I've been feeling uncertain about how to improve my mood on a more consistent basis. There are parts of the day when I genuinely feel better and more like myself. However, during other times I either feel anxious that I'll always be depressed and hopeless or I feel tired and not interested in doing anything. Keeping myself busy and productive helps keep my mood up but I realize it's not practical to be busy all the time and even if it was I don't like the feeling that I would just be ignoring rather than resolving my depressive symptoms.
I don't feel my therapist has been of a help in this particular regard. It seems his advice boils down to thinking positive thoughts, be less critical of myself and appreciate the novelty of little and big things. I'm taking Zoloft and I had my dosage recently increased to 200mg so maybe that will help me out.
Give the increased dosage a bit of time to work on your system.
If after a few weeks,you feel no progress is evident,contact your prescribing physician.
In the mean time and in between time,it wouldn't hurt to ask your therapist a few questions,such as,"what do you say to a person who is trying their best for a better quality of life and only sees flashes of light at the end of the tunnel,wondering if it's all a mirage?"
Sometimes a person can feel intimidated by a therapist's accreditations on the wall but in the grand scheme of things,they're there to help;plain and simple.
I truly hope the dosage works for you.
Respectfully
Phoenix
__________________
When in doubt, post it out.
The Following User Says Thank You to Phoenix For This Useful Post: flamesabers (10-07-2011)
Thank you for your response Phoenix. I'll ask that question during the next session I have with my therapist.
Something I'm curious about is what do doctors usually do when the patient isn't making progress and is already on a maximum dosage of anti-depressant. I hope it doesn't come to that for me but I would like to hear anyone's experience with this. Would the doctor add more medication to supplement the maximum dose anti-depressant or start all over again with the medication?
Hi,
Its a good thing you have started to visit a therapist. As mentioned, the medicine takes time and doctors often wait for the full course to run before they can make a judgement on the dosage of the medicine. One thing your therapist could suggest is a CBT which will open your mind to new interests, possibly make you aware of your current interests and allow you to expand on them.
Maybe you can describe your day, i.e. what makes you feel good and what makes you feel low. Certain simple things can be done to keep your mood up but something extra needs to be done to broaden your interests.
Hope this helps.Thanks
The Following User Says Thank You to keenobserver For This Useful Post: flamesabers (10-08-2011)
Thank you everyone for the advise you've given. It really helps to have other people's perspective on matters like this. I'll give the dosage increase a few weeks to kick-in and I'll talk to my therapist about making change in my therapy as suggested.
Feeling Stuck 
