It's been about 9 years and I'm still on the original dose of the first medication my psychiatrist prescribed. I'm really glad I managed my pride enough to make that first appointment.

- Slept better. No more tossing and turning for an hour or two before I fell asleep.

- Ate more regularly. My stomach starts to hurt if I wait too long between meals.

- Remembered people's names when meeting them, at least to the point where I could say it again after they introduced themselves and started talking.

- More realistic outlook. Things aren't perfect and they aren't the worst, they just either kind of suck for now or this is a good moment.

- No longer have to make a giant mental effort to get something done on the weekend. If I want to read a book, I read it. If I want to play video games, I play them. If I want to clean the house, I clean the house.

- No longer a giant mental effort to get something done at work. Need to send an email? Send it. Need to annotate some data? Annotate it. Need to schedule a meeting? Schedule it.