Sorry to hear about your son's struggles. Just wanted to say - I agree with other posters that caution around medication is good, BUT depression is not just having normal ups and downs, and if a doctor believes strongly that medication will be helpful, take that suggestion seriously. Ask your son what he wants to do - 14 years old is old enough to have a say about how he is treated. But don't just dismiss these issues as a phase or part of growing up. As someone who grew up with untreated anxiety, depression, OCD etc, I look back and feel bitterly sad that everything I was going through was treated as a passing phase or "normal" ups and downs. I'm 30 now and it's taken me the past six or seven years to claw myself back towards a functional state after spending my childhood and teenage years battling mental illness by myself while my family acted like it wasn't a big deal.