Lived experience - mindful of my needs

In 2014, my GP prescribed sertraline to help alleviate my anxiety. Following a traumatic experience, and an operation, I was petrified of being left by myself. I was started on 50mg a day which, after an assessment by Psychiatry, was stepped up to 200mg over the course of four months. At the same time, I attended a six-week group CBT course through primary care mental health services and started receiving regular counselling.  Concurrently, I was seen and assessed by cardiology, gastroenterology and genetics which ultimately compounded my anxiety and increased the medicine burden to around 20 tablets a day.

Fast forward to August 2021 and I remain on the same daily dose. I am subject to annual medicines reviews by my GP where the question of lowering the dose is discussed. The first time I panicked, as I hadn’t even considered it, so naturally any adjustment was put on hold. I have never felt pressurised or been made to feel guilty for ‘failing to cut back’. I have a supportive GP who understands I have no desire to ever feel the way I did before I started taking antidepressants. I have done behavioural therapy and learned the tools to change my way of thinking, but for me there has always been a huge physical element to my anxiety, they called it ‘Double Anxiety’ at the time. Add to that the physical health problems, additional drugs, and changes in my personal circumstances. So far, the time has never been right to start cutting back. When the time is right, however, I know I have a GP who is mindful of my reservations and who will let me go at my own pace.