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Janet quoted, there is no such thing as a 'self-made' human we are made up of thousands of others everyone who has ever done a kind deed for us or spoken one word of encouragement to us has entered into the make-up of our character and of our thoughts george matthew adams Well put. However, I have seen miracles of change by people who have come to believe they are not victims of a deterministic biology, but instead have accepted that everyone in their lives have done their best, that in all things all people are either asking for love or, when they have grown sufficiently, giving love, and that each of us has the power to determine our own attitudes, and thus our own peace of mind and happiness. I have also witness several friends who achieved no relief through anti-depressant meds despite years of going from doctor to doctor and drug to drug. The strongest common trait these folks seemed to have was a belief that they were powerless individually, in turn leading to a complete surrender to their physician(s), vesting in them a control of and blame for their ongoing mental and physical difficulties. There is also a group I have known who achieved peace of mind and joyful living who took responsibility for their own happiness, while also recognizing that medicine offers a sensible and appropriate assist to achieving good brain function and emotional stability, without which personal choice might be nearly impossible to attain. If I believed that I were a helpless slave of my brain chemistry and that my ONLY avenue to a tolerable mental existence lay in my doctor's pharmacology, suicide would indeed seem an understandable option, I know this extreme position is not suggested by anything posted on this topic by Janet or anyone else, but I will go out on a limb with an opinion that the more personal responsibility one accepts as opposed to projecting responsibility onto one's HMO, doctor, caregiver, etc., the greater the potential for achieving worthwhile life. Chuck