I self-medicated with illegal drugs when I was very young. Although it seemed to help for a while, eventually, I crashed big time. Now I've been taking prozac for fifteen years. I wouldn't trade my prozac for anything. Best drug ever invented. Unfortunately, people who use drugs just want a quick fix. As in life, quick fixes just don't work in the long term. On the other hand I can understand people who have cancer using pot for the side effects. However, I believe that depression is caused by an altering of chemicals in the brain and the only drugs that will permanently correct those imbalances are anti-depressants. Having tried both ways I will definitely stay with my prozac and hope that you can find something similar in the way of an anti-depressant that will help you.