I'm in my mid-forties now and I am 3 years depression free!    I was diagnosed with bipolar disorder and for 15+ yrs i was prescribed copious amounts of various ssris, benzos, abilify, adderall and whatever new 'booster' came on the market.  I was also abusing opiates.  

Somedays i would suffer from joyful, unbalanced mania.  At other times and often for weeks i would lay in my bed and cover my head.  A million negative thoughts swarmed my mind, suicidal ideation was always at the forefront.  

My long suffering wife kept telling me that happiness is within my control, and it was all about how i looked at things.  Easy to say, but It was such an abstract concept to me, and to most people who are deep in depression.   I understood it, but was unable to think happy and feel happy.  I admired people who did and wondered why i couldnt. 

One day i decided to stop taking all my meds.  I realized i was still mostly miserable.   Even when taking my 10 pills a day.  My belief that medicine could help had gradually disappeared.   Didnt matter how big the dose was, i was either miserable, manic or comatose. 

In reality it took me about 3 months to wean myself off everything.  I was still telling my doctor i was taking the prozac, abilify and wellbutrin, when i was actually completely clean. 

It was a rough time, and my mood swings were more severe.  I had the shakes, hot and cold feeling, stomach upset for a few weeks. 

One day, overwhelmed with melancholic sadness, and devoid of mood stabilizing drugs, I wrote a letter and set everything up to "say goodbye" to my family.  

I had messaged my sister (who lived overseas) to tell her i love her, and she called me for a chat, which was the first time we had spoken in months.  I didnt mention how i was feeling, but she said she was planning a visit and it made me put off my plans for that day

That night me and my family went out to eat and when i got home i drank 6 shots of vodka in an attempt to change my mood.  Then i got the courage to try something very different. 

A few weeks prior someone had given me some DMT powder and i had been too scared to try it.  DMT is a molecule similar to serotonin.  When smoked in a certain dose, it creates an out of body/psychedelic experience. 

In that drunk moment i grabbed the DMT and loaded all of it into a smoking device.  

What happened next is very difficult to explain.  I experienced my own death and had a brief glimpse at an 'afterlife'.  It was a hellish, demonic vision made up from all my negative thoughts and deeds.  

The visual and auditory hallucinations were mind-bending and i was overcome with the most intense fear, followed by complete calmness, then i passed out.

When i regained consciousness i remembered very little.  I threw up for a couple of minutes and after about 20 minutes i felt 'normalish', but i was profoundly changed.  

After being a staunch atheist for my adult life, i witnessed something that shattered my beliefs and reset my brain completely.

For the next few months i relived the experience almost every waking moment. 
I was so thankful to be alive.  I was so happy when i woke up each morning and i couldnt understand how my change of attitude was so severe.   

I couldnt understand how i had been so depressed for all those years.  Much like when I didnt know how to be happy, now i couldnt comprehend being sad.  

I was so much more present in the lives of my loved ones.  I showered them with love every minute possible.   I didnt really look back at my last 15+ years of sadness as a bad thing, nor did i hold on to any regrets.  I saw each day as a brand new opportunity to enjoy myself and spread love in the world.  

I have since become a much more charitable person.   Now i felt love and understanding to people i previously considered enemies.  
I quit my corporate banking job and changed my friend circle.  

A year after this experience, I  noticed i was started to get those darker thoughts, so i took DMT again. 

This time i also experienced my own death, but the after life i was shown was pure bliss.  Again, i dont have words for what i saw and experienced.  Its beyond anything we are capable of imagining.   By far the most profound moments of my life. 

I am now 3+ yrs post depression.  Some days can still be challenging, but I havent spiralled into a depression since August 2018. I am so thankful for my new mindset and hope i never go back to my old ways of thinking. 

I do meditate often, and i am still a super flawed human being, but i now have this 3rd person perspective in my head that always lets me know when i am fucking up. 

I dont think psychedelics are necessarily an answer for everyone.  i know it can lead to psychosis if you may be schizo-effective or have a tenuous grasp on reality anyway.  
 Also, mixing them with other medications can be dangerous, even fatal. 

Psychedelics are becoming more acceptable as a treatment method for PTSD, depression and addiction.

If you are interested in an alternate path to taking pharmaceuticals, you should look for clinical trials near you and always discuss it with your doctor(s).   Do tons of research, whether its about DMT, psilocybin or ayahuasca. 

I wish you all the best of luck, much love and peace.  Hope you get relief and enjoy each day of your life.