It's very true, people need to be cautious when coming off these meds. I started my original diet and supplement regime on the advice of my ND, who has been helping people get off and stay off psych meds for over 20 years. These things help a lot, particularly when there is damage to the CNS; this won't exactly heal overnight.

I wish the people on my SAD forum talking about which drug "suits" them as if they were trying on a new jacket for size, could hear the stories of people like you. I don't think they are aware of the damage these drugs do.

I am not a doctor or an expert, but I do question how much genetics plays a part in mental illness. You might be interested in learning about Dr. Abram Hoffer, who is the editor of the Journal of Orthomolecular Medicine. He had a patient once whose psychotic episodes were traced to a dairy allergy (as well as other allergies). He pioneered the use of megadoses of niacin and vitamin C in treating schizophrenia.

Allergies can be inherited. So can nutritional deficiencies, and individual needs for certain amounts of nutrients. Some people simply need more than others because of their biochemical individuality. If this runs in the family then what ends up getting noticed is the resulting symptoms, which can include mental illness. Some families indeed seem to be predisposed to express certain symptoms in certain ways. But the mistake doctors almost always make is just to say that the mental illness itself is the inherited disease and nothing can be done about it.

Schizophrenia is not a natural state, and as you said neither is depression. I honestly think that unless there is physical brain damage, you will find the root cause of a problem if you know how to look. How many people are crippled by mercury alone, don't know it, and wouldn't believe it if you suggested it to them? The problem is MS, fibromyalgia, OCD, depression, chemical sensitivity, they'd say, and sometimes that becomes the label that they seem to want to live with, even if it means suffering.

Sorry, those people at the SAD forum have got me down. I ought to quit there, but part of me keeps thinking that if I can help just one or two people, it's worth it to stick around and listen to the crap that the others are writing. Sometimes people go there from Google because they are having problems with ADs and they found a thread where it's been discussed, and often I can give them advice. Mind you, those people will always be around, whether I am or not . . . difficult call to make.