Tablets or no tablets for depression/anxiety?

‘Are pills really the answer?’

So as you will know from previous posts I’ve been on a variety of anti depressants and beta blockers since I was about 16 to help calm my depression and anxiety symptoms. Over the years I’ve been on so many different medications to try and combat  my symptoms with little to no effect that at times I was convinced they were all just a placebo and would never ever feel better.

I’ll always remember when I first built up the courage to tell someone about my feelings and visit my GP, it was the first time in months I’d seen a hint a light at the end of the dark tunnel I now know as depression, anyone who has suffered from any sort of mental health issue will know how hard it is to tell your GP for the first time, all sorts of crazy thoughts run through your mind about how they’ll perceive you. I was so happy after getting it all out but one thing that shocked me more than anything was how quickly my GP prescribed me a bunch of pills, after a quick 15 maybe 20 minute appointment. So very reluctantly I started taking my prescribed pills but now when I think back I’m really shocked at the fact that no other option was offered to me, to help me feel better and how incredibly quick I was told that the pills would pretty much change it all.

So as reluctant as I was I told myself I’d do anything to feel better and anyone who knows me will tell you that I’m one of these people who is perhaps overly careful when it comes to taking medication weather it has been prescribed to me or not, I will spend hours upon hours reading information leaflets and over analysing every possible side effect. I did eventually start my Fluoxetine and because I’d never taken anti depressants before I think I was sort of expecting some sort of mirical happy pill so after nearly a year of persisting with them I was incredibly disappointed when nothing had changed, So I went back the doctors expecting them to hopefully offer me some better forms of support but once again I was just asked a form filled with questions and handed some more pills.

It wasn’t until about 3 years ago after being completely fed up of taking pill after pill that I decided to do my own research into other forms of help and found that I could get loads of different therapies through GP referral. So after waiting lists and fighting to prove I needed the help, I finally started seeing councillors and then eventually moved onto a CBT therapist which I truly believe is the best thing I could’ve ever done, I’m now almost virtually OCD free thanks to that amazing women 😀 After my 12 weeks of CBT I was over the moon at how much it has seemed to help but also upset and angry that I’d spent years on numerous tablets that had little effect on my mood and no sort of emotional support, when if I’d of been offered therapy sooner I may not of needed to go through all the physical and emotional effects the tablets seem to bring with them.

The point to me writing this post isn’t for me to slate the use of medication because I’m really not against using tablets to help with mental health issues because I really do think that I wouldn’t be where I am now without them but I just think that pills shouldn’t be handed out so quickly without any proper support or advice. I’d love to know what you guys think, Have you found medication helpful for you? or Have you found better ways to deal with your depression/anxiety rather than medication?