Hi.

I'm very new to all of this and most people seem to be really knowledgeable and have been taking these meds for years. I'm on 20mg of Citalopram daily, and have been taking it for 3 and a half weeks now, with no real noticeable effects, either side effects or positive ones. I'm on my meds because of one extremely traumatic event, which in itself gave me a lot of the negative side effects people are discussing here as effects of the drugs. So I have no idea if my trouble sleeping is due to my citalopram or because I'm still having problems coping. I have Zopliclone to help me get some sleep sometimes. But what I mean is I didn't even know conclusively if I was depressed or not to start with.

I have difficulty with my moods - particularly anger and being constantly on the verge of tears. But I do still laugh sometimes, which most people on here say they can't. With what's happened to me, everyone just keeps putting me on meds or telling me how to feel and what to do, and because the foundations of my world have been shaken so much I don't know what to think any more. I just do what people around me say, which is how I ended up on the Citalopram. But it doesn't seem to be doing very much and I wonder if I should even be on SSRIs at all.

Please help me, I feel crazy, and no one 'sane' (I say that with my tongue firmly in my cheek..) takes me seriously when I say stuff like this. Going through what I went through has been such a blessing because it has shown me what an amazing support network of family and friends I have, but has been a curse (asides the nasty event itself) because I don't feel I have any privacy or identity any more. I'm just told how I am. Does anyone else feel like this? Should I be here? How does anyone know they are depressed so simply?