Anxiety, Paranoia, and Depression

[FireStorm]

I've been dealing with anxiety, depression, and ADD since I was a teenager (apparently these things often go hand in hand, or

[FireStorm]

Oop, hit send too soon. I was going to say that apparently anxiety, depression, and ADD often go hand in hand, at least thats what I've been told. I am 27 now, and I did try quite a few different medications during my teenage years, but I had horrible problems with side effects so I ended up quitting all of them. It seemed like medication that was supposed to help with one thing made something else worse. I do know that medication really helps some people, though, so it is worth looking into.

I did find having a therapist to talk to was helpful, but for me the two biggest helps were exercise and meditation. I've only really been meditating regularly for the past year and a half or so, but it has made a huge difference, especially with the anxiety. I don't know how to explain it exactly, but it really helped me.

[MarkS]

I just wanted to add a little to this thread as a warning for people who want go off of their depression meds. I just spent a long and grueling half a day at the Behavioral Emergency Center at the local hospital for my sons suicidal ideation. About a month ago we saw his psychiatrist and Zach mentioned that he was having a real hard time concentrating and he would like to try something that would help him with that.

My son had been diagnosed in elementary school with ADHD and had been put on ritalin, and then concerta and then adderall. The adderall was a complete disaster and the ritalin and concerta, while they helped a little, seemed to cause other problems. Well, Zach has been on antidepressants for many many years and his Dr thought he had a good handle on it, so she added Strattera to his meds. Strattera is an ADHD med that is NOT a stimulant like all of the others are. HOWEVER it's also not recommended that the patient be taking Wellbutrin at the same time (this was the antidepressant that he was on) So, since she felt he was handling his depression well, she took him off of the wellbutrin and put him on the strattera.

Turned out not to be a great idea. It takes time for the chemicals from the medication to build up in your system, but by the same token, it takes a while for the meds to LEAVE your system. It was a month after stopping his meds before Zach was in crisis, though he told me that it had been feeling steadily worse and worse for the last couple of weeks. So, now he's on another medication that supposedly won't interfere with the strattera and hopefully things will get back to whatever passes for normal again soon.

Just remember that if you go off of your depression meds you'll probably feel fine for a while, it's not until the chemicals are out of your system that you can suddenly be blindsided by those old feelings of despair and depression and you need to be ready for that eventuality.