What sort of conclusions have you realized upon trying mood stabilizing medications, investing many years using them, only to realize there were other solutions that achieved better results, and you regret how much time was lost messing with certain behavioral protocols you wish you would have never used if you knew more. Can you provide examples? I would like to see some stories on what others might have gone through or experienced using mood meds and how stability was finally obtained another way and in retrospect, how could you have achieved better results from the start?
I had the same experience myself with Paxil. I went from an anxiety ridden wreck back to a functional human again, thank God, in pretty short order.
In retrospect, the only way I could've achieved better results from the start was if I'd gone to my doctor sooner and asked for help with my crushing anxiety and PTSD.
In a great many cases, medication is the only viable solution for mood and depression disorders and there's no shame or issue in admitting that, and asking your doctor for medical advice on the matter. If the doctor has what he or she feels is a better solution to your issue than medication, it can be discussed at your appointment in private.
Road Not Taken
Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;
Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,
And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.
I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.
Robert Frost