My personal breaking point was when God answered. I'm not saying that religion is the only answer, I'm not particularly religious. But when I planned suicide and asked God to show itself, it did. My attitude toward life has been different since that day. Just ask for help, from someone, anyone, and it's a start to your own mind moving in the right direction.

I am lucky. I have never had that problem. I guess I just learned to deal with it to an extent!

My personal breaking point was when my Neuro could see my depression on my face. He did not suggest any medicaiton. He told me to keep a journal. It did this, still write and I don't think about my epilepsy and that I could have a seizure at any time.
Instead, I am just so thankful I wake up everyday and can do whatever.

I have worked with a psychologist since 2019. It's been my experience that a psychiatrist seems to go directly to prescribing meds, but a psychologist tends to dig into issues before suggesting meds. My adult-onset diagnosis of epilepsy hit me like a torpedo. I had to work through all the stages of grief to finally get to acceptance. There was no magic bullet or "once and done" for me. I struggled with depression my whole life, and was put on every SSRI in their arsenal, to no avail. I'm off the SSRI's, Lithium, and finally finishing my wean from Klonopin. Honestly, learning and practicing the mitigation techniques for the mood swings works for me, without the need for more drugs. Believe me, the torpedo nearly sunk the ship. Things are manageable for me now. The psychologist I see is "trauma-trained", dealing specifically with PTSD and patients that receive devastating diagnoses. My appointments went from weekly to monthly, now basically just to observe my progress. In my darkest moments I prayed for someone to wave a magic wand, but I finally realized the real change comes from within. It's ongoing, and I'm winning, for once.

I think it’s different for everyone. The first time I was told I was stressed out and had mental health difficulties, I had lost almost all my hair. Not fun when ur in high school and months away from graduating. I didn’t feel stressed at all. If my hair hadn’t fallen out I would’ve just kept going like I was. The second time I went to the doctor cuz I had been feeling nauseous for a couple weeks and thought I had the flu or something and I was diagnosed with the start of an ulcer and severe PTSD. I still didn’t feel anything different. 3rd time I was crying at stupid things like cute commercials or something silly. I had to take a break from work. That time I felt depressed over my exhusband causing my miscarriage and my mother spreading lies about me to everyone she knew. I ended up having to take a couple weeks off work and I was put on antidepressants for 6 months. The next time was the same as the last time and I went back on antidepressants. The only way I can tell is when I lose my hair or start crying over silly things. I always make a regular dr appointment and talk to them about it. This last time was when I was formally diagnosed with PTSD seizures along with my tonic clonic seizures. When my neurologist sent my regular doctor a letter saying that I have both seizure disorders, I was offered a 3 month stay in a mental health center, antidepressants and therapy. I declined all of it because I felt happy. Since then I’ve been depressed for a couple months and then I’m back to normal and happy again. I just recently started crying again at silly stupid things, so I know that my body is saying that I’m depressed again. But I usually just let it run its course unless I start feeling depressed myself and then I go back to the doctor and speak to him about it. I find that just talking to a nonjudgmental person is really helpful for me. Like Sean talks to the ppl he does, I talk to my doctor or my friend who also has bouts of depression and knows how I feel. I find that just talking about what is going on really helps me to get a grip on things and get me outta my depression. Whereas my friend has to be put on medication and sometimes it makes her feel worse. I know I don’t need that kind of medication so I always refuse it nowadays, but if it gets worse, I will take whatever medication they prescribed. I wish u the best of luck with ur depression and hope that u decide what will work for u the best.