What medicine did work the best - bipolar/depression

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What medication for depression did work the best for you?

i've been taking prozac 40mg for over a year. but I still have mood swings witch is not good so is there any better medicine than prozac out there?

First, I take nothing pharmaceutical, as I have yet to discover anything that does me much good. Since I like to take a natural approach, I would look for some kind of mineral water or other solution containing lithium. I was taught in college that the benefits of lithium were discovered because El Paso, Texas had the lowest suicide rate in the country, and naturally-occurring lithium in the drinking water was determined to be the reason. Since lithium is something that occurs naturally in our environment, my guess is our bodies would tolerate it long-term better than some of the utterly foreign compounds in pharmaceutical drugs.

BTW, as the proud owner of a nine-month-old border collie, I like your icon. They are great dogs.

There is some pseudoscience about candida and some actual science about gut microbial imbalances making depression/bipolar/autism worse. I have heard of studies where improvement was shown after using S. Planarum and S. Boulardi, but I'd have to look them up. The candida diet is based on crackpot science but probably has some use to it -- simply because there's nothing like sugar to screw up your gut balance, leading to inflammation that goes to the brain. Try a good probiotic, eat Korean kimchi or yogurt (if you're not intolerant to dairy), avoid sugars and sweets as much as possible, and take goldenseal and garlic. This helped me out a bit.

But this isn't a complete solution. You still need proper medications. My doctor put me on Lamictal. It's something to try.

I found SSRI's make my depression worse not better, and I have a low tolerance for many drugs - a half dose usually does for me what a full dose would do for others.
All drugs, even vitamins, supplements, and changes in diet have side effects, so it will always be a balancing act whatever you do.

I find St Johns wort (Hypericum), fish oil, vitamin D, along with other vitamins and minerals help, and also a good daily dose of yoghurt and probiotic drinks.
Most important though is exercise; at least every other day; as you need to work off the stress hormones through physical exertion, otherwise they will only exacerbate depression and anxiety.

I'm experimenting with the 5/2 diet as well, as this seems to be making a big difference in my tolerance level, my general mood, and stops my depression from taking a hold.
All of these things work for me at present, but may not in the future.
I would recommend if making any changes or starting any regimen like I have that it be discussed and closely monitored by a health professional.

I also take Phenergan, which is an over the counter Pharmacy only medication which treats Hay fever, and has mild sedative qualities; I take this if my hay fever is bothering me, or if I can't shake feeling restless, though I take a very low dose of this, and usually only at night, unless I have a major stressor feeding my anxiety and depression.

I hope that helps.

Do you have bipolar or just depression? If you're bipolar, then antidepressants make bipolar worse, and you really need to be a mood stabilizer as well as an antidepressant.

For bipolar depression, Lamictal usually works well. Seroquel is probably the most effective atypical anti-psychotic for depression. And as for lithium, its biochemical wonders tend to be reserved for "classic" manic-depression (i.e., bipolar-I), and for those who have worse and/or more frequent depressions (such as bipolar-IIs), lithium often doesn't have the desired effect. On the flip side, Lamictal usually works better for bipolar-IIs, due to its better effects on depression and lesser effects on mania. And while I'm a big proponent of lithium use, just because it's "natural" doesn't mean that it's any less toxic in high quantities. As for anti-depressant use in bipolar individuals, they should be avoided at all costs, even if the individual is also on a mood stabilizer. Some people have success with joint mood stabilizer/anti-depressant use, but it is always a risky situation that needs to be highly monitored by a psychiatrist.

Lamictal's worked best for me, but I've always been on Wellbutrin concurrently, which is an actual non-SSRI antidepressant rather than an anticonvulsant turned mood stabilizer like Lamictal. Depakote worked; though I had swings, it was a mood booster to an extent. Topramax was real bad, except the weight loss. SSRI's overall weren't good for me, Zoloft was especially bad. Paxil was sedating enough that it helped the anxiety but the mood extremes with all of them were bad. That's really all they had in the early 90's though. Risperdal wasn't good, never tried lithium. Strattera gave me a delightful 2 months of hypomania. The side effects of nausea were terrible and I'm surprised they give that to kids. Adderall was added last year and virtually eliminated chronic fatigue symptoms I've always had. Guess that's almost everything, at least the prescription stuff.