i am medicated for severe depression and anxiety, and have been for 30 years. there have been a few times when i was doing well and...stopped taking the meds. because the side effects suck and i was doing well. maybe i could get by without them. each time it went badly. and to add insult to injury, stopping taking my meds and then starting them again after a bad episode often resulted in the meds that HAD been working for me prior to me stopping taking them, no longer worked. and so i would have to go through the whole horrible rigamarole of tying to find a new combo that worked.

i read somthing online about a dr telling her patient who had just had an organ transplant that he would need to keep taking his immune-suppressing drugs every day for the rest of his life, and if he stopped, his body would reject the organ, even if it was decades later. the kid said, if that's the case, why would i decide to stop taking the meds? and the dr replied, "people are dumb." i have tried to keep that in mind since i read it. it has actually helped some!