social worker and the doctor I saw spoke together and concluded I might try meds. I took EffexorXR. They took long to act, almost six months to really appreciate a difference. Six more month to feel good, then slowly stopped.
They kept me at 75 mg to avoid making my situation worse, instead of putting me at higher dosage. (luckily, I had free samples from the CLSC)
That first time, I had no side effects at anytime.

Since almost a year, suicide thoughts keep bouncing in my mind. At the beginning it was once a week, then twice a week, then more and more until, in march, it was almost all the time. Since I saw no reason for that, I didn't seek help. I tried taking vitamins, practicing positive thinking, kept pushing those thoughts back, nothing worked. It's just when I was searching the best way to kill myself, and that it became evident that sleeping pills were not the good option I thought, that I awoke and told myself I needed to seek help--and fast...
So did I. The doctor gave me effexor again, ran blood tests.
She warned me that during the first four to six weeks, I might see my suicidal thoughts increase. She gave me the phone number of a crisis line.
I remember the first time I got on effexor. My mother made quite a fuss, she was bringing me papers on young that killed themselves while on antidepressors. Of addiction. Of all the negative things of antidepressors. One day I've got tired of it. I told her, it's my life, I have a problem and need to deal with it. I know how you feel about those pills and the fact that I'm taking them, but please, at least for once, respect my choice... your stories don't say if these people were closely followed and monitored. I am. I see a therapist once a week, and the doctor every two weeks, and the psy once in a while... She later told me that she felt bad for not seeing this happening, and that she had a shock to see those pills on my desk, and that she blamed herself for not seeing I had a problem because she was so involved with dealing with my brothers that she felt she was responsible for my depression and that she ought to do something to get me out of it...
Finally, all I had to do to convince her of stopping telling me how bad these pills were was to tell her I wasn't dealing with it alone, that it wasn't just a fancy, but a necessity for me...


The second time(now) I've had awful side effects the four first day. they decreased the fifth, stopped the sixth, then it was time to augment the dose. I already felt better. half suicide thoughts gone, concentration improved, sleep the same. three weeks, now, and I'm back at having normal sleep patterns, though I still have weird dreams that are side effects. Almost none anymore, though...


When there is a specific cause to depression, therapy is an option. But when the cause is unknown, or when therapy does nothing, this means that the chemicals in the brain just don't work properly. And to make them work properly, it takes chemicals. which ones? hard to say... My doctor fell rigth the first try because she was speaking with the social worker and the psy. She knew exactly where I stood, and her great experience helped her chose the best for me.
the second time, the long process was out of question. I was too close to the edge to take the time to figure it out, so she just gave me what worked the first time. The best your doctor knows your case, the best he'll be able to say what meds might be fit for you. If you feel the meds are not good, speak with him, he'll see if a change is an option, or if the way you feel is normal, given your present state and the known effects of the particular med.

It usually takes five to six weeks to get to it's full potential with effexor. Then it's just a matter of time to see the full results...

Antidepressors helped me so much, they were what I needed at the time, and they still are what I needed this time.
Some people will need them their whole life, because their brain is just unable to make the good amount of chemicals.
other people could go without them.
I don't personnaly feel like they numb my feelings. They don't magically make me another person. I'm just no more feeling like as if I only deserve to die. I don't stress on my mistakes as much, for example when I told a guy the transparent bacs were in row one, while they were moved in nine, and I thought about it for days after that day at work... Not that I don't care anymore, I still feel bad for giving false informations, or making mistakes, but I feel, not only know with my head, but know it deep inside, that we are all humans, and that we all make mistakes, and that it's useless to go over them over and over thinking at how we could have made it different....

Pretty long post, for just my two cents, but I hope it helps...