Originally Posted by
ClearLight 
I really regret not taking my doctor's advice earlier because that meant I spent almost a year in needless pain and suffering.
As I said earlier in this thread if you choose not to take advantage of the medical advances in the last 50 years then that's up to you. I know people that still use typewriters. They say the computers make a writer lazy. Perhaps.
I'm grateful to live in a time when medications have been discovered which can help lift me out of the dark black hole called clinical depression.
The metaphor doesn't hold up for everyone, though, because while a computer is a clear, consistent improvement over the typewriter, antidepressants don't work as well on everyone, without side effects, like they do for you and for some other folks. I choose not to use antidepressants because Paxil and Lexapro both caused weight gain, a flat affect, headaches, and other unpleasant side effects for me. On Lexapro I became so emotionless that I was hardly functioning. Weaning myself off of it both times was hell on earth, and I thought I was going to die. When I discovered that mindfulness training works just as well as medication, with ZERO side effects, I knew that was the right path. And it worked wonders for me, and it made me feel a thousand times better than anti-depressant medication did.
I just went through a major depressive episode, and I've come out on the other side and am working through it. I honestly think had I taken the medication route a fourth time, I may have attempted suicide. I think it's important, while touting the benefits of these meds, to also make it very clear that it is NOT the best course of action for everyone across the board.