Thank you for this. I, too, have a hard time with the emphasis on pills over lifestyle. I've dealt with major depression for decades, and I finally got off the medication runaround and try to deal with it through diet, exercise, reading and creativity. I've always been kind of a nerd, anyway, so the reading and whatnot comes naturally to me, but it is frustrating to scan this site day after day and see hardly a word about the value of a good diet (low on white sugar and caffeine, high on vegetables of all kinds), exercise, reading (yes, reading for self-help and for pleasure) and the elimination of unnecessary stress from the environment, which can be as simple (or difficult, I guess) as turning off the TV.

When I read some of these posts, I often sense huge personalities trapped in worlds that are too small for them somehow. I read somewhere that each individual is like a house with four rooms -- spiritual, mental, emotional and physical -- and that each room must be visited every day, if only to air it out. Taking pills while maintaining a physically unhealthy, mentally unfulfilling lifestyle is like fixing the roof on a house with broken walls.

Thunderbear, I hope you find the right medication soon. But I also hope that you focus on other aspects of your life that are under your own direct control that can be improved in ways big or small on a fairly regular basis -- because, I, too sense that you have hidden reserves.