I take as little meds as possible, and get by ok on 400 mg lamictal an 10mg anti-depressant. It works for me, somewhat. Of course I could take more meds, to help with depression I guess, but I am a bit afraid of it. Heard a lot about the numbness you are describing, and weight-gain etc. I have a bit of an issue with my weight as it is, so that is actually important to me. And people write about how hard it is to stop taking them if they are not doing the trick.
When it comes to learning to deal with emotions, I have had a bit of the same issues as you are describing. What helped me was cognitive therapy. I also read books about this kind of theraphy, cant think of one of them right now, but there are several.