I've said it before, and I'll say it again...

Medication is not a cure for depression; it's a tool to help you climb out of depression.

At least once per week, somebody tells me how they've been on medication for months or years to combat depression (or anxiety, but mostly depression). They try drug X for awhile, up the dosage, switch to drug Y for awhile, up the dosage, and then combine drug X and drug Y for awhile.

Then they come to me and say, "Which drug did you use to get out of your depression?" (I had been battling depression and anxiety for nearly 30 years when I finally got it under control.)

That's like asking, "What kind of hammer built your house?" Well, yes, I used a hammer to build my house, and the quality of the hammer does make a difference, but the hammer didn't do the work for me. I'm the one who had to build it. The hammer just made banging the nails in much easier.

Likewise, medication is a tool. It can help you stabilize yourself enough to get into therapy, but when you get to therapy, you need to do the work.

If you're just taking medication and not doing therapy, then you're also probably waiting for your fancy hammer to build your house for you, or for your wrench to fix your car for you, or for your computer to do your taxes for you, and you get the idea. (And you're going to be waiting a long time.)

Yes, I took medication for awhile, but it was the psychotherapy that brought me to the light, and it was the daily changes to my lifestyle that improved my daily life. Here's a huge long list of what I did to get out of depression.

Labels: My Life