The fact that I am not a smear at the bottom of a tall building is a direct contradiction to your statement and shows that they do for some people. No, I was going to 'get better' without help. Yes, I fed trolls.

Did you get the "how could I use this to off myself" loop?

I think antidepressants are only part of the equation but many stay on them and don't fix the underlying causes.

I think if we know the underlying cause, we don’t call it depression, we call it sadness.

Or it might be a case of situational depression:

https://www.webmd.com/depression/situational-depression

I've said before that I think a lot of people that think they suffer from depression are actually suffering from despair. I guess the more clinical term would be situational depression.

It's understandable to constantly feel anxiety over rising rents and living expenses in the face of flat wages, and their constant poor mood from the stress makes them think they're suffering from depression, and they'll seek help. But a Prozac or whatever won't make you feel any better about having a 2-digit bank account after paying the bills.

>don't fix the underlying causes.

The underlying cause is that my brain is broken and we have a century worth of genetic evidence that it is simply a heritable thing to have a brain broken in certain ways.

I get "sad" if the day is short FFS. Sure that's understandable from a biological perspective, but pretty incompatible with living at a high latitude with long winters. It's a genetic defect.

at the very least, they can induce manic episodes for some susceptible people. that alone proves these are real psychoactive drugs that have powerful effects on the brain.

there is still a question of whether they are really an overall good treatment for depression. i think the answer is "yes", but certainly people could disagree in good faith.

my problem is the most common anti-SSRI argument is that they are just placebos that do nothing at all, which is ridiculous.