A New Year and Best Wishes to Everyone - Anxiety and Depre...

Anxiety and Depression Support

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A New Year and Best Wishes to Everyone

hstroller profile image
3 Replies

This message is a positive one, so please read through to the end.

I was active on the anxiety and depression boards a few years ago. I never had a history of any type of mental health issues prior to Covid, and being out-of-work during the same time period, plus dealing with a family member with terminal cancer.

I started getting some bad anxiety attacks a few times a week, which turned into a few times a day, and then devolved to to all-day, every day, severe anxiety for a year. I also couldn't sleep for more than 2 or 3 hours and tried every supplement under the sun to work around that problem, without success. I lost interest in food, sex, music, reading, tv and found something negative and sad in every aspect of everyday life. I also put myself in this hopeless catch-22 where I knew working would help me mentally, but I didn't think I could work until I got over the anxiety and depression.

Nine months into this dark period, I decided to try AD pills to help. This went against everything I believed in, because I thought it was a sign of weakness, plus I had a family member who had abused such pills. My GP prescribed Effexor, which gave me bad side effects. Next, a psychiatrist put me on Klonopin and Paxil, which kicked in after 5 weeks but had bad sexual side-effects. Next, we tried Lexapro, which gave me vison problems and made me pathologically restless. Then, back on Paxil briefly. Then, a second try at Lexapro, with no luck.

Finally, I got a new psychiatrist who had me take a genetic test, which I swore up-and-down would be a waste of money. He prescribed Pristiq with a low dose of Klonopin to assist with anxiety while the anti-depressant kicked in. Despite being bashed online, Pristiq gave me no side effects and was effective. I gave the psychiatrist a million reasons why it wouldn't work for me, but it did. No sweating, no anxiety, no depression, no sexual problems, and no relapses after a month of being on the medication.

I stayed on the medication for 1.5 years. I took some online classes and worked very hard at getting a job, which finally happened. I tapered slowly off of the low dose Klonpin, with no problem and without withdrawal side effects. I then nervously made the decision to taper off of the Pristiq. I said to myself, even under a worst case scenario, I had found a working formula and could go back. Surprisingly I had little to no side-effects coming off of the Pristiq. The dreaded "brain zaps" didn't happen to me.

Today, I am very happy and without any depression or anxiety, and I have my dream job working with great people. In looking back, I can't really understand what went wrong in my brain where I couldn't break the cycle of anxiety, worry, and depression. Worrying about it was an all encompassing, all day thing, every day. In my case, I needed the AD pills to break the circular mental cycle that I had trapped myself in.

I wrote all this because I know that the people who are well, or get well, usually don't spend the time to go back and let other people know about their successes. I wanted to do it, to let people know there is hope, even after facing a year, or many years, of feeling hopeless, lost, and experiencing anhedonia. I think good experiences are more of the norm than not, but they don't drive people to write about them online.

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hstroller
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3 Replies

Thank you so much for posting your story. I get very depressed reading about all the situations that people are in here on this forum. Many days it’s just too much for me to comprehend, and the drama of it all just makes me feel worse. I am enlightened and uplifted by your story as I feel I am on the cusp of recovery and so close to that path of living free of anxiety/depression. I think that you are absolutely correct in the fact that we all NEED to hear success stories to believe they can happen to us. Wallowing in self pity, and almost encouraging it, is not helpful to anyone here. Wish I could read more stories like yours as this is what really gives me hope. Congrats on your success and keep fighting the good fight. You are an inspiration to me 👍🙏❤️

Agora1 profile image
Agora1

Hi hstroller, It always brings a smile to my face whenever someone comes back

to write about their success. We need stories like that in order to help others to

know that anxiety doesn't always have to be a lifetime issue. My success was what

brought me to this forum 7 years ago. I was so grateful to have succeeded with all

the work I put into helping myself. I never doubted for a moment that I would and I

could reach my goal. And I knew that when I did succeed, I would pass it forward

and here I am. Thank you for taking the time to share your journey with us :) xx

Furio95 profile image
Furio95

Thank you for sharing; very positive message

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