For @karen00. Many thanks for your kind words. Deeply appreciated. Like you, I, too, have been on many antidepressants, and I am still on a cocktail of antidepressants. Like you, I, too, know that I will be on antidepressants for the rest of my life, how long or how short, I do not know. Frankly, when I first became ill, in the prime of my life, I did not expect to survive for even 10 or 15 more years. But here I am, 25 years later, and counting. At the moment, I pray to God to give me life till I am seventy. Every year after that will be a bonus. I must say God has been kind; I never expected to survive this long, as I have said before. And maybe He will grant me my wish to reach 70 years of age. I now have more hope than I had before. You were lucky in a very important sense--your psychiatrist taught you never to lose hope, which, in my view, is more important than any medication. It gives you the strength to fight your illness when the chips are down. God bless you, Karen, for writing to me. I will pray for you.