What if medication doesn work?
Find an experienced therapist who seems like a good fit and stick with it. It sounds like your family may not have been the most supportive of you even though you obviously love them. It also seems that perhaps the food that has helped with depression (I know this does work somewhat) is as much a means of self-destruction. A good therapist can help you start to work thru these things in a healthy way. You also need to take some steps in lifestyle changes. They play a big role in depression – set sleep-wake schedule during normal ppl hours, eating healthy, exercising, getting sun, socializing, etc. Hiding away from all this is just creating a vicious circle. Also, see a psychiatrist who specializes in mood disorders. There are more meds out there. Lithium has a mild antidepressant effect of it’s own and is very good at supplementing antidepressants or meds like Lamictal. Abilify and Geodon are two antipsychotics with strong antidepressant effects. They both are supposed to be weight neu
There are a lot of medications out there. I mean hundreds. Right now, you come off to me as Atypical depression. Lots of anger, frustration along with the usual depressive symptoms – plus the really wretched problem of being resistant to a lot of drugs. Atypical depression tends to require bizarre drug combos, unusual drugs, and sometimes higher doses. You may have to tolerate some more side effects. Here’s some ideas for antidepressants: Cymbalta worked for you, try Effexor perhaps (Be warned that for some people, getting off this drug SUCKS. Have some sick days saved up). Getting off it can be horrible (for maybe ~20% of people), but it’s very potent. Serzone is another med, gotta be careful with your liver sometimes, but it’s like a less potent, less awful-potential Effexor. Might be worth trying first. Amoxapine is older, strange and often overlooked, worth a shot with people who have atypical symptoms. Lastly, if nothing else works, if all those fail, we can bring out the MAOIs. W
