Anxiety/Depression/Mental Illness Support

[Angrboda]

I've never found anything but the benzos to really work for me. Halcion the best, but because of a track record of bad side effects, doctors will no longer prescribe it. Ambien works, but I have the amnesia and night activity side effects; I start forgetting what I did the day before, and do weird things in the night without remembering (I lost a good fan and a dozen CDs that way). I use seroquel now, and it works so-so, if I use it in high enough doses, but it makes me feel thick the next morning-afternoon, and as an anti-psychotic, it can cause tardive dyskinesia, which scares the pants off me. Never tried Valerian root. Melatonin doesn't do squat for me, although I've read some things that suggest non-pharmaceutical grade melatonin may be of unreliable potency, so maybe it was the wrong stuff. Diphenhydramine just gives me a headache and makes me feel like I've got a head cold. (My former doctor prescribed zyrtec for anxiety, legitimately, but it had the same effects; I wanted to murder him.)