Can antidepressants aid the psychotherapy process? How?

In June of last year (2017) I had a nervous breakdown and experienced crippling anxiety for months -- I believe this was due to an overwhelm of stress and living at home with parents, and unresolved deeper emotional issues and depression.

Therapy has been helping a lot, but I'm still low, lost, and disconnected in my life and relationships. I still have bouts of depression and I'm still recovering from the breakdown.

I'm debating if I should go on antidepressants -- in your experience, have antidepressants made the results of therapy even better? I've read somewhere that they can help you delve into your issues even deeper.

Any feedback would help a great deal.

I know that antidepressant/antianxiety medication treatments helped me to stabilize in early recovery and made my therapy more effective. So yes, it did help me. It was closely monitored in therapy sessions and was told that if I noticed anything getting worse, to notify them immediately.

If you do notice any issues that may be med-related, please speak up. You are the only one who can measure their effectiveness and tell if they are or aren't working. There are options if they aren't helping you.
Sometimes finding the right class of drug and right dosage is hit or miss and requires adjustment. The therapist and doctor won't know unless you tell them it is or isn't working. Everyone is different.
Best of luck to you.

Wally58 wrote:I know that antidepressant/antianxiety medication treatments helped me to stabilize in early recovery and made my therapy more effective. So yes, it did help me. It was closely monitored in therapy sessions and was told that if I noticed anything getting worse, to notify them immediately.

If you do notice any issues that may be med-related, please speak up. You are the only one who can measure their effectiveness and tell if they are or aren't working. There are options if they aren't helping you.
Sometimes finding the right class of drug and right dosage is hit or miss and requires adjustment. The therapist and doctor won't know unless you tell them it is or isn't working. Everyone is different.
Best of luck to you.

Thank you so much! This is really helpful. My fear was that an antidepressant would make me "fake happy" and not make me feel like my true self or feel my true emotions, thus interfere with therapy. Your response is a bit of a relief, I think I'm going to go ahead and try it.

Thank you.