Dealing with Anxiety/Stress and also Depression is increasingly a problem in our fast paced, crowded and competitive society (compared to fifty years ago, and compared to most agrarian lifestyles).
Now, let's ask how people in general deal with it. Among the options:
- avoid situations that give rise to anxiety/stress
- avoid situations that lead to feelings of depression and engage in activities that uplift your spirit.
- self medicate with marijuana or other federal non-legal drugs
- self medicate with alcohol... this is legal assuming you're 21, and is a big one now and over the past decades. You know the familiar movie scene..., you get on a plane, you're anxious, and you down a couple of drinks and everything's fine. Or you're nervous is a social situation and drink to lose that anxiety.
- Engage in spiritual anxiety-reducing and depression-reducing disciplines like prayer, meditation
- Get into psychological therapy, church counseling, and/or get into a peer support group without the use of medication
Bottom line is that ingesting the medications a psychiatrist or doctor (psychologist and LCSW's are not allowed to prescribe medication) would prescribe is but one of many strategies people use to deal with anxiety and stress. And should probably be a step taken if other steps prove to be unsuccessful.
Oh, and yeah, a prescription for any psychopharmacologic medication leads to an AROTC medical separation from the program.
Take your time and step carefully before you do something that removes the Army as a career choice (and probably FBI, CIA, and other jobs that require security clearances.
P.S. It isn't the appointment with a psychiatrist that leads to disenrollment... is the the diagnosis the Psychiatrist determines... whether you follow medical advice to take the recommended medication isn't relevant. It is the diagnosis itself, which is, per your AROTC Scholarship Cadet Contract, a "change in medical condition" that you are obligated to report to cadre.