The effect sizes for antidepressants and therapy are comparable to the effect sizes for exercise and diet when it comes to relieving depression. There's a reasonable argument that someone with depression who goes to therapy but doesn't exercise has a similar problem as a depressed gymbro who goes to the gym but doesn't attend therapy.

>just ends up with a prescription for some pharmaceutical that they can't ever get off of.

"Just"

Man it took me like 15 years to get my pharmaceutical. In terms of quality of life improvement the only thing I regret was not driving a bulldozer through the doctors office 14 years ago and demanding them at gun point. Instead I was forced through a dance of dumb shit like you suggest to prove I actually have a problem. If 10 dipshits promoting stupid wellness shit, and 1 bottle of my meds were in a house fire, I would save my meds.

I would tell you to go to therapy, but basic human decency has to be learned at a much younger age and I dont think you have a chance sadly.

I'm sorry that happened. The last sentence wasn't necessary, and you should edit your comment to delete it. It's not an unusual observation to make, that there exists alternatives to drugs, and making it personal seems to detract from your point, which I think is that there is likely to be some population that doesn't respond to getting in shape, doing healthy leisure activities and so on. This is a pretty anodyne observation that is hard to disagree with. Consider that your response seems to reinforce my point about how "they can't ever get off of [it]".

I can't agree with the 'they can't ever get off of it' part. Newer generations of psychotropic drugs are much more effective and way less dependency inducing than even what was available a decade back. For many illnesses that are caused by life events rather than genetics, those medications are effective at improving the symptoms to a level where they can be weaned off and further management with just the therapy is possible.

And while at it, not everything can be treated with gym or hobbies. They work well for mild to medium severity depressions. But even getting up from bed is nearly impossible for people with high severity depressions, much less attend a gym or go fishing. The doctors usually prescribe the medications till they can manage to do start them. And then there are other conditions for which a healthy lifestyle is simply not the appropriate or effective treatment.

>that there exists alternatives to drugs

There exists alternatives to some drugs in some scenarios, best investigated with a medical professional and not an internet commenter.

There also exists alternatives to implying people are less than because they found a pharmaceutical method to improve their lives.