Ummm ok well I can give you MY experience, but I in no way reccomend the same for you, since each situation can be entirely different.
I suffer from depression/anxiety and was on meds. I found when I was on meds, my moods remained more stabilised and I generally found myself calmer. I made the mistake of weaning myself off my meds instead of seeking a professional opinion and within 2-3 weeks, my moods went crazy. I was having crazy panic attacks, getting hysterical over the smallest things. Took me about 2 months to get over that hurdle, but I feel that I'm relatively OK now (without meds). But it took a while to get there and even now, still have pretty bad relapses occasionally.
From what I'm reading though, why do you need to be off the medication? If /you/ feel that you function better with them, I would remain with them for the time being. Readjusting can be hard. I took care to slowly reduce my prescription until I weaned myself off completely, and even then, really struggled for the first little bit. Be careful, if you do decide that's the path you wanna take.
As for general handling without, I threw myself into exercise, general hobbies etc.