I have suffered from (still suffer from?) depression and have had both five years psychotherapy/psychoanalysis (with a well-qualified and sympathetic psychiatrist) which was excellent and have been on medication. After I finished the psychotherapy, I later lapsed again into anxiety and depression, largely through stress and job pressures, and was prescribed Prozac.

Prozac, for me, was a complete disaster and I had strong reactions to it including feelings of loss of control and swings between feeling hot and cold. I know for millions of others it works very well. I went back to the doctor who immediately changed me to Effexor (venlafaxine HCl) which has worked extremely well for me with no side effects. Venlafaxine works on both serotonin and norepinephrine and is one of the newer antidepressants. I continue to take it although I have reduced my dosage.

I now do a great deal of meditation (at least once daily) and this also helps with the underlying root causes of the depression....I hope eventually to wean myself off of the Effexor.

The points behind all of this are:

- it is important to find a good doctor, preferably a specialist
- different antidepressants work differently for different people and what works for one person may not be right for another
- finding the correct dosage is important and, again, a good specialist is recommended
- other treatments like psychotherapy or psychoanalysis may be valuable although not everyone is receptive to such treatment
- other activities like meditation or, especially, exercise may be very useful
- natural remedies, e.g. St. John's Wort (Zibrine is a reasonable strength preparation) do work for many people
- depression is very common (one in three or one in four of the population at some time in there lives if my memory serves me right) and there can be many causes of depression
- people are sometimes reluctant to talk about depression and may especially be reluctant to reveal it to employers who often, unfortunately, have mediaeval ideas about it.
- depression can be treated effectively in very many cases and there is no reason to suffer if this is the case. Often, a small correction in brain chemistry makes all the difference to your daily life and, if there are other underlying causes, can help you to address them.

Don't hesitate to PM me if I can be of any assistance.

Peace

mooman