It’s good that you’re asking. Start there! Many people struggle with mental illness in silence, or find themselves uncomfortable with facing the topic directly. This is already progress.
I agree with other comments that you should have this conversation with at least one doctor. But understanding other people’s experiences can be important, and can also make the prospect of going further less terrifying.
So I’ll share mine, though they’re limited. I’ve only been prescribed one antidepressant, trazodone, which is an SARI not an SSRI. It wasn’t prescribed directly to treat depression, though I was seeking relief from depression at the time. It was prescribed to help me sleep, which it did for a time.
This was during a really severe mental health crisis, and I was also plagued by severe anxiety. I probably would have continued to explore antidepressants, had I not found the root cause in my own case was undiagnosed/untreated ADHD.
My experience with trazodone was short, so please don’t take it as more than one small anecdatum. But it was:
1. Extraordinarily helpful when I needed it most. It did exactly what I needed it for.
2. Wasn’t particularly helpful as other contributing factors eased. I had other steps to take to work on improving my mental health further. But I was more capable of approaching them.
3. Did not have, for me, serious side effects. It just became less effective.
4. Wasn’t hard, for me, to stop taking safely. I don’t know if this would have been appreciably different if I’d taken it longer but I assume it would have.
This is, in my opinion, a success story! It’s probably not a representative one though. And this is where my anecdata gets more speculative, so please take this with a grain of salt: I know a lot of people who have psychiatric experiences which span a wide range. I know people who have experienced the “utter terror” of meds that didn’t work for them. I’ve heard and read similar experiences from people less close to me.
Of those people close to me who went off meds, they almost universally had worse experiences and outcomes. Almost everyone I know who’s had unpleasant experience with antidepressants stuck with it, and found something that works at least for a while until an adjustment was needed.
Reiterating, I am not a doctor. Just relaying my experience and what I can relay from people in my community. The biggest hurdle is the one you already leapt: facing this. The next biggest hurdle is that antidepressants take a long time to become effective if they will, and a long time to transition off if they’re not helpful. That’s a real hurdle! But with attentive care it should be about the same level of risk as declining treatment. Because attentive care is the more important factor there.
I don’t know what the answer for you should be. I do know that it’s more available to you because you’re asking the question in a well considered way.
I agree with other comments that you should have this conversation with at least one doctor. But understanding other people’s experiences can be important, and can also make the prospect of going further less terrifying.
So I’ll share mine, though they’re limited. I’ve only been prescribed one antidepressant, trazodone, which is an SARI not an SSRI. It wasn’t prescribed directly to treat depression, though I was seeking relief from depression at the time. It was prescribed to help me sleep, which it did for a time.
This was during a really severe mental health crisis, and I was also plagued by severe anxiety. I probably would have continued to explore antidepressants, had I not found the root cause in my own case was undiagnosed/untreated ADHD.
My experience with trazodone was short, so please don’t take it as more than one small anecdatum. But it was:
1. Extraordinarily helpful when I needed it most. It did exactly what I needed it for.
2. Wasn’t particularly helpful as other contributing factors eased. I had other steps to take to work on improving my mental health further. But I was more capable of approaching them.
3. Did not have, for me, serious side effects. It just became less effective.
4. Wasn’t hard, for me, to stop taking safely. I don’t know if this would have been appreciably different if I’d taken it longer but I assume it would have.
This is, in my opinion, a success story! It’s probably not a representative one though. And this is where my anecdata gets more speculative, so please take this with a grain of salt: I know a lot of people who have psychiatric experiences which span a wide range. I know people who have experienced the “utter terror” of meds that didn’t work for them. I’ve heard and read similar experiences from people less close to me.
Of those people close to me who went off meds, they almost universally had worse experiences and outcomes. Almost everyone I know who’s had unpleasant experience with antidepressants stuck with it, and found something that works at least for a while until an adjustment was needed.
Reiterating, I am not a doctor. Just relaying my experience and what I can relay from people in my community. The biggest hurdle is the one you already leapt: facing this. The next biggest hurdle is that antidepressants take a long time to become effective if they will, and a long time to transition off if they’re not helpful. That’s a real hurdle! But with attentive care it should be about the same level of risk as declining treatment. Because attentive care is the more important factor there.
I don’t know what the answer for you should be. I do know that it’s more available to you because you’re asking the question in a well considered way.
I hope this helps.