Most people on antidepressants don’t need them

Each time I start a course of antidepressants, I am genuinely worried what the outcome will be. Messing with your brain chemistry isn't something to do lightly. But equally, for many people, possibly including myself, it quite literally saves their life.

However, I must take umbrage at your characterisation of how considering a course of these drugs is akin to taking on a lifetime addiction.

They do cause withdrawal/discontinuation effects if you stop suddenly, and often tapering isn't particularly pleasant either. This is something that users of these drugs have known for a long time, likely since they first hit the market, but it took a surprisingly long time for the medical industry to accept this and list it on patient information leaflets.

I also certainly accept that many doctors are quite terrible at discussing potential side effects and discontinuation syndrome with patients. This doesn't just concern antidepressants or even heavily marketed drugs. Common, generic, 50+ year old antibiotics can have really horrific side effects that aren't often mentioned by your doctor. This is a serious informed consent issue that needs addressing more widely within the medical field.

However, these drugs are not heroin. They are, for most people, relatively easy (albeit sometimes unpleasant) to taper. They don't cause the same kind of pleasure/punishment cycle that makes substances like cocaine or heroin so hard to quit. You don't become a fiend when you miss a dose, you just feel shitty and get some brain zaps. Nobody's holding up gas stations to get some dollars to pay for their Prozac. If you do discontinue antidepressants, your life is typically better for having taken them compared to when you started, and for the most part, you can take these drugs for your entire life without significant adverse consequences.

> Taking a pill means not taking responsibility

I think this nonsense deserves some psychoanalysis of itself, as well as acknowledging that brain chemistry does matter for various sorts of mental illness.

Be very, very careful if you are going to advise people that they should overlook the evidence of this fact, "because they're great for me so you should try them too!".

Yes, you are pimping these drugs in so doing.

But that is not true.

The problem with statement "depression is lack of serotonin" is the same as with "being overweight is due to eating too much". It is factually true, seems like an easy solution and yet is mired with lots of problems.

The problem with medication is that it treats the symptom (lack of serotonin) rather than the underlying problem (how did we get there in the first place?) Kinda like telling somebody to loose weight by restricting their diet before first understanding what caused them to gain fat in the first place. Is your diet composed of garbage? Why is it, is it because you can only cook garbage? Is it because you can't cook and only buy garbage? Is it because you sit whole day and don't exercise? Is it because you are getting depressed and make it up with food?

The treatment should address the causes of the problem and not just the symptom.