Tracking how your medication is going

Getting a prescription feels like the end of something. It is usually the start of a longer, quieter stretch that nobody briefs you on — weeks where side effects have arrived but the benefit has not, where you cannot tell whether you are improving or just having a better Tuesday, and where the honest answer to “how is it going?” is I genuinely do not know.

That not-knowing is not a personal failing. It is structural. Mood colours memory, so the thing you would use to measure the change is the same thing that is changing. Almost nobody can see their own slope while standing on it.

These guides are about the practical part: what to watch, what to write down, what is worth mentioning to the person who prescribed it, and how to walk into the review appointment with something better than a shrug.

None of it is about deciding anything yourself. Every question about dose, timing, switching or stopping belongs with your prescriber. The part that is genuinely yours is arriving with a clear record of what actually happened.

The guides

Is my antidepressant working?
Why you cannot reliably tell from the inside, what the published timeline actually says, and what to watch instead of your mood.

How long do antidepressants take to work?
The answer, and then the stretch nobody writes about — weeks two to six, where the cost has arrived and the benefit has not.

Keeping a side-effect diary
Four fields, why the dose dates matter more than the descriptions, and why a fortnight where nothing happened is worth recording.

Should I tell my doctor about side effects?
Yes — and specifically the two that almost nobody raises. With sentences you can borrow verbatim.

Keeping track of medication changes
Why “it didn't work” is three completely different facts, and how losing that distinction can close off an option for good.

If you are in a hurry

Start with is my antidepressant working? if you are somewhere in the first two months and trying to read the tea leaves. Start with keeping track of medication changes if you have been through more than one medication and the history has gone blurry.

Related, from the desk

Talking to your GP about mood — the appointment that comes before any of this.
What your weekly score actually tells you — and, more usefully, what it does not.

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Nagi is a mental health companion, not a medical device, and nothing here is medical advice. Never start, stop, or change the dose of a prescribed medication without talking to your prescriber.