[schneidmaster]

For me, it started with an antidepressant (escitalopram, commonly called Lexapro) and weekly visits with a therapist. The escitalopram did wonders for my particular depression. I have dysthymia (also called persistent depressive disorder, I forget which is the official name now) which means I experience ongoing, low-level daily melancholy (as opposed to clinical depression/major depression, which is much more episodic in nature -- you have weeks you just can't get out of bed or eat, and you have weeks when you're pretty much fine). So for me, escitalopram did a ton to even out my daily melancholy and limit mood swings -- I still have good and bad days but my baseline is much closer to neutral rather than consistently feeling down in the dumps.

And then as I talked to my therapist over time she uncovered symptoms of ADHD that I'd never really thought about. There's a lot of debate about whether adult-onset ADHD exists, but her perspective (which seems very accurate in my case) is that people with "adult-onset" ADHD have actually had it their entire lives as well, but they had better coping mechanisms so it wasn't diagnosed at a young age. I was always a good student, rarely got in trouble, could sit still in the classroom -- but I had a terrible time trying to focus on work, I fidget constantly, I always have multiple trains of thought in my head. I'm just also a pretty fast worker and fairly smart so I was able to be unfocused and put things off to the last second but eventually lock it in just in time to beat the deadline. My therapist administered a diagnostic test (basically a multiple choice test asking about how often I experience X, Y, and Z, and a similar test sent to a close friend to be completed separately about their perceptions of me) and it turned out that I do have ADHD. So she started me on Ritalin which has also helped me immensely. I'm able to focus and be productive on a regular basis (rather than in brief but manic spurts) and it also helps my overall mood, because I'm not constantly getting down on myself for being unable to focus on something important. (That's what it means for my ADHD/depression to be "comorbid" -- they feed into each other.)

It's worth noting that this is just my particular combination of neurodivergences and treatment plan. Different people experience success with different treatments, including various medications, ongoing/regular talk therapy, lifestyle changes, etc. But the one constant is that I've never met a single person whose life has gotten worse because they talked to someone about their mental health. It's a lifelong journey but in my experience the needle only moves in one direction and it starts with opening up to someone.