As a society, sometimes we have become dependent on medications fixing our mental health issues or feeling as though if we take medications it will be good enough to help us. An important thing to keep in mind is if you are having emotional problems or biological problems. A way to be able to differentiate between the two is looking at your present life: have there been any new stressors, is there a recent event that came up as traumatic, am I coming close to the anniversary of something traumatic, am I overwhelmed, am I taking care of myself through self-care, or has there been a dramatic change in my daily life? If you said yes to any of these questions, your mental health issues may not be biological and are instead emotional. Emotional problems are resolved within therapy, versus biological problems are solved with medications. It can be extremely beneficial at times to combine both medications and therapy, but it can be harmful to depend on one or the other without looking at what the real issue is.
Carmen Stites, LCPC