Posted by nicky847 on January 7, 2004, at 14:29:09
In reply to Re: lexapro and me, does it work?, posted by nicky847 on January 7, 2004, at 14:23:42
Lexy-
one more thing i forgot to comment on was your question about the light shining down from on high, pulling the switch, and setting everything back to the way it was...from my experience although we all want very badly for that to happen it seldom does..depression is beaten by collecting little victories and savoring those victories..they may seem few and far between at first..or sometimes you may feel like you are not doing as well as you were yesterday...but soon the victories begin to pile up and outweigh the defeats...the setbacks get fewer and farther between and less scary...and gradually you start to feel "normal" again...patience is the key..each persons timetable is different..but be patient with yourself..
> Welcome!
> Its good that you are getting some relief this soon into being on lexapro..and that you are doing better on it than on zoloft..sometimes it is hard to find the right med..
>
> have you tried seeing a therapist and asking him/her about cognitive behavioral therapy? it is really useful for helping you discern what is the depression talking and what is an actual rational thought...you will find that most of the time the negative thoughts you have are the result of filters that depressed people have on their thoughts called cognitive distortions..there is also a book called Feeling Good by Dr. David Burns which is great if you cannot see a therapist..
> > Hi All!
> > I actually posted a few miniutes ago but am not sure where my post went so I decided to try to share again.
> > I have been reading this site for quite a while now but this is my first hand at trying to post so please bear with me!
> > A little background... I am a 24 year old female, graduate student finishing up my master in therapy/social work this April. My family and boyfriend live in the south while I am in school farther north. I had never before been depressed and was actually always noted as "the strong one". I about 5 months ago, I began taking the birth control pill. I started with terrible PMDD and from there it would build weeks until for the entire month I would be crying all the time, angry and thinking everything was negitiave and everyone hated me ect.
> > I wrote it off to being homesick but when I returned home for a fall break everything got worse because it did not get better like I had anticpated. During my ten day home, my parents and boyfriend where very scared, I wanted to die,I was crying constantly and having terrible negitiave thoughts. Finally, my father read something about birth control pill leading to depression. I stopped taking the pill and within 24 hours was a new person.
> > I returned to school feeling like myself again. After 10 days a tragedy struck my family. I took it well at first but then as I started to feel sad, I got terrified that I would become depressed again, like a phobia of depression, of course the anxiety lead my body back in the the "learned" habit of depression. After returning home, I was able to pull out of it. I went back to school and had 21 days where I was really starting to "come though it".
> > Then my boyfriend and I who never fight, got into a huge fight, I freaked out and again my body went into the extreme anxiety which lead to the depression. At this point I started to have horrible suicidal thoughts. I have never wanted to harm myself but it was as if my body was so scared that it felt like that was the way out.
> > I knew my next step needed to be medication. I began taking Zoloft the next day. That was a nightmare, Iwas a complete zombie, had weird sensations in my left siniuses, extreme maliase and terrible nightmare. After 3 weeks the anxiety was gone but the depression was terrible.
> > I finally contacted my doctor and he prescribed me Lexapro. I took 5mg the first 4 days and then started taking 10mg. Tomorrow will be my first day of my third week. I started feeling a little bit better after the first week. A lot of the hypersensitivity has gone along with the crying spells. I have also become a little more social though I am having to force myself. I also feel very tenitave and hesitant, even a little scared to get better although its what I want more than anything.
> > Sometimes it gets so hard because I don't know if my thoughts are the "depression voice" or my actual thoughts.I wish that one morning I would wake up and a light would shine from God and then I would be all better, "me" again.
> > I would love to hear all of your experiences and any encouragement you can give on depression as well as Lexapro. God bless you all and keep us all close.
> > MA
>
>
poster:nicky847
thread:297696
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20040105/msgs/297706.html