[jeffreyrogers]

I'm in the United States and want to comment to say your experience doesn't have to be this way.

In the past I've had severe depression and anxiety attacks and tried both medication and therapy. SSRI's were great for relatively quick relief from a lot of the problems I was dealing with, but the biggest benefit came from lifestyle changes and talking to a psychologist/therapist. It's important to realize that their are two different types of doctors you can see when dealing with depression: 1. a psychiatrist (MD), who primarily treats symptoms by prescribing medication, and 2. a therapist/psychologist (PhD), who primarily works with things such as CBT or other forms of therapy, and may recommend you to a psychiatrist if s/he thinks you'd benefit from medicine.

I'm fortunate that now I have a very happy and successful life, but getting to this point required a lot of hard work, honesty with myself about things I was doing that were setting me back, and large lifestyle changes.