I wish I could tell you that it was something more eloquent than luck and time, because some of the treatments I received made me a lot worse. There is a well-known warning on prescribing antidepressants to kids—now if they're under 30, but especially if they're just teenagers, as I was. I was on more than a dozen different antidepressants, antipsychotics, anxiolytics, sleeping pills, hypnotics, anti-seizure medications prescribed off-label for various reasons, and a number of others.
In some ways my treatment actually hindered my recovery. What I experienced with my in-patient hospitalizations was largely traumatic.
It was only after I was able to go off to college, get a better social support network and start getting into therapy.... I had never had access to psychotherapy in a meaningful way when I was in the acute valley of my struggle. It was only through that kind of social support, time and doing something different with my life that I was able to see that I was capable of so much more than I thought before.