Most people on antidepressants don’t need them

Statements like this need to be worded very carefully. In many people's minds, saying something like "most people don't need antidepressants" quickly becomes "antidepressants are useless". Many people who may benefit from them get scared away.

Speaking as someone who has been on/off antidepressants for GAD+OCD for the better part of a decade, I've had countless people tell me that antidepressants are useless and just placebo pills pushed by Big Pharma. But for me, they are life changing. They turn me from someone who just sits indoors having panic attacks all day to someone who can live a relatively normal life. I've tried (and continue to have) therapy, but SSRIs are wonder drugs for myself and many other people.

The caveat is, you often need to try 2 or 3 different SSRIs before you find one that works for you, and if you're unlucky, you may not find one, or the side effects can be intolerable. For me, I tried fluoxetine and citalopram, neither of which really worked, but sertraline changed everything almost overnight. The only side effect I've experienced is weight gain, which isn't great, but is better than the alternative.

However, this is the UK which may have a different attitude to the drugs. Before and during initial treatment, I was provided with around 20 behavioural therapy sessions, and even now I still have quarterly drug reviews with a doctor. At no point did I feel like I was being pushed onto SSRIs, and they checked to make sure it wasn't something environmental that could be easily remedied before asking if I would like to consider medication.

Open door, meet obvious. Obvious, meet open door.

“Buy things you don't need with money you don't have to impress people you don't like”

I went through a phase in my life a few years ago where I tried most antidepressants available in my European country. All were prescribed to me at varying doses by a psychiatrist working in our public health system.

Almost every single antidepressant gave me withdrawal symptoms (extremely intense mood swings and brain zaps) when I tried decreasing the dose. I mentioned this to my psychiatrist, who advised me to split the pills in order to slowly decrease the dosage. Even splitting the pills and taking a quarter of a pill less every 2 weeks was giving me withdrawal symptoms. I resorted to carefully dissolving the medication in water and volumetrically dosing to get the right rate of tapering off. This scenario happened to me with both Sertraline and Fluoxetine. The "newer" antidepressants like Escitalopram and Vortioxetine gave me less withdrawal symptoms, but they also had more severe side-effects whilst on the medication. Obviously this is all anecdotal, but my hope is that doctors would put greater emphasis on the possible adverse effects of antidepressants to patients. No other class of medication has been so... rough? for me. Glad to be medication-free now.

Aren't areas near North Pole dealing with more seasonal depression due to lack of light in winter months?