Hi Bazz,
Only you can decide if it is all worth it, as value and effort in life is different for each person. I too have experienced diagnosed and medicated depression and anxiety conditions in the past. I have been medication free for a long long time now.
I don't want to blow smoke up your arse, or tell you it's easy, or even platitudes. What I can say is that once I decided that no-one else could fix me, except me, I turned a corner. I learned for myself that the panic attack wasn't going to kill me (yes it felt like it, but it really wasn't). I learned that the anxiety was a creation of my own mind and that I could get through it if I wanted to. How did I do this?
I stopped trying to control it. I just let myself have panic attacks when they showed up, I didn't run from them. I stopped caring what complete strangers thought of me and many is the time I stood in a shop with tears of pain and fear just running down my face. Eventually, they became less strong in intensity, and then they were further apart. Eventually they just didn't show up anymore.
I still have anxiety on occasion, but now I let myself feel anxious, I don't spray it on other people and try to use it for forward growth or movement.
These suggestions and techniques may not be for you, but they changed my life and the whole philosophy of allowing myself to feel unpleasant emotions and just let them stay is one I am still learning about and embracing in my life. It's funny how once you make something not wrong, it doesn't feel as awful.
Love
swingingstories