What if No One's Watching?

my doc has a lot of patients who've done well on lexapro. but...i very, very strongly believe that the best results come when you are approaching your issues from multiple angles. have you thought about therapy at all? once you find someone you're with whom you're compatible, counseling can be nothing short of miraculous. it's why i'm still alive and mostly sane...

I've thought about therapy. I've done nothing beyond thinking about it, though. I'm terrified of it, frankly.

I had great experiences with one of the school therapists. Just scream at me if you want her name. She was so totally cool. She was beyond cool. She helped me through some hard times, and best of all, it was free - paid for by the student services fee. Just making the first phone call was the hardest thing for me - I was so nervous and afraid that I was practically crying over the phone, but they couldn't have been nicer, and it makes such a difference. Such, such, such a difference. Please think seriously about it - I'm sure you'd never regret it.

If what you have is a chemical imbalance, then you may have to try a range of anti-depressants and in various combinations. My experience has been that when I am in a very bad state, my medication has to start working before I can begin to talk about my feelings. Be gentle with yourself, and take care.

Take it with food if you decide to take it. I know that's probably really obvious, but not to silly ol' me, and I ended up puking my little guts out. Yuck. Once I started taking it with food, that worked itself out though. Whatever you decide, good luck. Take care.

yeah, i forgot to say that therapy might be more effective once you're feeling more stable with meds. and being gentle with yourself.

and not puking up your meds. I second (or third) the therapy, when the time is right. Maybe everyone else already knows this, but I learned that you have to know something about the therapist's "philosophy" of therapy--and something of your own--before you can know if they'll be compatible with you. For example, my first experience was with a really Freudian therapist who wanted to talk to me about my childhood all the time (apparently he didn't realize how cliche this was), when what I was looking for was someone who could help me with my present problems and maybe show me ways to change some thinking patterns. So shop around. You seem to get a lot of benefit from talking about what's bothering you and looking for guidance from friends, so you'd probably take really well to a good therapist. What are your fears about therapy?