I’ve been dealing with depression (and anxiety) for well over 5 years now. I’ve tried so many different medications and treatments with no apparent success. Inevitably, in the course of the treatment, the doctor will ask if I’m starting to feel better to see if it’s worth continuing the treatment, up the dose, or swap to something else. And… I never know what to say. If it’s not going to get dramatically better all of a sudden, I don’t really know how to recognize any incremental progress if it’s happening at all and without being able to do that, I might be passing on treatments that could have helped if I gave it more time.
So if you’ve been in this situation, how did you recognize progress? To the extent that you can put it into words, what did it feel like to slowly get better as you were treated?
That’s how it is for me, and I was somehow able to do it without medication where medications would help for a little while, then didn’t. But I spent about three months largely to myself, stopping substances, and doing some really horrific shadow work, so there’s that. At first I was definitely on a high, now it’s just mostly level. I still have the highs and lows but graphing it on x-y axes would look like long stretches of straight line with a few small hills and dips spread out here and there.
Nicotine withdrawal upcoming and oh boy …
The meds were part of a whole treatment plan that included therapy and meditation. I was able to stop the meds and therapy once my toxic ex moved out, and being alone and eating simple meals got me into the best shape of my life