You said

Just a note for everyone suggesting medication, I find that to be such a knee-jerk reaction for anyone who mentions they have depression. Medication is for people who have chemical imbalances, and often a majority of people diagnosed with depression don't have a chemical imbalance. Even knowing that, I have tried medication and it was not for me. It actually made things worse. So please don't let that be the first thing you say to someone with depression, especially if they've been living with it their whole life and have more knowledge about themselves than you do. I appreciate the advice people have given me, I'm still reading through it.

For a lot of us - it works. We have tried multiple different types of medication and it works. It has worked for over 20 years now.

You can still get counseling. When I got divorced (nearly 20 years ago)_ I went through my church and they got a PhD psychologist who was wonderful and non-judgemental and cost nothing for a full year.

One time, when I didn't have insurance, I went through my local college with a psychology dept. The students are required to have a certain number of hours counseling in order to graduate. It started at 5/hr. Yes, the counselor changed with each term, but it helped.

Some medications work faster than others. SOme medications are wrong for some people. Some medications make it worse before they make it better. Some medications don't even require prescriptions in the US.

For a lot of us - it is the one thing that saved our lives. IF you have been depressed for all of your life and CBT doesn't help you, then you probably have a chemical imbalance. There isn't a test on the market for that you know. I know a company that is working on one, but they are still looking for funding. But you can't do a blood test yet and say "Yep, they have an imbalance".

IF you have lost 10 different jobs, something isn't working. You keep doing the same thing and it doesn't work. Try something different.