Dear cali sister:

Welcome back, and on your own first thread. When I first started my first SSRI anti-depressant (Zoloft) in January 1996, I was ecstatic. I felt better, much better. Many people do. These SSRI drugs worked for me like a pair of scissors, cutting off thoughts that used to escalate into anxiety and depression. I liked Zoloft so much that I had the dose go up to the unheard of 400 mg per day, first thing every morning. Years later, the psychiatrist lowered it to 300 mg.

IF I had competent psychotherapy during the time I felt so much better, I could have used that much-better-feeling time to heal, to gain insight and skills so to live better. But I didn’t. And so, after 15 years of high dosage Zoloft, my life circumstances got worse, not better. Eventually I got competent psychotherapy, for the first time in my life, and got off Zoloft (and the other psychiatric medications/ drugs that I took to counter the agitation caused by Zoloft, and otherwise, to be calm).

(During my first competent therapy experience, I cut all contact with my mother, which was necessary for my healing. Cutting contact with her was just the beginning of a mental separation from her- I am mentioning it because of the other thread…)

anita