Hi, Firstly borderline personality disorder (BPD), makes a person vulnerable for mental illnesses. The thought processes that a person with BPD has is quite different from that of a person without the disorder, and it makes it difficult for the person to cope with day to day stresses that every human being faces in their life. Patients with BPD tend to suffer from complications involving mental health with the slightest of stress. And as you mention, what you have gone through is much more than usual. Coming to your query, why cant this be a normal reaction? Now, if a person without BPD or with no vulnerability happens to go through these experiences then the outcome would depend on his coping skills. Excellent coping skills -- Brief period to recover and no illness. Poor coping skills -- mental illness. The symptoms of loss of interest inability to feel joy and low mood for many years is a sign of a mental illness. But it is great that you want to come out of it. There are many ways. Medications being one of them. Adequate medications usually help control these symptoms. There are additional treatments that can benefit you which is psychotherapy that involves, building a positive outlook and personality transformation etc. This helps in building coping skills as well.Trained psychologists administer them. They are known to be useful in cases of BPD apart from medication. It takes a minimum of 2 weeks to determine whether a drug is effective or not. I do not know the reason for switching your antidepressant but if the recent drug you are unable to tolerate due to side effects then you should consult your treating psychiatrist. Do you have to take medications for life? You have to understand that you need medications till your symptoms last and after that it helps in preventing a reccurence which is very common. Wishing you the best of health, Hope this answers all your queries, Dr Anjana rao.