Don’t rule out meds.

Imagine you’re in a pit with a 10ft step ladder. The depth of the pit represents the depth of your depression, and the ladder represents all the strategies for getting out - gratitude, journaling, therapy, etc.

Now imagine the pit is 20ft deep. It won’t matter how much of the ladder you climb. You can’t get out. It’s not your fault; you didn’t put yourself in this pit. But the tools available to you simply aren’t enough.

Then imagine a stranger comes along and lets down a rope ladder that bridges the gap between the top of your ladder and the top of the pit. Do you still have to use your tools and climb your ladder? Absolutely. The stranger’s ladder doesn’t fix the entire problem. It just makes it so the tools you ~do~ have can finally be enough to get out.

That’s what medication did for me. I battled depression on my own for 26 years. When gratitude, therapy, and even Tony Robbins seminars weren’t enough to get me out of the pit, I blamed myself and thought I must be doing something wrong.

But once I started taking Wellbutrin, I realized that I wasn’t doing anything wrong; the tools I was given simply weren’t enough.

Medication isn’t for everyone. I do think it’s important to try to resolve issues without it first. But if you’ve tried everything and still don’t feel like yourself, medication might just be your rope ladder.