Hi FedUpFairy,
Firstly, its good to know that you can pull yourself out of your lows. In my opinion, its not good to rely on meds to make you feel better...BUT dont write them off. Sometimes its just that bit of help that can kickstart you into helping yourself again.
Imagine you are climbing a mountain, and you get stuck - cant go up, down or sideways. You WANT to, but there's just nothing around to hold on to! Then someone sticks out an arm.. You grab it, pull yourself up one more meter, and then you're back on track. There are rocks to grab hold of again...places to put your feet. You can continue climbing on your own, but that tiniest amount of help had to kickstart it again.
If you're stuck, its worth a try - you dont have to become dependant on it.
As for the actual depression, I find its quite a difficult balance in terms of when to deal with it and tackle whatever issues you have. When you are at your lowest, you dont have the energy to. When you are on top, you dont want to drag yourself down again, BUT thats the time you have some energy.
When you are feeling okay or good, you should reflect on whats been going wrong and how to make it right, but in small doses.
Ultimately, to truly overcome depression, you have to figure out a way to deal with things in a manner that you can actually handle. Seems like stating the obvious, but going back to basics can help. :)
Apart from that, everybody here seems to know that low feeling...so you are understood
