Medication - useful or just pants?

Through the ages, medicine has been used as a tool to make a person better. Treatments for all sorts of illnesses whether terminal or not have been devised to aid the patient to 'feel' or 'get' better. Can the same be said for ME?

I ask this question as we all know there is no cure for ME/CFS (at this time) and to be honest its the type of illness that possibly won't have a cure, the same can currently be said for Crohns Disease, Cancer, MS etc. etc. but there is medicine out there that can help. Or does it? I have been prescribed three types of medication from my GP on the recommendation from my specialist. They are: Anti-depressant no#1. Apparently I am not depressed but I may end up depressed as having ME can really bring you down which yes, it does. I will say that this one is doing something as I and the rest of the members of my household have noticed that I am not going round the house putting objects into alignment, things aren't colour coded, in alphabetical order, towels aren't straight, there is dust on the TV, the labels on the food in the cupboards aren't facing forward and the doors having been locked, unlocked and then locked again several times in a row. Yes, this has cured me of my OCD. Or has it? 
Anti-depressant no#2. This is to combat pain and to help me sleep. Well, it does neither, the pain doesn't go away even when I take extra medication such as paracetamol, end of story.
Sleeping tablets. I have this to help me fall asleep and stay asleep and sleep deeply. Yes, these do do what they say on the packet but after 12 hours they are still in my system and then next morning I feel so doped up that doing anything com pus mentas is out of the question. I have three young children and being practically stoned isn't a good idea when I have to care for the kids. So, these tablets are for 'special occasions' only, when hubby is home and not at work the next day so basically I pop a pill once a month. 

I ask if anti-depressant no#1 really works as is it curing me of my OCD or just masking the symptoms? If I stop taking them will the DVDs and the Cd's get rearranged, will the towels be straight and colour co-ordinated and will the tins in the cupboard be face-up? Probably. In fact, more than likely! I will say that maybe it is a good thing that my OCD has been quashed for the time being as no way would I be able to get the rest I need during the day. This would be another great example of when Brain and Body don't get along. OCD is great pals with the Brain and there would be no way in hell I would be letting the Body win.

So at the end of the day, medication seems to just mask the symptoms, not heal them. The pain is still there, there is just a chemical telling your Brain that there is no pain even though the Body is screaming at you going YES, THERE IS PAIN!!!!