Think of it like any other type of medicine.

I have blood pressure issues. I try to eat right, and exercise. I have my whole life. I practice meditation and slowing down and generally feel fairly stress free as well.

I do this to address the “root” cause as you would put it. Unfortunately in this area I also need a little help from modern science, so I’m glad I have access to it.

Nobody seems to be addressing withdrawal symptoms of anti-depressants. I have way too many years experience dealing with this with friends and family and too many types of anti-depressants. It's never fun. Even doctors who prescribe the SSRIs won't admit to it - I stopped counting how many times a doctor said, "I've never heard of withdrawal symptoms for <insert anti-depressant> before!" meanwhile they write out another prescription for the next SSRI/SSNRI because the last one stopped working after x months/years.

I know of several cases where symptoms lasted for years. I know too many people who have had many different symptoms simultaneously while coming off of e.g. Effexor (with or without tapering dosage), ranging from flu-like symptoms for up to a whole year (meanwhile people moan about having 1-2 days of flu-like symptoms after getting vaccinated), horrible nightmares, cramps, headache, nausea, dizziness, worse depression than before, lethargy, insomnia, and the list goes on.

With "any other type of medication" you generally don't have to deal with withdrawal symptoms, so it's a bit unfair to compare them like that, although I agree to some extent that for some people, they are better than not being able to get out of bed, especially for people who can't afford to get alternative types of help, but people on anti-depressants are never like themselves before they started taking them.

And to add, they are IMHO not addressing the root cause of anything. People become 100% dependent on anti-depressants and after 1-2 days of stopping begin to experience withdrawal symptoms of varying intensity. Granted every person is different and will take different anti-depressants with varying dosages which will have varying impact on their psychological health. Sorry if this appears like a rant, I'm also glad for the existence of such medications but I think they are just handed out like candy without any consideration.

I think of it exactly like you said. Apparently my root comment was worded in a way that people thought I'm sitting on an extreme. I really am not though.

Your initial argument sits pretty squarely in a camp or class of person that dismisses medication for mental illness. If you meant mental health medications have been overprescribed I think I even take issue with that. Anyone who’s been in that world and has been on any kind of mental health medication knows it’s not usually the first pitch thrown by mental health professionals.

I think the root problem in such situations is that people tend to not realize they are interfacing with their interpretation of what you said as opposed to what you have literally said (which I believe I have interpreted as you intended, and I agree with you).