Can happy pills solve our problems?

I don't normally read newspapers. This morning I happen to be flipping through a copy of DailyMail that my partener left on the coffe table and one article caught my eyes:- 'Doctors doling out happy pills are just as bad as drug pushers' shouts the title. It says that thousands of women are taking anti-depressents prescribed by their doctors in order to cope with pressures of daily life especially money-related worries and anxieties. These strong and addictive drugs are especially harmful for pregnant women due to the higher risks of defects in the new-borns. The author suggests listening therapy in the forms of counselling or psychiatric support as the alternative.

Isn't there anything that these women can do to help themselves? I personally would answer this question with a big affirmative. Tai Chi can help! Of course I mean proper Tai Chi practiced regularly. By 'proper' I mean not some 'exotic' Tai-chi-like exercises fabricated by some creative teachers or some tai-chi form picked up over a weekend from someones' workshop. Neither it is the taichi that's only a weekly affair by poping along to an evening class. It's got to be practiced daily for it to be effective.
Are doctors and therapists the only source of help? Personally I won't place my health 100% in the hands of doctors. I'm not trying to put down the medical profession or the services of NHS. I'm just saying I take my own health in my own hands and would like to encourage more women to do so. Neither am I saying that you should not seek medical help when you need it. I'm saying the ultimate help and solution lies within ourselves.

One source, many sparks

I suffered from depression when I was younger mainly due to emotional problems related to personal circumstances. Though it never got as bad as having to take anti-depressants, I did seek help from counselling. But the ultimate help comes from my taking up Yoga and Tai Chi and sticking to them ever since. Now after 15 years I feel I can't be any healthier both physically and mentally. Situations come and go, personal circurmstances rise and fall, but good Chi is stable and equanimity of mind unperturbed. The contentment and calm doesn't come as a contrived effort or controlling; it just feels like external circumstances have a much smaller rippling effect on my psyche. If you drop a rock on the surface of a mall pond, it's likely to cause big ripples; but if you drop a rock into a big lake the ripples are felt much less. Nothing that's happening out there matters that much anymore; material gratification also loses its lure. When the gaze is turned inward, a new layer of awareness and consciousness is openned up. Instead of being led by life situations and compulsions of activity, you are happy just to sit back and start enjoy pure being. But being less busy dosn't mean less alive; quite the opposite, I feel more alive from inside because I feel full from inside. This fullness is not a product of fantacy or brilliant mind tricks either. When each cell and tissue of the body feels saturated with good chi,  you feel less seperation from other life, the nature, the cosmos because we share the life force from the same cosmic source. It's strange how the less you do, the less noises you make in life, the more you can feel connected. By connection I don't mean social ties or involvements; it't the oneness and non-seperation you feel from the primordial purity.