I avoid pharma meds myself and have sought out relief in dozens of other ways, from tai chi and martial arts to making art, meditating, therapy, and exercise. I hear too many negatory side effects about SSRIs and to some extent MAOIs, and think they are vastly overprescribed.
However. If someone is at a point where they need something. Anything. To get to where they can get through the day or night. If they are at a point where they can't function and can't find any other way. If temptations for self-harm are looming. Then by all means they (the OP or anyone else) should seriously consider at least getting on the meds long enough to stabilize. There are a very few people I know who fall or have fallen into that category, and the antidepressants helped them hang in there long enough to see the light at the end of the tunnel and have a shot at getting there. They can serve a purpose.
If you're not yet at that point - one other suggestion. If your work situation, morals, and finances allow it, and you have access, consider smoking, vaporizing, or eating cannabis as an alternative for day to day management. Especially if you live somewhere that there is a semi-legal or decriminalized market (like 14 or so states in the US, Portugal, etc.) In my experience and after having read up on the subject extensively, I've come to the conclusion cannabis is one of the safest therapeutically active substances known to humankind, and poses far fewer health risks than the antidepressants or pretty much any form of pharma solution coping that PTSD suffers might avail themselves of. Safer than anything in your medicine cabinet, or at the bar. There's no withdrawal or toxicity to worry about, although done to excess it can be habit forming like anything.
I've been able to keep entirely off of SSRIs and the like over many years of dealing with my PTSD (I have never once taken one), and I credit cannabis (at least in part) with helping me do that. It helps calm down the irrational reactions, helps me get a bit of emotional distance from whatever's got a hold of me. Not so much that I'm cut off from my emotions, just enough that I can look at things more dispassionately and without having a strong reaction, so I can take a deep breath and continue on with my day.
If you get drug tested regularly or are job hunting in a field where they do that, then that's a no-go. And if you live somewhere that it's entirely illegal, then proceed very carefully and cautiously, cause jail sucks, especially for trauma survivors.
I prefer a nice relaxing indica.
