Only in America could you read about a terrible, ongoing opioid crisis impacting millions of families and in the same breath question aloud if our society's inability to feed our amphetamine craving is costing our productivity.
All we can do is these large, scattershot system-level shifts that result from various drugs. Pretty much every drug makes some things worse and some things better. We don't have an understanding or a technology level that would allow it to be any different.
Despite all that, people often find that, on net, certain drugs are a benefit to them more than they are a detriment. Until we live in the bright shiny future where we can understand and remedy the root causes of mental dysfunction, it seems to me it's a good idea to let people get what relief they can in the meantime.
> some people choose to live with the issues rather than deal with the side effects or on effectiveness of drugs/therapy.
Many, many others would be unable to be a normal member of society without medical intervention.
No one is saying drugs are the only option, but they are an incredibly, consistently effective one. By comparison I'm unaware of any behavioral therapy for any underlying condition that is predictably effective anywhere close to "most of the time."