I am always sorry to hear about these struggles in people.
I think staying with your meditation is a safer way to practice. Let me explain why.
Ok, ancient meditators didn’t have anti depression or anti anxiety drugs.
Maybe they had something else.
Maybe society or lifestyles were such that these kinds of afflictions didn’t develop.
I don’t know.
But I think we can say that one goal of meditation is to see things as they are.
Mental Afflictions stop us from seeing things as they are. HOWEVER – If I meditate and get stuck in a mental loop (get hooked – it happens 🙂 ) I can clearly understand that at times it’s hard to see that I am in a loop.
I can only imagine that someone experiencing an intense loop (uncontrollable anxiety, fear, anger, etc) may not be able to quiet their mind enough to maximise the benefit of meditation.
In my mind, medication, for those who need it, ‘helps’ quiet the mind.
I also imagine that over time as the person learns to see things as they are, then these ‘medication requiring afflictions’ become short-circuited and that that person will need medication less and less.
What do you think?