mess with it.  If Itworks for someone else, don"t mess with it either.

 IMHO  Dick

The anti-depressent med controversy was solved for me very easily.  I was
first given Prozac while I was in treatment and left treatment with a
prescription for the drug in my pocket.  The treatment center doctor
explained it this way.  Depression is an illness juat like diabetes.  
Anti-depressants are a successful methtod of treatment. You would not
stop taking insulin when you entered recovery and niether should you not
treat your depression.  I am 7+ yrs sober and still to this day take the
meds.  

I have tried at different times to stop taking them and have suffered no
withdrawals.  But after a few weeks when they have worked their way out
of my system I start to cry at the drop of a hat. I begin to feel
worthless and I enter a darlk space where no one would want to be.  While
in the space meetings, assistance of sponsor and well-wishing AA friends
does nothing to alleviate my inner pain.  I have tried for to tough it
out, once for an entire year working my program to the best of my
abililty, but because of the dark space I am in the chance of slipping is
very high.

No one can understand what depression is like unless they have been
there.  It's like everyone else has a roadmap to a happy, serene life but
you and no matter how hard you try and what avenues you go down you can
not find the path and while you are struggling to find that path you
keep falling down and hurting yourself, you are exausted but can't sleep
and all you want is for it to end.  I can not believe that anyone,
experiencing this would ever say that a recovering drunk should not take
anti-deressnt drugs if prescribed by their doctor.  If you were unable to
have a bowl movement for several weeks would you not take a laxative?  
Well, it's the same way with anti-depressant drugs. For me there is no
recovery with out these meds.  If I loose my desire to live, what reason
is there to recover, and what good has sobriety brought my life?

Claudia

Yes Toto, we're not in Kansas anymore

The anti-de[ressant med controversy was solved for me very easily.  I was
first given Prozac while I was in treatment and left treatment with a
prescription for the drug in my pocket.  The treatment center doctor
explained it this way.  Depression is an illness juat like diabetes.  
Anti-depressants are a successful methtod of treatment. You would not
stop taking insulin when you entered recovery and niether should you not
treat your sepression.  I am 7+ yrs sober and still to this day take the
meds.  

I have tried at different times to stop taking them and have suffered no
withdrawals.  But after a few weeks when they have worked there way out
of my system I start to cry at the drop of a hat, I begin to feel
worthless and I enter a darlk space where no one would want to be.  While
in the space meetings, assistance of sponsor and well-wishing AA friends
does nothing to alleviate my inner pain.  I have tried for to tough it
out, once for an entire year working my program to the best of my
abililty, but because of the space I am in the chance of slipping is very
high.

No one can understand what depression is like unless they have been
there.  It's like everyone else has a roadmap to a happy, serene life but
me and no matter how hard I try and what avenues I go down I can not find
the path. I can not believe that anyway, experiencing this would ever say
that a recovering drunk should not take anti-deressnt drugs if prescribed
by there doctor.  If you were unable to have a bowl movement for several
weeks would you not take a laxative?  Well, it's the same way with
anti-depressant drugs. For me there is no recovery with out these meds.  
If ZI loose my desire to live, what reason is there to recover, and what
good has sobriety brought my life?

Well stated, Claudia.  I have been wonderfully sober for 13 years.  Three
different times I have had to be treated for depression by a qualified
physician (who also has close to 30 years in A.A.).  My sponsor pointed me to
Page 133 in the big book.  It was his love and guidance that allowed me to
live to enjoy the gift God gave me - sobriety.

I try as best as I can to ignore all the opinionated, uninformed, perhaps
well-intentioned self-appointed "doctors" who insist on trying to kill people
who are clinically depressed by telling them to throw away their medication.  
Once again, I was saved by the PROGRAM of AA in the liturature, and not
someone's own opinion of what the A.A. program is.

God Bless you, Claudia

Paul

The depression anti-depressants treat is not the same as the
depression one goes through when a job is lost or a loved one dumps
you, or you realize your friends all earn more money have better
lives, etc etc.  I go through THAT and I am on anti-d's.

The depression Prozac, Zoloft, Effexor, Elavil, Paxil and a hosr of
other medications treat is a chronic chemical imbalance in the brain,
that may well be the result of physical trauma, mental trauma,
genetics, diet, allergy,  IE an organic, chemical event .

The symtoms are (my spelling blows) aphasia (the inability to
experience pleasure) and a few other cool words thatbasically mean the
absence of emotion, response to stimuli and a flat affect (dull
lethargic behavior).  And it doesn't go away when you get a new girl
or job.  Its cyclical, seems to strike some people in the winter, some
in the spring, it could be related to the sun, who knows.  There's
lots of research going on (my money is on diet+exposure to sunlight)

I guess my point is the depression anti depresants treat is mistaken
for the blues, feeling down, being upset over some loss or whatever.

I was in a depression when my Dad died and my reaction was--oh, ok.
Funeral.  I would get laid and be like "oh, sex, goody."  Just a flat
line, empty, nothing, dead battery.

On Meds, I react--I have nad some really deep depressions on meds,
that AA and therapy etc have helped me through.  Anti D's are not
Happy Pills--not likeValium.  They restore my ability to feel stuff,
good and bad.  Sometimes deep depression seems like a luxury--the
really bad stuff didn't effect me.

blah blah balh