I suffered, like many, from depression for most of my life. And like many, I didn’t get the help I needed for a long time.

When I did get help, I was diagnosed with depression, and social and general anxiety disorder. My psychiatrist told me the thing to do was start taking anti-depressants and going to therapy..

I was put on 5mg initially, and by the end of the next month, I was on 20mg. I took my pills every day, I went to therapy once a week, and I told myself to keep going, that I was on my way to recovery.

This was a year ago. Now, I feel better. I don’t go to therapy and I’ve stopped taking medication, but I can't give the credit to antidepressants. I feel as though if I had spoken to people who had taken them, or had done more research, I would have made the decision to simply go to therapy.

I'm not one of those people who are anti-modern medicine: I don't think vaccines will give you autism, and when the doctor prescribes me cold medication, I take it. When it comes to anti-depressants though, I think they are pushed too soon on people with depression, and there's very little information given to you about them when you receive them.

I fought therapy for years, and when I finally went it took 20 minutes with a psychiatrist for her to recommend anti-depressants. I was given the prescription, and walked out of there with absolutely no extra knowledge on them. I knew what was on the bottle: I shouldn't drive, I may get nauseas and I should eat before consuming.

Every morning, I woke up, popped a pill, and drove to school. By 10 a.m., I was trying not to fall asleep, and failing. I was making frequent trips to the bathroom because I almost constantly thought I was going to throw up. I couldn’t focus on anything. School became a chore.

Before antidepressants, homework was hard, it seemed pointless, and I honestly could barely bring myself to do it. On antidepressants, I just didn’t care. Yes, I felt less stressed about school, but not because I felt happy, I just felt apathy.

I got dulled, like the edge of a knife if it had been dragged across steel hundreds of time. I’m no genius, but I’m a fairly intelligent individual with a knack for writing, and a way with metaphors. On antidepressants, I was useless. My papers lacked substance, I stopped writing poetry and my metaphors… well, I just compared myself to a dull knife, so as you can see, they’re pretty bad.

And that’s a huge problem. Even though I stopped taking antidepressants 4 months ago, I still feel like I’m only running at 60%. Right now, writing this article, I’m having a lot of trouble, and a lot of my work this semester has been mediocre.

I’m not saying don’t take anti-depressants: sometimes it’s the only option, and to deny yourself a way to get better isn’t good, but a lot of doctors are pushed to push pills.

In my case, about two months into therapy, my therapist realized that I didn’t have a chemical imbalance. I had a situational depression, caused by my surroundings, and, in case you were wondering, anti-depressants don’t make reality any better, they just pump you with chemicals.

I think that if I were faced with this issue again, I would just choose therapy, and see if that helped, because to be honest, therapy was a wonderful experience.

Everyone's depression is different and I'm sure that many people have had positive experiences with anti-depressants, but If you are ever faced with this decision, make sure you get the knowledge you need to make that decision.