New medication - a new hope

So, after going back again, to see my family Doctor, Dr S, he was genuinely concerned and felt alarmed that I had experienced no relief from my depression for so long. So, after two way dialogue, (like I said, he is a good Doctor; caring, respectfull and attentive - thankfully with no 'God Complex') he decided on MIRTAZAPINE widely recognised as an effective anti-depressant.

As with all anti-depressants, MIRTAZAPINE comes with a catalougue of potential side effects, which affect some but not all. It certainly affected me, I could not get up out of bed (not due to normal depressive feelings) as this medication knocked me out! I slept for 18 hours straight each night/day, woken up about 6 to 8 times with my heart racing, due to vivid and lucid nightmares. I lasted 7 days on MIRTAZAPINE before deciding I simply could not funtion on this medication.

Back to the Doctor, this time I was prescribed DULOXETINE (Cymbalta). Thank God! within a few weeks of starting this medication I noticed a cessation of suicidal ideation. In this respect, compared to CITALOPRAM it had a very beneficial effect, although I still felt very down and indeed depressed, albeit without suicidal ideation which I was hugely grateful for.

Again, I persevered for a long time, despite an increase in blood pressure (a common side effect) as to be free of suicidal ideation was wonderful, even though the underlying depression was still there. Once again, I hoped and prayed for a change in external circumstances to be the missing piece of the jigsaw and I also self referred for counselling with a charitable 'pay what you can' Psychotherapy/Counselling service.

Here I was given the option to choose which kind of therapy I felt would be most appropriate. All types of counselling were described in detail, so the client/patient could make an informed choice and better improve their chances of success. I chose Psych-Dynamic and met with my therapist E a week or so later (after waiting for approx 8 weeks).

E is a wonderful lady, it would be hard to find a more caring individual and she is very experienced and has certainly proven, already, to be more of a help than the 6 sessions of CBT which proved to be little less than interesting.