has anyone ever struggled with the decision to take medication or not? doctors, family, sociey are so quick to prescribe...i dont want to be part of the overprescibed statistic. i have mild to moderate anxiety and depression, but a poor lifestyle and a closet of "skeletons" that seems to be fueling it. how do you know what percentage of your behavior, thoughts, feelings are chemical? do meds help you talk things out in therapy? (my problem is "getting it out")Anyone with a personal history of depression/ anxiety? im a teenager, what were your teen years like?what signs idicate an imbalance? this somehow seems like a big decision to me, bigger than just popping a pill. its about my fear of conforming, numbing myself, letting someone elses definition of "normal" affect my life. i go round and round with it. feedback?

I've been on and off a bunch of sh*t and none of it really helped all that much if at all. Meds don't do anything but alter your brain chemistry. You don't know the % of your problems that are chemical either, nobody really does. Given that you said your lifestyle sucks and you have a closet full of skeletons, I doubt yours is due as much to chemistry as it is to life factors that lead you into depression. Meds don't do sh*t as far as helping you talk anything out either, they may even make you worse and numb your feelings. My teen years sucked but lets be real, a lot of people's teen years sucked. Anyone who had a fantastic 13-20 is in the minority. I'd recommend going to a therapist before I'd recommend medicating yourself. The best way I've found to get over depression is exercise like hell, eat right and fix any sleep issues you may or may not have. Get those 3 on track and you will most likely start to feel better.

Neurologicaly, recent medical studies show that SSRI's such as prozac and other anti depresants will show the same effects on the brain as a placebo would. The sucess rate for these medications is a very small percentage, and that small percentage was helped by it's placebo effect. SSRI are mainly about "makin' some money". If you do some research, you will find my information to be correct. Your "poor" lifestyle, and skeletons in the closet would be my main concern. These things can all be helped without the use of medications. Learning coping skills and life skills, learning to use the power of choice and self-soothing teqniques will greatly improve your quality of life. The skeletons you refer to tell me that you are most likely suffering from PTSD (post traumatic stress) and this can be helped through therapy, inpatiant or outpatiant. Therapy for PTSD would be a good platform to talk about your skeletons, realize your patterns, learn about yourself and why you do the things you do. Once you see your patterns, and the reasoning behind them, you can take the next step to relearn your coping skills, gain happiness and thrive in your daily life.

its a good thing that you are "guarded" about taking medications but...medication may help you and it could be temporary until you are feeling better. ive taken them. im medication free now. sometimes i feel like i need to go back on them but...i am better than i used to be. they really do help. just try it....then later if you feel they are not helping you. stop. get some counseling and relax...you are going to be alright.