I feel depressed. Doctor - Take these pills.
I still feel sad. Doctor - Take more pills.
Medication cures symptoms of depression but cannot fix the underlying problems causing it.
Taking pill to feel happy again is a patchwork that will eventually burst catastrophically.
Sometimes those underlying conditions are brain chemistry though. The pills work for a lot of people. My Bi Polar depression doesn't seem to stem from any trauma or anything. I've done therapy and it did nothing. I've tried exercise, it helps for a short period. I tried diet, seems to help a little. If also tried about 15 different medications before a found a combination that keeps my mood fairly stable.
I almost killed myself before I found the right combination of meds. Meds work for some people we shouldn't be so quick to discourage it.
I'm really happy you found a combination of meds that work for you, sounds like it was a long and rough road to get there. There's still things you can do to improve your condition beyond what the meds can do. I have some anecdotal evidence that the app helps people taking meds, but nothing conclusive yet.
So at one level we could claim that indeed depression is caused by "too low" serotonin/dopamine levels, as temporarily increasing them will take away the depression, but on the other hand this insight in itself doesn't provide us with a clear path for diagnosis and treatment, and it doesn't preclude that there's other things that's a root cause, such as thought patterns, neurological setup, etc.
One thing that I am cautious about is the biological guarantee that you will develop tolerance to the drug and will need ever more powerful drugs throughout your life to maintain the baseline of "ok".
I'm glad the medication helps, but it seems like exercise and diet (and other activities) are more sustainable in the long run even if they are not as dramatically effective.
Maybe it makes more sense to take medication on a short term basis to deal with crisis and focus on lifestyle changes for long term success.
The problem seems to be that we don't really understand enough about how to brain works and how these medication work with the brain. So many psych meds are like "we don't really know how this works, but we think it might do this".
I think that's why there so much trial and error with psych meds. Plus don't get me wrong, the wrong med can be devastating to certain people. I ended up in the ER a during my trials due to bad reactions.
I still try to exercise and watch my diet. I don't have any studies or anything but low carb seems to keep me more mentally stable.
The other thing that helps me the most is running, but sometimes I just fall out of the routine.
I agree with everything you wrote, especially about the way medications are dispensed. I did try a medication once and had a bad reaction, have not tried since then but I think about it often.
20 years is a long time to suffer.
But the vast majority of people dealing with mental health issues are in the category of somewhat anxious or depressed with maybe a personality disorder thrown in. These are treatable with therapy, somewhat side effect free.
Now I've been working with a therapist since January alongside with some pills and I feel so much better. Not only the depression symptoms are mostly gone, but I feel I know so much more about myself and now I can understand what made me feel like I did before.
Anyway, if you, dear reader, are suffering from depression, I recommend you to visit a therapist with an open mind.
I would add on top of this, try out different therapists if current one is not working for you, rather than saying 'this is not working, i am done with therapy'.
Rather then, pill are not going to solve the root cause.
If your apendix is infected taking painkillers will mask the fact its going to bust and probably kill you.
That doesn't mean you shouldn't take painkillers while waiting for a surgeon to operate on you.
Maybe I should have been more precise in my original post.
This implies that there always is a root cause, which I don't think is the case. Very often there is, but sometimes there's just an imbalance.
What does that mean? As far as I know, there has never been medical science to support this statement.
I understand drugs 'work' in the sense people's experience and emotions are altered -- that's beyond debate. But we don't know what it means in terms of "depression" or "happiness" or other promises they make.
I'll feel great if I spend my day high on cocaine but I am not going to claim I cured my depression while under the influence.
The point being, it isn’t a cure, but it keeps you going until you can get therapy sessions or whatever else you need.