Terry it's sad that you had a negative experience with medication but as l and others have said it can be very effective. You said that you went to a therapist, not sure what you mean by that.
I can only say that my British GP was very careful in diagnosing and treating my low mood depression. As has been said depression has many causes and depths of severity. I was never suicidal .
I was carefully monitored and had no side effects, other than feeling nauseous for the first couple of days.
There was no way on earth that l could have gone running or taken part in any form of physical exercise. I simply had no energy whatsoever because of lack of sleep and the vicious cycle of feeling low
Citalopram broke that cycle .
Jan