[Z]

I sought out CBT after being assaulted for the second time in my life by a stranger. It was really useful for me, because it was about correcting behaviours that only I could help myself with; it was in my control to change how I behaved and my counsellor was absolutely brilliant in helping me with that - so I'd say if you have some kind of problem that's ultimately down to you, you would definitely benefit from it.

On the other hand, I went on anti-depressants after a particularly bad time with my family life had left me crying almost every day and feeling sad all the time; i.e. circumstances that were not in my control. The anti-depressants definitely did the job, I stopped feeling sad and became really productive and cheerful, but I also started becoming extremely carefree/reckless in certain aspects of my life which I decided was not a good thing and ultimately decided to stop taking them. My doctor advised me to wean myself off them gradually but I decided that I'd had enough and that my life had suitably calmed down enough to just stop taking them - as I had a job, a place to live and a happy relationship too.

So, if you've got some kind of problem that you could fix yourself but you can't find the inner strength to; I'd recommend counselling - but if it's something out of your control or you feel is way too much for you to do on your own, perhaps go with counselling in combination with anti-depressants. I didn't seek counselling for the problems with my family because they weren't in my control and no amount of counselling would have been at all useful in that situation.