Mental Health

In my case, the depression etc. turned out to be caused by a chronic inflammation in the gut. No wonder the antidepressants have been working like shit, except amitriptyline because it also does something to the gut.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amitriptyline#Other_indications
Doctors have mostly been useless or harmful. I've met one good doctor during the ~30 years I've been ill, and one good nutrition therapist. Thanks to Mistral le Chat (chatbot) connecting some details that humans failed to notice. The treatment is now focused on killing the invading microbes from the gut wall (again), and healing the gut enough so that it can defend itself instead of requiring more and more courses of antimicrobials.

Well, as a general thing, you'd look at severity of episodes and frequency.

If you get a reduction in either, the med is working. Some issues are harder to medicate, often because a lot of meds are essentially a stab in the dark when the underlying condition isn't well understood. Since you listed a lot of things that aren't your diagnosis, chances are that whatever the diagnosis is, isn't going to be well understood. Not that most psychiatric issues are well understood to begin with.

Since what you did specify is relatively poorly understood, and isn't psychiatric in the same sense as bipolar, it really is going to be a matter of trying shit until something helps. The real treatment for relational trauma is talk therapy in one form or another. The meds are there to give you time for the real treatment to work. It's like taking aspirin to reduce pain while your body heals.

Dbt, unfortunately, takes time. A lot of time with more severe issues.

I guess what I'm saying is that you keep trying meds and hoping one helps. That's all you can do. The meds that might help as a breakthrough option (like benzos) can't be used long term, and actually interfere with treatment when used, so the most you'll get in that regard is something for a few days.

I'll assume you mean antidepressants when you say "psych med journey".

I've been on many different medications over the years, and I've come to realize that these medications do not actually normalize you. They only shift the window. They do not suddenly make you feel better. They make the highs marginally higher and slightly more frequent while making the lows moderately less worse and significantly less frequent.

If you find that you are unhappy less often then they are working as intended. Whether you are happy more frequently is only a cherry on top. With that said, you should talk to your psychiatrist or psychologist if you still have concerns. These are good questions to have and you should share them with your doctor.

You should bring your concerns to your providers and ask them, and not diagnose yourself via Google, or ask strangers on Lemmy. If they're not satisfying your questions, ask to change providers. Can you ask any friends or family if they've noticed a difference since you've started taking different medications?