Does medication actually help with depression and anxiety?

Nop!
It makes you even more depressed. Trust me , i have taken the long road But it was much more worth than having to take medications. I worked out , eat right etc. Do it and you will feel better and learn social skills ( which I am just learning)
References :

Different medications help people with varying degrees. While one medication might work for one person, it may not work for another. It’s up to your psychiatrist to determine what medication might be best for you. And sometimes it takes trial & error to find the right medication for you. Once you’ve found the right medication for you it can have many benefits. And yes, anti-anxiety medications can be very useful as well. I’m sure you already know this, but making changes in certain areas of your life can also be useful. If you havn’t seen a psychiatrist yet, and you feel you are suffering from anxiety & depression schedule an appointment. I wish you the best!
References :

Right on both counts: it will probably allow you to feel better (although some can make you feel worse for a short while); and it won’t address your underlying issues, the reasons you feel low to start with.

Medication is useful, but often needs some form of therapy to sort out these underlying issues so that they are not lying in wait for you for when you stop taking the medication.

(pharmacist and therapist)
References :

study this well
what is vitally important is to choose your healing route- for this problem —– carefully from good information—that means knowing druggs/meds treatment for this can/will be damaging to your mind and body .drugs only mask the symptoms they do not cure.

This info well –it will save —years of suffering = if you apply it ..

All treatment recommended by the doctors should be tested and approved and quite rightly so.
That makes sense
It costs millions of pounds to test and approve just one treatment.

Drug companies pay for most testing and will only and I mean only look at treatments, which show the promise of good deal of a profit, –they will actively dismiss any therapy which does not have profit potential— thus your doctor will only recommend therapies that have been tested with profit potential in them.

Despite The fact that some of these other therapies mentioned below do have overwhelming benefits some, which have saved massive amounts of suffering

Drugs are not the answer for any mental illness– at best they mask symptoms

This is a fundamental principle grasp this fully –

Have you heard your local doctor recommend, Massage Spiritual healing, reiki Light therapy, Colour therapy, the violet ray therapy, Osteopathy, Electrical Frequency devices. Karma therapy and u wont because no one can put a patent on these powerful therapies .

For much more info/ detail and research behind this protocol
Go here http://uk.groups.yahoo.com/group/theholistichealingofdepressiongroup/
Upon joining this group you will be sent a file giving the info –or go to the files section within the group and u will see it there

Print this all off save it and enact it and share it — of course someone to help you get these therapies in your life is invaluable but do not be swayed by anyone trying for short cuts …
.
1,get someone to massage your back and legs at least 3 times a week use peanut oil or a mix of 50-50 olive and peanut oil.

2 use the violet ray machine an Edgar Cayce device google search this — 3 times a week on the other days especially on the spine….we use it every day with very positive results

3.get a tent sleep out side 3times a week utilising earth energy - nature can help big time especially with how you feel how much energy you have

4 study and apply good nutrition— adele davis books =protein minerals =iron essential fatty acids omega 3 6 9 protein etc

5 ensure your thyroid is working well get it checked

6 ensure you do at least I hr per day some kind of voluntary work when you are able..the reasons you are ill , or poor or have allsorts of bad things happen to you is because of karma —–usually from past lives but some from this one –voluntary work will offset your mistakes— how much it offsets well that is down to god and how much you do. Healing us is in direct proportion to the help we give others ie your healing comes with helping others achieve theirs so if people are doing very little in helping others —they suffer more and longer…and if they are doing a lot they get well faster….so now you know what to do ,,and like a lot of us are already doing being of service.

7 be amongst people who are giving, friendly who have time for you who love you , choose your friends well . choose your company well.

8 be or get to a place which personally love or like

9 get and do some work which you like or love

10 ensure you do no acts which hurt or inflict on anyone –don’t want to add to your karma do we !!!

11 spiritual healing and reiki find good therapists who offer this service in your area many spiritualist churches which are all around offer this for free as part of their vocational offerings to the divine.

12 focus your mind - think good positive thoughts, laughter, look at comedy, play good uplifting music,

13 avoid at all costs exposure to violence, murders, suffering ,death ,tragedies, -feed upon good things uplifting things, things that feel like a breath of fresh air..

14 Positive affirmation- that’s right programme your self in the mirror , thoughts are things words are things actions are things , all have influence, few people realise these things can have an effect on themselves .

15 a detox —— toxins can influence how you feel big time

16 hugs get plenty of them in your daily life you would be amazed at how people feel after a few decent hugs. find a big tree and hug that.
.
17 loads of exercise running walking climbing but something which you enjoy

18 rid yourselves of all aspartame laden foods and drink and many additives ==ensure water intake

A total cure however is tied up with karma so you can imagine just how important is the voluntary work. The more u do the better u will feel .
References :
Voluntary work is a very good idea especially when u consider this principle

,.all our healing yours and mine is linked right alongside our efforts and contribution to others.in direct proportion to the help we give others

ie your healing comes with helping others =so if people are doing very little in helping others —they suffer more and longer…and if they are doing a lot they get well faster…

.so now you know what to do ,,and like a lot of us are already doing being of service.

Do not even dream of healing to come to you if you are doing wrongful acts , wrongful words , wrongful thoughts.

1 hour a day will make a difference to you and to others

Medication (after a person of approximately 4-6 weeks) does help one. There possibly could be some side effects but your physician will be able to discern just what medication you do need to take over a period of time. You must be willing to take the medication as stated and not just take it when you feel down and not take it when you are feeling better. You must be patient when just starting a new medication.

Yes you wil feeling more social and happier when the medication is in your system and you are reaping the benefits of that drug.

Keep in mind though that in order to get the full effect of this type of treatment you might need to be under the care of a therapist who can help you get through this very difficult period of time and will continue to do so as your treatment continues.

I have depression and am currently on a medication for this as well as seeing a psychologist. She has help me get through a very touch time in my life and I have continued to take the medication. It had very little side effect if any. I have been patient. It did not take effect right away and took approximately four weeks to really start to show any differience in my mood.

All drugs have the ability to cause side effects (even blood pressure medications).

I know how it helped me and I do hope that you will be able to obtain the help you possibly need right now.
References :

Medications do not work better than placebo, in most cases, or they are addictive and help only in the short term. However, cognitive behavior therapy appears to be very effective for many, and there are no risks. there are a lot of self-help books for depression & anxiety.

There are a couple of common medication treatments for depression and anxiety: antidepressants and benzodiazepines.

Benzos (for anxiety) are not even covered by medicare, because they are so addictive and withdrawal can be so bad. they only work for awhile, because you get more and more tolerance to them, and eventually, the doc won’t give you any higher of a dose, and you are left with no help at all.

Antidepressants function no better treating depression than a placebo in most patients, research shows. For each new drug, the drug companies would run a dozen studies to get two showing their drugs were a little better than placebo (that means a sugar pill - they don’t compare against an "active placebo" with similar side effects, so most patients and docs figure out who is on placebo and who is on the drug) and submit those studies to the FDA. The other 10 studies wouldn’t get published, and they showed the drugs didn’t help depression or even made it worse. Antidepressants may be worsening the course of depression also, in the LONG TERM (see “Anatomy of an Epidemic” by Robert Whitaker). Even the Abilify ad points out that antidepressants don’t work – that drug company wants you to take a much more toxic antipsychotic that will shave years off your life, because supposedly only 1/3 get better on antidepressants. Their own studies show that many more people must discontinue abilify due to akasthisia (severe agitation) than get any benefit from the drug. Besides that, if you are an adult, you should know that most antidepressants will destroy your sex life, and in rare cases, it may be permanent. Most people won’t stay on the drugs long term because of this side effect, but then many people discontinuing the drugs get severe withdrawal symptoms that are much worse than the original depression and/or anxiety.

People will jump up and down and swear that they do help – Lots of “research” papers show that the meds work, but virtually all are written by psychiatrists who are paid by drug companies to say that, and they must sign an agreement to not publicize any bad study results before they get their research grants, just in case they should get an attack of conscience (this is true of all corporate medication research). Patients often respond to placebo effect, or naturally cycle out of their illness, and there is **no way** an individual or their doctor could know if the drug helped them or not vs. time or placebo effect – that is why studies are required.

google "kirsch antidepressants placebo" and read "anatomy of an epidemic" by robert whitaker or go to his website madinamerica.com for more info on these issues. A LOT of psychiatrists readily admit that antidepressants are crappy drugs that don’t work very well if you read their chatting back & forth on websites that are for docs. Apparently it is mostly family docs giving them out, now, or at least that is what I’ve read. I read a LOT about mental health.

where I am coming from: I personally went thru 25 medications alone & in combos plus had ECT and none helped, and many made me worse, and my brother had the same results, so that is why I have read so much about mental health. It looks like my brother and I are NOT rare cases. We jsut don’t respond well to placebo treatment. Medical studies are so horribly designed that they are an embarrassment to scientific research, and this isn’t just my opinion - probably any scientist would tell you that. In statistics class, most cases where studies were ridiculed for poor design, it was medical studies. (I was a PhD student in geophysics before bipolar ruined me. Or was it the antidepressants that made the bipolar so bad? There is good evidence that’s the case).
References :