Member Advice on Depression > Reviews (143)

I'm 26 now and have suffered badly for many years with depression. It was diagnosed when i was 14. And suprise suprise i was put on prozac. Now i'm not saying they don't work for everyone but they didn't work for me. Which was really frustrating because it seemed i was getting worse i.e i was hearing voices, getting paranoid, self harming etc etc. I was that bad my parents had no choice but to put me in care as i had drove my mother to a nervous breakdown. People would ask me why i did the things i did and many times i tried to explain the way i felt inside, butpeople who have never suffered with depression just don't understand no matter how much you tell them. It got to the point where i tried to take my own life. And yes i know its a stupid thing to do and i would advise anyone who had it in mind DON'T DO IT. But at the time when i did people gave me a lot of grief asking me why. Yet again i tried to explain but they just didn't understand. They just gave me more verbal which when you are feeling as low as i was that was the last thing i needed. And i advise anyone who has to dead with a person who has just tried to take thier own life don't hassle them it really is a cry for help. Anyway back to me, over the years i was put on load of various medications sent to various shrinks and councillors ETC but still felt horrid. Anyway i reached an all time low about 3 years ago i was on 3 different sorts of medication just for my depression. BIG MISTAKE cause they turned me into a zombie it was horrible i would have probably felt better if i wasnt on anything, truthfully. I couldn,t keep my eyes open let alone do anything else. This went on for ages. But about 4 months ago something inside me changed i don't know what. But i just woke one day and threw my medication away BUT I AM NOT IN ANYWAY SUGGESTING ANYONE ELSE DO THIS. I just thought i not taking them anymore. I know i shouldn,t have handled it in this way because really i should have been weaned off them. It could have all gone belly up and made me worse but i was lucky. I did have withdrawral but i have to say i have never felt so good. What i'm trying to say, Mainly to those who have a loved one who has depression is that they need you to love them unconditionally. Depression make people do and say thing they really do not mean, and shouting at them doesn't help. They just need timeto learn to deal with what they are going through, and it is possible with the right support for them to beat it. But it does take time and patience. Don't say you can handle thier illness if in 6 months time you are gonna be out of the door - as it will only make them worse. And they don,t want your sympathy just for you to try and understand to the best of your ability what they are going through. And last but not least Depression is an illness and its no-ones fault when someone does fall victim to it.