Its been said before but I'll say it again, depression is an illness and it can be treated like any other day to day illness.
I was dignosed depressive a year and a half ago but I think I had been suffering for a long time before that. But I couldn't see it. I didn't believe what people were telling me. I was just tired. I couldn't sleep, and becuase I couldn't sleep I wasn't eating. I wasn't eating because I wasn't sleeping, and I wasn't sleeping because I was busy at work, I was busy at work because I wasn't performing, I wasn't performing because I wasn't sleeping.
Thats all I thought it was, that my sleep pattern had been disturbed and wasn't settling down.
It took an awful lot of persuasion from my partner and a couple of good friends to make me go to see a doctor. I was tired, not sleeping, thats all.
I hadn't been to a doctor for years and wasn't sure what to say when I did get there. Over an hour and many tears later I walked out of the surgery with a prescription for clomipramine hydrochloride. That was the beginning of the future for me. I started sleeping more (actually much more than I should have been!!) and I started seeing a therapist. It took a lot of effort but it was worth it.
18 months on I'm still being treated but things have improved a hell of a lot. I'm still on medication, a different one from where I started and I feel great.
For me medication has been the crutch that I needed to improve my life. Just like a broken leg needs a crutch to provide support, a dysfunctional mind needs something to support it too. Pharmaceutical support may not be for everyone but it is something to be considered. Anti-depressants can have a certain stigma attached in certain circles but this is a lot less prevalent than it used to be. Before I was diagnosed I was sort of aversed to taking a-d's but I was talked in to trying it and now I see how much I was helped.