Tetris12

I've suffered from at least a low level of anxiety for most of my life (I'm over 60 now), with many periods of higher and extreme anxiety due to various stressful life circumstances. During these periods, depending on how long I would be under stress, I could become depressed as well. Despite all this, given the right conditions, I could also be quite content and even happy at times - I don't consider myself a fundamentally depressed person. Due to my reluctance to taking pills in general, I have avoided antidepressants and/or anti-anxiety medication, with two brief exceptions: Celexa which seemed to trigger personality changes that made me give up after a few weeks, and Bupropion, which seemed to make my tinnitus worse, and which I also gave up after a few weeks. In fact the fear of side effects that may be worse than the problem they are supposed to fix is what contributes in big part to this reluctance. I also suffer from a form of Misophonia, that has made anxiety and periodic depression worse (although I'm not sure what came first, anxiety or misophonia, but they certainly enhance each other). Due to a mix of all these factors, and a number of life circumstances, I've been going through a quite rough time lately, and I have (reluctantly) started considering taking medication. From what I have read, medication is intended to restore a certain chemical balance in the brain that supposedly causes the anxiety and/or depression. In my case, as I mentioned, I don't think I am structurally depressed, so I'm wondering if taking medication, even if it may make me feel better, is any different from taking any mood enhancing drug, as it is not solving the cause of the problem, just the symptoms (btw, I don't drink alcohol and have never used any drugs, as I don't believe in just hiding from the problems).