A question about anti-depressants?!

A question about anti-depressants?

I have been on anti-depressants now for about 4 months and I have only ever taken 1 a day. I am currently seeing a councillor who has been great. The only problem was on my last visit he advised me to visit somewhere that I have avoided for 14 years due to past problems. I went there and it made me feel so much worse and although I didnt actually harm myself, i kept thinking about doing it.

I visited my doctor today and when he asked how things were going and I told him about it he said that I should up my prescription to 2 tablets a day. Im just worried about getting totally dependant on these things if i start taking that many. Any advice??

First of all, you are not stating which antidepressant you are using. There are different classes. The most commonly used nowadays belong to a class of the SSRI's. These include Prozac, Paxil, Effexor, Lexapro and so on and so forth.

In general, antidepressant medications do not produce physical dependency like a benzodiazepine or a narcotic (read Valium or morphine). The problem is that the SSRI's are prescribed for a reason and the abrupt discontinuation is not a good idea. At this point, you MUST trust your physician, not a forum of lay people such as this one. You are paying good money to someone highly trained and qualified to make these decisions and whose job is to see to it that you are treated in a safe manner. Having had a total of 11 years of training to become a specialist, I'd be offended and flabbergasted to see that you'd follow the advice of people that do not have any kind of medical or pharmaceutical training. That would be just plain dumb.

Bottom line: do what your therapist and your physician say. It will be OK.