they are amongst the most studied and most used medicines and their efficacy and risks are fairly well understood and established. they work well to stabilise people who are experiencing serious major depression so that those people have enough stability to then undertake therapy. people with real depression are too fucked to even begin to fix their lives, so antidepressants help well with that. if your depression is interfering with your ability to self-rescue, antidepressants may be the right tool for you to use. most people will only need to be on anti-depressants for a short period of time (two years or so) while they get therapy, and then they can come off them. some people need to be on antidepressants forever. for some people, antidepressants don't work. the long and short of it is that there is no magic pill to make you feel better. therapy gives you the skills and tools you need to function with your illness. antidepressants are a bridge to that for people who cannot even attend their therapy appointments or execute on those skills/strategies in the short term. lastly, ignore the moralising about mental health medication. you don't get to choose whether you need help. all you get to choose is whether you need help and get it or need help and don't. it took me 15 years to seek therapy since i first began to understand that i was a fucked weirdo, and that decade and a half is lost to me. don't wait. if you think you have a problem, you probably do.
Australia