# Help and Advice > Home straight >  There is hope!

## Stronger Now

Hi, I just wanted to post a story of hope. 

Back 8 years ago I was in a very dark place, down a well, and couldn't see the way out. I struggled to get through every day, putting a false smile on and hoping that I could sort things out myself. I couldn't. After many trips to the GP and attempts at starting medication ( Fluoxetine ) I felt worse, more hopeless than ever. I couldn't seem to tolerate even a low dose and felt revved up on it, anxious, dry mouthed, etc. I thought that I'd be living like this forever, that this was life now, so I did my best to help myself and took up exercise, meditation, etc. I volunteered for 6 hours a week, which was all I could manage.

Then by chance I saw a different GP, who changed my life. She listened to all the things I was trying to do to help and said it was admirable that I was trying so hard to solve it myself but that there were lots of other medications for depression and that Fluoxetine was just one and that it clearly didn't agree with me. Let's try another one, she said, and she wrote me a prescription for Citalopram 20 mg made by TEVA.

My life got steadily better thereafter. Whereas before it felt like I had a heavy weight on me and I was often lost in my thoughts, this cleared up and I got back a spring in my step. I took up running and have run half marathons, marathons and ultras since then. 

I can do what I want to do in life and lead a full life. Before, my life was dictated by my mood which was generally low, worried, anxious, fretful and so I couldn't take on much.

I grew up believing any kind of medication was bad and should be avoided  however now I can't sing the praises of medication enough. As I joke with my BF, this isn't the Victorian ages so thank god there's effective medication available or I'd probably have been burnt alive or sectioned back then. As an aside, my paternal grandmother was sectioned so maybe it is partly in the genes.

I remember fretting and worrying and spending ( wasting ) so much time on myself on herbal remedies, alternatives, etc and now I look back and all I was doing was fiddling round the edges. Yes, I'm still on Citalopram 20 mg but if that's what I have to do to lead my life to the full, I'm happy with that.

This is just an account of what worked for me. But I wanted to share it to give hope to others. Thank you.

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## Jaquaia

Thank you so much for sharing this! So happy it worked for you!

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## Stronger Now

The past few days have reminded me to be grateful as my last repeat prescription 2 weeks changed from the TEVA brand to SANDOZ and I felt symptoms coming through again. I've had this issue before when the brand was changed from TEVA to another one Meidereich (?). It's annoying to go backwards but I'm now back on the TEVA and hopefully will improve over the next few days. Most of the time I'm so well/ far removed from the depression forums I don't post on here. Great service you are all giving, supporting each other, looking out for each other.

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## Paula

Hi and welcome. Its always great to hear positive stories like yours  :):

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## Suzi

Such a lovely story! Thank you so much for sharing!  :):

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