Some may wonder why your dad could successfully kick a habit and I think there is some conjuncture here that people could often miss. These medications may numb pain but they don't take it away. Some who've lead a successful happy life prior to the introduction of drugs into their lives aren't doing drugs to ease painful experiences. Maybe this is why some of these medications help some but not others. If you took someone just the opposite of your dad who lead a life of horrible experiences reply to a psychologist upon asking if they feel better being administered lithium would be no the psychologist answer to that would be to up the dose or change medication. If they up the dose the person just walks around doing what is often termed the lithium shuffle, numbed to a state of mind virtually unable to barely function let alone think about that which led to the pain. If they change medication it ends up with the same reply, no, it does not make one feel better. That is because you can numb the pain but you can't take it away.