What alternatives are there to antidepressents?

I have been through 2 very traumatic experiences in about 4 months. The first one is that I was drugged and raped. The second one was my girlfriend came back Hiv positive. It came back that I didnt give it to her and I am negative. I really havent been happy and went to go see a counsler. She says I should take antidepressents but I dont want to. WHen the rape incident first occured my general doc put me on paxil. Paxil didnt agree with me at all, it felt like I took a bad hit of acid and wanted to kill myself the first time i took hit. Then she gave me zoloft and i took it for about 3 days and then it made me feel crazy and wanted to kill myself again. So u can see why I really dont want to take antidepressents. What other alternatives are there to make myself feel happy again?

Hi,ask your doctor to send you to a therapist that will talk & listen to you.I hope you get over the terrible ordeal that you have endured.Good Luck

there isn't and I'm so sorry to here what you and your girlfriend have been through you both need a big hug . your doctor will send you to see a councilor if you want but they we still want to give you antidepressants

The best advice I can offer, as I'm not a physician, is to spend time with supportive family members and Really Good Friends. Perhaps you need to talk about the events, but, on the other side of it, you need to take your mind off them, too. Get out and do things instead of putting yourself in a position that you just sit around thinking about these events.
Maybe you could even join a Church group. The power of prayer is amazing because you can just make up your mind to Give it to God and get on with life.
Best of luck.

life
get high on it
go see a comedy
find someone to lean on and use that person as your upper anything that brings you down get rid of it find friends reenforce family commitment. keep your head up and remember tomorrow is the first day of the happiest day of your life

Try zazen, meditation. It's a practice prescribed for thousands of years since before even Buddha.
Just find a quiet area and a wall to face, sit keeping your back straight, legs either full or half lotus.
It's endlessly boring but the benefits will manifest themselves.

wow!!! those are really serious incidents.... i think you should find a small group of friends and maybe head out for a vacation nothing spectacular just something calm like a beach so you can relax and work on yourself so you can move past these things..

wow if i went through what you went through i would never be happy.you got raped i dont know if any man could recover from that.that would scar you for life then your girl has Hiv.man life has screwed you over bad i feel really sorry for you

You really have been through a terrible time. Before I help a little with the anti depressant, you should never let anyone get or pour drinks for you. Or were you high as well? I don't know. Secondly, if your girlfriend is HIV positive, how did she get it, if she was your girlfriend, and you have tested negative? You need to think about this seriously.

Anti depressants take sometimes 6 weeks to "kick in" and during that period you feel more down. You have to stick with them. The Doc. should have told you this. After what you have been through, you need to be under a pshyciatrist for a while, who can give you medication that suits you. But whatever, anti-depressants take time. You need to find a relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ as well, beause it sounds as if you really need help. Pleases try and see a good Pastor as soon as you can. I hope your girlfriend realises that she should stop sleeping around and passing HIV onto everyone else. Sorry but I don't pull punches when it comes to this. I come from South Africa, 350 people die every day there from HIV. And there are 11 million AIDS orphans and growing. When are you young people going to learn that God's Commandments are put there to protect us, and not to punish us. And you must continue at present on the anit-depressants and make sure your friends are around you all the time. You are welcome to email me.

Nothing, and no one, can you make you happy.

The drugs they are trying to give you are all experimental and all have serious side effects.

If you must medicate, marijuana helps me find balance,
and is the safest and most natural medicine.

But, beyond chemical treatment, you must find peace with the evil that has been done to you, and find a way to move on.

I was told once that St. Johns wort was a good natural antidepressant, but I didn't use it, so I don't know. For me, hypnotherapy was the path back to a stable life. I think it is infinitely better than traditional therapies, because it doesn't take as long, and it doesn't require any chemicals.
Usually 6 sessions with a good hypnotherapist is sufficient to get you where you want to be. The down side is that insurance will not usually cover this therapy, but it is worth whatever you have to pay, because it works.