Ok... here's my experience:
Last spring I couldn't handle the depression anymore. It was getting way out of hand (I was being extremely moody and irritable, school was
sucking... and I'm an artist!) Anyways, I have always been depressed, but have never had a problem dealing with it, just as I dealt with my anger
management issue (yeah... damn counselors and shrinks never really helped at all... especially with how rebellious I was about it
).
So, I see a counselor at UW and she diagnoses me with ADD (already knew that... I used to have ADHD, but I grew out of the H), depression, and
possible bi-polar disorder. YAY! She sends me to the shrink who confirms. So they put me on (at the time NEW drug) Strattera.
NOW... Strattera is supposed to be NOT a stimulant. Every day I took the crap I felt just like I was taking ephedrine! I took it for about a month,
but I couldn't handle the 'growing hair' and 'crawling skin' 24/7, so I quit taking it. One thing I did notice was my attention span... wow, I
never knew what it was like to be able to concentrate on something that was completely lame and uninteresting just because someone told me to! My
'bi-polar' seemed to wane greatly, and I kicked the depression within a day of the end of the 'loading' period. Seemed to work pretty good! And
once I remembered what it was like to NOT be depressed, it was easy to be happy... even well after I stopped taking the drug.
Here's where this gets wierd... a couple weeks after I get put on Strattera we get a PuR water filter because I can't stand the taste of the
chlorine and other crap in the water. We have always had a filter since then, until about a month and a half ago. Guess what happened! My depressive
modes came back, right along with my seemingly 'bi-polar disorder'! Some may think that I'm grabbing for excuses for my depression, but I only just
made the connection about 2 weeks ago. It seems like it takes about 2 weeks of drinking clean, filtered water for me to get back to a healthy mental
state (jeez... I've even been accusing my GF of cheating on me, and under the most irrational circumstances!). Since our filter broke I'm right back
to the state of mind I was in before.
The only thing that sucks about this realization coming so soon is that I may have built a mental trigger that will turn off the depression and
irrationality/bi-polar when I get my filtered water back... so, anyone else wanna confirm this? lol.
Don't take drugs, DRINK CLEAN WATER!!! Try it... I almost think that the chemicals that are in the water somehow inhibit alot of the water from
getting soaked into your body... I feel so dehydrated all the time, but when I drink filtered water I don't have problems and only need to drink
about half the water that I do straight from the tap. If you're wondering about the corellation, think about how you feel after a night of drinking
when you are just on the verge of a mild hangover (no headache, just 'out there' feeling, irritable, etc..).
So... that's my story. (btw, Strattera is used for Adult ADD, but is also used as antidepressants at times. Kinda scary stuff if you ask me... my
body obviously didn't like it at all). Oh yeah... I was also on Trazodone HCL for my insomnia at the same time (Trazodone was originally developed as
an anti-depressant, but when taken in the strength needed pretty much turns you into a complete zombie, so the most common use now is as an extreme
sleep aid for insomniacs... some crazy stuff, lol! I still have a bunch left, too, but just deal with my insomnia like I deal with my ADD... I don't
like the drugs). To date, the best aid... AID!... for me is the good ol' herb... marijuana. When I get in a depressed state, I smoke some and sit
back outside of myself and examine what is depressing me, or why I am angry. Lets me play counselor with myself, rather than someone else trying to
interpret the crap.