Anxiety and Depression Questions

Dear Samunder,
You can definitely try therapy for 5-6 months along with these medicines. Then, when you are able to deal with your negative automatic thoughts, you can challenge yourself by reducing and stopping these medicines.

The most effective solution for dealing with anxiety for me personally was waking up early. I am not a morning person but once I tried this, I was surprised how good this made me feel. It helped me find peace and calm myself down. Having so much time in my hand I could do small things that made me happy and I felt a sense of accomplishment just by waking up early. I feel the most anxious during the night- so sleeping early really helped me tackle it to a great extent.
Meditation was another ...more

As per research, a depressive episode should show improvement by minimum 9 months, provided it is treated adequately. And that is the recommended duration for taking medicines, when the patient is having depression for the first time. Regarding tapering of doses, it will be done gradually as per the patient's symptoms over a year. Please do not discontinue any psychiatric medicines suddenly or without supervision and always discuss openly with your psychiatrist in case of any side effects. It he...more

Sir, the mere use of medication is not sufficient to solve your problems. Please visit a counselor and get some help regarding your depression and anxiety. In counseling you will learn a lot of tools, skills, and techniques to deal with your life and its problems. In the meantime, please do the following sincerely because you could resolve the problem better with good cooperation: have a good night’s sleep, have a good breakfast of more proteins, meditate often, remain free of stress, eat a lot ...more

Begin by being aware of your thoughts… don't fight them. Fighting them will only make them worse. Make a list of these thoughts and see how true these thoughts are. Either contradict them by finding positive examples or simply reject them if they are not true. Your anxiety is only a warning signal trying to warn you of something, give it a patient listening. Much like taking a shower everyday is good for your physical health, weeding off negative thoughts is good for your mental health. Making t...more

No medicine can change your thought and main problem is how you see the situation so change your perception and life style, that is permanent and along with pharmacological treatment if you take cbt session it will help you a lot.

Dear lybrate-user, why do you want to stop venlafaxine before you are relieved of your anxiety and depression. Good that you have not used ativan. Alprazolam also is a similar drug. Use it only when it is absolutely necessary (you need to do your routine work with all these symptoms). Paracetamol may relieve you temporarily - but in the long run, it damages your kidneys. It is not aimed to treat your depression. Most of your symptoms looks like that of depressive disorder. Still many hormonal, m...more

Recovery from a psychiatric illness varies. It may take 2-8 weeks to achieve a significant amount of improvement in symptoms. To see the effects of a particular antidepressant, atleast 2-4 weeks may be required. In this particular case, the doses may be increased further to look for improvement. If there is no improvement even after that, then there would a need to change the antidepressant or try another treatment modality.

Better to avoid taking quitipin in the morning. Usually it takes 4 weeks, if there is no response consult psychiatrist again he can change sertraline to some other antidepressant or increase dosage of it.

Its ok, take the medications as per your doctor's advice. "everyone" who says are not professionally qualified to comment on areas of mental health.