Zoloft isn’t working and my psychiatrist wants to try another antidepressant. Why is this? I’ve tried 4 already and I am finished. What is happening here? I don’t want to be dependent on my doctor or meds. Why do people want to take this?

Tagged:

Psychopharmacology is a still a science in its infancy. Extremely small differences in drugs can make a world’s worth of difference in the brought-about changes in livelihood and there still isn’t any way to discover these differences other than to just try a bunch until they find one that works.

Please don’t underestimate the value of finding the right drug or combination of drugs. The difference in quality of life can be drastic. I don’t know how bad your depression is, but if it’s so bad that it’s hurting your ability to find meaning in life, it’s worth it to stick with the process until it either works or you’ve exhausted all the options. Again, finding the right meds is literally life-changing.

My life changed once I realized I could only wear 8 1/2 double-wide shoes. Literally nothing else is comfortable for me. My footwear life has gone from spray-and-pray to find something I could wear to knowing exactly what I’m looking for when I go shopping. I’m not messing around anymore, I can shop shoe stores and online with confidence, and I have a closet full of shoes that I can now take to a secondhand store or Goodwill. I will never have to suffer the pain of buying a pair of shoes that doesn’t fit me anymore.

Finding the right anti-depressant is like that, only it’s your whole life that changes, not just how your feet feel.

Secondly, I’m willing to bet that you don’t have a great relationship with a psychotherapist, and are instead just trying to get by with a psychiatrist. I highly recommend building up a therapeutic relationship with a real talk therapist. You might have to try a few different practitioners to find one that you can work well with, but I gotta tell you, it’s real nice when you find one that you click with and can really trust.

Psychiatrists just aren’t good therapists. Really, when you think about it, they can’t be. They spent all that time they would have spent learning therapy techniques on getting a medical degree. That’s a huge amount of work and it’s hard to focus on a “soft” specialty like therapeutic work while you’re doing it.

Imagine if you asked your regular physician for therapy and he just starts giving you life advice. That’s what getting therapy from a psychiatrist is like. He’s going to be looking for psychiatric problems, not psychological ones, because that’s what his specialty is. You want one who is laser-focused on your own personal well-being, not on “fixing your problems.”