There is a place for antidepressants in depression and a place for psychotherapy and what seems to work best in the long run is psychotherapy or both. My family has a history of serious depression. It is chemical and responds well to chemicals. Without antidepressants there is overwhelming sadness, intrusive thoughts, and difficulty functioning, even when you know you are basically happy.

Regarding Alice's comments, although doctors didn't attribute my symptoms of MG to depression, I did, not the unexpected weakness, but others. For many years the doctors I was seeing just didn't think anything was wrong. I did attribute to depression symptoms that I now know were due to MG. The difficulty starting jobs I really wanted to do was one of them and having to break tasks down into parts. I have learned that when I stand and stare at a job that needs to be done, it is my body telling my mind there is a very good reason that I shouldn't be doing it.

When treatment for depression interferes with solving problems instead of giving you the energy and tools to do so, then that is not helpful. If you can function and problem solve better with treatment that is good, if you are numb, that is not. nc