People can and do use mental illnesses to excuse bad behavior instead of working on coping skills to smoth the edges of the illness. But telling someone who is actively trying to get better and using a T and medication that they are dependent is reveling their own ignorance. You don't tell someone with a broken leg to just get up and walk on it. Especially if it is a compounded or multi fractured leg. As long as you are working with a T and trying medications, using coping skills to change your behavior it's not a dependency it's a healthy attempt to grow towards independence. Some people see Ts for years to make sure there are coping well and to get reality checks.

So maybe you do sometimes use the mi for an excuse to get out of a tight spot, you are working on it! That doesn't negate everything you have been working towards and it certainly doesn't make you dependent.