Best of luck to you, hangingon. Give it a try. It can be done! (Not by all, due to the diversity of individuals and depression, but by some people, yes!) If it doesn't work for you, you can always change your approach later. I think relying solely on the advice of your mental health providers isn't the way to go. You need to educate yourself on the options, which it sounds like you are doing. Some mental health people will say yes, do meds. Others will say no, don't do them. (My first T would not treat me if I went onto ADs.) So you can get many opinions on this topic among the professionals.

I agree, the SSRIs are a little scary to me. They change the brain chemistry to prevent serotonin reuptake into the nerve cells, so that results in more serotonin in the synapses. The brain adjusts to this abnormally high amount of serotonin by downregulating the number of serotonin receptors, so when you do stop taking the meds, now you are left with low serotonin AND a low amount of serotonin receptors. Ouch!!! That is why people are advised to go off the meds slowly, so that their body has a chance to readjust and make more serotonin receptors so they don't feel so awful when they first go off the drugs. So, yeah, these drugs are serious stuff, and deserve our respect. Your caution is understandable.