Perez 1

Esmeralda Perez

Dr. Cassel

ENG 1201-2V3

21 April 22

“Teens should combine therapy and medicine to help with depression and anxiety”

Personal Letter for teenagers

I chose to write this letter to teenagers because I feel like I relate more to them than anyone else

because I am a teenager myself. I want to tell other teenagers that everything will be okay and

that it does get better. If I share my story, maybe I will be able to help other teenagers going

through this. It is important for me to share my story about depression and anxiety because it is a

challenging thing to deal with, especially alone. Growing up I have always been a shy and

anxious person.

I was always quiet because I did not like the attention and it made me nervous, so when teachers

would ask me to talk or stand up in front of the class, I would start to sweat and stutter

sometimes. In my teenage years, I started to notice my anxiety and depression becoming worse.

My anxiety was through the roof because I was always stressed, busy, overwhelmed, and I

always had a lot of emotions build-up which caused me to have many panic and anxiety attacks.

My depression got worse because I was always sleeping, being so negative, especially to myself,

I always wanted to be alone, and I was always sad or angry.

I decided that enough is enough and I should seek help because I cannot expect to feel better if I

am sitting around doing nothing. It is extremely hard to take that next step because it can have a

good or bad outcome. I decided to seek help and find a therapist and find a family doctor that
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could prescribe me the pills I needed for my anxiety and depression. I have been taking the pills

for a couple of weeks and I have been going to therapy every two weeks, so far, I feel like a

completely different person, and I mean this in a good way. I have never been a fan of taking

pills or medicine in general so taking pills every day was new to me.

It has been shown that when you take antidepressants, it fixes the chemical imbalances in the

brain and when this happens you no longer feel sad, worried, or scared all the time, and instead,

you feel happy and more energized (Carter, Betty Smartt). I gave this a try, and I am glad I did

because, after a couple of days, I had seen that I was eating better, sleeping early, having more

positive thoughts, no more panic attacks, I was not sad, instead, I was more energetic, which felt

incredibly good. I could not believe what these pills did to me in such a small amount of time.

The same goes for therapy because ever since I started going there, I have been learning new

things. There are many types of therapies and each one of them can help you with your

problems.

I get excited when I go to therapy because I can vent to someone and not feel judged, instead I

feel heard. One thing that I love about therapy, is that they teach you different strategies that you

could use not only now but, in the future, as well, meaning that you do not have to go to therapy

for the rest of your life, but it is your choice. I have been learning new ways of thinking, positive

thinking, exercises for the brain and body, for example, cold water helps the body temperature go

down, and calms you down, so this is great if you have anxiety. Ever since I started therapy and

learned about this, I started showering with cold water, and believe it or not, but this has helped

me so much because it relaxes me, and it is a great thinking exercise. The brain is a powerful

organ, so when I tried the cold-water method, I kept telling myself that the water was not cold
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and that I could do it, and after a couple of seconds the water did not feel cold anymore, instead,

it felt warm.

This is a wonderful way of teaching yourself how to control your brain, the way you think and

feel. I think that everyone should try this because it does so many good things for you. Both

therapy and pills are great, but they work better when they are combined because that is what I

am doing now, I take the pills every day and I go to therapy every two weeks. There was a study

done in America and, in this study, 240 patients with moderate to severe depression were divided

into three groups (Economist, The).

One group was treated with cognitive therapy, a second with Paxil, an antidepressant drug, and

members of the third group were given placebo pills (Economist, The). After 16 weeks of

treatment, the results for those on cognitive therapy and drugs were identical (Economist, The).

Some 58% had shown perceptible improvement and only 25% of those on the placebo improved

(Economist, The). The surprising thing that they discovered was that the advantage of cognitive

therapy is that it seems to keep working even after the therapy sessions are over (Economist,

The). A year after treatments ended, only 31% of those who had received it had relapsed into

their former state, while 76% of those who had been given antidepressants and then being taken

off them, had done so (Economist, The).

Even patients who stayed on antidepressants for the intervening gear did not do any better than

those who had taken cognitive therapy then quit (Economist, The). This research tells us that

therapy can work just as well as pills, even better, and the good thing about therapy is that you

learn so many exercises and strategies that can help you in the future. I decided to do both at the

same time because I do not want to help myself by taking pills every day, instead, I want to try

exercises and different strategies to help myself. Later, in the future, if I decide to stop taking the
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pills, I will have therapy and what I learned to help me, or it could be the other way around and I

could stop going to therapy and take the pills, or I can continue to do what I am doing now. If

you are a teenager suffering from depression and anxiety, it is best to look for help now and not

wait until it gets worse.

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Work Cited:

Carter, Betty Smartt. "Antidepressants Are an Effective Treatment for Depression."

Antidepressants, edited by Katherine Read Dunbar, Greenhaven Press, 2006. At Issue.

Gale In Context: Opposing Viewpoints, link.gale.com/apps/doc/EJ3010366203/OVIC?

u=dayt30401&sid=bookmark-OVIC&xid=b15ffa14. Accessed 25 Mar. 2022. Originally

published as "Taming the Beast: My Life on Antidepressants," The Christian Century,

vol. 120, 9 Aug. 2003, p. 21.

Economist, The. "Cognitive Therapy Is Effective at Treating Depression." Mental Health, edited

by Ann Quigley, Greenhaven Press, 2007. Current Controversies. Gale In Context:

Opposing Viewpoints, link.gale.com/apps/doc/EJ3010054246/OVIC?

u=dayt30401&sid=bookmark-OVIC&xid=e20ec8fc. Accessed 10 Apr. 2022. Originally

published as "Talk is Cheap; Depression," The Economist, 16 Apr. 2005.

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Work Cited:

Carter, Betty Smartt. "Antidepressants Are an Effective Treatment for

Depression." Antidepressants, edited by Katherine Read Dunbar,

Greenhaven Press, 2006. At Issue. Gale In Context: Opposing Viewpoints,

link.gale.com/apps/doc/EJ3010366203/OVIC?

u=dayt30401&sid=bookmark-OVIC&xid=b15ffa14. Accessed 25 Mar. 2022.

Originally published as "Taming the Beast: My Life on Antidepressants," The

Christian Century, vol. 120, 9 Aug. 2003, p. 21.

 [Last Name] 8

Economist, The. "Cognitive Therapy Is Effective at Treating

Depression." Mental Health, edited by Ann Quigley, Greenhaven Press,

2007. Current Controversies. Gale In Context: Opposing Viewpoints,

link.gale.com/apps/doc/EJ3010054246/OVIC?

u=dayt30401&sid=bookmark-OVIC&xid=e20ec8fc. Accessed 10 Apr. 2022.

Originally published as "Talk is Cheap; Depression," The Economist, 16 Apr.

2005.

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