Jenifer,First of all, my older sister also spells her name with one n! Very cool.
Now about the depression. I have battled with depression and anxiety many times in the past 10 years. In fact, we noticed the IBS begin around the time we put me into counseling the first time. I was 14.I have never taken medications for depression. I have however routinely gone to counselors when the depression was more then I can handle. Anxiety is different for me. I typically can identify the root of the Anxiety, and then I get rid of the root. For example, I was very unhappy at a school, which lead me to have anxiety attacks entering the core building for classes. I went to counseling, and decided, free of drugs, that I needed to leave and do what made me happy.So when you get depressed ask yourself
this:1) Why am I unhappy?Is it because of the pain, because I have lost friends, because I am bored, lonely, unsatisfied with work or my love life?2) What can be done about the cause?Can I switch jobs, find new friends, talk to my companion, try a new diet?3) Do I want to be happy?This one may sound really odd, but often we get in such a rut the truth becomes that we do not indeed want to be happy. Maybe the best course of the depression is to get angry, motivated, or indiffferent.Getting out of depression is not simply smiling each day and saying, all things will pass. It is often the need for a full lifestyle or frame of mind change. I got in a very depressed rut this past half year. I was furious, angry at myself for where I had gotten. Subsequently I kept getting ill, and the illnesses were lingering. Making me more unhappy. Luckily, I have a supportive family and boyfriend who said basically, "Alexis figure out what you need to do, and do it."After some heavy soul searching I am looking for a new job, paying attention to having "me" time, making new friends and seperating from old friends who were really hurting my feelings, and cutting out three substances I know don't help me feel good in the long term: dairy, sugar, and caffiene.Without the stimulants in the last few weeks I have become even keeled, even happy. Life is not perfect yet and I have a long way to go to get it in order. But I have made plans, goals, and objectives. I know where I am heading.Medication is not the only answer.
it's scary, but facing the monsters hiding behind the depression and telling them to go away, will have a life long positive effect on you, without a dependency on medicine.Good luck!~Alexis Parker