What have you had to go through dealing with depression and anxiety?  

I was on Lexapro for about 1 1/2 years. I am now weaning off it. When I first was prescribed the anti-depressant I was dealing with a friend who was just diagnosed with terminal cancer. It only took a week before I was feeling better. I no longer would cry at the drop of a hand. Now that my emotions are under control, it is time to see if I can face the world without the medication.

No meds. Just cry..and pray.

My children are prone to depression. Depression runs in their father's side of the family. His sister committed suicide when she was in her lat 40's. She was on anti-depression medicine, but back then there really wasn't a lot of options for medications.

My oldest daughter is 28 and my youngest is 26. They are both on anti-depressants. The oldest was on anxiety meds for a while. The oldest is on disability for other reasons. She has rheumatoid arthritis, a herniated disc in her back, and osteoarthritis in her knees. She is in constant pain. This alone can trigger depression.

I was severly depressed and suicidal for at least three years... before My friends and my biological sister started to help and support me after they had prevented me from acting on suicide...

After that it took over half of the teens in school into pressuring the school system to get me help... They who in turned had to get the STATE involved before.. Finally I was able to started counciling. So I felt comfortable with my sisters therapist, and started going to her therapist with my sister at first, then had my own alone sessions...

I was very stubborn about meds, I refused to try meds, but wanted to try everything else at first... So we tried foods, exercise, daily activities it helped some...

But I was still terrified of my dreams and visions, and what I felt at railroad crossings. Turns out I had very strong clairvoyant abilities. So I was telling my therapist to please lock me up I am schizophrenic.. She said no you are not this... and gave me the reasons... She then encouraged me to do research on psychic, and Shamanism... and she thought Anthropology would be a good topic of study for me... I wanted to work on the railroads ... so all I wanted to read was railroad books..... But I read a little on Shamanism, and Psychics....

This then inspired me into further research on religion...
I found Catholicism really loved it but hit rock bottom... around the time my friends found out I was depressed I had realised women could not be preists.. well now there is an order where they can but I also realised my beliefs were not just one religion... so I searched for what I was kept finding I believed in many things from many religions.. So again I felt depressed as I could not state a name for a religion....

So I would do my usual preaching of Revealations and end of the world.. until I head a dream one night.. It caught my attention cause it was not train wrecks and it was peaceful..

It was a Native Woman dressed in white telling me to pick up a book my mom gave me for x-mas... It had native stories she said to read about the White Buffalo Calf Woman and share the story with everyone one...

Well I red it and it just imediately gave me pleasure and happiness I did not understand but it felt so good...

So I did as she said I went to school shared that I believed the Buffalo was coming and in our time! Again this lead to harassment, and the school teachers even told me to stop the nonsense... ... Until .... 4 months after that... I went to school in Milton, WI 11 miles south of there.. Miracle was born.. 11 miles from my house....

This is when I realsied my dreams and visions were not hallucinations but real... This gave me hope as I no longer thought of them as crazy hallucinations, and this gave me the courage to further continue my healing with depression...

So I agreed to trying out Paxil ... For my Depression and Anxiety... They made a mistake forget to tell me to cut the pill apart, so I was on 4 times the dose to start...

I was sitting in school in the middle of class taking a test and then... It kicked in so strongly that I stood up straight out of my seat and said a funny silly poem.. about a tiger licking it's toes...

Good thing I did it in such a way the entire class was hyper the teacher was t hrilled to see my so happy that he had everyone hand their tests inand we did silly poetry for the rest of the hour. Then next hour I could hardly sit still was singing and yacking my lil head off.. and everyone aksing me whats wrong I said I dunno but I feel goooooooood.. lol...

Did not dawn on me until my biology teacher asked me if I started on antideppressents and I told him, and he said oh you better call your doctor when you get home...

So after begging for three hours to call my doctor about it. They told me to cut the pill to the right dosage.. and I was fine for awhile...

Until my sister decided to keep putting a new pill in my pill box when I walked out of the room, and then I went to take another one forgetting I had taken it, she kept doing this and laughing about it.. this was 6 months later... That is when I oded on paxil ended up six on and off for weeks, and then went through the withdrawl as I refused to touch it again......

So then I had a dream about Zoloft after collecting all the pamphlets... so I suggested I wanted to try that... so I was on zoloft for a year and 6 months..and it worked just fine for me.....

Until ... the evil sister emptied my pill box after I announced they were going to cut me off cause I do not need it after we realised that I was taking St. Johns Wort with it is why it was doubling the effect...

This why it is so important to tell your doctors of any herbal supplemtns you are taking....

the sister... emptied out the pill box. I thought I had taken the pills... until I realised three days after going through the withdrawl of zoloft.. You do not want to go cold turkey off of 130 some milligrams of zoloft! ugga...

I was in the middle of walking slowly down the hall, normally I walk very very fast. It knocked me straight to the ground. In dizziness I could harely move when I close my eyes seen stars and swirls.. or strange patterns.. it was horrible, everything looked distorted, I was extremely ill. Went home sick and was sick the wrest of the week so I missed a whole week of school not know what the heck was going on with me, and my parents did not take me to the doctors....

Finally Saturaday I saw the empty pill box.. and new.. then that I had experience withdrawl....

This has developed a permanent tremor in my on and off.. I do have that discontinuation syndrom... But most of those symptoms I had most of my life anyhow so I don't care... (From being eletrical shock proned..)

It was very difficult to learn to control an manage my psychic abilities, depression, and balance it all our with daily life. I am so overly sensitive to things most were not it was fear of this that was the major cause of my depression.

Now I am still dealing with troubles of trying to get a good paying job.. No one wants to hire me because they fear both my activist streak, and they know that my family is dependant on my being around all the time.. Out of all these trials and errors my Mother has grown to be extremely protective of me. So she tries to hide me from the world, and has successfully cut me off from most people. Well I am hanging in with it out of my love for my mother as I continue to my independant studies.. and I am working on trying to develop myself as a free lance writer, until I can get a good paying job, and work outside of the family. But I see why they are keeping me around. I may not get pay, but they own my house, and are putting in 5,000 a month for it... So I do owe them. For the most part I am happy, but the isolation does not help the depression, and the depression/psychic combination is a very scary combination....

This post maybe more then you had bargained for in a responce.
But that sums up of most of what I had to go through with my depression... and the religion well I named my own.. Heinzism :) .. So I do not feel so lonely anymore. Not since the internet was invented. Take care!.. and I am glad you are happy! :) .

I am glad you are feeling happy. My doctor prescribe prozac for me many years ago. He prescribed it for my migraines, not depression or anxiety. It turns out the low doses of prozac helps to keep the one hormone that can cause migraines level. Anyway, since I've been on it for years now, I can not come off it. If I try to stop I become very depressed, cry and feel horrible about myself and my life. I went to see a neurologist about my migraines the other month. She put me on a new medication called topomax. She said to slowly wean off the prozac. I have tried but I just can't do it. I don't like the way I feel when I start to come off it. I think that I may need the medicine for other reasons now, besides my migraines.

I have been on seroquel, depakote, and flupentixol ever since I had a nervous breakdown last April. I had to quit my job because it became difficult for me to understand anything going around me, social anxiety, and panic attacks when going to the office. I believe I had a genetic predisposition to it too, because I had been on unbearable stress ever since I was little, just doing the simplest of things, and would easily be offended or irritated. I still feel crummy, and i feel tired and stressed,just typing on my computer or trying to talk to people. Everything is jumbled in my head. I am going to try neurotherapy, because I don't want to rely on meds.

I dont know how to respond but Ive been depressed and It was cuz I was going through a lot , I never went to get diagnosed , I just worked and slept , and drank alot, not good, but I felt better talking to people I trusted and of course time, so Im sorry if I could not help. :(

With depression, anxiety, etc. it can often take going through several different medications before finding one that works right, and without side effects that are too severe or bothersome. Experts always say to try therapy, but again this can be hit or miss depending on the therapist and the client/patient and how the two work together.

Depression is one of the most costly illnesses in the world, according to the World Health Organization, in terms of lost productivity, to say nothing of the suffering it causes. Fortunately it's more recognized today and there are better treatments available.

If anyone is experiencing depression or severe anxiety or similar symptoms, don't be hesitant to see about getting help. Lots of people suffer needlessly because they think they're just sad people or that they're weak or that they deserve to suffer, it's their fault, etc.

The right doctor, the right counselor, and the right medications make all the differences.
The crying point would have drove me over the edge. Susan

My best remides for tension and depression are my friends and my parents i talk to them, and i see all my tension i srelives all my problems solved at least i see a solution to my problems.