How long do you take antidepressants from when you start feeling better?

[MikeyLaLa]

Hey guys. I am taking anti-depressants now for 2 months.

I feel better now and was wondering for how much longer I still have to taking antidepressants? I am seeing my psychiatrist and she says that I need to at least keep taking them for 1 year.

Thing is I'm not sure if my psychiatrist is just saying that so I keep coming to her and provide her with income or whether she's saying that for my health and benefit. That's why I'm asking how long do you guys generally take antidepressants for from when you start feeling better. I only started taking antidepressants because my anxiety was horrible and I was having panic attacks and agoraphobia.

[Croix]

Dear MikeyLaLa~

Welcome here to the Forum. I am glad the medication is doing some good, that is really excellent. Not everyone is that lucky and it can take a fair degree of trial and error to get a benefit without side effects that are pretty horrible.

A lot of people, as soon as meds take effect think they are better and can drop the them. This creates problems. Going off unsupervised is not good, there can be all sorts of unexpected effects, and if when you finally do tail off them you return to the state you were in before then you will have to start all over again.

I think it is highly unlikely your psych is cynically using you as a source of revenue, in fact the proposed regimen sounds pretty standard and responsible. A year is not long, and a review at the end of that time, wiht periodic checks in the meantime sounds like good practice to me.

I'd be inclined to do as she says and enjoy the benefits of a better life. If you find side effects starting those occasional checks will be very handy.

Croix

[MikeyLaLa]

Thanks for your post. Yeah I will stick onto them for a while. I'm not gonna go off them cause my mental health is number 1 before anything.

I am thinking I might visit another psychiatrist for a second opinion.

But yeah if you are saying a year is normal and I've seen online generally at least 8 to 10 months up to a year is standard with taking antidepressants...