This is a really great thread. Thanks for sharing your experience, tdawg, failos, Chuck, and others.
I've never dealt with depression, but I do have anxiety and take medication for it. I also see a counselor regularly. My wife has battled depression her entire life and also goes to counseling. There's no shame in seeking help, clinical or medical. There's a weird stigma around antidepressants, but many people have depression, anxiety, or another mental illness due to a physiological chemical imbalance in their brain. A diabetic wouldn't be shamed for taking insulin shots to restore their body's chemical balance, so medication for someone's brain should be viewed the same way.