Madddie  Maguire  is a 25 year old student who has suffered from major depression and posttraumatic stress disorder for the past nine years. Her depression and posttraumatic stress was so severe that she couldn’t cope anymore and had to seek medical help to cope with her depression.

Every now and then as human beings, we feel sad and unhappy, however when someone is depressed, it is a lot more than being sad and unhappy, depression is long lasting and has negative consequences on people who are depressed .Depression is a mental disorder characterized by an all-encompassing low mood accompanied by low self esteem, and by loss of interest or pleasurein normally enjoyable activities. Signs of depression include

• you can’t sleep or you sleep too much
• you can’t concentrate or find that previously easy tasks are now difficult
• you feel hopeless and helpless
• you can’t control your negative thoughts, no matter how much you try
• you have lost your appetite or you can’t stop eating
• you are much more irritable, short-tempered, or aggressive than usual
• you’re consuming more alcohol than normal or engaging in other reckless behavior
• you have thoughts that life is not worth living.

PTSD is a severe anxiety disorder that can develop after exposure to any event that results in psychological trauma. Diagnostic symptoms for PTSD include re-experiencing the original trauma(s) through flashbacks, nightmares, avoidance of stimuli associated with the trauma, and increased arousal—such as difficulty falling or staying asleep, anger and hyper vigilance.

Maddie has experienced almost all these symptoms. Her PTSD started in 2002 at the age of 17 when she was brutally raped, she did not tell anyone or report the abuse and did not get help until 8 years later in 2010

“This is when I started a relationship with my current psychiatrist, started taking anti-depressants and therapy”

The therapy and anti depressants go hand in hand as treatment for Maddie, within two weeks of taking anti-depressants, she started to open up about her ordeal, and through therapy she was able to slide toward the recovery end of her depression and PTSD AND relieve the severe emotional and sometimes physical symptoms o these illnesses.

“Before this particular combination of therapy and anti-depressants, I was completely isolated from the outside world, fear consumed me, flashbacks and nightmares took control of my life, when I started taking the anti-depressants felt myself coming alive again, it was like fireworks after winning a baseball game”

The anti-depressants she takes are:Wellbutin 300mg,Abilify 10mg and Xanax for anxiety. Maddie takes this medication to balance the negative and positive thoughts in her brain which has helped her to lead a balanced life. Before her medication, Maddie suffered numerous bouts of depression which were leading her to do dangerous things to cope with her pain.

Maddie would cry for long periods of time or resort to self-mutilation or aneroxia, she felt like she was swirling in a glass of watercolors and couldn’t escape, she watched as friends and everyone around her living life happily and there she was trapped in a cycle of despair and did not know how to get out.Maddie now feels like she is revitalized, but not completely, medication is only half of her recovery.

The tears won’t stop flowing from my eyes and my negative, self-deprecating thoughts urge me cut myself sometimes too much, sometimes when I forget to take the medicine,Anoroxia and depression starts to take over again”.

Maddie adds that she hasn’t experienced any side effects regarding these medications, but she is only one person.”Other people might have experienced the side effects of these medications and not all the same side effects, to get an accurate picture of how these meds react with a person, many different people need to be surveyed”.

Eventually, Maddie hopes she won’t have to rely on these medications  to maintain a homoeostatic balance in her brain, to have the strength to carry on my herself but for now the therapy and anti depressants are helping her cope and live each day as it comes.

“I  still have miles to go until I am completely free of the torment hat consumed me for years, antidepressants have truly saved my life, if I didn’t take them, I would probably be dead by now”.

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