QUESTION:
Dear Dr. Heller,
I write hoping you can tell me if I will be ok real soon. I was a "normal" happily married lady for 17 of 19 years. About 2 yrs ago or more, my husband started to change drastically. His moods, his character, his whole way of life. He had a lot of medical problems, career problems, etc. I had hoped it was a phase and it would pass. It has gotten worse. I have since put him on restraining order and he has been out of our house for ten weeks tomorrow. Now I am on Zoloft and in counseling. I cannot get it together. I feel as though there was a car accident and my husband suddenly, unexpectedly died. In this ten weeks I cannot think straight, organize my thoughts, my house, nothing. This is completely out of the ordinary for me. I want to get it all back together (me, myself). I want to get my mind back on track. Be "normal" again. He was the one with the mental disorder and now I am the one on Zoloft and talking to everyone including doctors about my problems. Please help me to understand the effects of this medicine and whetherI should be on it or not. I feel distraught, disillusioned, depleted. I want to be me again - My upswing, happy, positive, out going self.
Please help me.
ANSWER:
You are clearly depressed and doing poorly. I'd recommend you do the screening test I use for my patients to see what diagnoses may
have been present long term that you don't know about. I'd also be concerned
about panic disorder for you.
Taking medication and being in counseling is a very, very wise thing to do
